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Obituary: UR Rao – pioneering satellite technologist and proponent of ‘ISRO Culture’

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7 years ago

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UR Rao

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]~By Dinesh C Sharma

The Indian Space Research Organistaion (ISRO) is today counted among the best space agencies globally. Much of the credit for this goes to UR Rao who helped the agency master technology for making complex communication, weather and remote sensing satellites with limited resources and difficult circumstances such as technology denial.

Having started his career as a doctoral student of Vikram Sarabhai in 1954 at Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad, Udupi Ramachandra Rao spent his scientific career spanning almost half a century for developing and nurturing the Indian space programme. After a brief stint in America as a postdoc at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Rao returned to India at the behest of Sarabhai.

Throughout the 1960s, Sarabhai was feverishly trying to put together a plan for developing space technology applications in India after having successfully set up the sounding rocket facility at Thumba in Kerala. He asked Rao, who had worked on spacecraft systems while being at NASA, to prepare a blueprint for development of space technology in India. Then he asked Rao to implement the plan. The rest of Rao’s life was spent in doing so, beginning with the fabrication of India’s first satellite – Aryabhata – launched in April 1975.

Aryabhata, weighing 358 kg, was built from scratch by a young team of engineers and scientists put together by Rao at a newly created facility in the Peenya industrial estate in Bangalore. The facility later became the ISRO Satellite Centre with Rao as its founding director. The Soviets launched Aryabhata from the Kapustin Yar Cosmodrome, without charging any fee, purely as a friendly gesture. This was followed by launch of Bhaskara 1 and 2, and Rohini series of satellites.

If Aryabhata got a free launch from the Soviet Union, the first experimental communication satellite – Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment (APPLE) – was launched for free on a development flight of Ariane vehicle of European Space Agency (ESA) from Kourou in 1981.

The American media ridiculed India’s foray into space when it was ridden with other problems as poverty. News weekly, Newsweek, carried a picture of APPLE being transported from the hanger to test center in a bullock cart with a caption ‘Collision of Centuries’. Many years later, Rao explained in an interview why the satellite was carried on a bullock cart: “We had to ship the satellite for EMC (Electromagnetic Interference/Capability) testing, and trucks made of metals were throwing off reflections that were affecting the satellite’s antenna. Then somebody hit on the idea of a bullock cart, which is made of wood. It worked perfectly.” 

With the experience gained from building experimental satellites in the 1970s, Rao came up with an ambitious idea of building larger communication, remote sensing and multi-purpose satellites with practical applications. Thus were born the legendary series of Indian satellites in the 1980s – the INSAT (Indian National Satellite) and IRS (India Remote Sensing Satellite) – which provided communication, broadcasting, weather and earth observation services to a variety of Indian users. Thus within two decades, Rao could demonstrate the applicability of space technology for national development, as envisioned by his mentor Sarabhai. This is despite the problems Rao was facing in the 1980s with successive failures of Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV).

In all, over 20 satellites were designed and launched under his guidance. Besides laying the foundation for self-reliance in satellite building, Rao is credited with building a new way of executing complex technology project – which many call the ‘ISRO Culture’. All space projects are complex, challenging, multi-disciplinary, time-critical, and – in the case of India – have to be executed with limited budget. Rao mastered this art. Leveraging his experience of working with NASA, Rao introduced a matrix management structure for managing projects by ensuring optimal use of available resources. The ISRO culture encompasses decentralized decision making for technology development, systems engineering, quality assurance, peer review and thorough failure assessment. Actually this is what differentiates ISRO from other scientific agencies in India.   

Rao came from a humble background. He was born in Udupi in Karnataka. “I saw a train for the first time when I had to go to Bellary for Intermediate. I had never seen a train because no trains used to come to Udupi. They used to come to Mangalore, which is about 58 km from Udupi. Udupi was a taluka at that time, but there were four rivers, at each river you had to take a boat to cross and then take another one. It was a big effort going to Bangalore from Udupi,” Rao had recalled in an interview a few years ago.

He first thought of space technology while doing M. Sc. at Banaras Hindu University. “I said I wanted to be a space scientist. I was not sure my own professor would have welcomed it because at that time space was not a hot subject, but I had a dream. The main thing is we must dream and then you have to just dedicate yourself for that.” (India Science Wire)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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2024 Lok Sabha Elections

Former Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely joins BJP

Arvinder Singh Lovely said they have been given an opportunity to fight for the people of Delhi under the banner of BJP and under the leadership of the Prime Minister.

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4 hours ago

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May 4, 2024

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Days after resigning from the post of the Delhi Congress president in protest against the party’s alliance with INDIA bloc partner AAP and over selection of party candidates, Arvinder Singh Lovely joined BJP on Saturday. Lovely joined BJP in the presence of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva and the BJP’s national general secretary Vinod Tawde.

He, along with 4 former Congress leaders, joined the BJP in the presence of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri. The 4 others who joined the party include former Congress MLAs who had recently left the party — Neeraj Basoya, Rajkumar Chauhan, Delhi youth Congress chief Amit Malik and Naseeb Singh.

Speaking to the media after joining the BJP, Arvinder Singh Lovely said, they have been given an opportunity to fight for the people of Delhi under the banner of BJP and under the leadership of the Prime Minister. He had full hope, and there is no doubt about it, that the BJP government is being formed in the country with an overwhelming majority. Lovely added that in the coming days, the flag of the BJP will fly in Delhi too.

Lovely’s resignation on April 28 was a setback to Delhi Congress in terms of optics and perception. Coming 4 days after former Delhi minister Rajkumar Chauhan quit the party, the resignation of Lovely, who has been heading the Delhi unit since August last year, has been a blow to the Congress’s preparations for the May 25 elections in Delhi.

After the announcement of the resignation, AAP minister Saurabh Bharadwaj took to his X handle to allude to the links between Lovely and BJP. It is the 2nd time that Arvinder Singh Lovely has stepped down as the Delhi Congress president. Lovely’s resignation came a day after more than a 1000 members of the Sikh community, including office-bearers of the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, joined the BJP in the presence of its national president J P Nadda.

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2024 Lok Sabha Elections

Priyanka Gandhi calls PM Modi a shahenshah who lives in castles and can never understand the plight of the common man

Priyanka Gandhi said on the other side is the shehanshah, Narendra Modi, who lives in a palace. She asked the people if they have watched him on television?  She said not a single speck of dust is visible on his face. She asked how can PM Modi understand their problems?

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6 hours ago

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May 4, 2024

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Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for calling her brother and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi a shehzaada. She was speaking at an election rally in Gujarat on Saturday where she called PM Modi a shehanshah.

She said BJP calls her brother Shehzada. She wanted to tell BJP how this shehzada walked 4,000 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir to listen to people’s problems. The Congress leader added that Rahul Gandhi met  sisters, brothers, farmers and labourers and asked them what problems they were having. Priyanka Gandhi was speaking at a rally in Banaskantha in Gujarat.

Priyanka Gandhi said on the other side is the shehanshah, Narendra Modi, who lives in a palace. She asked the people if they have watched him on television?  She said not a single speck of dust is visible on his face. She asked how can PM Modi understand their problems?

Priyanka Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he repeatedly called Rahul Gandhi a shehzada of shahi parivar. He was addressing a rally in Gujarat on Thursday where PM Modi had targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and said Pakistan is eager to make the shehzada of the grand old party India’s next Prime Minister as the country’s enemies want a weak government at the centre.

Priyanka Gandhi further attacked PM Modi and said Gujarat gave PM Modi respect and self-respect and gave him power, but he is seen only with big people. She asked if anyone had seen PM Modi meeting a farmer?

 She further pointed out that farmers are protesting against the black laws. She said hundreds of farmers are martyred, but the Prime Minister does not even bother to go and meet them. She said just before the elections come and they feel that they will not get votes, then PM Modi changes the law.

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India News

Rahul Gandhi writes to Karnataka CM over Prajwal Revanna sex scandal, urges him to provide utmost assistance to the victims

Gandhi requested Siddaramaiah to kindly extend all possible support to the victims. He wrote that everyone has a collective duty to ensure that all parties responsible for these heinous crimes are brought to book.

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7 hours ago

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May 4, 2024

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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday wrote to Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah regarding JD(S) leader Prajwal Revanna sex scandal. In his letter, Gandhi condemned the actions of Revanna and requested the Karnataka Chief Minister to extend all possible support to the sexually harassed women.

Gandhi requested Siddaramaiah to kindly extend all possible support to the victims. He wrote that everyone has a collective duty to ensure that all parties responsible for these heinous crimes are brought to book. The Wayanad MP further added that many who looked up to him as a brother and son have been brutalised in the most violent manner and they have been robbed of their dignity. He said the rape of our mothers and sisters warrants the strictest possible punishment.

Rahul Gandhi was shocked to know that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been campaigning for the Hassan MP inspite of the fact the gruesome allegations had been brought to the notice of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in December 2023.

The Congress leader mentioned in his letter that he is deeply shocked to learn that as far back as December 2023, India’s Home Minister Amit Shah had been informed by G Devaraje Gowda about Prajwal Revanna’s antecedants and his history of sexual violence and the presence of sex videos filmed by him.

Gandhi wrote in his letter to Siddaramaiah that what is even more shocking is that despite these gruesome allegations being brought to the notice of the senior-most BJP leadership, the Prime Minister campaigned and canvassed for a mass rapist.

 The Wayanad MP took a veiled attack on PM Modi and said he has never come across a senior public representative who has constantly chosen silence in the face of untold violence against women. Gandhi further pointed out that from the female wrestlers in Haryana to sisters in Manipur, Indian women are bearing the brunt of the Prime Minister’s tacit support for such criminals.

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