The murky controversy raging over damning debar on former Indian Space Research Organisation Chief and secretary of Department of Space G Madhavan Nair and three other scientists is blamed on its current chief Dr K Radhakrishnan for misleading the government in the Antrix-Devas deal probe for a sadistic revenge.
Slamming the action against four space scientists over the Antrix-Devas deal without giving them a chance to defend themselves, former Indian Space Research Organisation chief Prof U R Rao on Thursday described it as "ridiculous" and indicated it might impact decision-making process at the space agency.
The Department of Space is in the process of getting clearances for release of reports of two committees on the controversial Antrix-Devas deal, on the basis of which former Indian Space Research Organisation chief G Madhavan Nair and three other scientists were barred from holding any government posts. This was announced on Tuesday by ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan, who is also the DOS secretary, in a brief statement in his first comments on the issue.
Former Indian Space Research Organisation chief G Madhavan Nair and three fellow space scientists against whom the government has taken damning action in the controversial Antrix-Devas deal were "thrown out like garbage", said Prof C N R Rao, head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the prime minister.
One of the advisors to Devas said the company should seek a legal option.
The Indian Space Research Organisation has declined to give details of its correspondence with former chief G Madhavan Nair on the report of a high-level probe into the Antrix-Devas deal, on the basis of which he and three others were barred by the central government from any re-employment.
Hailing the achievement of Indian Space Research Organisation scientists, Kalam told media-persons in Chandigarh that "they (ISRO scientists) have two major characteristics that is excellence in technology and creative leadership."
India performed yet another space feat on Wednesday when the Indian Space Research Organisation launched a record 104 satellites into orbit from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, something no other country has done before.
Late on Monday night, in a last-minute revision of schedule, ISRO announced that the launch of India's second lunar mission 'Chandrayaan-2' has been called off due to a technical snag.
ISRO hopes to put a crew on the moon, but it has to learn how to keep people alive and healthy in space first.
The nuclear nonproliferation lobby has urged the United States administration to ensure that America's dual-use technology is not diverted by New Delhi to its nuclear weapons programme.
'It's not only painful annoying and bothersome, the worst thing is its unpredictability.'
Meeting the long pending Indian demand, the Barack Obama administration on the eve of India's Republic Day removed from its entities as many as nine India space and defence related companies, including those from the Indian Space Research Organisation and Defence Research and Development Organisation.
In a security breach, a woman posing as a senior scientist entered the Indian Space Research Organisation with a fake ID card and was in the premises for four hours before being arrested by the police.
A woman, posing as a scientist, was arrested on Tuesday by the Central Industrial Security Force, when she tried to enter the campus of the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bangalore.
Indian Space Research Organisation's second mission of the year to place an earth observation satellite by a GSLV rocket faced a setback as the mission could not be accomplished fully due to performance anomaly in the cryogenic stage of the rocket, the space agency said on Thursday.
The United States has set in motion regulatory changes to lift the ban on India's frontline technology establishments Indian Space Research Organisation and Defence Research and Development Organisation and their removal from the entities list could come soon, top American officials have indicated. A formal notification of the US Department of Commerce for this is in the advanced stage, they said.
Indian Space Association (ISpA) chairman Jayant Patil has said that the executive council will debate whether it can include more telecom companies as founding members. The response came after some leading telcos said that they had been asked to be core members but preferred to be inducted as founding members. The key founders of the ISpA include the Bharti group through two companies (OneWeb and Airtel), L&T, Nelco, Walchandnagar, Alpha Designs and MapmyIndia.
India's premier space agency Indian Space Research Organisation plans to undertake 58 satellite and launch vehicle missions in the 12th Five year period and sees larger role for industries in realising these ventures.
Isro will rope in industry to manufacture customised Isro-theme T-shirts, coffee mugs, posters, key chains, games, jigsaw puzzle and so on.
Indian Space Research Organisation has built a supercomputer, which is to be India's fastest in terms of theoretical peak performance of 220 TeraFLOPS (220 Trillion Floating Point Operations per second).
India is all set to give the go-ahead for an ambitious mission to Mars, expected in November next year, a top Space Department official said on Saturday. "A lot of studies have been done on the possible mission to Mars," Secretary in the Department of Space and Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation K Radhakrishnan said.
Weighing about 5,854 kg, GSAT-11 would play a vital role in providing broadband services across the country, and also provide a platform to demonstrate new generation applications.
Former Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair is pinning hopes on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to revoke the order banning him and three others from government jobs despite Union Minister V Narayanasamy ruling out its review, as he reiterated there is "no issue" vis-a-vis the Antrix-Devas deal.
'We have all the technologies available, but it should be converted to something that can be commercially viable.'
The controversial Antrix-Devas deal will now come under the scrutiny of a Parliamentary panel. Parliament's Committee on Estimates has decided to examine the allocation of S-band spectrum by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with special reference to the Antrix-Devas deal, an official said.
Battling the action against him and three other top scientists in the controversial Antrix-Devas deal, former Indian Space Research Organisation chief G Madhavan Nair on Monday demanded that the order barring them from government posts should not only be revoked but an apology should be tendered by those responsible for it. "They owe an apology not to me but to the whole country. Somebody has taken the law into their hands and they have to apologise," said Nair.
The task to build scientific literacy will not happen without their engagement and their tolerance for dissent.
The president and CEO of Devas, Ramachandran Viswan-athan said, "It is puzzling to hear about such a decision, especially as we have not been intimated. We have not received any communication from any quarter, government, Space Commission or Isro."
Indian space agency ISRO would significantly scale up outsourcing to industries to fuel the quantum jump in the programmes being undertaken by it and has mooted a risk-sharing model, its chairman K Radhakrishnan said.
Indian Space Research Organisation is using the most powerful configuration of its rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle to launch a communication satellite from Sriharikota on July 15, as it braces for the nearly Rs 200 crore mission.
"The launch of Chandrayaan 2 will be in 2014. We are working towards it. It would be on a GSLV, after we launch two GSLVs within an interval of six months," ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan told reporters here soon after the launch of RISAT-1.
Gujarat holds the largest area under wetland with over 3.47 million hectares.
The mission has three modules - Orbiter, Lander (Vikram) and Rover (Pragyan)
India's space scientists are developing semi-cryogenic propulsion technology using kerosene that is expected to give the country the capability to launch six-tonne class satellite, almost three times the weight its rockets can currently handle.
"We propose to cover organisations like ISRO and arms deals under the purview of Jan Lokpal as they are important from internal security angle, besides the Prime Minister above all who will come under its jurisdiction," Karnataka Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde, part of the 10-member Joint Drafting Committee on Lokpal Bill, told media persons in Bengaluru.
The law ministry has told the department of space to allow four Indian Space Research Organisation scientists "post decisional opportunity" to place their stand on its move debarring them from occupying any government position in future in the aftermath of the Antrix-Devas S Band deal.
Nair, who has been barred from holding any government post for his alleged role in the controversial Antirx-Devas deal, was in Patna on Friday to bid farewell to his colleagues.
Indian Space Research Organisation is all set to launch Oceansat-2, an exclusive satellite to track marine life and identify potential fishing zones in September.
'There's nothing like failure in science, we experiment & we gain'
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