Rotary Club Of Bombay Presents The Sohrab Godrej Science & Technology Award To Mr. Sudheer Kumar N, Director CBPO, Isro (l) & mr. Santosh Pise, Trustee, Indoscience Education Trust (r)
MR. SUDHEER KUMAR N, DIRECTOR CBPO, ISRO
The Godrej family has been rendering a tremendous service to India and it’s an honour to receive an award from them on behalf of the Indian Space Research Organisation. As for the Rotary Club of Bombay, the faces of all its
members, the different professions they come from and their contributions, it speaks for itself. My humble request to you now is that since you are driving this society, please devote a small portion of your resources – time, money, patronage, or your connections – to the student community.
This is where we stand – students are the life of India. If you inculcate this culture (scientific temperament) in students, especially in the ages of 15 to 18, it is going to transform the entire society and country in space. We have started an outreach programme to make students science aware. So far, science has been mostly seen in a pursuit of employment. Instead, science must be implemented in every walk of your life. The scientific development and transformation that must take place to keep you, your environment healthy, your country, and your world healthy. The kind of transformation that is happening across the globe – be it in solar weather, which is impacting the earth, monsoons which are impacting our entire economy and livelihood, or water resources and natural calamities, one has to understand the fundamentals of science – if a kid tells you about it, you will hear it. When your son, grandson tells you, “Mom, don’t do this,” you won’t. That is the power kids, students and children have.
So, please devote a portion of your valuable time and resources to the development of school students and, especially, rural children. That is going to change the order of the entire society. People like Santosh Pise have
become ambassadors, going to the students, disseminating knowledge, filling gaps.
MR. SANTOSH PISE, TRUSTEE, INDOSCIENCE EDUCATION TRUST
Thank you for finding me worthy of receiving this award, I am humbled. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and I remember the first step I took, in 2009, when I left a job and a handsome monthly salary to found Indoscience Education Trust, which I started for love of science and space.
I had two dreams: the first was to become a pilot and second was to become a space scientist. Unfortunately, neither dream was fulfilled. With IndoScience, I visit schools on Saturdays and spend time with students to build a love for science in them. I am seeing my dream of being in space through these children. For many years, from 2009 to 2012, I relentlessly, tried to enter ISRO but was unsuccessful.
I remember the day I met Mr. Himanshu Pandya Sir. He gave me two and a half minutes to explain my mission. That, too, was while walking from the canteen to the reception area. By God’s grace, I was given another meeting and that lasted for 3 hours. I haven’t looked back since. I felt I had been born again as I plunged deeper and deeper into the most prestigious institution, the ISRO. From 2012 until 2023, I have conducted 99 space exhibitions. On February 13th, 2023, we will be hosting our 100th.
I invite everyone to see how students are actually working on space technologies, explaining everything about satellites, rockets, space and the future of India. Another breakthrough was in 2019 when I was entrusted the task of creating a team of school students who would build a real time satellite and launch it into this space. This programme was named Bhavishika; its first batch began in 2020 and successfully completed two years of training. As per schedule, a studentmade satellite will be launched into space by ISRO because of the support rendered by our
advisory team members and all students and all our volunteers. Once again, thank you for this precious award
which I will always cherish.
ROTARIANS ASK
Mr. Sudheer, what are the current projects ISRO is working on? What are the benefits of space research in our day-to-day lives?
At present, ISRO’s main emphasis is the Gaganyan programme, the Human Space Flight Programme, given by the Government of India to put two to three people in space and bring them back safely. In addition, there is Chandrayaan III scheduled during this year and another mission called NISAR. NASA-ISRO synthetic Aperture Radar is earth observation for the global community. There are also other long-term projects like our Venus mission SHUKRAYAAN, our solar weather study DISHA, and others.
As for the benefits of space research, India has huge land use and land mass but no means to identify which is the correct choice for our economic growth. 60% of our farmers are small farmers; is there a way to make more money than through cash crops? Medicinal plants like papaya, for example, brings ten times the yearly revenue. Secondly, soil fertility, soil moisture which decides water demand. What is the amount of water stored in the surface bodies? How much water is the monsoon going to yield? What is the demand that a crop requires? Imagine a software and artificial intelligence which is implemented across the country to develop a model. I think, India can feed the entire world. I was travelling with an Israeli scientist 25 years ago in Hyderabad and he said, “What do you do with this land? If you give it to me, I’ll feed the entire world.” We are unable to do it because of technology.
SPACE TECHNOLOGY HAS TREMENDOUS APPLICATIONS BUT WE SHOULD BE AWARE OF HOW TO PUT IT INTO USE, MAKE IT MORE ACCESSIBLE TO ENTREPRENEURS. ENTREPRENEUR DEVELOPMENT SHOULD BE THERE. We should not feel shy to say that we are working on horticulture, agriculture, or fish culture. Today, how many inland water bodies are not being put into use even though they are very much suitable for fish culture. That is why the Ministry of Fisheries is bringing about a blue revolution.
This is what the Government of India is aiming at: how to make the technology applicable to generate revenue on all fronts, be it mines, urban development, road surface transport, forest, fish, or agriculture. What are all the ways in which the value change will be integrated to technology? Space finds roots in each and every area.
What is the government doing to bring about the concept of space education at a much earlier age as a curriculum? Secondly, can I bring my son to ISRO or either of you for you to guide him in what kind of work he or any of our Bhavishya Yaan kids can do?
The government is supposed to make policies and framework, it is not designated to implement them. But we have to create a platform to do so. To answer your question, we have introduced an e-learning platform, ISRO Portal, ISRO Stem (https://www.isro.gov.in/Students.html). At present, the portal has 25 chapters on basic space science education. It is a certified course that gives you a good idea of what space science is. In addition, I have submitted proposals to CBSE to introduce three optional courses on space science technology. It is under consideration, and we have been pursuing it for the last year. It is 60:40 where 60 is teaching and 40 is practical. If you have friends in the Ministry of Education, please push it through. In addition, there are more than 78 space tutors across the country who promote space education. He (Mr. Pise) is amongst them; we give them the curriculum and some kind of material and exposure.
They go to different schools, establish clubs, and propagate space science education. We have started these ventures in the last two years and you will see its impact in a few years.
Besides ISRO, is there a lot of private activity in developing space, startups related to space industry and private satellites?
A good number of startups is doing well: Agnikul, Skyroot, Dhruva Space, Digantara. There are more than 60 to 70 startups pursuing different components, whether it is robotics, artificial intelligence, green propulsion, space component, RF components. There are more than 30 to 35 active startups pursuing space technologies. But ISRO is helping them in sharing the facilities, extending the mentorship, policies, framework, or any kind of help that they require; ISRO is mandated to do it. When it comes to MSMEs and corporations, there are more than 70 to 75
industries. Talent is there, opportunities are there.
Only thing is they should be given an opportunity to produce. To be more competitive in the world space is a very risky business; one has to take risks. Industries have to come forward to grab the market share, global market share. ISRO has been by the side to encourage them to extend the required facilities and it’s only the Indian industry I am looking for in a big way to come forward and pick up the business. We’ll be with you but the only thing is we require people to come forward because those who do not want to take risk, obviously, they’ll be behind somebody. Someone has to take risk. Initial gestation periods would be maybe five years or six years, sometimes 10
years, but after that, when you pick up the actual global market, you will succeed.
Everyone is in a race to launch satellites. But we nearly had an accident recently between a defunct satellite and a rocket stage. So, what do we do about the debris floating around in space?
Debris management is a headache not only for us but for all space faring nations. Added to that, OneWeb’s LEO constellation (UK Government + Bharti Global) is doing almost 600 satellites, Starlink (Space X) is doing a thousand satellites. Amazon is doing a couple of hundreds of satellites. It is a nuisance, obviously, but the UN is
going to make a law or convention that will make national space agencies responsible for bringing back their debris. Digantara is working on debris monitoring and tracking. Right now, what do we do when our satellite gets nearer to debris? We maybe change the direction, slow it out, mitigate the risk. When I was in Dubai last year, a
couple of countries came forward with different technologies such as how to grab the debris and bring them back, and how to use lasers to burn the debris in space. So, people are working on this problem.
When do you expect an Indian to land on the moon?
First, we are working on a human space mission. This is building the capability for Indian space organisations to just take the people safe and bring them back. Then the next step is going to the moon; already, with Chandrayaan III, we are demonstrating a technology on how to land and probably when these two are successfully executed, subject to budget availability because Indian space is capable. But every space programme is run based on the priorities of the government and the budget allocation. If the government gives us a good budget, it may not be very far.
