From a famend area scientist to an educationist, former ISRO chief Ok Kasturirangan put his stamp on key milestones in India’s area missions and schooling reforms, incomes him the title of “encyclopedia” in each arenas.
Former Indian House Analysis Organisation (ISRO) chairman Ok Kasturirangan handed away on the age of 84 at his residence in Bengaluru on Friday(ANI)
Additionally learn: Former ISRO chief Ok Kasturirangan dies at 84
Kasturirangan breathed his final at his Bengaluru residence at 10:43 am on Friday. He was unwell since he suffered a coronary heart assault in Sri Lanka in 2023 and his public appearances had diminished since then.
Kasturirangan was 84.
He steered the Indian area programme gloriously for greater than 9 years because the chief of the Indian House Analysis Organisation (ISRO), head of the House Fee and secretary to the Authorities of India within the Division of House, earlier than laying down his workplace on August 27, 2003.
He was the challenge director for India’s first two experimental earth statement satellites — BHASKARA-I and II — and subsequently, was additionally chargeable for the general path of the primary operational Indian remote-sensing satellite tv for pc, IRS-1A.
Kasturirangan received his bachelor’s and grasp’s diploma in physics from the Bombay College and PhD in experimental high-energy astronomy whereas working on the Bodily Analysis Laboratory, Ahmedabad, in 1971.
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He’s credited with the profitable launch and operationalisation of India’s prestigious launch automobile, the Polar Satellite tv for pc Launch Car (PSLV), and the primary profitable flight testing of the all-important Geosynchronous Satellite tv for pc Launch Car (GSLV).
Defining India’s most bold space-based high-energy astronomy observatory and initiating a associated actions was additionally an vital milestone below his management. Kasturirangan has made intensive and vital contributions to the research of cosmic X-ray and gamma-ray sources and the impact of cosmic X-rays within the decrease ambiance.
He’s a recipient of three main civilian awards — Padma Shri (1982), Padma Bhushan (1992) and Padma Vibhushan (2000).
After being related to the ISRO for practically 35 years — and heading it from 1994 to 2003 — Kasturirangan served as a Rajya Sabha MP from 2003 to 2009 and concurrently, because the director of the Nationwide Institute of Superior Research.
Below the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) authorities, he was a member of the Planning Fee from 2009 to 2014. He additionally headed the Karnataka Information Fee in 2008.
The present Nationwide Democratic Alliance (NDA) authorities gave Kasturirangan the reins of a nine-member committee tasked with drafting the bold Nationwide Schooling Coverage (NEP) in 2017. Previous to this, one other committee was shaped in 2015 below former cupboard secretary T S R Subramanian, however its suggestions had not panned out.
Officers on the Ministry of Schooling bear in mind him as an “encyclopedia”.
Kasturirangan was later additionally given the cost of the committee that drafted the brand new Nationwide Curriculum Framework (NCF), based mostly on the NEP.
He was additionally a member of the boards of governors of assorted institutes just like the Indian Institutes of Know-how (IITs) Roorkee and Madras and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.