Author: Science India Bureau
Dr Vikram Sarabhai, the Father of the Indian space programme, started working towards rocketry in 1961. He recruited talented scientists like Dr A P J Kalam, Prof U R Rao and many others. He succeeded in getting international cooperation from advanced nations like the USA, the erstwhile Soviet Union and France for setting up basic facilities in the country. In August 1961, the Government of India formed the Indian National Committee on Space Research (INCOSPAR) under DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) with Dr Sarabhai as Chairman, which eventually transformed into the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 1969. Now the…
India’s first indigenously built satellite, the Aryabhata, that was launched on April 19, 1975 was named after the famous 5th century Indian astronomer and mathematician Aryabhata. The satellite’s name was so chosen because Aryabhata, whose timeline spanned 476-550 CE, was the first of the major mathematician-astronomers of the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. Among many of his achievements — both real and attributed to him as his legend grew over the centuries — the most stunning is his exact calculation of the earth’s circumference (with less than 1% error) a thousand years before the Western world calculated…
The innovation aims to address delayed testing and to help mitigate the impact of the ongoing second wave by giving quick results at home. Since the rise of COVID-19 cases in April-May, India has been testing samples in the range of 18-19 lakhs a day. The numbers, however, indicate that testing in the country is not being done at full capacity because we have a capacity of conducting 33 lakh tests a day. This implies that around 45 per cent of the country’s testing capacity is not being utilised. Many complain that getting tested for COVID-19 by a lab is…
If there is one common synonym for ‘excellence’ and ‘success’ for the teeming millions of India’s middle class, then it is the acronym IIT— Indian Institute of Technology. As soon as the child is born, parents start nurturing an IIT dream, even before the child has become aware of an entity called ‘life’, and regardless of what that child may want to study upon growing up. In India, IIT is a dream, passport to a good life in the developed West—especially the US, the surest way to climb the social ladder, a million-dollar coaching industry, and of course, the best…