Indian space venture in higher orbit
September 24 was the first anniversary of the success of India’s Mars Mission, hence it is the appropriate time to reflect on India’s space programme and its achievements. Space science has taken a giant step forward with recent advances in cryogenic technology. The road to its mastery was hard; there were setbacks for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) as it grappled with numerous hurdles on the way to eventual success. The Clinton Administration did its utmost to derail it, just as President Reagan reneged on his promise to sell India the Cray 14 Supercomputer. India eventually produced supercomputers on its own, and has trodden the same path in manufacturing the cryogenic engine. ISRO scientists and engineers cast a lonely furrow to master cryogenic technology. There was indeed a purpose behind their endeavours. Put simply, without the cryogenic rocket India would have been unable send heavy satellites into deep space, that is into geosynchronous orbit – 36,000 miles above earth. There was heartbreak when the Indian test, in April 2010, with a cryogenic engine failed to ignite correctly and the satellite plunged into the sea. It was back to basics thereafter and much toil and tears before the cryogenic engine fired flawlessly to place the 21,117 kilogram communications satellite GSAT-6 into initial orbit in January 2014. On August 27 2015 a second launch confirmed the success of the first. The back-to-back successes meant that the system was operational, thus opening a new chapter in the Indian space narrative.
True, India had successful launches to the Moon and Mars, but the PSLV rocket – ISRO’s workhouse of many years - has the thrust capacity to put a satellite only into near earth orbit. That this rocket could send satellites into deep space can be ascribed to the innovative ability of the scientist and engineers who calculated a sling shot that would take the rockets and their payloads beyond the earth’s gravitational pull, enabling them to take the prescribed route to the Moon and Mars respectively, with virtually no gravitational force to impede their progress. The mathematical precision and the engineering skills of the exercise were spectacular, giving notice of the country’s growing capability in space.
The heavier GSLV satellites now propelled into deep space orbit have the cryogenic power, hence an Indian manned mission sometime in the future is a looming possibility. Such ventures will no longer have to depend on the European Space Agency, entailing huge fees. The Indian cryogenic rocket represents a significant saving to the country’s exchequer. India can now hire out its services to other nations, including NASA in the United States.
GSLV-MK II rockets will henceforward power a new series of heavy satellites into higher orbit. Scientists and engineers are inevitably at their best when they face daunting challenges and keep raising the bar in the timeless tradition of scientific inquiry. ISRO is now looking to the launch of the gigantic GSLV –MKIII with a massive indigenously developed cryogenic stage in December 2016. The 600-tonne GSLV MKIII will develop a thrust of 20 tonnes. S. Ramakrishnan, a senior scientist said: ‘We started from scratch to develop GSLV MK III. It is fully indigenously developed from the drawing stage. It has no reference to foreign technology. We recently successfully tested it for its full flight duration of 800 seconds.’ India is reaching for the stars, preparing hopefully for the galactic explorations that could unlock the mysteries of our universe and the myriad universes that lie beyond our solar system that defy human comprehension. It is Indian science and its possibilities that keep national self-confidence aloft.
The delusional Mirwaz and his fantasies
The Mirwaz of Kashmir, one of the senior Muslim clerics of the Sunni-populated Valley was in one of his absurdist flights during an interview with a respected Indian newspaper. In one of his earlier written contributions, he appeared to issue a warning to the mainstream Indian opinion that without a dictated Islamist solution to the Kashmir imbroglio India would be in dire straits. The tune, alas, never alters, reality keeps receding towards a black hole of dense absurdity. His latest warning followed the trajectory of the others, the difference this time being his introduction of Saudi Arabia into the equation. The Mirwaz referred to the invitation he had received from the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to attend its conclave in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly summit. He suggested in anticipation that India’s best course would to call for Saudi Arabian mediation, the kingdom being India’s major oil supplier. Déjà vu, another variation of a familiar theme long rejected out of hand in New Delhi. Saudi Arabia is held in low esteem across India. The rape and torture of two Nepalese maids by a Saudi diplomat and his friends, the refusal of the Saudi government to permit the Indian authorities to bring the diplomat to justice on the specious plea that this would violate the Vienna Convention for the protection of foreign diplomats has reduced that country’s moral standing in the country to zero. As to Saudi oil supplies to India, these are a commercial transaction paid for in US dollars The Mirwaz and his jihadi associates in the Valley and their Pakistani affiliates must understand that no Islamic state in Jammu and Kashmir will be acceptable to India – and not only India – but also to the civilized world beyond the subcontinent. The routine persecution and extermination of religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East and, most glaringly, in next door Pakistan, have put nations near and far on guard.
The Mirwaz would be advised to think hard: the ‘unfinished business of the Subcontinent’s Partition,’ frequently referred to, was sealed and delivered in August 1947.That contract was violated and destroyed by Pathan invaders of the Valley in October 1947; their Pakistani handlers gambled and lost. According to the rules of any casino every bet lost or won is permanent and cannot be undone. The Mirwaz would do well to pacify his inner demons and reconcile himself to a life under the rule of law, the right of free speech and thought plus gender equality for all of Jammu and Kashmir’s disparate communities. The clock cannot, will not, be turned back to a long discredited past of jihad, jizya and fatwa. Period.
Adivasis experience the dawn
The tribal communities in the plains of India, also known as the Adivasis (original dwellers), such as the Santhals who populate the Bihar-Jharkhand-Bengal belt and their peers in Chhattisgarh, Odisa and Madhya Pradesh have been, and still are, for the most part, down trodden and desperately poor. Many work in tea gardens as pickers of the leaves that make up the brew. Their blighted lives have been the subject of books, tracts and film documentaries. But the first light of an early dawn may belatedly be lighting up their darkened lives. A Western new agency reporter, visiting one of these tribal communities, witnessed at firsthand a more tolerable existence with its promise of fulfillment in the years to come. Here are his opening lines: ‘Pointing to a television set in her recently built mud and brick home, Indian villager Munia Murmu proudly shows off her off her new found wealth, thanks to hundreds of squirming green silk worms. Like thousands of other tribal villagers in India, Murmu lives in extreme poverty, and until recently, could not afford enough food for her and her family. But the 40 year-old decided to join others in her community rearing wild silk worms in the native forests of her home state of eastern Bihar.’ The rest is a summary. Silk led to prized silk garments – India is second only to China in this field – The breeding seasons lasts three months of the year but this relatively short span yields her an income of Rs 50,000, an unimaginable figure not so long ago. Her house with two toilets, large bedroom and living room complete with TV set, is a comfortable abode. “Silkworms changed our lives,’ she said, pulling out a laptop to emphasize her point. Local NGO Pradhan helped out in innumerable ways. The Adivasis still have a long way to go to achieve the prosperity and stability they seek, and which is their right. But the first steps haven taken, and a long march, remember, begins with a single step.
