Bharat SainiLast Updated on May 13, 2017 by Bharat Saini
India’s progress in field of science and technology can be gauged from the historic achievement of launching Mangalyaan, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), to the Mars with precise technology and strategy. The most remarkable aspect of this project was its low cost of Rs. 450 crore or US$ 73 million, making it the least expensive Mars mission to date. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has been lauded the world over for achieving this great space mission. It is India’s first interplanetary mission and ISRO has become the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after Soviet space program, NASA & European Space Agency. It is the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit, and the first nation in the world to do so in its first attempt. Mangalyaan was launched from Sriharikota Range at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, using a PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) on November 5, 2013. It spent a month in Earth Orbit, before trans-Mars injection on November 30, 2013 and after 298 days transit to Mars, it was successfully inserted into Mars orbit on September 24, 2014. The objective of this mission is to develop technologies required for designing, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission, as well as to explore surface features of Mars, its morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere using indigenous scientific instrument.
Though India does not possess the range of amenities as the developed nations like France, USA and Russia have in respect of Research and development but the establishment is conscious of the need to generate energy and scientific temperament among its newly educated youth power. Indians like Jagdish Chandra Bose, Hargobind Khurana, Chandra Shekhar Venkatrama and APJ Abdul Kalam are indelibly etched in our memory and constantly remind us that despite constraints India consistently gave such bright stalwarts in the fields of physics, mathematics, medicine, chemistry and space studies to the world of science.
India built Tejas, aircraft, which made its first flight in 2001. It is first Indian built light combat aircraft developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. India also launched indigenously designed satellite Aryabhatta forty two year ago on 19 April, 1975. It set up tracking and transmitting systems in the orbital sphere. Its achievement credited to Indian space scientists way back in 1975. The story of Indian scientific prowess is not restricted to space. Recently Aakash tablet has been launched with view to endow lakhs of youth particularly college going students with a unique tool to facilitate them easy access to the world of technology.
In field of information technology it India has proved its supremacy. The first supercomputer PARAM 8000 was installed in 1991; after being denied Cray supercomputers, as a result of technical embargo, India developed its own supercomputers and achieved self sufficiency in the field, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (D-DAC) developed its own supercomputer with the same amount that was required to purchase a prototype from USA in 1990. India’s supercomputer surpassed most other systems, placing India second after United States.
Under leadership Homi Jahagir Bhabha India achieved nuclear capability and India conducted its first nuclear test in May 1974 and second nuclear tests in 1996 at Pokhran. Besides India, Israel, USA, Russia, France, UK, Pakistan and China are atomic powers. The nuclear weapons work as strong deterrent against any aggression.
To wind up, let us briefly mention about BrahMos, development of which completely filled the gap to scale height in missile technology. It has been developed in cooperation with Russia and put India at par with a few countries that have developed their own ballistic missiles. BrahMos is a short-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarine, ships, aircraft, or land.
