Mission Orientation in Scientific Research and Interdisciplinary Team Excellence Brings National Glory

As India celebrates the National Space Day today to mark the epoch making success of ISRO for its highly successful mission Chandrayan – 3, let us pay our greatest respect to the scientists and technologists of our great country who continue to bring added glory to Mother India, notwithstanding the limited financial resources that the nation allocates for scientific research.

It was at 18:03 hours on this day, 23rd August 2023 when the smart and intelligent lander, Vikram smoothly descended on the south pole of moon, even more swiftly than its mission directors may have imagined. What more, soon thereafter the little bright moon buggy, the autonomous and intelligent vehicle, code named, Pragyan rolled out to walk on the moon’s surface with great pride in India’s science and technology prowess, waving the Indian Flag on moon’s soil. Chandrayan- 3 celebrated the grand success of India’s space mission and its brilliant scientist and technologists who work together in ISRO with focused attention to ‘integrative science and inter disciplinary engineering’ that enables them to provide major breakthroughs and successfully carve out epoch making technology innovation to score such a stupendous success that the whole world today is proud of.

Integrative Science and Interdisciplinary engineering create Mission Success

As the world is rapidly evolving towards scoring phenomenal success on the fronts of economic growth as well as taking head on the global challenges to pave the way for Net Zero Emissions, and creating a new high for the advent of futuristic science and technology that shall empower the global humanity with great capabilities, even making ‘impossible, possible’. R&D organizations like ISRO, DRDO, BARC stand in India at the brightest lighthouse for glowing their S&T eminence of interdisciplinary engineering and integrative sciences.

University Leadership to imbibe Best Practices of S&T Research for Development

The universities in India and for that reason, around the globe are called upon to join hands with the industries and R&D organizations in their respective countries and even at the global stage to foster an integrated environment of learning and research to create both the talent powerhouse as well as the rich reservoir for path breaking technology innovations, so vital for our success to achieve the SDG goals committed by the community of nations to wipe out poverty, hunger, unemployment and address with courage and conviction the monster of climate change so that the Mother Nature could bless its new generation of global citizens, who today have faith in ‘World is One and One Family’, akin to the Vedic proclamation of ‘Vasudhaiv Kutumbakum’, the Vedic way of life in harmony with nature and with peaceful coexistence with the world community.

Glory in Space and Grand Success of Mission Viksit Bharat @2047 is the National Agenda

It is all the more important for a Nation like India to fly high and saik with courage, confidence and conviction in scoring grand success in its space explorations missions, but also equally important it would be to transplant the best practices of mission oriented inter disciplinary and integrative science and engineering on the ground in the research centers and incubation facilities that are fast coming up in the universities in India as India for Innovation Infinite is the mantra today.

Let we, the people of India, celebrate the National space day for our great nation today, and pay our greatest respect to the founding fathers of modern science and technology in India, the Bharat, that include Sir CV Raman, the most celebrated Noble Laureate whose Raman effect continues to inspire the generation of scientist and technologists around the globe to develop the newer applications of his epoch making discovery that brought great honor for Mother India and the global scientific community at a time when the facilities for science and scientific explorations were not so developed. Equally important it is, not lose sight of the great engineering and technology eminence of Sir M Visveswaraya whose monumental contributions to engineering and technology development brought great glory to mother India. Hirakund, Bhakara Nangal and Krishna Sagar hydropower and irrigation dams stand testimony to the engineering and technology brilliance of Sir Visvesvaraya. But the day today is to pay our greatest respect to the founding fathers of ISRO Dr Vikram Sarabhai, Dr Satish Dhawan, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and the successive leaders of eminence including the present ISRO chairman Dr Somanath and his brilliant team of scientists and technologists and their collaborators in the IITs and reputed universities who all deserve our greatest respect and deep appreciation of their relentless pursuit of excellence to bring great eminence to India’s space exploration mission and missionary zeal for ‘Aatmanirbharta’ in S&T development.

About the Authors: Aadeesh Sharma is pursuing his undergraduate degree in computer science at ASU, Phoenix, Arizona, USA and has been a Dean’s Scholar throughout his studies. Professor PB Sharma is an eminent academician, a former Professor of IIT Delhi, former Director of DCE, founder Vice Chancellor of DTU, past President of the Association of India Universities (AIU) and currently Vice Chancellor at Amity University Gurugram.