Nuclear scientist blasts liberalisation agenda

MUMBAI, SEPT 28: For all the enthusiasm politicians show for liberalisation'' in the post-Narasimha Rao era, it is increasingly becomin...

MUMBAI, SEPT 28: For all the enthusiasm politicians show for 8220;liberalisation8221; in the post-Narasimha Rao era, it is increasingly becoming apparent that the Indian nuclear community is not very happy about the development. The latest to express the opinion without mincing words was Dr Homi Sethna, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.

The event was austere. A conglomeration of scientists and scientists-to-be gathered at the Homi Bhabha Auditorium today to witness Dr K Kasturirangan, chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation and secretary, Department of Space, being conferred the first Murli M Chugani Memorial Award for 8220;Excellence In Applied Physics8221; instituted by the Indian Physics Association, in the presence of chief guest Sethna and Dr S S Kapoor, president of the IPA.

8220;Dr Kapoor said I can speak what I want,8221; Sethna told an amused audience. 8220;They say that they are opening up.8217; You know, opening up the economy and all that. What this means to say is that whatever comes from outsideis good and we are useless. Let me tell you the level of intelligence in the public sector is 10 times higher than what there is in the private sector.8221; Sethna was making the comments while referring to the level of indigenisation reached in space technology under the stewardship of Kasturirangan. 8220;What can you expect?8221; asked Sethna and added for good measure, 8220;They in Parliament are uneducated. Some are even criminals.8221;

Sethna lauded the achievements of ISRO and said, 8220;The five satellites we now have in space, the civilian versions, they are the best in the world.8221;

Later, Kasturirangan delivered the Murli M Chugani Memorial Award Lecture on Remote Sensing Satellites 8212; Challenges to Applied Physics.

The award carries Rs one lakh, a citation and a gold medal.

Dwelling essentially on remote sensing technology having applications in fields of meteorology among others, Kasturirangan traced the development of sensing technology from Bhaskara-I to IRS P4 this year. The new focus, saidKasturirangan, would be to 8220;provide high quality earth observation data services covering the electromagnetic spectrum including microwave to realise end-to-end solutions for sustainable development and provide data for study of land ocean atmosphere interactions for understanding the tital earth system.8221;

Dr S S Kapoor presided over the function.