Indians are known for their and note -worthy contributions in the field of

science and technology. To justify this, we have some of the Indians who had
set a benchmark in major and renewed organizations .
SUBRAHMANYAN CHANDRASEKHAR
He was an Indian-American astrophysicist who with William A.Fowler was
awarded the 1983 Nobel prize for physics for his Mathematical Theory of
Black holes. The Chandra sekhar limit is named after him.
He showed that the mass of a white dwarf could not exceed 1.44 times that of
the Sun the Chandrasekhar limit. Chandrasekhar revised the models of
stellar dynamics originated by Jan Oort and others by considering the effects
of fluctuating gravitational fields within the Milky Way on stars rotating about
the galactic centre.
From 1952 to 1971 Chandrasekhar was editor of The Astrophysical Journal.
During the years 1990 to 1995, Chandrasekhar worked on a project devoted
to explaining the detailed geometric arguments in Sir Isaac Newton's
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica using the language and
methods of ordinary calculus. The effort resulted in the book Newton's
Principia for the Common Reader, published in 1995. Chandrasekhar was an
honorary member of the International Academy of Science.
VIKRAM SARABHAI
He is considered the father of India's space programme.
Sarabhai returned to an independent India in 1947. Looking at the needs of
the country, he persuaded charitable trusts controlled by his family and
friends to endow a research institution near his home in Ahmedabad. This led
to the creation of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad on
November 11, 1947 .
Dr. Sarabhai emphasized the importance of a space programme in his quote:
"There are some who question the relevance of space activities in a developing
nation. To us, there is no ambiguity of purpose. We do not have the fantasy of
competing with the economically advanced nations in the exploration of the
moon or the planets or manned space-flight."
"But we are convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and
in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of
advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society."
As a result of Dr. Sarabhai's dialogue with NASA in 1966, the Satellite
Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) was launched during July 1975
July 1976 (when Dr.Sarabhai was no more). Dr. Sarabhai started a project for
the fabrication and launch of an Indian satellite. As a result, the first Indian
satellite, Aryabhata, was put in orbit in 1975 from a Russian Cosmodrome. Dr.
Sarabhai was very interested in science education and founded a Community
Science Centre at Ahmedabad in 1966. Today, the centre is called the Vikram
A Sarabhai Community Science Centre.
A.P.J ABDUL KALAM
Before his term as President, he worked as an Aerospace engineer with
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO). Kalam is popularly known as the Missile Man
of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle
technology.He played a pivotal organizational, technical and political role in
India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test
by India in 1974. Some scientific experts have however called Kalam a man
with no authority over nuclear physics but who just carried on the works of
Homi J. Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai.
Kalam was also part of the INCOSPAR committee working under Vikram
Sarabhai, the renowned space scientist. In 1969, Kalam was transferred to the
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) where he was the project director
of India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III) which successfully
deployed the Rohini satellite in near earth's orbit in July 1980. Joining ISRO
was one of Kalam's biggest achievements in life and he is said to have found
himself when he started to work on the SLV project.
Kalam played a major part in developing many missiles under the mission
including Agni, an intermediate range ballistic missile and Prithvi, the tactical
surface-to-surface missile, although the projects have been criticised for
mismanagement and cost and time overruns. He was the Chief Scientific
Adviser to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of Defence Research and
Development Organisation from July 1992 to December 1999.
ABHAS MITRA
He is an Indian astrophysicist best known for his distinct views on several
front-line astrophysics concepts, particularly black holes and Big Bang
Cosmology.
Though Mitra stresses that the `Black Hole solutions are correct, his
contention is that Black Hole masses, arising from relevant integration
constants, are actually zero. His peer reviewed paper published in Journal of
Mathematical Physics of the American Institute of Physics supports this
contention by showing that Schwarzschild black holes have M = 0.[27] If so,
(i) The so-called massive Black Hole Candidates (BHCs) must be quasi-black
holes rather than exact black holes and (ii) During preceding gravitational
collapse, entire mass energy and angular momentum of the collapsing objects
must be radiated away before formation of exact mathematical black holes.
And since the formation of a mathematical zero mass black hole requires
infinite proper time, continued gravitational collapse becomes eternal, and the
so-called black hole candidates must be e Eternally Collapsing Objects (ECO).
An ECO is essentially a quasi-stable ultra-compact ball of fire (plasma) which
is so hot due to preceding gravitational contraction that its outward radiation
pressure balances its inward pull of gravity.
As per his recent research, a Big Bang universe can expand only linearly so
that popular inflationary and cyclic models are actually inconsistent.
Since perfect Hubble flow implies radially outward motion of test particles
redecing from one another without any mutual collision, his research claimed
to shown that ideal Big Bang model corresponds to nil pressure and
temperature. If correct, this implies that the ideal Big Bang model is
fundamentally unable to describe the physical universe endowed with
pressure and temperature.
JAYANT NARLIKAR
Narlikar is a proponent of steady state cosmology. He developed with Sir Fred
Hoyle the conformal gravity theory, commonly known as HoyleNarlikar
theory. It synthesizes Albert Einsteins Theory of Relativity and Mach's
Principle. It proposes that the inertial mass of a particle is a function of the
masses of all other particles, multiplied by a coupling constant, which is a
function of cosmic epoch. In cosmologies based on this theory, the
gravitational constant G decreases strongly with time.
Narlikar has received several national and international awards and honorary
doctorates. Indias second highest civilian honor, Padma Vibhushan, was
awarded to him in 2004 for his research work. Prior to this, in 1965, he was
conferred Padma Bhushan.
He received Maharashtra Bhushan Award for the year 2010.
He is a recipient of Bhatnagar Award, M.P. Birla Award, and the Prix Jules
Janssen of the French Astronomical Society. He is an Associate of the Royal
Astronomical Society of London, and a Fellow of the three Indian National
Science Academies and the Third World Academy of Sciences.
Apart from his scientific research, Narlikar has been well known as a
communicator of science through his books, articles, and radio & television
programs. For these efforts, he was honored in 1996 by the UNESCO with the
Kalinga Award.
He was once featured on Carl Sagan's TV show Cosmos: A Personal Voyage in
the late 1980s. He received the Indira Gandhi Award of the Indian National
Science Academy in 1990. He is a global figure in science.



BY
D.V.M.L Vyshnavi
I-B.Sc M.P.C (A)