Indians are very proud of the "constellation" of some
dozen Indian satellites in orbit, a feat performed on
a "shoe-string" budget (which only recently crossed
US$300 million or Rs 1290 crore). Indeed, one more successful
launch no longer causes national euphoria. The Indian
space programme owes its birth to Vikram Sarabhai, but
the technology development organisation behind them
is the creation of Satish Dhawan. He showed how technology
can be built in India, by Indians, working within the
same bureaucratic set-up that all of us so love to curse.
The
principles that Dhawan formulated and applied (but,
characteristically, never stated) can be easily inferred.
First of all he devised a programme that was societally
conscious, with objectives that could be widely understood.
He
had supreme confidence in the ability of Indian engineers
and managed technology development work with a group
of able directors and young whiz-kids. He maintained
accountability through peer pressure but shielded engineers
from blame for honest failures.
Dhawan
as the creator of the superb machinery of designing,
building and launching rockets and satellites is so
well-known that his academic side is almost forgotten
in spite of the fact that even when he was running the
country's space programme he took only one rupee for
the job, preferring to be paid by Indian Institute of
Science for directing it.
When
he came to the institute in the 1950s -- from the California
Institute of Technology, he was immediately a star;
tall, handsome, cheerful, brilliant, running the country's
first supersonic tunnels, he could not be missed on
the campus.
His
labs were little treasure-houses, filled with lovingly
crafted "gizmos" , built by uneducated but skillful
mechanics. As a student at Caltech, he left a glow of
fond memories behind him -- for here was an Indian who
was better at gadgeteering than they were, but could
also pursue hypergeometric functions, quote Shakespeare
and regale them with stories about the camel answering
to the name of Greta Garbo in the Khyber Pass. The combination
was overwhelming to both sexes, especially as it was
accompanied with an Indian sense of modesty. A few more
leaders like him, and India would be transformed.
Prof.
Roddam Narasimha is
director, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.
