Genius India

G. Madhavan Nair

G. Madhavan Nair (Malayalam: ജി. മാധവന്* നായര്*) (born October 31, 1943) is the present Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation and Secretary to the Department of Space, Government of India since September 2003. He is also the Chairman, Space Commission and acts as the Chairman of Governing Body of the Antrix Corporation, Bangalore. Madhavan Nair was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour, on January 26, 2009.[1][2]

Career
Nair is a leading technologist in the field of rocket systems and has made significant contribution to the development of multi-stage satellite launch vehicles, achieving self-reliance in independent access to space using indigenous technologies. Nair and his team have worked relentlessly in the face of several challenges in the regime of technology denials by adopting several innovations and novel techniques to realise world class launch vehicle systems. India today has a pride of place amongst the space-faring nations in launch vehicle technology. Specifically, as Project Director, he led the development of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) which has since become the workhorse for launching mainly Indian remote sensing satellites.[3]

As Director of ISRO’s largest R & D Centre, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, he also saw India’s Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) successfully coming to fruition. Further, as Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre of ISRO, he played a central role in the design and development of the crucial cryogenic engine for GSLV. List of Positions held before is listed below:


As Chairman of ISRO
Nair is as the Chairman of Indian Space Research Organization entrusted with the responsibility of development of space technology and its applications for National development. During his tenure as Chairman, ISRO/Secretary, DOS, twenty five successful missions were accomplished i.e., INSAT-3E, Resourcesat-1, Edusat, Cartosat-1, Hamsat-1, INSAT-4A, PSLV-C5, GSLV-F01, PSLV-C6, Cartosat-2, INSAT-4B, SRE-1, PSLV-C7,PSLV-C8, GSLV-F04, INSAT-4CR,PSLV-C10, Cartosat-2A, IMS-1,PSLV-C9, Chandrayaan-1, PSLV-C11, PSLV-C12, RISAT-2 and ANUSAT. He has taken initiatives towards development of futuristic technologies to enhance the space systems capabilities as well as to reduce the cost of access to space. Nair has given major thrust for evolving application programmes such as tele-education and telemedicine for meeting the needs of society at large. As Chairman Space Commission Nair is responsible for chalking out the future plan for space research in the country. Major thrust are in scientific exploration of outer space using the Astrosat and Chandrayaan (moon) missions apart from implementing schemes for telemedicine, tele-education and disaster management support systems. He is also providing guidance and leadership in undertaking new technology developments related to launch vehicle, spacecrafts for communication, remote sensing and applications programmes to meet societal needs.

In the international arena, Nair has led the Indian delegations for bilateral cooperation and negotiations with many Space Agencies and Countries, specially with France, Russia, Brazil, Israel, etc., and has been instrumental in working out mutually beneficial international cooperative agreements. Nair has led the Indian delegation to the S&T Sub-Committee of United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN-COPUOS) since 1998.

His main focus has always been to achieve self-reliance in the high technology areas and to bring the benefits of space technology to the national development, specially targeting the needs of the rural and poor sections of the society.

Anil Kakodkar

Anil Kakodkar is an eminent Indian nuclear scientist, and is the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India and the Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy. Before leading India's Nuclear Programme, he was the Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay from 1996-2000. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour, on January 26, 2009.

Energy and the Future of Peaceful Nuclear Technology
Making India fully self-reliant in energy, especially from the cheap national thorium resources, seems to be his mission statement and he still pursues this dream with great dedication. He has, over the years, built competent teams of highly specialised scientists and engineers in the reactor engineering programme. Today, he continues to engage in designing the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor, that uses thorium-uranium 233 as the primary energy source with plutonium as the driver fuel. The unique reactor system, with simplified but safe technology, will generate 75 per cent of electricity from thorium.

If Kakodkar's dream comes true, it will solve India's energy crisis.

Other Positions of Repute
He is currently the Chairman, Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and served as its President during 1999-2000.
He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, India and the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences.
He is a member of the International Nuclear Energy Academy, Honorary member of the World Innovation Foundation and Council of Advisers of World Nuclear Association. He was member of the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (INSAG) during 1999-2002
He is on the board of Governors of VJTI, Mumbai
He is currently the Chairman, Board of Governors, Center for Excellence in Basic Sciences ,Mumbai

National Awards
Padma Shri in 1998.
Padma Bhushan in 1999.
Padma Vibhushan in 2009.

Other Awards
Hari Om Ashram Prerit Vikram Sarabhai Award (1988)
H. K. Firodia Award for Excellence in Science and Technology (1997)
Rockwell Medal for Excellence in Technology (1997)
FICCI Award for outstanding contribution to Nuclear Science and Technology (1997-98)
ANACON - 1998 Life Time Achievement Award for Nuclear Sciences
Indian Science Congress Association's H. J. Bhabha Memorial Award (1999-2000)
Godavari Gaurav Award (2000)
Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Award (2002)
Chemtech Foundation's Achiever of the Year Award for Energy (2002)
Gujar Mal Modi Innovative Science and Technology Award in 2004.

Roddam Narasimha


Roddam Narasimha (Kannada: ರೊದ್ದಮ್ ನರಸಿಂಹ) is one of India's foremost Aerospace scientist and a world renowned Fluid Dynamicist. He is currently the chairman of the Engineering Mechanics Unit at the JNCASR, India. He concurrently holds the Pratt & Whitney chair in science and engineering at the University of Hyderabad.

Education and career
He was educated from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, and obtained his PhD degree at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States in 1961.

He joined the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in 1962 and was associated with the department of aerospace engineering in various capacities from that date till 1999. In 1982, he founded the centre for atmospheric sciences (now centre for atmospheric and oceanic sciences), which he headed till 1989. During 1984 to 1993 he was the director of the NAL. For many years since 1983 he held a visiting position at Caltech, as Clark B Millikan Professor or Sherman Fairchild distinguished scholar. Between 1989 and 1990 he was Jawaharlal Nehru professor of engineering at Cambridge University in England. He had also held visiting positions at NASA Langley, University of Strathclyde, University of Brussels, and Adelaide University. From 1990 to 1994 he was INSA golden jubilee research professor, and from 1994 to 1999 the ISRO K. R. Ramanathan distinguished professor at IISc and JNCASR. He was the director of the NIAS during 1997-2004.

Narasimha’s research has been chiefly concerned with aerospace fluid dynamics and certain related problems in the atmosphere. He has made extensive studies of transitions between laminar and turbulent flow (going in either direction), the structure of shock waves, various characteristics of fully developed turbulent flow (e.g. their memory, the bursting phenomenon in boundary layers), the fluid dynamics of clouds, near-surface temperature distributions and eddy fluxes in atmospheric boundary layers. He has been closely associated with aerospace technology development in India at both technical and policy-making levels. During 1977-79, he was the Chief Project Coordinator in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

As Director of NAL he initiated and oversaw several major technology programmes. He served on the Board of Directors of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for several years. As a member of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s Scientific Advisory Council he was instrumental in establishing a major parallel computing initiative in the country. He was President of the Indian Academy of Sciences during 1992 till 1994 and spear-headed a new programme on university education in science, leading to the establishment of the journal Resonance and other Academy programmes involving teachers and students. He has served on the National Security Advisory Board and the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister Cabinet. He is currently a member of the Space Commission, and co-chairs the Joint Steering Committee and the Joint Scientific Working Group for the Indo-French atmospheric research satellite Megha-Tropiques.

As Director of NIAS Narasimha initiated a series of major dialogues on international security issues with the US National Academy of Sciences and other bodies, and pursued his interests in the history of science and technology.

Honours
He has been widely honoured for his research work as well as his scientific leadership. In 2008 he was awarded the Trieste Science Prize at $50,000 given out by the TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world (Access : News 2008: Prizewinners of the year : Nature News). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a Foreign Associate of both the US National Academy of Engineering and the US National Academy of Sciences. He is also an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In India his distinctions include the Bhatnagar Prize, the Gujarmal Modi Award and the Padma Bhushan, among many others. He is a Fellow of all the national academies of science and engineering, and an Honorary Fellow of the Aeronautical Society of India. He is a Distinguished Alumnus of both Caltech and IISc. He has delivered numerous invited lectures at various international conferences. In 2000 he won the Fluid Dynamics Award of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

He is the author of more than 200 research publications and fifteen books.

Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar

Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, OBE, FRS (February 21, 1894 – January 1, 1955) was a well-known Indian scientist.

Work in India
Prime Minister Nehru was a proponent of scientific development, and after India's independence in 1947, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was set up under the chairmanship of Dr. Bhatnagar. He became the first director-general of the CSIR. He became known as "The Father of Research Laboratories" and is largely remembered for having established various chemical laboratories in India. He established a total twelve national laboratories such as Central Food Processing Technological Institute,Mysore, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, the National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, the National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, the Central Fuel Institute, Dhanbad, just to name a few.

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar played a significant part along with Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai and others in building of post-independent S&T infrastructure and in the formulation of India’s science and technology policies. Bhatnagar was the Founder Director of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),which was to later became a major agency for research in independent India. He was the first Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC).


He was Secretary, Ministry of Education and Educational Adviser to Government. Bhatnagar played an important role both in the constitution and deliberations of the Scientific Manpower Committee Report of 1948. ‘It may be pointed out that this was the first-ever systematic assessment of the scientific manpower needs of the country in all aspects which served as an important policy document for the government to plan the post-independent S&T infrastructure.’ Bhatnagar was a University Professor for 19 years (1921-40) first at the Banaras Hindu University and then at the Punjab University and he had a reputation as a very inspiring teacher and it was as a teacher that he himself was most happy. His research contribution in the areas of magneto chemistry and physical chemistry of emulsion were widely recognised. He also did considerable work in applied chemistry. He played an instrumental role in the establishment of the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) of India, which bridges the gap between research and development. Bhatnagar was responsible for the initiation of the Industrial Research Association movement in the country. He constituted the one-man Commission in 1951 to negotiate with oil companies for starting refineries and this ultimately led to the establishment of many oil refineries in different parts of the country. He induced many individuals and organisations to donate liberally for the cause of science and education. He exhibited high poetic talent particularly in Urdu .

On returning to India in August 1921 he joined the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) as Professor of Chemistry. It may be noted that the BHU was founded by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya in 1916. Bhatnagar stayed for three years in BHU and during this short span of time he was able to create an active school of physico-chemical research. Bhatnagar wrote the ‘Kulgeet’ (University song) of the University. Justice N.H. Bhagwati, Vice-Chancellor of BHU said: "Many of you perhaps do not know that besides being an eminent scientist, Professor Bhatnagar was a Hindi poet of repute and that during his stay in Banaras, he composed the ‘Kulgeet’ of the University...Prof. Bhatnagar is remembered with reverence in this University and will continue to be so remembered till this University exists."

From Banaras Bhatnagar moved to Lahore where he was appointed as University Professor of Physical Chemistry and Director of University Chemical Laboratories. He spent 16 years in the Panjab University, Lahore and this period was the most active period of his life for original scientific work. While his major fields of study were colloidal chemistry and magneto-chemistry he did considerable work in applied and industrial chemistry. In 1928 Bhatnagar, jointly with K.N. Mathur, invented an instrument called the Bhatnagar-Mathur Magnetic Interference Balance. The balance was one of the most sensitive instruments for measuring magnetic properties. It was exhibited at the Royal Society Soiree in 1931 and it was marketed by Messers Adam Hilger and Co, London.

Bhatnagar did considerable work in applied and industrial chemistry. The first industrial problem undertaken by Bhatnagar was the development of a process to convert bagasse (peelings of sugarcane) into food cake for cattle. This was done for the Grand Old Man of Punjab, Sir Ganga Ram. He had undertake industrial problems for Delhi Cloth Mills; J.K. Mills Ltd., Kanpur; Ganesh Flour Mills Ltd., Layallapur; Tata Oil Mills Ltd., Bombay; Steel Brothers & Co. Ltd., London and so on. One of the important achievements of Bhatnagar in applied and industrial chemistry was the work he did for Attock Oil Company at Rawalpindi (representative of Messers Steel Brothers & Co London). Attock Oil Company in their drilling operations confronted a peculiar problem, wherein the mud used for drilling operation when came in contact with the saline water got converted into a solid mass which hardened further. This solidification of the mud rendered all drilling operations impossible.

Bhatnagar realised that this was a problem in colloidal chemistry and developed a suitable method to solve it. ‘The problem was elegantly solved by the addition of an Indian gum which had the remarkable property of lowering the viscosity of the mud suspension and of increasing at the same time its stability against the flocculating action of electrolytes." M/s Steel Brothers was so pleased with the method developed by Bhatnagar that they offered a sum of 1,50,000/- to Bhatnagar for his research work on any subject related to petroleum. At the instance of Bhatnagar the company placed the amount at the disposal of the University. The grant helped to establish the Department of Petroleum Research under the guidance of Bhatnagar. Investigations carried out under this collaborative scheme included deodourisation of waxes, increasing flame height of kerosene and utilisation of waste products in vegetable oil and mineral oil industries. Realising the commercial importance of the collaborative scheme the Company increased the amount and extended the period from five years to ten years.

Bhatnagar persistently refused to receive any monetary benefit arising out of his applied/industrial chemical research for his personal ends on the ground that it may be utilised for strengthening research facilities at the University. His sacrifices drew wide attention. Meghnad Saha wrote to Bhatnagar in 1934 saying, ‘you have hereby raised the status of the university teachers in the estimation of public, not to speak of the benefit conferred on your Alma Mater’.

Bhatnagar jointly with K.N. Mathur wrote a book ‘Physical Principles and Applications of Magneto chemistry’ and which was published by Macmillan publishers. This book was recognised as a standard work on the subject. Prafulla Chandra Ray wrote: "On turning over the pages of Nature my eyes chanced upon an advertisement of Macmillan’s in which I find your book at last advertised. That the book is of a high standard is indicated by the most excellent review in Current Science by Professor Stoner, who is competent to judge. As far as I know Meghnad’s is the only text book in physical sciences which has been adopted by foreign universities; and it gladdens my heart that another work in physical science is likely to occupy a similar place. My days are practically numbered; and my great consolation is that you, in chemistry, are raising the reputation, abroad, of Indian workers".

In 1930s there were no appropriate research organisations for the development of natural resources and new industries. Thus Sir Richard Gregory, then editor of Nature, who after visiting scientific departments and universities in India in 1933 drew the attention of Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for India, to the lack of appropriate research organisation equivalent to those of in DSIR in Britain for the development of natural research and new industries. He observed: "I knew that work of the Geological Survey of India, Botanical Survey of India, Meteorological Department, Forestry and so on; but I think something should be done to form an Indian Research Council to make use of the undoubted capacity of Indians for scientific investigations and its applications. Scientific activities, many of them having a direct bearing upon the development of resources of the country, are scarcely given the attention they deserve." Gregory was not alone in realising the need for appropriate research organisation. C.V. Raman, Lt. Col. Seymour Sewell and Dr. J.C. Ghosh had earlier proposed the creation of an Advisory Board of Scientific Research for India. Indian scientists at Calcutta and Bangalore initiated schemes to launch a National Institute of Sciences and an India Academy Science respectively. At the Fifth Industries Conference in 1933 the Provincial Governments of Bombay, Madras, Bihar and Orissa unanimously reiterated their demand to set up a co-ordinating forum for industrial research, Sir Hoare advised the Viceroy, Lord Willingdon to support the idea of an Indian version of DSIR. However, in May 1934 Willingdon informed Hoare in London that `the creation of a Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in India to promote the application of research to natural resources does not appear to be necessary." Having rejected an Indian version of the DSIR the colonial Government decided in 1934 to make a small concession. The Govt. agreed to create an Industrial Intelligence and Research Bureau and which came into operation in April 1935 under the Indian Stores Department. The Bureau had very limited resources (with a budget of 1.0 lakh per annum) and thus it was not possible for it to undertake any industrial activity. It was mainly concerned with testing and quality control.

When the Second World War began it was proposed to abolish the Bureau. Sir Ramaswamy Mudaliar, the Commerce Member, while accepting the recommendation that the Bureau be abolished argued that "the old Bureau should be abolished not as a measure of economy but to make room for a Board of Scientific and Industrial Research with vaster resources and wider objectives. Mudaliar’s persistent efforts led to the creation of the Board of Scientific and Industrial Research (BSIR) on April 1, 1940 for a period of two years. Bhatnagar, who by then had made remarkable contributions to chemistry was called on to take charge. Bhatnagar was designated Director, Scientific and Industrial Research and Sir Mudaliar became BSIR’s first Chairman. The BSIR was allocated an annual budget of 500,000 and placed under the Department of Commerce. By the end of 1940, about eighty researchers were engaged under BSIR, of whom one-quarter was directly employed. Within two years of its establishment the BSIR was able to work out a number of processes at the laboratory level for industrial utilisation. Those included techniques for the purification of Baluchistan sulphur anti-gas cloth manufacture, the development of vegetable oil blends as fuel and lubricants, the invention of a pyrethrum emulsifier and cream, the development of plastic packing cases for army boots and ammunition, dyes for uniforms and the preparation of vitamins. Bhatnagar persuaded the Government to set up an Industrial Research Utilisation Committee (IRUC) in early 1941 for translating results into application. Following the recommendation of IURC the Government agreed to make a separate fund out of the royalties received from industry for further investment into industrial research. A resolution moved by Mudaliar, recommending that an Industrial Research Fund be constituted for the purpose of fostering industrial development in the country , and that provision be made for an annual grant of rupees one million for a period of five years was accepted by the Central Assembly in Delhi at its session on 14 November 1941. The efforts of Mudaliar and Bhatnagar led to the constitution of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as an autonomous body, to administer the Research Fund created by the government. The CSIR came into operation on 28th September 1942. The BSIR and IRUC were designated as advisory bodies to the Governing body of the CSIR. In 1943 the Governing Body of the CSIR approved the proposal mooted by Bhatnagar to establish five national laboratories — the National Chemical Laboratory, the National Physical Laboratory, the Fuel Research Station, and the Glass and Ceramics Research Institute. In 1944 in addition to its annual budget of 1 million, the CSIR received a grant of 10 million for the establishment of these laboratories. The Tata Industrial House donated 2 million for the Chemical, metallurgical and fuel research laboratories.





After his death, CSIR established the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for eminent scientists in his honour.

Piara Singh Gill

Piara Singh Gill, (28 October 1911 - 23 March 2002) was a nuclear physicist who was a pioneer in cosmic ray nuclear physics and worked on the American Manhattan project [1]. Moreover, was the first Director of Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) of India. [2] He was research fellow of Chicago University (1940)[3]. He was research Professorship fellow of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) (1947), Officer-on-Special Duty (OSD) with the Atomic Energy Commission in New Delhi. Professor & Head in the Department of Physics at Aligarh University (1949), Director of Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO) (1959) and Professor Emeritus Punjab Agricultural University (1971) [3].

He as its Director established (CSIO) as a leader in advanced scientific instrument design in Asia [3]. Moreover, Robert Oppenheimer, was a close colleague and friend who he worked with on the Manhattan project. Oppenheimer asked Gill to present a paper at the California Institute of Technology at a conference arranged to celebrate the 80th birthday of Professor Robert Millikan, winner of the 1928 Physics Nobel Prize. Gill was a key advisor and planner to Nehru on India's nuclear weapons strategy in the 1950-60s [1].

Some free excerpts from Professor Piara Singh Gill's autobiography can be read at Google Books (click on reference to read)[5].


Positions Held
Research Fellow, University of Chicago, 1940-41.
Lecturer in Physics, Forman Christian College, Lahore, 1940-47.
Professor of Experimental Physics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay, 1947-48.
Officer-on-special Duty, Atomic Energy Commission, 1948-49.
Professor and. Head, Dept. of Physics, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 1949-63.
Dean, Faculty of Science, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 1950-53 and 1956-58.
Director, Gulmarg Research Observatory, Gulmarg, 1951-71.
Honorary Scientific Adviser to the Government of Punjab.
Director, Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO), Chandigarh, 1963-71.
Professor Emeritus, Punjab Agricultural University, 1972-1982.
Chairman, Universal Magnetics (P) Ltd.
Adjunct Professor of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA USA, 1990-1994.

Honorary Professor of Physics
University of Jammu & University of Kashmir.
Punjab University.

Memebership of Learned Societies
Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Fellow of the Indian Physical Society.
Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of lndia.
Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy.
Fellow of the Explorers Club.

Positions held in the Societies
President of the Physics section of the Indian Science Congress (1954).
President of the National Academy of Sciences of India (1957-58).
President of the Indian Physical Society.
Secretary (Outstation) Indian Science Congress Association (1960-63).
Foreign Secretary, Indian National Science Academy (1961-64).
Vice-President, Northern Indian Science Association.
President, Optical Society of India (1970).

Membership of Learned Bodies
Member of the U.P. Scientific Research Committee.
Member of the U.P. University Grants Committee.
Member of the Council of the Indian National Science Academy.
Member of the Council of Indian Physical Society.
Member of the Council of the National Academy of Sciences of India.
Member of the Board of Editors of the Indian Journal of Physics.
Member of the Faculties of the University of Lucknow, Banaras and Allahabad.
Member of the National Scientific Advisory Council of the Institute of Comprehensive Medicine and also the Editorial Board of the 'Int. Journal for Comprehensive Medicine', California, U.S.A.
Member, Panel of Consultants in Technological Sciences and Applied Research to the Director-General of UNESCO, 1967.
Chairman, Development Council for Instruments Industry set up by the Govt. of India, Ministry of Internal Trade and Company Affairs (Department of Industrial Development).
Member, Senate, Punjab University, Chandigarh.
Member, Senate, and Syndicate, Punjabi University, Patiala.
Member, Senate, Guru Nanak Dev University, Armitsar.

There are also others like Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta, Susruta etc who can easily be the greatest geniuses of India. Post something about them too.

Great thread Praveen. Really nice info.

I have seen this earlier.pranav mistry's of MIT,USA invention is straight out of mandrake the magician story book. what a combination of networking, information dispaly from data base ,connectivity,,,cool!

Aryabhata

Aryabhata (IAST: Āryabhaṭa; Sanskrit: आर्यभट) (476–550 CE) was the first in the line of great mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. His most famous works are the Aryabhatiya (499 CE, when he was 23 years old) and the Arya-siddhanta.

Works
Aryabhata is the author of several treatises on mathematics and astronomy, some of which are lost. His major work, Aryabhatiya, a compendium of mathematics and astronomy, was extensively referred to in the Indian mathematical literature and has survived to modern times. The mathematical part of the Aryabhatiya covers arithmetic, algebra, plane trigonometry, and spherical trigonometry. It also contains continued fractions, quadratic equations, sums-of-power series, and a table of sines.

The Arya-siddhanta, a lost work on astronomical computations, is known through the writings of Aryabhata's contemporary, Varahamihira, and later mathematicians and commentators, including Brahmagupta and Bhaskara I. This work appears to be based on the older Surya Siddhanta and uses the midnight-day reckoning, as opposed to sunrise in Aryabhatiya. It also contained a description of several astronomical instruments: the gnomon (shanku-yantra), a shadow instrument (chhAyA-yantra), possibly angle-measuring devices, semicircular and circular (dhanur-yantra / chakra-yantra), a cylindrical stick yasti-yantra, an umbrella-shaped device called the chhatra-yantra, and water clocks of at least two types, bow-shaped and cylindrical.[3]

A third text, which may have survived in the Arabic translation, is Al ntf or Al-nanf. It claims that it is a translation by Aryabhata, but the Sanskrit name of this work is not known. Probably dating from the 9th century, it is mentioned by the Persian scholar and chronicler of India, Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī.[3]


Aryabhatiya
Direct details of Aryabhata's work are therefore known only from the Aryabhatiya. The name "Aryabhatiya" is due to later commentators. Aryabhata himself may not have given it a name. His disciple Bhaskara I calls it Ashmakatantra (or the treatise from the Ashmaka). It is also occasionally referred to as Arya-shatas-aShTa (literally, Aryabhata's 108), because there are 108 verses in the text. It is written in the very terse style typical of sutra literature, in which each line is an aid to memory for a complex system. Thus, the explication of meaning is due to commentators. The text consists of the 108 verses and 13 introductory verses, and is divided into four pādas or chapters:

Gitikapada: (13 verses): large units of time—kalpa, manvantra, and yuga—which present a cosmology different from earlier texts such as Lagadha's Vedanga Jyotisha(ca. 1st century BCE). There is also a table of sines (jya), given in a single verse. The duration of the planetary revolutions during a mahayuga is given as 4.32 million years.
Ganitapada (33 verses): covering mensuration (kṣetra vyāvahāra), arithmetic and geometric progressions, gnomon / shadows (shanku-chhAyA), simple, quadratic, simultaneous, and indeterminate equations (kuTTaka)
Kalakriyapada (25 verses): different units of time and a method for determining the positions of planets for a given day, calculations concerning the intercalary month (adhikamAsa), kShaya-tithis, and a seven-day week with names for the days of week.
Golapada (50 verses): Geometric/trigonometric aspects of the celestial sphere, features of the ecliptic, celestial equator, node, shape of the earth, cause of day and night, rising of zodiacal signs on horizon, etc. In addition, some versions cite a few colophons added at the end, extolling the virtues of the work, etc.
The Aryabhatiya presented a number of innovations in mathematics and astronomy in verse form, which were influential for many centuries. The extreme brevity of the text was elaborated in commentaries by his disciple Bhaskara I (Bhashya, ca. 600 CE) and by Nilakantha Somayaji in his Aryabhatiya Bhasya, (1465 CE).


Mathematics

Place value system and zero
The place-value system, first seen in the 3rd century Bakhshali Manuscript, was clearly in place in his work.[14] ; he certainly did not use the symbol, but French mathematician Georges Ifrah argues that knowledge of zero was implicit in Aryabhata's place-value system as a place holder for the powers of ten with null coefficients[15]

However, Aryabhata did not use the brahmi numerals. Continuing the Sanskritic tradition from Vedic times, he used letters of the alphabet to denote numbers, expressing quantities, such as the table of sines in a mnemonic form.[16]


Pi as irrational
Aryabhata worked on the approximation for Pi (π), and may have come to the conclusion that π is irrational. In the second part of the Aryabhatiyam (gaṇitapāda 10), he writes:

chaturadhikam śatamaśṭaguṇam dvāśaśṭistathā sahasrāṇām
Ayutadvayaviśkambhasyāsanno vr�ttapariṇahaḥ.
"Add four to 100, multiply by eight, and then add 62,000. By this rule the circumference of a circle with a diameter of 20,000 can be approached."

This implies that the ratio of the circumference to the diameter is ((4+100)�8+62000)/20000 = 3.1416, which is accurate to five significant figures.

It is speculated that Aryabhata used the word āsanna (approaching), to mean that not only is this an approximation but that the value is incommensurable (or irrational). If this is correct, it is quite a sophisticated insight, because the irrationality of pi was proved in Europe only in 1761 by Lambert).[17]

After Aryabhatiya was translated into Arabic (ca. 820 CE) this approximation was mentioned in Al-Khwarizmi's book on algebra.[3]


Mensuration and trigonometry
In Ganitapada 6, Aryabhata gives the area of a triangle as

tribhujasya phalashariram samadalakoti bhujardhasamvargah
that translates to: "for a triangle, the result of a perpendicular with the half-side is the area."[18]

Aryabhata discussed the concept of sine in his work by the name of ardha-jya. Literally, it means "half-chord". For simplicity, people started calling it jya. When Arabic writers translated his works from Sanskrit into Arabic, they referred it as jiba. However, in Arabic writings, vowels are omitted, and it was abbreviated as jb. Later writers substituted it with jiab, meaning "cove" or "bay." (In Arabic, jiba is a meaningless word.) Later in the 12th century, when Gherardo of Cremona translated these writings from Arabic into Latin, he replaced the Arabic jiab with its Latin counterpart, sinus, which means "cove" or "bay". And after that, the sinus became sine in English.[19]


Indeterminate equations
A problem of great interest to Indian mathematicians since ancient times has been to find integer solutions to equations that have the form ax + b = cy, a topic that has come to be known as diophantine equations. This is an example from Bhaskara's commentary on Aryabhatiya:

Find the number which gives 5 as the remainder when divided by 8, 4 as the remainder when divided by 9, and 1 as the remainder when divided by 7
That is, find N = 8x+5 = 9y+4 = 7z+1. It turns out that the smallest value for N is 85. In general, diophantine equations, such as this, can be notoriously difficult. They were discussed extensively in ancient Vedic text Sulba Sutras, whose more ancient parts might date to 800 BCE. Aryabhata's method of solving such problems is called the kuṭṭaka (कुट्टक) method. Kuttaka means "pulverizing" or "breaking into small pieces", and the method involves a recursive algorithm for writing the original factors in smaller numbers. Today this algorithm, elaborated by Bhaskara in 621 CE, is the standard method for solving first-order diophantine equations and is often referred to as the Aryabhata algorithm.[20] The diophantine equations are of interest in cryptology, and the RSA Conference, 2006, focused on the kuttaka method and earlier work in the Sulvasutras.


Algebra
In Aryabhatiya Aryabhata provided elegant results for the summation of series of squares and cubes:[21]


and



Astronomy
Aryabhata's system of astronomy was called the audAyaka system, in which days are reckoned from uday, dawn at lanka or "equator". Some of his later writings on astronomy, which apparently proposed a second model (or ardha-rAtrikA, midnight) are lost but can be partly reconstructed from the discussion in Brahmagupta's khanDakhAdyaka. In some texts, he seems to ascribe the apparent motions of the heavens to the Earth's rotation.


Motions of the solar system
Aryabhata appears to have believed that the earth rotates about its axis. This is indicated in the statement, referring to Lanka , which describes the movement of the stars as a relative motion caused by the rotation of the earth:

"Like a man in a boat moving forward sees the stationary objects as moving backward, just so are the stationary stars seen by the people in Lanka (or on the equator) as moving exactly towards the west." [achalAni bhAni samapashchimagAni - golapAda.9]
But the next verse describes the motion of the stars and planets as real movements: "The cause of their rising and setting is due to the fact that the circle of the asterisms, together with the planets driven by the provector wind, constantly moves westwards at Lanka."

As mentioned above, Lanka (lit. Sri Lanka) is here a reference point on the equator, which was the equivalent of the reference meridian for astronomical calculations.

Aryabhata described a geocentric model of the solar system, in which the Sun and Moon are each carried by epicycles. They in turn revolve around the Earth. In this model, which is also found in the Paitāmahasiddhānta (ca. CE 425), the motions of the planets are each governed by two epicycles, a smaller manda (slow) and a larger śīghra (fast). [22] The order of the planets in terms of distance from earth is taken as: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the asterisms."[3]

The positions and periods of the planets was calculated relative to uniformly moving points. In the case of Mercury and Venus, they move around the Earth at the same speed as the mean Sun. In the case of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, they move around the Earth at specific speeds, representing each planet's motion through the zodiac. Most historians of astronomy consider that this two-epicycle model reflects elements of pre-Ptolemaic Greek astronomy.[23] Another element in Aryabhata's model, the śīghrocca, the basic planetary period in relation to the Sun, is seen by some historians as a sign of an underlying heliocentric model.[24]


Eclipses
Aryabhata states that the Moon and planets shine by reflected sunlight. Instead of the prevailing cosmogony in which eclipses were caused by pseudo-planetary nodes Rahu and Ketu, he explains eclipses in terms of shadows cast by and falling on Earth. Thus, the lunar eclipse occurs when the moon enters into the Earth's shadow (verse gola.37). He discusses at length the size and extent of the Earth's shadow (verses gola.38-48) and then provides the computation and the size of the eclipsed part during an eclipse. Later Indian astronomers improved on the calculations, but Aryabhata's methods provided the core. His computational paradigm was so accurate that 18th century scientist Guillaume Le Gentil, during a visit to Pondicherry, India, found the Indian computations of the duration of the lunar eclipse of 1765-08-30 to be short by 41 seconds, whereas his charts (by Tobias Mayer, 1752) were long by 68 seconds.[3]

Aryabhata's computation of the Earth's circumference as 39,968.0582 kilometres was only 0.2% smaller than the actual value of 40,075.0167 kilometres. This approximation was a significant improvement over the computation by Greek mathematician Eratosthenes (c. 200 BCE), whose exact computation is not known in modern units but his estimate had an error of around 5-10%.[25][26]


Sidereal periods
Considered in modern English units of time, Aryabhata calculated the sidereal rotation (the rotation of the earth referencing the fixed stars) as 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.1 seconds; the modern value is 23:56:4.091. Similarly, his value for the length of the sidereal year at 365 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds is an error of 3 minutes and 20 seconds over the length of a year. The notion of sidereal time was known in most other astronomical systems of the time, but this computation was likely the most accurate of the period.


Heliocentrism
As mentioned, Aryabhata claimed that the Earth turns on its own axis, and some elements of his planetary epicyclic models rotate at the same speed as the motion of the Earth around the Sun. Thus, it has been suggested that Aryabhata's calculations were based on an underlying heliocentric model, in which the planets orbit the Sun.[27][28] A detailed rebuttal to this heliocentric interpretation is in a review that describes B. L. van der Waerden's book as "show[ing] a complete misunderstanding of Indian planetary theory [that] is flatly contradicted by every word of Aryabhata's description."[29] However, some concede that Aryabhata's system stems from an earlier heliocentric model, of which he was unaware.[30] It has even been claimed that he considered the planet's paths to be elliptical, but no primary evidence for this has been found.[31] Though Aristarchus of Samos (3rd century BCE) and sometimes Heraclides of Pontus (4th century BCE) are usually credited with knowing the heliocentric theory, the version of Greek astronomy known in ancient India as the Paulisa Siddhanta (possibly by a Paul of Alexandria) makes no reference to a heliocentric theory.


Legacy
Aryabhata's work was of great influence in the Indian astronomical tradition and influenced several neighbouring cultures through translations. The Arabic translation during the Islamic Golden Age (ca. 820 CE), was particularly influential. Some of his results are cited by Al-Khwarizmi, and he is mentioned by the 10th century Arabic scholar Al-Biruni, who states that Aryabhata's followers believed that the Earth rotated on its axis.

His definitions of sine (jya), cosine (kojya), versine (ukramajya), and inverse sine (otkram jya) influenced the birth of trigonometry. He was also the first to specify sine and versine (1 - cosx) tables, in 3.75� intervals from 0� to 90�, to an accuracy of 4 decimal places.

In fact, modern names "sine" and "cosine" are mistranscriptions of the words jya and kojya as introduced by Aryabhata. As mentioned, they were translated as jiba and kojiba in Arabic and then misunderstood by Gerard of Cremona while translating an Arabic geometry text to Latin. He assumed that jiba was the Arabic word jaib, which means "fold in a garment", L. sinus (c.1150).[32]

Aryabhata's astronomical calculation methods were also very influential. Along with the trigonometric tables, they came to be widely used in the Islamic world and used to compute many Arabic astronomical tables (zijes). In particular, the astronomical tables in the work of the Arabic Spain scientist Al-Zarqali (11th century) were translated into Latin as the Tables of Toledo (12th c.) and remained the most accurate ephemeris used in Europe for centuries.

Calendric calculations devised by Aryabhata and his followers have been in continuous use in India for the practical purposes of fixing the Panchangam (the Hindu calendar). In the Islamic world, they formed the basis of the Jalali calendar introduced in 1073 CE by a group of astronomers including Omar Khayyam[33], versions of which (modified in 1925) are the national calendars in use in Iran and Afghanistan today. The dates of the Jalali calendar are based on actual solar transit, as in Aryabhata and earlier Siddhanta calendars. This type of calendar requires an ephemeris for calculating dates. Although dates were difficult to compute, seasonal errors were less in the Jalali calendar than in the Gregorian calendar.

India's first satellite Aryabhata and the lunar crater Aryabhata are named in his honour. An Institute for conducting research in astronomy, astrophysics and atmospheric sciences is the Aryabhatta Research Institute of observational sciences (ARIES) near Nainital, India. The inter-school Aryabhata Maths Competition is also named after him,[34] as is Bacillus aryabhata, a species of bacteria discovered by ISRO scientists in 2009.[35]

Giri Raj Singh Sirohi

Giri Raj Singh Sirohi was the first Indian to set foot on Antarctica. Sirohi is a scientist who carried out research at the South Pole in Antarctica in 1960 for around 100 days in sub-zero temperatures.

To honour his breakthrough contribution to the Science of Plant Physiology, the US Government instructed the United States Board on Geographic Names to name a place in Antarctica after him as Sirohi Point in 1961.

The objective of the experiments was to collect data on the Biological Clock at the South Pole, since it represented a place where the rotational activity of the Earth could be negated. The plant material (soybeans, etc.) and animal material (hamsters, etc.) were studied at the South Pole. Project work took almost 12 months, out of which 4 months were spent at the South Pole in Antarctica.

Mambillikalathil Govind Kumar Menon

Mambillikalathil Govind Kumar Menon (born August 28, 1928), also known as M. G. K. Menon, is a physicist and policy maker from India.He has had a role in almost every facet of science and technology development in India during the past four decades. but the important one was nurturing the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, which his mentor Homi J. Bhabha founded in 1945.

He undertook experiments with cosmic rays to explore the properties of fundamental particles. He was instrumental in setting up balloon flight experiments, as well as deep underground experiments with cosmic ray neutrinos in the mines at Kolar Gold Fields. He is currently Vikram Sarabhai Fellow of the Indian Space Research Organisation. In the past, he has been President of the National Academy of Sciences, India, Director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai (1966-1975), Chairman Board Of Governors, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and Chairman Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad. He has won the Abdus Salam Award, and is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He is one of the prominent scientists from Kerala. The asteroid 7564 Gokumenon was named in his honour in late 2008


Association with TIFR
He joined TIFR in 1955 "essentially because of Bhabha", and the association lasted nearly five decades. He became the director of the institute in 1966, at the age of 38, following Bhabha's untimely death. In fact, M. G. K. Menon began handling the affairs of the institute ever since he was barely 33 because of Bhabha's increasing involvement with the country's nascent atomic energy programme.

Special Awards: He won the Padmabhushan in 1968 and the highest honor of Padma Vibhushan in 1985


KGF experiments
M.G.K Menon was involved in all the large-scale experiments at the TIFR from its early days, in particular, the cosmic ray studies initiated in 1964 in the mines at Kolar Gold Fields (KGF). In the nearly three-decade-long story of experiments at the KGF, relating to muons, neutrinos, weak interactions and proton decay, he played a major role. It was the KGF experiment that ruled out the hypothesis called "Utah Effect" to describe the energy spectrum of muons reaching underground.

The more significant achievement of the KGF experiment was to demonstrate the feasibility of doing neutrino-induced interactions and related new phenomena deep underground. It was also the first experiment in the world, in 1965, to detect atmospheric neutrinos, which are formed at the top of the atmosphere due to cosmic ray interactions. The neutrino experiments also threw up a handful of rare events, called Kolar events, which are suggestive of massive (with more that 3 giga electron Volt mass) and long-lived (lifetimes of about a billionth of a second) particles. These have, however remained unexplained till date and are perhaps suggestive of new physics.

In the 1980s, M. G. K. Menon led the proton decay experiment at the KGF, the first major dedicated experiment in the world to look for decays of the apparently stable proton, which set a limit on a proton's lifetime to be greater than 10 to the power 30 years. The experiment also provided limits on the existence of the hypothetical magnetic monopoles.

However, with the closure of the KGF mines, these underground cosmic ray experiments came to an end in the early 1990s, much to the disappointment of many Indian particle physicists. It was the atmospheric neutrinos that later led to the Nobel Prize-winning discovery by Japanese scientists—who in fact, started later—that neutrinos have mass and they exhibit the interesting phenonmenon called neutrino oscillation.

Ranjit Lal Jetley

Maj-General Ranjit Lal Jetley, FIE, FIQA (born 10 March 1923) is a retired soldier and scientist in India. He served in World War II and the 1947 Indo-Pakistani War, becoming an artillery regiment commander. He went on to work in armaments research and development, his innovations including an Indian 105 mm light field gun and upgunning of the Sherman tanks. He also contributed to set up two major laboratories. Jetley retired in 1979.

Wartime career
Jetley was commissioned on July 5, 1942 and served in Arakan, Burma. He took part in the Battle of Ramree Island and the Allied landings at Letpan, mainland Burma, where, as naval Forward Observation Officer for a field artillery regiment, he called in the naval bombardment. From 1945-1946 he served with an Indian anti-tank regiment in Sumatra, Indonesia as a part of the British occupation.

In 1946, Jetley became a Captain in the regular army and travelled to Britain for training at the Royal School of Artillery, Larkhill, along with O.P. Malhotra (later General Chief of Army Staff) and JFR Jacobs (later Lt General, Governor Punjab). In 1948, he took part in the Jammu & Kashmir Operations of the Indo-Pakistani War, involving the re-capture of Jhangar, capture of Rajouri and the Punch linkup.


Peacetime artillery service
From 1950, he served with the erstwhile Technical Development Establishments at Jabalpur, Cossipore and later Kanpur and raised Inspectorates for the two major Ordnance Factories. At Kanpur he was credited for contributing to the manufacture of the first 25 Pounder Ordnance and the first Bren Gun in India. The occasion was celebrated by the Ordnance factory by firing of the first Bren Gun in the presence of Shri Dr. Rajendra Prasad, first President of India.

In 1952, he commanded an anti-tank regiment artillery. From 1953-1958 he commanded one of the then only two Medium Artillery Regiments and later raised the third Medium Regiment Artillery. With this newly raised unit, he earned a name in exercise ‘Doaba’ by taking his medium guns across the river Sutlej by dismantling, which was commended by the Corps Commander Lt Gen JN Chaudhari and Lt Gen Kulwant Singh, the chief Umpire and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command. It was here that he also conceived the idea of up-gunning the Sherman Tank for better fire power and put up a paper to the General Staff. This was to have a salutary effect on the outcome of the 1965 Indo-Pak War.


Scientific career
During his second tenure (from 1958 onwards) with erstwhile TDEs and Defence Research and Development Organisation, he had a distinguished career in various capacities. As Superintendent, Proof and Experiment Establishment, he conceived, planned and modernized the previous ranges to enable enhancement of indigenous production and evaluation of foreign manufacturer's claims.

In addition to the normal call of duties, he had been personally responsible for projecting new ideas which led to the improvement in the performance of various service equipments. A few outstanding examples showing his ingenuity and skill were:-

Mounting of 75 mm High Velocity French Gun on the Sherman tank.
Conversion of 4.7" Naval Gun mounting to take 4.5" Naval gun.
Modification of 25 Pdr carriage for high angle fire.
Universal slave carriage/mounting for proof of any caliber gun and ammunition (Railway Open Wagon on broad gauge rails).
It is estimated that he saved over 100 crores of wasting assets in the form of saving old tanks from disposal. Due to his efforts, the production of 4.5" ammunition in the country could begin at least one year earlier than by waiting for such facility to be provided by a foreign supplier. The facility was inaugurated by demonstrating proof of first lot of indigenous naval 4.5" ammunition in the presence of Admiral Katari, then Chief of the Naval Staff of India.

Later Jetley was assigned to the special Weapon Design Team. During this period his contribution for planning and organization along with others resulted in establishing the Defence Research and Development Laboratories for rockets and missile.

Jetley's contribution was also admired in the raising of the Terminal Ballistic Research Laboratory for research in the field of transient Phenomenon involving detonation of explosives.

Thus reasonable amount of credit for setting up of these two major laboratories equipped with most modern instrumentation goes to him.

He exhibited the first uncontrolled flight of a short range missile to the Defence Minister at Tuglakabad ranges in 1961 as desired by the Scientific Adviser Dr. Bhagwantam. This success had great contribution from Wing Commander Sethna and Dr. Bensal.

In 1968, he was assigned to the Directorate General of Inspection, a quality assurance organisation, where, as Senior Inspector of Armaments and Gauges, he further excelled his performance and was responsible for improving the quality of inspection of 40 mm anti-aircraft guns. He was also instrumental in enhancing the production of Mountain guns at Heavy Engineering Corporation at Ranchi and Gun Carriage Factory Jabalpur for which he was commended by the Secretary Defence Production and DGOF. He was hence sent for training to Sweden in Air Defence Systems with BOFORS and became a member of the Technical Committee for the Indian collaboration.

In 1971, he raised the Controllerate of Inspection (Weapons) which was a great bonus during the 1971 War for inspection of imported weapons. After war he contributed by making an assessment of the effect of Pakistani weapons which was a good guide for future improvements and defect investigations. From 1973 as Director of Inspection (Armaments), he was personally responsible for increasing the pace of indigenization in the Private sector. Later he helped in establishing the production of an anti-tank ammunition by revising acceptance criteria, after his return from the Jefferson Proving Grounds in the USA.

He encouraged the export of armaments as Director of Inspection (Armaments) and he was later nominated by the Defence Secretary to go to FFV Sweden to inspect the first 84 mm Carl Gustaf Rocket Launcher consignment.

He was assigned in 1976 to develop a Light Field Gun of 105 mm for the Army. In a very short period from the date of his take over, he produced the first proto-type involving induction of most modern materials (three new varieties of steel were developed at Durgapur steel plant) and sophisticated technology in the field of gun development resulting in a light carriage of half weight and India's first Ordnance design. Simultaneously, he developed a time fuze for the carrier shells of long range guns by modifying an existing time fuze. The development of Smoke and HESH ammunition for this light gun IFG Mark II and IFG Mark I had his contribution.


Awards and recognition
For the exemplary work with his new ideas, he received under heading Honours and Awards in the Army Orders two COMMENDATION CARDS from the Chief of the Army Staff, one was on the recommendation of the Chief of the Naval Staff. Also, two of the first CASH AWARDS given by the Ministry of Defence, when introduced, went to him for his inventions. In view of his excellent allround performance in the field of engineering and applied technology, he was made a Fellow of Institution of Engineers (India) and Fellow of the Institution of Quality Assurance (UK).

Besides all other achievements to his credit for making an investigation of National importance of an armament store he was awarded the COMMENDATION CARD of the Secretary (Defense Production) in 1977.

Maj Gen Ranjit Lal Jetley rendered 37 years service and retired on 9 July 1979 after two extensions in the Service interest.


Publications
Jetley has written a number of technical papers on the improvement in the performance of Army equipment, including a proposal to convert Stuart tanks to APCs. He has also published two books, one restricted for artillery officers promotion examination and one for the open market Rockets, Satellites and Guided Missiles.

His National Defence College paper on Future pattern of Weapons System (1970), led to him represent the course at the Parliamentarians' meeting on Atom Bomb considerations. This paper was later published in the USI magazine.


Teaching
During his four years as Director of Studies (Army) at the Institute of Armament Technology, he revised the Technical Staff Officers' Course by introducing studies for future armament needs, which resulted in an exercise to up-gun the T55 Tank with the British 105 mm Tank Gun. This was later adapted by the Army. He also introduced the Scientific Orientation Courses for Army Officers and compiled the Indian Army instructional pamphlet (Science) for the Army.


His critical innovation
Credit for the availability of the up-gunned World War II vintage Shermans in 1965 to successfully combat American supplied M48 Pattons goes to the idea and invention of Maj Gen R L Jetley (Retired) and to the General Staff of the Army, who provided him with a Sherman Tank to experiment for what was then a radical idea. The result is described in extract of two newspaper articles below. For this innovation he was paid merely 2000 as a cash award to kill the dream of Field Marshal Ayub Khan to capture Delhi.

Extract from The Economic Times New Delhi Wednesday 6 September, 1995 page 7 an article by Global Watch/K Subrahmanyam titled "The First War with Pak"
"Third, the Pakistanis has secretly raised a second armoured division while India had only one then...The Pakistani armoured division which was to break through at Khem Karan was totally destroyed by an Indian armoured brigade consisting of one Centurion regiment, one regiment of Sherman Mark IV tanks and another with up-gunned Shermans. The Sherman tanks were of World War II vintage. This happened because of the superior tactical skills of officer and men of the Indian Army. That battle was crucial in the sense if India had lost it the fate of the subcontinent would have changed...The country has to be overly grateful to the officers and men of that armored brigade."
Extract from The Indian Express New Delhi Friday December 19, 2003 Page 9 "Last Salute to the lion of 1965" (Lt. Gen Joginder Singh Dhillon; 1914-2003, Obituary) describes the result of Maj Gen Jetley's endeavours in the unglamourous field of defense research and development :-
"It is not possible to describe this 17-day war here but the decisive tank battle of Assal Utar, near Khem Karan, on September 10 does bear telling. Indian units hid their Sherman tanks 500 meters apart in a U-shaped formation in tall and unharvested sugarcane fields, and snared the enemy's vastly superior Patton tanks into this ambush, annihilating them to the last tank and deciding the outcome of the war. The destruction of Pakistan‘s armored pride and the casualties it suffered..."

Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty

Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty (Bengali: আনন্দমোহন চক্রবর্তী), Ph.D. is an Indian-American microbiologist, scientist, and researcher, most notable for his work in directed evolution and his role in developing a genetically engineered organism using plasmid transfer while working at GE.

Early scientific work
Prof. Chakrabarty genetically engineered[1][2][3][4][5][6] a new species of Pseudomonas bacteria ("the oil-eating bacteria") in 1971 while working for the Research & Development Center at General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York.[7]

At the time, four known species of oil-metabolizing bacteria were known to exist, but when introduced into an oil spill, competed with each other, limiting the amount of crude oil that they degraded. The genes necessary to degrade oil were carried on plasmids, which could be transferred among species. By irradiating the transformed organism with UV light after plasmid transfer, Prof. Chakrabarty discovered a method for genetic cross-linking that fixed all four plasmid genes in place and produced a new, stable, bacteria species (now called Burkholderia) capable of consuming oil one or two orders of magnitude faster than the previous four strains of oil-eating microbes. The new microbe, which Chakrabarty called "multi-plasmid hydrocarbon-degrading Pseudomonas," could digest about two-thirds of the hydrocarbons that would be found in a typical oil spill.

The bacteria drew international attention when he applied for a patent—the first-ever patent for living organism.[8] He was initially denied the patent by the Patent Office because it was thought that the patent code precluded patents on living organisms. The United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals overturned the decision in Chakrabarty's favor, writing,

“ ...the fact that micro-organisms are alive is without legal significance for purposes of patent law. ”

Sidney A. Diamond, Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, then appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court case was argued on March 17, 1980 and decided on June 16, 1980. This patent was granted by the U.S. Supreme Court (Diamond v. Chakrabarty), in a 5-4 decision, when it determined that

“ A live, human-made micro-organism is patentable subject matter under [Title 35 U.S.C.] 101. Respondent's micro-organism constitutes a "manufacture" or "composition of matter" within that statute. ”

Prof. Chakrabarty's landmark research has since paved the way for many patents on genetically modified micro-organisms and other life forms, and catapulted him into the international spotlight.[9] The "oil-eating bacteria" has been used to clean up many toxic oil spills, including the one caused by the Exxon Valdez disaster.


Current work
Currently, his lab is working on elucidating the role of bacterial cupredoxins and cytochromes in cancer regression and arresting cell cycle progression.[10] These proteins have been formerly known for their involvement in bacterial electron transport. He has isolated a bacterial protein, azurin, with potential antineoplastic properties.[9][11] He has expanded his lab's work to include multiple microbiological species, including Neisseria, Plasmodia, and Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans.[10] In 2001, Prof. Chakrabarty founded a company, CDG Therapeutics,[9][11] (incorporated in Delaware) which holds proprietary information related to five patents generated by his work at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The University of Illinois owns the rights to the patents but has issued exclusive licences to CDG Therapeutics.[9]


Academic career
Chakrabarty is currently a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. Apart from being an eminent scientist, Ananda Chakrabarty has been an advisor to judges, governments, and the UN.[11] As one of the founding members of a UNIDO Committee that proposed the establishment of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology (ICGEB), he has been a member of its Council of Scientific Advisors ever since.[8] He has served the U.S. Government

as a member of NIH Study Sections,
as a member of the Board on Biology of the National Academy of Science,
on the Committee on Biotechnology of the National Research Council
He has also served the Stockholm Environment Institute of Sweden. He has been on the Scientific Advisory Board of many academic institutions such as the Michigan Biotechnology Institute, the Montana State University Center for Biofilm Engineering, the Center for Microbial Ecology at the Michigan State University, and the Canadian Bacterial Diseases Network based in Calgary, Canada. Dr. Chakrabarty has also served as a member of NIAG, the NATO Industrial Advisory Group based in Brussels, Belgium. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Einstein Institute for Science, Health and the Courts, where he participates in judicial education. More recently, he has been involved in international judicial work, serving as a Scientific Advisor for meetings in Hawaii and Ottawa, Canada, organized by the Supreme Court of Canada.[8]


Legacy and awards
Dr. Chakrabarty has received many awards, including[8]

the 'Scientist of the Year' award in 1975 by Industrial Research Organization of the United States,
the Distinguished Scientist Award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency,
the MERIT Award from NIH,
the Distinguished Service Award given by the U.S. Army
the Public Affairs Award awarded by the American Chemical Society, and
the Procter & Gamble Environmental Biotechnology Award given by the American Society for Microbiology.
the Golden Eurydice Award for contributions in Biophilosophy in 2007.
For his work in genetic engineering technology, he was awarded the civilian Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2007.

Amar Bose

Amar Gopal Bose (Bengali: অমর গোপাল বসু Amar Gopal Boshu) (born November 2, 1929) is the chairman and founder of Bose Corporation. An American electrical engineer of Indian-Bengali descent, he was listed on the 2007 Forbes 400 with a net worth of $1.8 billion.

The child of an Indian-Bengali father and white American mother, Bose was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Noni Gopal Bose, was an Indian freedom revolutionary from Bengal who having been imprisoned for his political activities, fled Kolkata (Calcutta) in the 1920s in order to avoid further prosecution by the British colonial police.

Amar Bose first displayed his entrepreneurial skills and his interest in electronics at age thirteen, when, during the World War-II years, he enlisted school friends as co-workers in a small home business repairing model trains and home radios, to supplement his family's income.

Bose graduated from Abington Senior High School and entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating with a BS in Electrical Engineering in the early 1950s. Bose spent a year in Eindhoven, Netherlands, in the research labs at NV Philips Electronics and a year in Delhi, India, as a Fulbright student where he met his future wife, Prema, from whom he is now divorced (he has now re-married). He completed his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from MIT, writing a highly mathematical thesis on non-linear systems.

Following graduation, Bose took a position at MIT as an Assistant Professor. He focused his research on acoustics, leading him to invent a stereo loudspeaker that would reproduce, in a domestic setting, the dominantly reflected sound field that characterizes the listening space of the audience in a concert hall.

Bose was awarded significant patents in two fields which, to this day, are important to the Bose Corporation. These patents were in the area of loud speaker design and non-linear, two-state modulated, Class-D, power processing.

To found his company in 1964, for initial capital, he turned to angel investors including his MIT thesis advisor and professor, Dr. Y. W. Lee (who invested his life savings on the effort[citation needed]).

During his early years as a professor, Bose bought a high-end stereo speaker system in 1956 and was reportedly underwhelmed by the performance of his purchase. This would eventually pave the way for his extensive speaker technology research, concentrating on key weaknesses in the high-end speaker systems available during Bose's time, and focusing on psychoacoustics, which would become a hallmark of the company's audio products. Applying similar psychoacoustic principles to headphone technology, Bose created the Tri-Port Earcup Drivers." Today, the Bose Corporation is a multifaceted entity with more than 12,000 employees, worldwide, that produces products for home, car, and professional audio, as well as conducts basic research in acoustics, automotive systems, and other fields.

Bose Corporation, as a privately held company, does not publish its financial numbers, however a few hundred shareholders do receive audited annual financial statements.

In addition to running his company, Bose remained a professor at MIT until 2000.

His son, Vanu Bose, is the founder and CEO of Vanu, Inc., a firm whose software-based radio technology provides a wireless infrastructure that enables individual base stations to simultaneously operate GSM, CDMA, and iDEN. His daughter, Maiya, is a practicing chiropractor.


Awards
Elected Fellow of IEEE, 1972 - for contributions to loudspeaker design, two-state amplifier-modulators, and nonlinear systems. He was probably the first person of Indian origin to be elevated to this level by IEEE in the field of electronics.
271st in the 2007 Forbes 400 List[1]
Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, 2008[2]