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PERSONAL NEWS

but the superb technology development universities. He kept the technology of public policy in science and technol-
organization it has now become was development work open and transparent ogy, and kept egging his colleagues in
Dhawan’s loving creation. In the decade to the national scientific community the scientific community to give more
following his appointment he directed through an elaborate system of reviews attention to the social demands on sci-
the Indian space programme through a (some of them held in the big audito- ence.
period of extraordinary growth and rium in the Vikram Sarabhai Space While doing all the high technology
spectacular achievement. Major projects Centre at Trivandrum, filled to capacity and big science at ISRO, he never for-
were carefully defined and systemati- on such occasions; the tradition was got how crucially important ‘little’ sci-
cally executed, including in particular quickly established here that the junior- ence was, and ceaselessly promoted it,
the launch of Indian satellites on Indian most engineer could ask awkward ques- especially with young people. Indeed,
rocket vehicles. Pioneering experiments tions of the big project leaders). He he indulged in it himself whenever he
were carried out in rural education, re- managed his projects through a small could; the only book he wrote (to my
mote sensing and satellite communica- group of very able directors, and an- knowledge) is a little gem on Bird
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tions, and led to operational systems other small group of bright young whiz- Flight , which grew out of a lecture he
like INSAT that became (and continue kids in his office (protecting them from gave first at the Academy, and then at
to be) a part of Indian life. These pro- the natural dislike of their colleagues). many other places across the country
jects were all distinguished by their He took the responsibility when there (especially, by his insistence, at those
keen sensitivity to the true needs of a were failures, but let others take credit off the beaten track, like Jammu and
developing nation, a confident apprecia- when there were successes (as Kalam Guwahati). I still remember how he
tion of the ability of its scientists and has pointed out). He maintained ac- took a busy break from running his
engineers, and the carefully planned countability through peer pressure, but space empire to work on the Academy
involvement of Indian industry, both shielded his engineers from blame for lecture, drawing his own diagrams and
public and private. It is no surprise that honest failures. He developed a promo- doing his own sums.
the Indian space programme has come tion and assessment system that had During the 19 years that he was Di-
to be seen in the last two decades as a some unique features, enabling the more rector of the Institute (beginning in
model of technology development and productive engineers to move ahead of 1962), he retained his interest in fluid
application carried out within the coun- their colleagues but not too rapidly, dynamics and aeronautics, e.g. carrying
try. Kalam recalls a late evening in retaining the confidence of the bulk of out an elaborate evaluation of the air-
Cauvery Bhavan in Bangalore (where the staff in the fairness of the system. worthiness of the HS-748 (‘Avro’) air-
ISRO Headquarters were located at the And he insisted, successfully, that the craft flying for Indian Airlines,
time) with Dhawan, discussing space national space programme should be a pioneering a kind of civil aviation re-
missions for the next two decades. purely civilian enterprise. search unmatched then or since. (As he
While many mission options were de- And there were some other unusual had to run both IISc and ISRO at the
bated with all the ISRO engineers that things about his management style. He time, most of the meetings he held –
had gathered, Dhawan summarized the shunned publicity, and rarely held forth with the small group of some ten scien-
next morning his plans with graphs pre- before the media – so much so that peo- tists from IISc, NAL and HAL that were
pared in his own hand, bringing out a ple were often surprised how forceful he assisting him – took place late at night.)
space mission profile for the next 15 could be in private, or within the four He devoted much time to the establish-
years (1980–1995). These charts, repro- walls of Council or Commission. ment of many new scientific pro-
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duced in a volume dedicated to him , I think of him as a critical optimist in grammes in the Institute, in such areas
became the blueprints for the national everything he did. as automation and control theory, mate-
space programme, as it grew into a sta- While running the country’s space rials science, molecular biology and
ble of various launch vehicles (includ- programme he took only one rupee for biophysics, technology for rural areas,
ing in particular those for polar and doing the job, preferring to be paid by theoretical physics, applied mathemat-
geostationary satellites, PSLV and IISc for directing it. (When he was ics, solid state chemistry and atmos-
GSLV), the Indian Remote Sensing asked by Indira Gandhi to take over pheric sciences. He persuaded such
satellites, the INSAT series, and their ISRO as successor to Sarabhai, he made distinguished scientists as G. N. Rama-
current technological descendants. it clear that he would do so only if he chandran, C. N. R. Rao and George
The principles that Dhawan formu- could remain at the Institute that he so Sudarshan to join the Institute; and he
lated and applied (but, characteristi- loved. And when Morarji Desai took also persuaded a rather reluctant faculty
cally, never stated) in running the over from Indira Gandhi after she lost to reform their educational programme.
country’s space programme can be eas- the elections in 1977, Dhawan was Indeed, his long tenure at the Institute –
ily inferred from the way he operated. ready with his resignation from ISRO – a record – transformed it from a rather
First of all he devised a programme that but Morarji refused to accept it.) laid-back campus (with strong traditions
was societally conscious, with objec- After his retirement from formal posi- in only a few areas like physics), to one
tives that could be widely understood tions in Government, Dhawan continued humming with new ideas in a wide vari-
(weather, natural resource-mapping, as a member of the Space Commission, ety of subjects, from fresh young fac-
communications, etc.). He had supreme after having already become the ulty and a great many new students. At
confidence in the ability of Indian engi- Bhishma – the doyen – of the Indian the same time he played a key role in
neers and scientists, even when they did aerospace community. He took time formulating the science and technology
not have degrees from IITs or foreign every now and then to analyse matters policy of the country, through such bod-
224 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 82, NO. 2, 25 JANUARY 2002