The Hindu : National : Nanotechnology will be the future, says President

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Saturday, Jul 24, 2004

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National

Nanotechnology will be the future, says President

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, JULY 23. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, was back in familiar surroundings here on Friday interacting with the scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

At the launch of the ISRO-supported portal for the National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS), Prof. Kalam spoke about the dominant technology of the near future. "We have had information technology, biotechnology and lately bioinformatics ... nanotechnology will be the future with nano science developing nano materials and devices. This will lead to further convergence of technology with wide applications. Nanotechnology now provides material worth $ 300 billion and this could become $ 750 billion in 2007," he said.

Plane technology

Prof. Kalam saw five important "technology revolutions" taking place. Merger of technologies would result in unmanned supersonic fighter aircraft, which could avoid radars. There would be "hyper-planes" with a high take-off payload, made possible by mass addition technology; the first supersonic cruise missiles would be made. Lastly, convergence of technology would lead to revolutionary changes in aerospace technology.

The NNRMS portal using remote sensing would be used to store and share data related to its national mapping mission. The data would include inventory of forests, wasteland, land use, water bodies, wetlands, coastal-land use and groundwater resources. Large-area databases covering many States were being prepared and the President was shown the data related to Chhattisgarh and Bijapur district of Karnataka, on the portal.

Educational software

Earlier, addressing a conference of Vice-Chancellors on EDUSAT at the St. John's Medical College auditorium, he asked for the creation of suitable educational content software that could be used for a year ahead.

EDUSAT is to be launched by ISRO in September in association with the Association of Indian Universities.

With EDUSAT set to add a new dimension to distance learning, the concept should extend to secondary schools and perhaps, even primary schools, Prof. Kalam suggested. "If there is a good Maths teacher in one school what he writes on the blackboard should be seen not just by his class but in classrooms in 10 other schools and reach 500 students. While our literacy rate has gone up, the quality of education has not and we still have miles to go.''

All-India coverage

The EDUSAT, with multiple transponders and beams, was configured to cover almost all of India, including the islands, and could be up-linked from the third week of September. This made content creation all the more urgent. The software should combine lectures, laboratories and library with suitable animation. Language need not be a hurdle. "I have discussed, with the Microsoft chief, language independent software with multi-language applications suitable for India.''

The ISRO chairman, G. Madhavan Nair, explained that EDUSAT would be positioned in the 36,000 km high geostationary orbit and co-located with INSAT-3C and KALPANA-1 at 74 degrees East longitude. The satellite had high communication payloads and solar arrays that could generate 2,000 watt power.

In the first pilot project, a Ku-band transponder, on INSAT-3B in orbit, was used by the Visvesvaraya Technological University in Karnataka to interconnect more than 100 engineering colleges.

The Governor, T.N. Chaturvedi, and the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, were present.

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