Professor U R Rao, the former chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the incumbent chairman of the Governing Council of Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, has called the Rs 23 crore fund allocation for space research in India, as “ridiculous”.

He said given the amount of possibilities and the pace at which space research has evolved in the country, “we must provide enough support and allow scientists to work at their pace.”

He was delivering the keynote address at the conference on ‘Indian Astronomy: Ancient and Modern’.

He outlined the history of astronomy in India — from the time of Aryabhatta (the Vedantic astronomer) to Aryabhatta (India’s first satellite) and to the present time when India has launched more than 50 satellites using indigenously built launch vehicles.

“Indian space research, from its formal origin, had two primary goals — self-reliance and societal applications — and these goals are constantly being met,” he added.

Emphasising the technological evolution, Rao narrated the personal accounts of difficulty he faced for making

international calls in the 1960s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while today almost every Indian has a mobile phone.

Rao also spoke about the possibility of aliens, adding that this is an area where humans lack. “If life has evolved on earth, then it must have evolved in other places too,” he said.

He said the ‘colonisation’ of other planets, such as Mars, was a possibility. Scientists around the world believed it would be possible in the next 1,000 years despite there being little trace of a life-supporting environment on the Red Planet, he said.

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