Space science is for common man: ISRO chief

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) G. Madhavan Nair has said the fishermen can now be told exactly
in which part of the sea they should go to get boatloads of fish.The
ISRO has developed a methodology to locate fish schools by reading sea
surface temperature and analysing the ocean colour through satellite
remote sensing, he said here on Thursday.He was delivering the
endowment lecture in the name of the late Prof. C. Karunakaran, the
founder of the Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS), a leading
science institution of the State government.Mr. Madhavan Nair referred
to this methodology to explain how space science could positively
influence the life of the common man in the country.He said India's
space programme had been discussed so exhaustively in the media in the
wake of the success of the moon mission Chandrayaan-I that there was
greater public awareness now on what it meant to the common man.He
said the moon mission taken up under the space programme had taken
only three per cent of ISRO's budget for the last four years. Nearly
85 per cent of the budget was spent solely on applications that
directly impacted the lives of the common man. He touched upon several
applications now available for helping in economic planning,
healthcare services, education, nature conservation and weather and
disaster forecast.He said the need now was to go for 'web-based
information system' so that the applications were fully utilised by
the people of the country. ISRO would shortly put in place an IRS
Image Portal called 'BHUVAN' and an information portal called
'BHU-SAMPADA' for this. "Integrated with application-specific Spatial
Decision Support tools, these will open up a new era for use of space
images and spatial information for development efforts in the
country," Mr. Madhavan Nair said. He also shared with the audience his
ideas on how space science applications could be used to address
Kerala-specific development issues. The State gave a rousing reception
to Mr. Madhavan Nair and the leaders of Chandrayaan-I mission during
the day, taking them through a cavalcade of programmes in the capital
city to laud their achievement.Besides the CESS programme, they
attended separate receptions organised by the State government, the
Industrial Forum of Thiruvananthapuram and the School of Bhagavad
Gita.Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, Leader of the Opposition
Oommen Chandy, several Ministers, top politicians, high officials,
industry leaders, heads of local science institutions and spiritual
leaders shared the platform with the team at these programmes.Schools
and colleges in the city and suburbs sent their teachers and students
to the programmes. They took out a procession from the Museum Ground
to the University Senate Hall one kilometre away in honour of the
Chandrayaan-I team. And, at all the four programmes, there was
unending applause as the team members were given 'ponnadas' and
mementos.The Chandrayaan-I team leaders present to receive the honours
included K. Radhakrishnan, P.S. Veeraraghavan, T.K. Alex, M.C. Dathan,
M.K.G. Nair, George Koshy, S. Ramakrishnan, Bhaskaranarayana, V.
Adimurthy, H.N. Madhusudhana, C. Venugopal, M. Annadurai and A.S.
Kiran Kumar.

The Hindu, 12th December 2008