To the generation now in their 50s Vikram Sarabhai was the father of our space programme. He was the man who not only developed and launched rockets, but who was passionately committed to use all aspects of science and technology in general and space applications in particular as "levers of development". This was particularly the case with regard to satellite-based remote sensing of natural resources, telecommunication and direct-to-village community "development TV".

Sarabhai was much more than a highly talented scientist. He was a dreamer, creator and innovator, not only in science and technology, or in its organisation and management but also in a huge range of developmental institutions ranging from the Space Science & Technology Centre, Trivandrum, to the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and the Nehru Foundation for Development.

I first met Vikrambhai in 1967 on one of his frequent visits to the Boston-Cambridge area in the US to pursue collaborative projects with MIT. He told me he had taken over as chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, and was looking for a special assistant. Would I be interested? I jumped at the offer. Over the next three years I assisted him on a host of policy and management issues relating to atomic energy, space and electronics.

Vikrambhai has often been typified as a dove on nuclear weapons and missiles. This was not true. As far back as 1956, at a meeting of the governing body of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of which he was a member, he had called for the country to start R&D on "rockets and missiles". In the area of atomic energy he mounted programmes for capability and capacity building all across the chain from the mining of uranium ore at the Jaduguda mines in Bihar to the building of atomic power stations. He was disillusioned with the Non-Proliferation Treaty well before the government decided in 1968 not to sign it, and strove hard to make our atomic programme self-sufficient.

Sarabhai had very definite views about the kind of role which scientists could and should play in building an independent and modern India. In a broadcast over air on August 4, 1965 he spoke of three goals. First, to foster creativity, an interest in getting to the core of problems and dedication to what one may call the "scientific method". Second, to provide experience on a wide scale whereby man can evolve values and ethics consistent with the real constraints imposed by his environment. Third, to apply their skills and knowledge to the diverse practical tasks of society like building of the economy, creating of a desirable social environment of policymaking in the areas of defence, development and social change.

However, Vikrambhai was equally forthright about the reciprocal responsibility of society towards scientists. As he put it, "We look down on our research scientists in national laboratories or our academics in universities if they engage themselves in outside consultation or if they choose to augment their income from task-oriented projects of a practical nature. We implicitly promote the ivory tower, the alienation of the persons of insight from those who do things."

Sarabhai advocated a more decisive role for scientists in the promotion and application of science and technology to contribute to the attainment of socio-economic goals set by planners. Indeed, he called for and worked for scientists and technologists to be heavily involved in the policy and management aspects of science and technology-intensive areas of national endeavour, other than science and technology in a narrow sense. For instance he felt scientists and engineers, rather than judges, should be roped in to solve inter-state river water disputes. A similar proposal of his was the marshalling of resources to design an integrated development programme for the Brahmaputra-Ganga river system and to make this the basis of a new relationship between India and the then East Pakistan.

He also gave us tools and techniques and above all a philosophy for organising and managing scientific institutions. To him these were not just the R&D agencies of atomic energy, space, electronics, CSIR, etc, but all organisations in which science and technology was involved. His testament was the document entitled Approaches to the Administration of Scientific Organisations. This document should be a primer not only for every R&D and science and technology manager but all civil servants.

So far it has been Vikrambhai, the scientist, R&D manager, science and technology policymaker and planner. But he was a Renaissance man with interests in music, painting and architecture. He was a great creator -- of motivated people, of institutions and programmes. He was a scion of a wealthy business family but never let a peon carry his briefcase. "It is against my principles," he used to say. "We have to be constantly alert to see that long-inherited feudal reflexes do not seep back into our veins." That would be the greatest travesty of the new India.

Ashok Parthasarathi is a scientific secretary to the Government of India. He will soon take up the position of professor at the Centre for Science Policy Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi