F C Kohli -- A Tribute

F C Kohli –A tribute
(Appeared in Business India, March 17-30, 2014)

Photo credit: Palashranjan Bhaumick

Padma Bhushan, Faqir Chand Kohli completes 90, on March 19, 2014. It is a day to celebrate for many Indians whose life he has touched directly or indirectly.

He has been variously described as: the ‘Bheeshma Pitamaha of Indian software Industry’, a la the epic Mahabharat; a master strategist and visionary whose systematic building of TCS from 1974-1996 not only created a pioneering IT giant but also laid the ground work for the rise of a $100 billion Indian IT industry; a classical mentor, whose protégés have gone on to build many other successful companies; A ‘Henry Ford of IT services’, who moved software development from artisan like activity to an industrial assembly line of a software factory and so on and so forth.

I think all of them are perhaps true but inadequate to describe Faqir Chand Kohli’s work or his personality. I have interacted with him for nearly two decades first as a business journalist and then as a TCS executive and he continues to surprise me with newer and newer facets of his personality.

He is a man of very few but carefully chosen words. A lot of thought and home work goes behind almost every word he speaks on a subject. An impatient new comer who tries to interrupt him will be soundly put down. He can’t stand fools and those who speak off the cuff without doing their homework and would not hesitate to tell them so. As S Ramadorai, who was picked by him as his successor to lead TCS from 1996-2009 points out in his book “The TCS Story and beyond”, Kohli is hard on the outside and soft and considerate inside and would listen to alternate or even dissenting views if they are grounded in facts and if they are defended with conviction. Ramadorai says he developed a method to put forward his views to FCK (as he is fondly called by many TCSers) through carefully written memos followed by a discussion, which worked remarkably well. However many others less prepared in TCS used to find a call from Kohli’s implacable secretary rather daunting and some even dreaded it.

Kohli’s contribution to Indian software industry and TCS is rather well documented. So let me bring out some lesser known but significant contributions from him, which he seems to make with consistency and regularity.

Most people in India seem to have been carried away by the spectacular success in IT services ($ 70 billion exports in 2012-13 according to RBI). A decade ago, some politicians even started calling India, quite prematurely, an ‘IT Superpower’, in their own inimitable style. However the man who started it all is far removed from such pompous statements. He has been painstakingly advocating that India cannot be a significant player on the global technology map without a developed hardware industry. India missed the microelectronics revolution mainly due to policies of the government at that time. Later the global chip industry evolved into a design and testing segment and a chip fabrication segment and Kohli advocated developing appropriate courses in IITs and other engineering colleges to develop the human resources for high end chip design and testing which today constitutes about 80% of value. As a result India has become home to a thriving chip design and testing industry. However Kohli has been emphasising that India needs to produce about 6000 MTechs (4-5 times the current output) every year in VLSI (Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits) design to reach the sophistication of Israel, which is a leading player in the field.

A passion for Kohli has been improving the standards of engineering education. Nearly two decades ago he started advocating that a handful of IITs are insufficient and at least 50 existing colleges in India have the potential to reach the IIT standards. As a result of his persistence he was tasked by the Government of Maharashtra to identify such colleges and put in motion a plan to upgrade the ones in Maharashtra. Kohli took up the challenge in not only coming up with a gap analysis report but also engaged himself as an active chairman of the board to raise the standard of College of Engineering at Pune, a 150 year old institution and alma mater of such illustrious names like M Visvesaraya, C K N Patel, Thomas Kailath, Hatim Tyabji et al. It had gone downhill since then. He gave them a systematic road map, mentored them step by step to achieve parity with IITs in undergraduate and post graduate engineering education. The results are there for all to be seen and COEP is being cited as a success story of a turn around by many experts.

Kohli’s association with education in fact goes back several decades. He was introduced to Dr P K Kelkar, who was then the principal of VJTI, Mumbai, in the 50’s. Soon he was designing a course on Control Systems to be introduced for the first time in India at VJTI. He used to give some lectures there as well, in his time-off from Tata Electric. Association with Kelkar developed further when Kelkar was made in charge of establishing IITs in Mumbai and then in Kanpur. Kohli actively worked with Kelkar in building IITs and during his visits abroad for TCS work, did some talent spotting and faculty recruitment as well. This led to IIT Kanpur developing the first MTech program in Computer Science in India. He not only recruited many of the IITans into TCS but also invited many IIT Professors to do training and consulting assignments in TCS. This culture of strong academic association continues in TCS to this day.

Kohli is not content with the current proliferation of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in India, though it has been spectacular in the last decade. He has been advocating focused efforts to develop Indic Computing so that over the 90% of India’s population which does not know English and carries out its business in Indian languages would then cross the digital divide. “And then you will see a genuine ICT revolution”, he often says.

Kohli in unafraid to be contrarian. For example when much dust was raised recently over organized retail of both Indian and foreign pedigree, as possibly threatening the livelihood of small businesses and especially retailers; he advocated the development of appropriate IT tools to help small businessmen and traders. Combining IT with their ingenuity and inherent entrepreneurship he believes would enable Indian small businesses match anyone and thrive.

This is typical of Kohli, when faced with a problem he never regresses into defensive strategies nor engages in empty bravado but advocates appropriate technological and societal solutions.

For example when he saw the problem of adult illiteracy in India which was reported to be to the tune of 34% in 2001 census, he started working along with his colleagues P N Murthy and Kesav Nori on designing a solution. He based it on innovative teaching and deep understanding of the processes of cognition and learning. It led to a Computer Based Functional Literacy package, which can teach any one to read in any of the Indian languages within 35-40 hours at an average total cost of Rs 100 per person. It can use old discarded computers of even Intel 486 vintage and a package with animated graphics and a voiceover to explain how individual alphabets combine to form various words and their associated meaning. The setting for the lessons is visually stimulating and crafted in a manner that learners can easily relate to. It is said that this approach can help India achieve a literacy rate of 90% in about five years, which might otherwise take over 30 years.

Kohli is a strong institution builder and the Computer Society of India, Nasscom, Manufacturers Association of Information Technology, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO) owe a lot for their growth and evolution to his untiring efforts and leadership. Recently IEEE the largest professional organization in the world, with nearly a half a million engineers as members, honoured him with the prestigious Founders’ Medal, in USA.

Most know him as a leader of IT industry but very few know about his contributions to the Power Industry. He is a fellow of IEEE, not for his contributions to the IT but for his contributions to Power Engineering. During his nearly two decades at Tata Electric Companies (now Tata Power) and in the capacity of Chief Load Dispatcher, Kohli was one the chief architects of a system which has delivered stable, high quality, uninterrupted electricity to the city of Mumbai rivaling New York. In the mid-sixties, under his leadership, Tata Electric was the third utility in the world, the first in Asia, to employ a digital computer to plan load dispatch. His paper on the “Economics of long-distance extra-high-voltage transmission lines” written in 1963 won great acclaim and in fact created the basis and plan for Power Grid Corporation of India.

His pain is palpable when he discusses the current situation of power sector in India. The 35-50% transmission and distribution “losses” reported by various utilities enrage him. He says that with appropriate systems one can reduce it to below 10%. His track record in Tata Electric speaks for itself, where the losses used to be a mere 7-8%. “It is common sense that if you apply appropriate technology and a certain amount of investments and achieve these levels of efficiency then you have automatically doubled the power available to consumers without further investments in power generation”, he exclaims. However he is never a man to engage in empty pontification. Even now one would find him engage young power engineers from IIT Bombay in vibrant discussions on efficient power system design. Ever the entrepreneur he is encouraging them to set up a power system consulting group.

Kohli was also a pioneer in bringing the culture of management consultancy to India. In fact many of TCS’ early engagements were management consultancy assignments. “I think at one time we could have built a world class management consulting company too in India”, he sometimes says wistfully.

Kohli’s achievements in Power and IT Industry and active interest in solving varied societal problems make him an Engineers’ Engineer much like Bharat Ratna M Visvesvaraya. A workaholic, who scoffs at the concept of retirement and fading into the sunset and is deeply engaged in using technology and systems approach to solving societal problems at 90 !

Kohli is a great intellectual asset to India and we wish he also enjoys a long life like the legendary Visvesaraya.

Shivanand Kanavi

(The author, a well-known technology journalist, was Vice President, TCS and has written highly acclaimed books like, “Sand to Silicon: The amazing story of digital technology” and edited “Research by Design: Innovation and TCS”)

Wendy Doniger and her views on Hinduism and all that….

Wendy Doniger and her views on Hinduism and all that….

A year ago I tried to plod through Wendy Doniger's "The Hindus: An alternative history" at a senior friend's recommendation. I found the book full of trivia, shock value and sensationalism and many instances of mis-translation or mischievous translation. It was clearly intended to provoke a reaction...for example she translates "tapas" as "producing internal heat" and not the usual meaning of penance, intense meditation etc. the reason for this obvious mischievous or mis-translation became clear when she says 'Parvati produced internal heat to distract a Shiva in Yog Samadhi' (I am paraphrasing) giving a erotic twist to the puranic and literary episode (Kuara Sambhava, Girija Kalyana etc)..there are many instances of trivialisng or eroticising or psycho analytical / sexual interpretation of Hinduism. Where there is some interesting insight ...I found it has been borrowed from some one like A K Ramanujan. Since I was looking for genuine scholarship to learn about the Indian philosophy and tradition, I stopped reading the book after pushing myself to read about 500 of the 780 pages.....Should some one take her to court for hurting their sentiments? Should it be banned ?Should one ignore it or should one tear it apart in a debate like Rajiv Malhotra has done quite effectively in many of his writings?.....
I have limited time and energy and have "changed the channel" and moved on to reading what will educate me and thereby enrich me.....

ISRO : Cryogenic Success

ISRO: Extreme Engineering

ISRO succeeds in the cutting edge Cryogenic rocket technology to propel Indian space program forward

(Excerpts appeared in Special Report, Business India, February 17-March 2, 2014)

Space Spectacle: The successful launch of GSLV D-5 on Jan 5, 2014 from SatshDhawan Space Centre, Shriharikota, Andhra Pradesh (Courtesy ISRO)

Why is a rocket technology developed by the Indian Space scientists to operate at an extremely cold temperature of minus 250 °C, also known as Cryogenic engine technology, very hot? Why did it take India nearly 20 years to successfully develop this? What does it hold for the future of ISRO? These were some of the basic questions Business India tried to get answers for after the recent much heralded success of India’s GSLV D-5 (Geo-Stationary Satellite Launch Vehicle—see box Space Jargon Explained)

This success in Cryogenic rocketry at ISRO will soon allow it to launch its own communication and weather satellites (which weigh 2 tons and above). ISRO has been designing and building satellites for various applications like communication, weather prediction, TV broadcasting, earth observation and resource management, disaster management, distance education, navigation, cartography, oceanography and reconnaissance for over three decades, while at the same time developing the required rockets (Launch Vehicles –in space jargon). However the Indian work horse for satellite launch—PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle)is capable of launching only the lighter satellites weighing one ton or less onto 400-1000 km low earth orbits. The heavier communication satellites which need to be put into geo stationary, 36000 km orbits, were being launched by the French led European commercial launch company Arianespace (http://www.arianespace.com/index/index.asp).

Space Jargon Explained Geostationary orbit Any object placed in orbit at 36,000 km above the equator will take the same amount of time as Earth does to complete one revolution. This makes it stationary in relation to Earth. A dish antenna receiving signals from the satellite does not need to move to continuously track it, which makes tracking cheaper and less complex. Why multi-stage rockets? The heavier the weight that is carried into space, the larger must be the rocket ferrying it, because of the need for more fuel and power. It costs approximately $30,000 to put one kilo into geostationary orbit. In a multi-stage rocket the burnt out stages are detached one by one and drop to Earth so that less and less weight is actually carried into orbit. Why should we use liquid-fuelled rockets when solid-fuelled rockets are much simpler to make? Solid-fuelled rockets cannot be turned on or off at will; once lit they burn till the propellant is exhausted. A liquid-fuelled rocket, on the other hand, can be easily controlled like the ignition key and accelerator of a car. Remote sensing Observing Earth from a distance and getting information based on the reflective properties of different objects is known as remote sensing. Remote sensing can also be done using aircraft, but satellite remote sensing is far cheaper and more comprehensive. India achieved perhaps the best Remote sensing satellite system in the world way back in 1995 with IRS 1-C. PSLVPolar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), commercialized since mid ‘90s can launch a one-tonne satellite in a 400-1,000-km orbit. It has been primarily used for launching India’s best in class IRS remote sensing satellites. It has also been used innovatively for Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan, India’s Moon and Mars missions. Communication SatellitesThey are like a TV tower that can cover the entire Indian subcontinent, positioned 36000 km up in the sky at the equator south of India. India has launched many of them for telephony, TV broadcasting, weather prediction, climatology, disaster management, Global Positioning and Navigation, search and rescue etc.

GSLVGeostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle is a rocket which uses for the first time a Cryogenic third stage that will give enough push to launch a 2 ton communication satellite into a Geo Transfer Orbit eventually placing the satellite in a 36000 km high orbit.

Cryogenic EngineRockets engines using liquid Oxygen and liquid Hydrogen as oxidizer and fuel are called Cryogenic rockets as the fuels have to be maintained at extreme cold temperatures of minus 250 °C.

Specific ImpulseThe thrust that the rocket will get for a given mass flow rate of fuel is Specific Impulse. It is the lowest for Solid Propellant rockets, followed by the earth-storable liquid fuels then semi-cryogenic and then fully Cryogenic. The unit of Specific Impulse is seconds. In Cryogenic one gets 415 sec, in solid fueled it is 270-80 sec. in earth storable liquid fueled it is 300 sec and in Semi Cryo it is 315. 

SatnavA Satnav or Satellite Navigation system is a system that allows small electronic chips on the ground (in your car, bus, airplane, ship or a battle tank) to determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude) to high precision (within a few metres) using signals transmitted by a constellation of satellites.So far the United States NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS), the Russian GLONASS are global operational Satnav systems. China is in the process of expanding its regional Beidou navigation system, whose services are being offered to Pakistan and other Asian countries into a global Compass navigation system with a constellation of 35 satellites. The European Union's Galileo positioning system is in initial deployment phase. France has set up a rudimentary regional system called DORIS which is less accurate than GPS. Japan is in the process of developing its regional navigation systems, QZSS (Quasi Zenith Satellite System) of four satellites. The Indian SatnavIRNSS (Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System) consists of 7 satellites. One satellite IRNSS-1 was launched in July 2013 and four more are being launched in 2014. All the segments (space, ground and user recievers) are being built in India and will be in Indian control. Sovereign control is essential in war like situations when the signals from other systems may be turned off.  It is intended to provide an all-weather absolute position accuracy of better than 7.6 meters throughout India and within a region extending approximately 1,500 km around it. 

GAGANA satellite and ground based system GAGAN (GPS-Aided Geo-Augmented Navigation) has been developed by ISRO in collaboration with the Airport Authority of India to help Indian Civil Aviation using existing GPS signals from NAVSTAR and making them more reliable for aviation purposes. A GAGAN transponder has already been placed in orbit and the system is undergoing final certification for safety and accuracy.

It is to the credit of ISRO that the Indian Moonshot (Chandrayaan ) and the Mars-shot (Mangalyaan ) were launched by this less capable rocket (PSLV),thereby gaining respect and admiration amidst the space faring world, for ISRO’s ingenuity, innovation and frugal engineering.

After the successful launch of GSLV D-5 there will be some more developmental flights before it is declared a commercial launch vehicle. Till then GSLV will be used to launch some experimental or domestic developmental satellites including India’s own Satnav systems GAGAN and IRNSS (see box Space Jargon Explained ). GSLV would have adequate power to put the current class of INSAT Communication Satellites which weigh around 2 tons to Geostationary orbits.However, for the next generation heavier satellites or even the more ambitious exploratory missions to Moon, Mars and beyond, ISRO is already working on the GSLV Mark III—a rocket with a two times more powerful Cryogenic stage under development. It can then put a 4-5 ton satellite into geostationary orbit or have more substantial Moon and Mars missions and perhaps even a manned space flight.

What are the commercial possibilities of these developments? According to Dr K Radhakrishnan, Chairman, ISRO, “India has already launched 35 foreign satellites for 18 countries using PSLV. Three of them were dedicated launches while others were piggy rides on our own missions. We are going to have one more in 2014, when we launch Spot-7,a 712 kg Earth Observation satellite from France, identical to Spot-6 that we launched in 2012. There will also be 3 foreign co-passenger payloads in that PSLV flight. Germany has 800 kg satellite which we will launch with PSLV in 2014-15. There will also be one dedicated flight for 3 satellites of 300 kg each from UK for science, remote sensing etc. There will be one more for a Singapore satellite. These four flights of PSLV are already on the table. There are other smaller ones. Antrix is marketing our capabilities to foreign customers. We have 7-9 of our own satellites to be launched for communications, navigation (GPS), meteorological purposes using GSLV.”

As for the high profile Moon and Mars missions Radhakrishnan who is the first Engineer-MBA (IIM,B 1976) to head ISRO, adds, “So far we have received generous applause from all international space agencies for both the complex maneuvers of Mangalyaan and the success of GSLV. I am sure new commercial deals will follow with many countries.Certainly its success in the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) has raised PSLV’s profile. It is considered novel since we used a comparatively low powered vehicle, to put 350 kg fuel in the satellite to go to exit point for Mars orbit. One could also use a very powerful rocket as NASA did with MAVEN recently. Our frugality also meant that it took more time to reach the Mars exit point and several complex maneuvers were involved. To each lift off time a new trajectory design and new steering program had to be prepared. If GSLV were available we could have put a bigger satellite or the same satellite with a larger orbit”.

This is great news but what is so complex about Cryogenic technology that it has taken over 20 years for development whereas the earlier successful rockets both solid and liquid fueled were developed in less than a decade? To understand this first of all we need to understand what is Cryogenics and then what is Cryogenic rocketry. When scientists talk of Cryogenics or the “science of the extreme cold” they start at roughly minus 150 °C.

How cold is Cryogenics?

• ·         We might start using our woolens when the temperature starts going below 20 °C.
• ·         Ideally the refrigerators we use at home cool the contents to about 4 °C and about minus 18 °C in the freezer.
• ·         Right now Indian army jawans are facing temperatures around minus 40°C at their outposts in Siachen Glacier, and as we know hundreds of them have died due to inclement cold weather at high altitude and not enemy bullets.
• ·         The coldest places on earth like parts of Northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland have recorded temperatures in the minus 60 °C range while recently minus 90 °C was recorded in a research station in the Antarctic.
• ·         We import LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) which is kept below minus 163 °C
• ·         Oxygen liquefies at minus 183 °C
• ·         Nitrogen and Air liquefy at minus 196 °C
• ·         Hydrogen liquefies at minus 253 °C
• ·         Helium at minus 269 °C
• ·         Minus 273 °C is called the Absolute Zero and according to modern physics atoms and molecules cease their incessant motion and almost stand still.

Gases reduce in volume enormously on liquefaction.Hence the preferred way to transport them in a vessel is in the liquefied state; be it Natural Gas, Oxygen, Nitrogen or Hydrogen. Liquid Oxygen and liquid Hydrogen provide the best combination to burn in outer space and get the biggest kick for the rocket to propel forward, what is called Specific Impulse in rocket scientists jargon (see box Space Jargon Explained ). However as it has been dramatically picturised in many Hollywood fantasies like “Terminator” sequels, Batman and Superman sequels, most things living and non-living including the toughest metals become brittle at these extreme cold temperatures and can be pounded to powder easily.

Creating materials that can be engineered into machinery to withstand and reliably operate at these temperatures is a challenge to modern Material Scientists. The problem is further compounded in rocketry when the liquid Oxygen and Hydrogen kept at minus 250 °C  in the fuel tanks then come down through pumps and valves and burn in another part of the engine called the combustion chamber producing extremely high 3000 °C  where most materials themselves would melt away !

That is why a nation mastering Cryogenic Rocketry is highly respected in the technological world.No wonder the number so far was only five; US, Europe, Russia, China and Japan. On Jan 5, 2014 the sixth kid on the block; India, joined the exclusive club.

However the road to success has not been smooth. ISRO started working on a 1 ton Cryogenic engine way back in 1982 to become familiar with the basics. Then a serious attempt to leap frog by buying Russian Cryogenic technology after the collapse of the Soviet Union and when it was in financially dire straits, was done in the early 90’s. However US brought pressure on Russia not transfer the Cryogenic technology to India citing violation of MTCR (Missile Technology Control Regime). Obviously it was a US show of raw power against the weakened Russia and the “nonaligned” India, because no country uses Cryogenic engine in any missile whatsoever for the simple reason that it takes a lot of time to prepare the rocket for launch and then it takes a complex process taking even longer to restore the rocket if the launch is aborted. It was clear that India was still being punished by sanctions imposed after the 1974 Pokharan nuclear test and for not being an enthusiastic supporter of the Gulf War launched by US against Iraq after the collapse of the bipolar world in 1990-91. Yeltsins’s Russia was too weak to resist this blatant arm twisting and rescinded from the agreement and instead made a deal to sell 6 cryogenic stages to India without transferring the technology. India then had to restart its own R&D and ISRO took up the design of a 12.5 ton Cryogenic stage for the new GSLV in 1994.

Radhakrishnan explained the tortuous journey littered with disappointments, which finally succeeded on Jan 5, 2014 after going through several rigorous reviews analyzing the failures and corrective measures and redesign.

“GSLV Mark III would have ingested the lessons from the learning curve of GSLV” says a confident Dr K Radhakrishnan, Chairman ISRO

“When it comes to Cryo because we are operating at very low temperatures, simple handling of the fluids and providing all the plumbing at those temps is the first problem. Secondly the materials that we use should have their properties in tact both at those low temperatures and also at high temperatures of combustion. Third there are rotating parts at least three major ones: fuel booster turbo pump; oxidizer booster turbo pump and the main turbo pump. These pumps operate at speeds like 30-40 k rpm. One needs to have bearings, seals of these pumps working at those extremes of temp. The control components which we use like sealants, valves should also work there. In the GSLV design we used the staged combustion cycle, where we get slightly higher Specific Impulse but the system is far more complex. For testing we should have the entire system. There is no modular testing and there is no restart.”

Radhakrishnan added, “In GSLV Cryo engine there are four ignitions to take place. Once we give a command the booster pump actions have to start and 4 ignitions have to be maintained. All four have to be ensured in a sequence in the first 3 secs. The temperature and pressure conditions at that point in upper space with near vacuum conditions are crucial for 4 ignitions to take place. That is the complexity.We had to set up the special test facility in Mahendragiri and fabricate the engine, turbo pumps etc and the industry had to be brought in and handheld from the beginning.”

“In 2003 the engine was qualified, where we did several tests for several seconds and we got the performance we needed. This was engine testing. After that we started testing the stage which includes fuel tanks and all other paraphernalia along with the engine, in 2007. The flight stage was prepared and tested in 2010 April on GSLV D-3. However ignition did not sustain beyond 800 milli secs. The fuel booster turbo pump just stopped. We had a detailed analysis for the failure that took place in vacuum conditions.”

Why did the fuel booster turbo pump stop? Had it worked are we sure the rest would have worked? This ignition is taking place in vacuum how are we sure that in those conditions the mixture will be correct were the doubts that started plaguing ISRO after this failure.

“We generated all the scenarios and 2-3 points came out very clearly. We had not tested this pump in Cryo conditions. When we use dissimilar materials in a welded joint the contraction will be different in them. There are three bearings in that pump where the tolerances may not have been sufficient to take in the dissimilar contractions. So we revisited all those tolerances. The second possibility of stoppage was a casing that could have separated as a weld yielded. So we redesigned it. Third was the possibility of a contaminant, a speck of corroded material somewhere coming into the fuel that could have led to stoppage.We were setting up a high altitude test facility for the next generation GSLV Mark III. We decided to use it for this engine. That was a cardinal decision that we took in 2012 February. In 2013 March-April we conducted two tests in high altitude conditions in a given sequence and this gave us confidence. Then we committed for the flight” explained Radhakrishnan.

In August 2013 GSLV flight was scheduled then minutes before launching, ISRO found a heavy leak of liquid fuel UH 25. In the late 90s Ariane had the same problem due to corrosion of the Aluminum alloy used for the tanks and ISRO had also found the problem in 2002 and it started using another slightly heavier alloy which does not have this problem. However the transition to new alloy had to take place in a phased manner. As if Murphy’s law was clearly operating lo and behold, and the last old tank was used in that flight which gave ISRO the problem.

The restoration after aborting the flight was another major issue. Nearly 450 people worked for a week to save the cryogenic stage, the satellite etc. “We had to drain nearly 350 tons of toxic propellants like UH-25 without causing pollution and disarm all the pyro devices. Remove all the 36 hoses of Cryo engine and so on. The vehicle was brought back and destacked. The second stage and L-40 had to be redone. It was more than defusing a bomb”, says Radhakrishnan with a lot of pride in his team.

Thus the ground was laid for the success of GSLV D-5. ISRO is now confident of testing this vehicle further in a couple of more development flights and also developing the next generation GSLV Mark III which will be begin its flights tests in 2014.

Recognising the potential of space technology for developmental and societal purposes in a developing country like India was the contribution of Sarabhai. The program started very modestly with a little help from the French and the Americans in terms of a few sounding rockets and weather balloons to study various phenomena in the upper atmosphere. In the archives of ISRO there exists by-now-famous photograph of a rocket being brought to the launch pad in Thumba on the back of the bicycle.

After his premature death, a quintessentially professorial Satish Dhawan shouldered the responsibility to drive this program. And lo and behold with Mrs Gandhi’s quiet backing as Prime Minister and Dhawan’s leadership ISRO started designing satellites and launching them courtesy the Russians and the French and even the Americans (in the pre-Pokharan world, of course!). Simultaneously a vigorous program was taken up to develop the launch vehicles. Vasant Gowarikar, Abdul Kalam etc toiled to make a success of the solid fueled rocketry. The strategic implications of the technology were very clear and Mrs Gandhi moved Kalam to the newly formed Integrated Guided Missile Program of DRDO that eventually led to Prithvi and Agni. 

Meanwhile the liquid engine technology offered by the French was diligently pursued till India attained mastery of it and developed its Vikas engine surprising their French Gurus too. Together the solid and liquid fueled rocketry led to the design and success of PSLV which has been the work horse of ISRO in the last two decades. The current hard earned success of GSLV takes ISRO’s capabilities to the next level. “We have learnt our lessons from GSLV and the next generation GSLV Mark III which will really mark India emerging as a major space technology power with its own heavy launch capability would have ingested all the lessons from the learning curve. No doubt other countries like US, Russia, EU and China have developed even heavier Cryo stages but GSLV Mark III suits our plans just fine and we are not in any megalomaniacal race with anyone” says a quietly confident Radhakrishnan.

The success of GSLV has been a fitting tribute in the Golden Jubilee year of Indian space program that started in 1963 in Thumba, a fishing village near Tiruvananthapuram, Kerala and we hope to see more technological and commercial successes from this jewel among government funded R&D in India.

END

Dr Baldev Raj: Safety at Fast Breeder Reactor, Kalpakkam

Author at Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam with other scientists

Tsunami, Safety and the Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam

Interview with Dr Baldev Raj, director, IGCAR, Kalpakkam by Shivanand Kanavi, June 13, 2011


Firstly, when is the PFBR going to be commissioned?

We are planning to commission in June 2012 and we are very confident because the uncertainties have been removed. This being the first FBR in the world in the last 30 years, the international experience was also limited. So we had to do a lot of mock-up trials especially at the site.

For example, doing a 13-metre stainless steel weld with very small tolerance on eccentricity; lowering a roof dome of 230 tonnes with a circumference tolerance of 3 mm in 13 metres and so on.

It is a result of confluence of the best minds of industry and the Department of Atomic Energy. We can very confidently say that the technology has been mastered and is deliverable on site. R&D has been converted into technology. We have built a very competent young team.

By commissioning, you mean the actual loading of the fuel and achieving criticality?

Yes. After that it will take 6-9 months to be connected to the grid. We want to go step by step because it is a very large core with a large amount of plutonium and sodium. We are doing it for the first time.

How many tonnes?

In the actual vessel there will be 11 tonnes of sodium and two tonnes of plutonium. We can decide to go low power and then high power and so on.

How many tonnes of uranium will be there?

About eight.

This will be carbide or oxide fuel?

This will be oxide. Since it is a large investment we made a sub-assembly for validation with all the components coming from India and that sub-assembly of our design gave us 110,000 MW day per tonne.

We are yet to do the post-radiation examination but we have studied the power output and there was no breach of the cladding. No problem in handling. It was completed two months back.

After the 2004 tsunami there must have been some design changes and new protective measures put in for any such eventuality. Can you explain them?

We had a national committee of best experts. It examined the measures already taken. This exercise was done for the whole Kalpakkam campus and not just the fast breeder. It covered the residential campus, the MAPP reactors and IGCAR. We found that this place was well designed for the tsunami of the kind we had.

If you recall, we were back in operation within two weeks. However, the foundation of the fast breeder which was being built at that time had a deposit of the material that came with the tsunami.

So we studied what degradation the concrete had gone through due to the deposit, whether sodium or chlorine has gone in; what has happened to the long-term durability of the foundation etc.

We did modelling as well as actual testing. The foundation was okay but after discussion with the regulatory body and departmental discussions, we decided to put a barrier layer and a fresh foundation was laid on that and we carried on.

So that also elevated it further?

Yes that was another by-product, it got elevated by another two metres.

What about levees and barriers?

They were already there but we redesigned it. More important was the psyche of the people in the township because there were 30 deaths. Many people wanted to leave the organisation itself due to family pressure.

We have used boulders, mangroves and a unique barrier which will take a tsunami even greater than the last one. We also put in an alarm system based on seismic events around the world.

Anyway, our reactor people constantly observe all geological events so we have a warning system based on that irrespective of what the country decides to do. This warning is given to the villages and all our people.

We use hooters along the coast. We have also educated the people on disaster management. The biggest challenge for me was to keep the people together and give them confidence. Whatever happened was a natural calamity but we can be prepared for it in the future.

How would you describe the safety features built into the fast breeders?

The fast breeder satisfies all the current safety norms for nuclear reactors. There is a steady state of the nuclear reactor system. There can be transient states. These transient states should not damage the core leading to an accident.

So there are various mechanisms set up to see that the core is not damaged during any such event.

The reactor may be crammed so that power is reduced, controlling the temperature and the neutronics. In addition, in our system there is sodium, which catches fire if it comes into contact with air.

So one should prevent sodium leaks and have large number of sensors to check for leaks. Sodium in contact with moisture produces hydrogen so we need to detect even small amounts of hydrogen and so on.

In short, there are some generic safety measures that prevent the transient to affect the core and then there are specifics, like in our case sodium-related. There are design-based accidents and non-design-based accidents which one needs to take care of.

There are dumps to remove sodium?

They are there in critical systems. We do not like to totally shut down the reactor system, as sodium solidifies on cooling and then it becomes a problem to restart the system. So certain heaters are installed.

You have gravity-based systems?

The dumping systems are gravity-based systems, thus even if there is total power failure etc as it happened in Fukushima nuclear plant (in Japan after the recent tsunami), we will have safety.     

Do you classify it as third generation or better in the normal parlance, in terms of safety?

In fact fourth generation reactors that are being talked about are fast breeders or molten salt reactors. They are sustainable. In generation there is economy and safety which defines it. In our case, if you look at the whole fuel cycle, you have to do much less uranium mining.

Plus, the long-lived radioactive actinides in the waste are recycled and burnt so that repository load decreases.

In economy a fast reactor would be expensive compared to boiling water reactors but if you put up 20 of them then it would be comparable to water reactors. This can be built in five years. We have a complete road map and we are making the essential design changes to ensure that.

How do you compare the safety systems there with that of European Pressurised Reactor from France or VVER (water-cooled, water-moderated energy reactor) from Russia?

For the common man we have to ensure the same level of robustness as far as safety is concerned even if the underlying science is different. Every reactor system has a specific dynamics of steady state, transient and accidental.

Those scenarios are discussed between the designers and utility and then the regulatory boards.

Many times the regulators ask us to do more calculations and modelling or experiments. The EPR is an evolutionary reactor, where they have built 1,000 MW and now they are going for 1650 MW. Fast reactors have been built in France, Russia etc we have studied their experience and have also studied various scenarios, seismic qualifications, thin structures etc.

We have ensured that these reactors are comparable to water reactors. We have barriers and margins. There are multi barriers and there are margins at each barrier, then the damage at each barrier in the case of accident becomes less and less.

Even in the extreme case of core meltdown, where will it go, will it go critical, how much will leak out etc -- even those issues are studied.

In the case of EPR some anxiety is there because of the size of the Jaitapur project. For example, we are building 2x1000 MW in Koodankulam but nowhere in the world are there10,000 MW nuclear islands, so how do you assure the public that the environmental impact or sea temperature rise would be tolerable?

There are internationally accepted scientific environmental impact studies and modelling. That is not a problem, so is the sea temperature issue.

Radiation hazard-related issues are no longer being raised in nuclear projects. Nowadays it is all about land acquisition policy and the possible effect on marine life due to sea temperature rise.

Land acquisition is not a science issue but others can be satisfactorily answered even to the last citizen of the nation, because livelihood is involved and climate change issues are involved. Land acquisition is a political question, which has to be sorted out in a democratic way.

In FBR, is fuelling on a campaign mode or continuous?

It will be in a campaign mode unlike the PHWRs (pressurised heavy water reactors) where it is continuous. We have designed and validated our fuel elements for 100,000 MWday/tonne burn rate, but in the future we aim to design and validate for 200,000 MWday/tonne. Then we will change the cladding material, wrapper material and go for advanced materials.

How long will your initial load of 10 tonnes of fuel last?

Two years at 100,000 MW/day.

Just to compare, how much does the VVER in Koodankulam or EPR yield?

They yield 75,000 MWday/tonne. The advantage is the life of the fuel element is only two years. So I can put my new advanced fuel with higher burn rate right in this reactor after two years.

India is already at the cutting edge in research publication in fast breeders and thorium reactors. We look forward to the commissioning this landmark reactor. Wish you all the best.

Author's Note: Soon the fast breeder at Kalpakkam will go online, taking us to the very cutting edge. It is to be noticed that our scientists achieved all this on humble government salaries, whereas surely these brilliant engineers and scientists would have made millions of dollars in the greener pastures of Silicon Valley, as many others, whose success we toast, did!

India Japan Honeymoon

Another interesting edit in Business India

Business India, Editorial, Dec 9-22, 2013

Indo-Nippon Honeymoon

The high profile visit of Japanese royalty points to the new India-Japan tango in economic and strategic affairs

It is perhaps symbolic that Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan who visited India after 53 years were here earlier as Crown Prince and Princess of Japan on their honeymoon. Today the two countries too, are embarking on a strategic and economic honeymoon of their own.

The post war recovery of Japan and its second coming as an economic power did not see any significant growth in its economic relations with India. Japan was focused on North America and Europe and South East Asia and India had autarkic economic policies, while the Cold War kept Japan and India apart strategically.

 Despite liberalization Japan continued to studiously ignore the Indian economy till very recently. Suzuki’s success in the Indian auto market stood out as an exception while the rest of the Japanese companies fretted at the ‘difficulties in India’.

The situation started changing in the last decade due to political and economic developments. On the positive side the ‘Look East’ policy of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is finally yielding results. asean welcomed it first and now Japan too, is joining the party. The Indian Prime Minister has doggedly pursued Japan along with the landmark Indo-US nuclear deal and has been visiting Japan regularly. The spadework has started yielding results and gained momentum with the election of Shinzo Abe a self-declared Indophile, as the new pm.

India’s public declaration of nuclear weapons status with the five nuclear tests of 1998 did appear to cause a demonstrative but a temporary setback. However, both soon understood each other’s sensitivities, while publicly sticking to their stands regarding nuclear non-proliferation treaty (npt). Finally, Japan seems to be veering around to the reality of a nuclear powered India despite a strong public sentiment against nuclear weapons. Ironically it is China which seems to be making this turn around possible with its belligerent attitude towards territorial disputes with many of its Asian neighbours, including Japan.

If signals from Tokyo and New Delhi are to be believed a civil nuclear deal between the two countries seems nearer than ever. The fact that Toshiba and Hitachi control the nuclear reactor businesses of Westinghouse and General Electric is certainly a factor in this development.

In the strategic tango, Japan is the leading partner, while India has been coy. It is being cautious about Chinese sensitivities. However in the economic tango it has been the other way around. Both are protesting too much that their emerging partnership is not aimed at any “third country”, a euphemism for China, while Beijing appears unconvinced and jittery. Clearly in the Sino-Indian strategic games from the Karakoram to the South China Sea, Japan is entering as a third factor to Beijing’s discomfiture.

While intricate strategic power games have begun, what is heartening is that India-Japan trade is emerging from torpor and picking up momentum. Two way trade has trebled in the last six years to reach $18.5 billion in 2011-12. After six years of negotiation the two countries have concluded a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (cepa), which has come into force since August 2011, which is expected to give further fillip to rapid growth in two way trade.

Japanese investment in automotive and consumer electronics and white goods segment has also surged, with more investments announced by Panasonic, Hitachi, Sony, Honda, Toyota, Nissan et al. Numerous surveys among Japanese companies show that India is becoming their preferred investment destination over China and US, despite the fact that old complaints regarding rusty infrastructure, cumbersome bureaucracy; militant labour and difficulties in land acquisition remain as before.

While imports from Japan are rising, the exports from India are not keeping pace and constitute largely, non-manufactured commodities like marine products, minerals etc. Indian it services and pharmaceutical companies are yet to make a serious dent in the highly conservative and protected fortress Japan.

The efficient execution of Delhi Metro Rail with Japanese assistance has increased India’s credibility to receive more funds for its infrastructure projects like the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor.

Quite appropriately Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is the guest of honour next month during the Republic Day parade and we will perhaps see more concrete announcements by both sides on the economic front.

Though largely ceremonial the Japanese royalty’s India visit has great significance in the nuanced symbolism of Japanese culture. Considering that the Empress had cancelled a visit to a Book Fair in Delhi in 1998 due to Pokharan tests, one could say “Heika o youkoso” (Welcome your majesty) .

India's Mars Mission

An interesting comment on India's Mars Mission in Business India magazine editorial

Editorial: Business India, Nov 11-24, 2013

Mars Mission: ISRO Success on a Budget

We congratulate Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the successful launch of the rocket carrying India’s Mars probe, named Mangalyaan. Since then, Mangalyaan has undergone three orbit raising missions successfully. There are three more to go. It is expected to carry out several scientific experiments from its Martian orbit a year from now. The results of these modest but clever experiments are expected to enrich our knowledge of Mars.

There is still a long way to go before we declare success of the whole mission, but as the old adage goes, ‘well begun is half done’. It is all the more creditable considering that the last Mars mission sent by China and Russia two years ago failed in Earth’s orbit itself. All the players in space technology would be closely observing the developments in Mangalyaan. As the success rate of Mars missions is abysmally low and only 25 of the 42 have succeeded.

This being the 25^th ‘commercial’ flight of India’s work horse rocket PSLV, international interest is inspired by more than just scientific curiosity. Hence forth, many developing countries and even some of the more advanced economies, which do not have a space program of their own, will examine seriously the possibility of using ISRO’s commercial services in satellite design and launch. Already international media is hailing ISRO as a low cost space program and have pointed out that the Mangalyaan cost India a meagre $73 million, whereas comparable missions have cost others almost ten times. Indian space program is being characterized internationally as, “Frugal Engineering” and even “Gandhian Engineering”. 

Over the years, Business India has many times examined the potential of India’s space business and has advocated a more effective global marketing effort by ISRO.

It is but natural that in an argumentative society like ours, there are those who come up with absurdities like: “why not build more toilets” etc. Naturally some in the international media are lapping up the discordant sound bites. The all-round gains to Indian society and economy through ISRO’s R&D, to name a few are: enormously improved telecommunication system; entertainment and electronic media; search and rescue; weather prediction including disaster management like the recent super cyclone Phailin; better and safer transportation through satellite navigation; many sided benefits of earth remote sensing and resource management; military intelligence and so on. Thus this well worn out debate--‘space technology or butter’, is not worth entering into.

It is to be noted that China is offering the carrot of space services to countries in India’s neighbourhood, to increase its influence in the region, while India has not. It is time ISRO offered turn-key services for communication and remote sensing satellite design and launch facilities in the neighbourhood with even some free piggy backing arrangements. There should be more coordination between the PMO, MEA and ISRO in this regard.

While we applaud ISRO’s success in the last five decades heartily, we should not ignore the challenges. Technologically the most important one is the development of Cryogenic Engine technology. India has been at it for exactly two decades without success. That will be the key to create launch capabilities for heavier satellites, communication satellites as well as manned space missions. Clearly China is way ahead of us in this respect. Second of all, even if Mangalyaan is eventually a total success, we do not yet see a clear statement of intent or vision regarding the exploration of Moon or Mars or other parts of solar system by ISRO. It all seems piece-meal and ad-hoc, announced by successive Prime Ministers on August 15, from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

Though one should abhor a race with China for issues of prestige, one should clearly understand the commercial and military-strategic advantage that any nation with space technology holds vis-a-vis others.

For now, whether Mangalyaan discovers little green men or just some methane in the Martian atmosphere, let us applaud the thousands of engineers and scientists of ISRO and wish them success. We owe them at least as much, considering that they have toiled at government salaries and created strategic technologies, whereas many of them could have surely earned millions in the Silicon Valley.

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Amar Bose: A life in pursuit of excellence

Amar Bose: A life in pursuit of excellence

Shivanand Kanavi

(appeared in Rediff: http://www.rediff.com/money/report/slide-show-1-amar-bose-a-life-in-pursuit-of-excellence/20130716.htm)

(Photographs by Palashranjan Bhaumick, poluda@gmail.com) 

Amar Bose, creator of the well-known audio brand in the world, passed away on July 12, at his home, near Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was born of American mother and Indian father. Noni Gopal Bose, his father, was an Indian revolutionary, who had jumped into a ship to USA, in 1920, to escape from the British CID, who were chasing him.

Amar Bose was born in Philadelphia in 1929, where his mother was a school teacher and father ran a radio shop. Father continued to working as part of a support network for Indian revolutionaries in the US along with Taraknath Das.

When I met him, Amar Bose vividly recalled the hush-hush meetings in his house and the visit by a person who had escaped the horror of the massacre at Jalianwala Baug. The stories of British atrocities, which he heard from this visitor as well as from others, left an indelible impression on him.

Bose's childhood in Philadelphia was not easy either. One pictures the deep south of US as the seat of racism and bigotry, but during the ‘30s and ‘40s, right in Philadelphia, the home of Bill of Rights, the Boses had to suffer intense racial discrimination and humiliation. “My mother was a vegetarian, a Vedantin and more Indian in her outlook than I and my father. Nobody would rent a house for us. We had to send my mother house hunting, since she was white American”.

“Every time we entered a restaurant we would keep on waiting and nobody would serve us. Finally my father would call the manager, the whole restaurant would suddenly fall silent and father would make a short speech: 'Sir, we are good enough to cook and wait and serve you. We are good enough to die for this country in the wars, but we are not good enough to pay and be served. Why is that?'. Obviously, it was largely a rhetorical question and used to have no effect on the proprietor. We all used to then stand up and leave the place. My father never tried to say that he was not an African-American but an Indian. But all said and done, as far as recognising talent for what it is, there is no country like the US”, he added.

Teen aged Amar Bose picked up his love for Electronics in his father’s Radio repair shop. His brilliance showed at an early age and got him into the fabled engineering college at MIT, despite poverty at home. From there he climbed higher and higher peaks of academic brilliance, finishing with a PhD guided by Norbert Wiener, one of the greatest Mathematicians of 20^th century.

He got an offer of a teaching job at MIT itself in 1956. However Norbert Wiener, who had many friends in India, advised Bose to take a Full Bright Scholarship and spend a year in India. Thus Amar Bose spent a year in Kolkata at the Indian Statistical Institute led by Prof P C Mahalnobis and in Delhi at the National Physical Laboratory, then headed by Prof K S Krishnan. Bose carried fond memories of that year spent in India.

On his return to MIT he very soon became perhaps the most popular professor for over four decades. Many of his students vouch for his energy and his brilliant teaching. He also used to set the most difficult problems for them. “At times I used to give PhD level problems to sophomores. You should stretch the students to the limit. That is how you will come to know who is capable of what and results often can surprise you”, he said.

While at MIT he innovated many things in acoustics and audio systems which led to the revolutionary Bose speakers. MIT allowed him to set up his own company, while continuing to teach. The motto of Bose Corp is “Better Sound Through research”. He stuck to it energetically and built perhaps the biggest global brand in Audio surpassing many other bigger names like Phillips and Sony.

The secret of his success has always been path breaking Research and Development. However what is not known to many is that he never remained confined to only accoustics. His outstanding innovations are also in automobile engineering, signal processing and so on. When I asked him why he had not taken the company public and raised money in the market by selling shares, he said, “As far as employees are concerned, we pay them top­ of-the-line salaries. I myself don't need the cash. In fact, every dollar of profit made in the company has been ploughed back. Moreover, taking it public will mean others (the Board of Directors- Ed) telling us how to spend our dollars in research. Some of the research pro­jects we are working on will take decades and some may not even be completed. I am sure we could not have taken up such projects if we were not free to do what we want to.”

His devotion to his alma mater, MIT, was legendary. It was marred a decade ago by his strong public disagreements with MIT’s IPR policy. But that did not stop him from going a step further and putting all his shares in Bose Corp in a Trust fund, which will benefit his alma mater!

Clearly, knowledge creation is what excited Bose. We could see that in the sparkle in his eyes and the alacrity with which he jumped up to explain technical points about wave guides; normal modes and spherical speakers; or a subtle point about non-linear systems or stochastic processes. But this acade­mic took commercial challenges also as intellectual challenges and either licked the competition or created totally new technologies. The way he conquered the Japanese market is an abject example to American corporations who constantly wring their hands about 'fortress Japan'.

He leaves behind two children son Vanu and daughter Maya. Dr Vanu Bose, an MIT alumnus himself, has founded a company, Vanu, providing solutions in wireless and cellular communications. Vanu again bridges Us and India with establishments in Boston, Bengaluru and Delhi.

To use a cliché, Amar Bose never grew old. He simply oozed positive energy. He visibly cringed if anybody called him an icon but used to jump up to the blackboard with a chalk and wave his hand all over if you discussed Physics. May he rest in peace.

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