Science & Technology in India

Science & Technology in India

India is one of the leading nations in the world in terms of science and technology. India has
the second largest pool of scientists and engineers in the world. In terms of technological
advancements and scientific achievements India is second to none. India belongs to the select group
of countries who have developed indigenous nuclear technology. India is among the few countries
which have developed ballistic missiles. In the field of space science India is among the few
countries which have the capability to launch GSLV satellite. India's achievements in the field of IT
and software are acknowledged all over the world. Here are some interesting facts about science and
technology in India.

First Indian Scientist to Win Nobel Prize

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (C.V. Raman) was the first Indian scientist to win Nobel
Prize. C.V. Raman was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the scattering of
light and for the discovery of the Raman effect, which is named after him. Raman effect relates to
the inelastic scattering of a photon. When light is scattered from an atom or molecule, most photons
are elastically scattered (Rayleigh scattering). The scattered photons have the same energy
(frequency) and, therefore, wavelength, as the incident photons. However, a small fraction of
scattered light (approximately 1 in 10 million photons) is scattered from excitations with optical
frequencies different from, and usually lower than, the frequency of the incident photons. Raman
effect is helpful in analyzing the composition of liquids, gases, and solids.
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First Nuclear Power Plant in India

Tarapur Atomic Power Station (T.A.P.S.) was the first nuclear power plant in India. The
construction of the plant was started in 1962 and the plant went operational in 1969. The 320 MW
Tarapur nuclear power station housed two 160 MW boiling water reactors (BWRs), the first in Asia.
The Tarapur Plant was originally constructed by the American companies Bechtel and GE, under a
1963 123 Agreement between India, the United States, and the IAEA. The Tarapur Atomic Power
Station is under the control of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited. Recently, two 540 MW
pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) were operationalised at Tarapur. The new reactors were
constructed by L & T and Gammon India. Tarapur Nuclear Power Station is the largest PHWR-based
power station in India.

First Satellite Launched by India

Aryabhatta was the first satellite launched by India. It was named after the great Indian

astronomer of the same name. Aryabhatta weighed 360kg and was launched by the Soviet Union on

April 19, 1975 from Kapustin Yar using a Cosmos-3M launch vehicle.

The satellite had following objectives:

 To indigenously design and fabricate a space-worthy satellite system and evaluate its
perfromance in orbit.
 To evolve the methodology of conducting a series of complex operations on the satellite in its
orbital phase.

 To set up ground-based receiving, transmitting and tracking systems.

 To establish infrastructure for the fabrication of spacecraft systems.

Aryabhatta carried experiments related to X-Ray Astronomy, Solar Physics and Aeronomy.

The satellite re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 11 February 1992.

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India's First Indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle

SLV-3 was India's first indigenous satellite launch vehicle. The vehicle was launched by Indian

Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on July 18, 1980. President A P J Abdul Kalam was the

Project Director of SLV-3 The SLV-3 weighed 17 tonne and had a payload of 40 kg. The SLV-3 put

35 kg Rohini Satellite into the orbit. The launch of SLV-3 was a historic landmark for the Indian

space programme. It gave ISRO an insight into the conceptualisation, design, development and

management of a technically complex multi-disciplinary project. With the launch of SLV-3, India

joined a select band of five nations that had this capability. The other five countries are USSR, USA,

France, China and Japan.

India's First Indigenously Built Satellite

Insat 2A was India's first indigenously built satellite. The satellite was launched on 9 July

1992 from Kourou, French Guyana. The satellite had a dry mass of 916kg and it weighed 1906 kg

with propellants. The satellite had following payload:

Communication Transponders: 12 C-band, 6 ext. C-band (for FSS), 2 S-band (for BSS), 1

Data relay, 1 search and rescue.

Meteorology: Very High Resolution Radiometer (VHRR) with 2 km resolution in visible and 8

km in Infrared band.

The Insat 2 program was started in 1983. Its objective was to develop an indigenous multi-

purpose Geo spacecraft. In 1985, the basic spacecraft configuration was adopted. The configuration

called for an on-station dry mass of 860 kg which later rose to 910 kg. The communications payload

was increased with six additional 7/5 GHz transponders for a total of 18, plus two S-band

transponders. The Insat 2 series consisted of Insat 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, and 2E satellites.
 Science & Technology in India

India's First Nuclear Reactor

India's First Nuclear Reactor was Apsara. It was also the first nuclear reactor in Asia. Apsara

went critical at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Trombay on August 4, 1956. It heralded

the arrival of India's nuclear energy programme. Dr. Homi Bhabha himself conceptualised the design

of the reactor and the reactor was built entirely by Indian engineers in a record time of about 15

months.

Apsara is a swimming-pool-type reactor loaded with enriched uranium as fuel. The fuel core is

suspended from a movable trolley in a pool filled with water. The pool water serves as coolant,

moderator and reflector, besides providing the shielding.

India's First Supercomputer

India's First Supercomputer was PARAM 8000. PARAM stood for Parallel Machine. The

computer was developed by the government run Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-

DAC) in 1991. The PARAM 8000 was introduced in 1991 with a rating of 1 Gigaflop (billion floating

point operations per second).

All the chips and other elements that were used in making of PARAM were bought from the

open domestic market. The various components developed and used in the PARAM series were Sun

UltraSPARC II, later IBM POWER 4 processors, Ethernet, and the AIX Operating System. The major

applications of PARAM Supercomputer are in long-range weather forecasting, remote sensing, drug

design and molecular modelling.