Some time back when an article of Chinese computer adjudged fastest in the world was posted on Pakistan defense forum, Chinese folks were over jubilant. I complemented them and wrote that you guys can enjoy that for some time until our 138 exa flop computer come in 2017. And that was a blasphemy. Chinese members collectively attacked and bullied not only me but insulted India like they always do. They called me illiterate, big mouth, etc. They posted Abdul kalam sir’s statement that India shall become a super power in 2015. One Chinese member calculated that it will require 7600 MW electricity to operate this super computer.
China with their hyper nationalism adopted the way of beg, borrow and steal strategy to rise in the field of science and technology. They were very successful also but their success did not go well with international community as whole world see china as imperial power and an unwanted rise of a nation not god for world order and peace. There are two major emerging powers in the world today. India and china. China with their dictatorial regime collected huge amount of fund and they thought that they can not only surpass india but US also by spending heavily in strategic areas and soon world shall start recognizing them as the competitor of US and subsequently the sole super power of the world. However, Democratic india has her own way to take on china.
Now tomorrow Vijay bhatkar gave a lecture in which he once again mentioned of this 138+ exaflpo super super computer of India. On discussion on PDF, one Indian guy explained how it was made possible by designing different architect of flexible buses rather than fixed buses. This is the frugal India way of innovation. Many things appear to be impossible may be made possible with innovation. India is exactly doing this. When I read this,, many such frugal innovations struck my mind which I want to discuss here in brief.
When whole world was contemplating mars mission just not for exploring Mars but also to project their power, ability and excellence in space science and technology. Many nations tried and got mixed result of success and failure.. They used costly heavy rockets. China used Russian rocket to their mars mission and failed. India too tried but India had a modest rocket of just 1.5 ton capacity. India conceived a unique frugal mission to mars using gravity of earth and reached Mars in its first attempt. Mission which a planned life of 6 months is now been extended for indefinite period.
China started building heavy rockets to establish their superiority in space. India worked on minimizing the launch cost and currently it is just half of any other agency worldwide. As china worked on increased capacity of vehicles, India focused on reusability of their space vehicle. India is working on one stage vehicle for launch and scramjet technology so that cost of launching may be bought down to just 10% of current cost. India also carried multiple orbit launch in one mission and 20 satellites launch in one mission. Now they target 83 satellites launch in one mission. India is working on reusable space shuttle to minimize the cost. ISRO with its tiny budget compared to Chinese space agency or NASA is placed in a very respectable position now. It is because of frugal engineering and innovations of Indians. India beat china with Innovation.
In the area of defense, while china was focusing on the increasing the range of her missiles, India focused on low weight and accuracy. The focus of India was such that they should be able to target enemy positions with conventional warheads. This requires a phenomenal accuracy. Today Indian long range missiles are such accurate that they can be used to target enemy position with single digit accuracy. Indian K4 missile is said to have almost zero error. When china’s SLBM JL2 is said to have 7700 KM range with 700 KG pay load, India’s K4 deliver 2 tons at 4000 KM with almost Zero error. This gave India a power to demolish enemy infrastructure with conventional warhead without using a nuclear bomb. This is a big strategic advantage.
Similarly, India worked on Brhmos missile to make them highly accurate and made them to dive steeply on the target. This made them deadliest of missile which can identify and target enemy position in hidden area behind mountains. This is an Indian innovation which made it possible to use the missile in non-traditional areas where the missiles cannot be use. This also made it deadliest of anti-ship missile virtually impossible to intercept with any present missile defense system existing in the world. When India declared that they will position this on India china border in Arunachala Pradesh, China rightly got annoyed and said that it is more than the security needs of India.
To protect the ships, India took same approach. India with Israel made MR SAM missile. This missile protect indian ships from Hundred KM to half of a KM. China on its Type 52D uses multi layer defense system of long range, medium range missiles but still they are unable to offer the protection which MRSAM provides. All Chinese systems put to gather are not as effective against sea skimming missile as single MRSAM. This is the power of Indian innovation and frugal engineering. .
In nuclear energy when whole world was focusing on making high speed centrifuge to purify uranium to weapon grade or reactor grade, India focused on research of game changing fast breeder technology where the high purity of fuel is not required. You can use relatively less pure fuel and still can achieve a very high burn ratio. The beauty of this technology is that it may generate more fuel than it consume. . Today india can transform her huge thorium reserve into fuel with this technology. India also designed a highly safe passive safety system for her nuclear power plant which will work automatically in the condition of accident to curtail damage. India made maintenance of Rajasthan atomic power station with same frugal engineering by making bamboo semi-automatic robots and made the plant operational once again at a fraction of cost (Less than 5%) which Canada had offered to do maintenance. Today that plant is generating electricity at a cost less than a rupee per unit.
China not only has her hegemonic design in strategic area but also social and political area. India and only india is capable of countering china all these areas. I will discuss about countering china in other areas on some other day.
-Hari Prasad.
