A STAR IN SPACE
Besides pioneering Indian space research, he also set up many of the country’s seminal institutions
There is something to be said about how Vikram Sarabhai is today seen equally as an institutioncreator and enabler, far beyond just being the father of the Indian space programme. Even more amazing is the fact that most of the institutions that he created and helped build are iconic knowledge temples of modern India.
The institutions he created were designed not just for brilliance, but also with great imagination and creative thought. The first was the Ahmedabad Textile Industries Research Association (ATIRA) which, interestingly, had nothing to do with space science or exploration, but was designed to fill a gap in the management of the textile industry, for it to become more organised in terms of industrial research, and cutting-edge internationally. He was also the person behind the founding of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, the marketing research agency Operations Research Group (ORG), and many more. Obviously, this was a visionary in action. Sarabhai, needless to say, also set up multiple institutions related to the Indian space programme.
The precursor of ISRO,
the Indian National Committee for Space Research, was created with Sarabhai as its first chairman in 1962. A passion for this man was to see technology for communication reaching everywhere in India. The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), possibly the world’s first cable TV network, was begun by him, collaborating with the US’ space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Association (NASA), as was the manufacture of the first Indian satellite, Aryabhata. Both SITE and Aryabhata became a reality after Sarabhai’s death, but these were initiatives that had extraordinary impact on the Indian space programme, despite his painfully felt absence. This was a man who, reading the challenges of ordinary people (particularly Indians), was able to dream up a big bang solution which could involve even setting up an entire institution or a national programme to scale. This was a rare man, a star who blazed a trail touching human lives like never before. A very special Indian.