The women behind India's space projects

A profile of Tessy Thomas, Project Director for the Agni V missile, and Valarmathi, Project Director for the Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-1).

Hailed as a trail blazer, Tessy Thomas juggles home and job — as the country's top ballistic missile expert. Thomas was Project Director for the Agni V long-range nuclear-capable missile which was test-fired last week. Tessy Thomas has lent a new and unusual face to the secretive world of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The Roman Catholic from Kerala has changed perceptions of her profession and has challenged tradition along the way, as, she says, she remains the doting wife and mother at home.

"In India, women are expected to take care of the home, so it is challenging," the 48-year-old told. "But all my women colleagues are also doing the same, just like me.” "It was tough when my son was in school," she conceded.

President Pratibha Patil commented after the launch that "the work of Thomas in the Agni programme would hopefully inspire more women in choosing careers in science". Thomas joined the DRDO in 1988 and worked under A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the architect of the national missile development programme.Her initial focus was on the guidance systems for the various Agni missiles. The first variant was flight-tested in 1989.

Her stewardship of the Agni V came after the first launch of the 3,500-kilometre-range Agni III in 2006.The mother of a college going son and wife of a naval officer insists there is no gender discrimination in DRDO, where about 200 female colleagues work in its dozens of ordnance factories and research facilities. "I always felt like a scientist. Science does not recognise who is making the inputs," she said.

Thomas says that she decided to go into missiles, which she regards as instruments of peace because of their deterrence value, after watching rocket tests from a launch centre near her home. "As school children, we used to go on picnics to watch the rocket tests and I would be fascinated. Besides, I was always interested in science and mathematics," she said.

She named her son Tejas, after India's indigenously-built light combat aircraft. Thomas, who holds an engineering doctorate, has now set herself another challenge. "I am currently working on mission and guidance (systems) of the multiple independent re-entry vehicles," the scientist said, referring to proposed new technology to deliver multiple warheads with a single missile.

Valarmathi, ISRO
N. Valarmathi, from Tamil Nadu, is the project director for the Radar Imaging Satellite (Risat—1) project at the Indian space agency's Satellite Centre in Bangalore. On Thursday, ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle will deliver the Risat—1 remote sensing satellite into space from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. Valarmathi is the second woman to be the satellite project director at ISRO. T.K. Anuradha, who headed the communication satellite GSAT—12 programme, is the first woman ever to have been the satellite project director at ISRO.AFP and IANS.

India takes a huge leap with Agni-V

From a single-stage, liquid-propelled, surface-to-surface Prithvi missile with a 150-km range, which was first launched in 1988, to a three-stage Agni-V that can take out targets 5,000 km away, it has been a “giant leap” for India in less than 25 years.

Agni-V, with all its three stages powered by solid propellants, is a “game-changer” for India in its missile technology capability. Prithvi was the first of the missiles developed under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, which was initiated in 1983 and wound up in 2007 after most of its objectives were met. However, the path to indigenous development from Prithvi to Agni-V was not smooth, as India had to overcome technology-denial regimes.

After the successful launch of Prithvi-1 in February 1988 and Agni in May 1989, the United States and other developed countries imposed technology embargoes on India under the Missile Technology Control Regime, adversely affecting the availability of electronic devices such as computer processor chips, radio frequency devices, electro-hydraulic components, maraging steel and composite materials such as carbon fibre.
V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, had earlier told The Hindu/Frontline: “This is a very short list. The list runs into hundreds of components and materials.”

Undeterred, the DRDO embarked on a massive programme to overcome denial of scores of items. Adopting a consortium approach by roping in many of its laboratories, private industries and universities, the DRDO developed the critical components. From the first generation anti-tank missiles in the 1960s to Prithvi, Agni, Akash, Trishul and Nag, the DRDO has designed and developed a variety of missiles that could be launched from different platforms, including a canister. Agni missiles form the bulwark of India’s nuclear deterrence strategy, which is based on the no-first-use of nuclear weapons policy.

Three Indian students chosen for the prestigious Gates Cambridge scholarship

Three Indian students — Siddhartha Kar, Suhasini Sen and Anand Shrivastava, are among the 50 students chosen across the globe for this year's prestigious Gates Cambridge scholarship. The scholarship, established by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, is awarded annually to the "world's most brilliant" scholars. The scholars will begin their courses at Cambridge University in October 2012.

Kar, who has an MBBS degree from the B J Medical College, Pune, will study for a PhD in public health and primary care with focus on the genetic epidemiology of cancer. "My research will involve the application of exciting emerging technologies. My experiences so far have left me profoundly conscious of global disparities in cancer care. I aspire to use my education in cutting edge public health genomics to eventually organise large-scale studies in India to further elucidate genetic risk factors for cancer," says Kar in his profile. Sen, a graduate of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, and a practicing lawyer from Delhi, will study for LLM. Her area of interest is the balance that needs to be struck between compulsions of national security and curtailment of civil liberties. "At what stage or in what context does it become morally and legally permissible to dilute principles of presumption of innocence and personal liberty? I believe that it is essential for a legal practitioner to have some answers to these questions, and it is to this end that I am pursuing an LLM," she says.

Shrivastava, a pass out of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, will do an MPhil in economics. "I am particularly interested in the assessment of the costs and benefits of forest land, the variation in these costs and benefits across the population and the political economics of the conversion of forest land for industrial use," he says.
According to the university, the competition this year was "intense" and the 50 successful candidates from 23 countries were chosen on the strength of their "potential to improve the lives of others in a multitude of important ways."

"We are delighted to have awarded Gates Cambridge Scholarships to 50 outstanding individuals from over 20 countries in the International selection round. The Scholars come from diverse backgrounds and will pursue a wide range of subjects at Cambridge. Most importantly, they fit the mission of the Scholarship: they convinced us at interview that they have real potential to improve the lives of others in a multitude of important ways," said Professor Robert Lethbridge, Provost of the Gates Cambridge Trust.