#IP 732 25 Sep - 1 Oct 2006

CSIR Foundation Day

CSIR was founded in 1942, and is now 64 years old. Unlike its employees who must retire at 60, CSIR continues its cheerful endeavour to do good basic or applied science, and develop R&D technologies in response to strategic, societal or marketing imperatives. CSIR's Director-General R A Mashelkar often tells us that our work must involve "innovation, compassion and passion", and this is indeed an admirable resolve.

One of CSIR's worries -- indeed the worry of all national R&D establishments -- is how to take its technology from the laboratory to the marketplace. It was therefore very thoughtful of NAL's Director Dr A R Upadhya to invite Dr J Narayana Das, Director, Naval Materials Research Laboratory, Ambarnath, to speak on this very subject at this year's CSIR Foundation Day function on Tuesday morning.

Dr Narayana Das's enunciation proved to be remarkable: starting with apparently straight-forward questions, e.g.: "what percentage of my technology will reach the market?" or "What are the impeding factors?", he built up the elements of what could become a carefully structured (and neatly illustrated) questionnaire that would pose questions about the technology concept, the business concept, the customer perspective etc. It would be any excellent idea to actually design and develop such a questionnaire (which could be web-based) and make it compulsory for R&D establishments to respond to this questionnaire before initiating a technology development project.

Dr J J Isaac, Head, Propulsion and Wind Energy Divisions, then delivered the CSIR Foundation Day Business Lecture. He explained how hypersonic technology is set to dominate the skies and talked of the "propulsion corridor" from turbojets to ramjets to scramjets with increasing Mach number.

At NAL we joke about how Dr Isaac is often the last to submit a presentation or a publication (well after the "last and final deadline"), but we forget to mention that his material is also the best crafted. Some of the slides that Dr Isaac used in his presentation were among the best ever seen at NAL. Dr Isaac's explanation of the complexity involved in the design of high speed combustors ("how fast can we burn?") was masterly ("it's all about how we play around with residence times and chemical kinetics"). As he continued his narrative featuring shelter zones and shapes of gutters one hardly realised that he was talking of technology concerns that are challenging the best engineers of our time.

If one had to quibble, one could ask how this sort of a lecture can be called a "business lecture" (isn't that supposed to be all that baloney featuring cost-benefit analysis and ROI?), but Dr Isaac had an answer for this poser as well: "the best business comes from good technologies!". How very true, and, yet, how often we forget this!

The function ended with the unveiling of NAL's new look website, featuring an impressive assembly of material describing the activities of the CEM Lab. Over the weeks and months to come, there will be a concerted effort to improve the coverage of NAL's other R&D projects along similar lines. The NAL website has been stronger in news so far than in technical content.

There was a thunderous applause when names of children of NAL's employees were called out to receive prizes for excellent academic, sporting or extra- curricular achievement, and things became rather amusing when someone looking sufficiently elderly turned up to receive awards intended for his or her teenage child.

I was personally delighted when this year's top award in the non-R&D category was called out for the trio that has developed the extremely impressive Arogya software: Dr Amarnarayan, R Balamurugan and M A Khan.

Dr M R Nayak, Adv (M&A), brought the function to a close with a well-articulated vote of thanks.

Srinivas Bhogle

CSIR Foundation Day
List of CSIR Foundation Day Lectures

#IP 731 18 - 24 Sep 2006

Time to sign off

It's time to sign off as the editor of the Information Pasteboard. There are now only a few days to go before I leave NAL.

The first issue of the Pasteboard appeared on 21 September 1992; almost exactly 14 years ago. This is the 731st issue. We have missed only a handful of issues, so this publication has proved to be a very reliable reading companion both in the print form (about 500 copies are posted every week) and on the NAL website (from Dec 1997).

Like so many other successful projects from NAL, this publication too owes its inception to Professor R Narasimha. "We should have a weekly summary of NAL events", he told me, with that glint in his eye that indicated that the idea excited him.

Looking at the archives, I see that our earliest reports were essentially bland press releases, e.g. "NAL to develop software for CAA, UK" or "NAL's A320 readout system certified by Indian Airlines". Later, we started writing reports about major conferences and events that readers apparently liked. For example (on 16 Dec 1992):

Then Prof R Narasimha formally inaugurated the INCOSURF'92 Convention by lighting the ceremonial lamp ("for perhaps the fifteenth time in fifteen days", Prof Ramaseshan remarked in jest), and by observing that the Convention's tight scientific programme was "a lot more soothing than the morning's newspapers".

Over the years the Pasteboard faithfully chronicled the life and times of NAL: the good times and the bad times. The successive air shows, the maiden flights of HANSA and SARAS, the remarkable story of the science magazine Kanaada, Capt G R Gopinath's lecture where he talked of his dream to create an airline where you could "Simplifly", the Nilakantan papers describing the lofty dreams of NAL's first Director, the tragic passing away of Raj Mahindra, Rustom Damania, K S Raman and so many other dear colleagues, tributes to retiring employees and friends, the dangerous optimism of R A Mashelkar, the magic at the Flosolver Lab, the happy day when the LCA had its own wings, the anguish when NAL's majestic rubber tree had to be felled ... and so many more.

Thankfully, many of these stories are now available on the Web -- and almost instantaneously because of Google's supernatural powers.

In the last few years the Pasteboard often became my own personal weekly column where I could write on any subject that caught my fancy or stirred a cord. My good friend Rakesh Mohan Jha was occasionally concerned that I was crossing the rubicon, but I always received the most encouraging support from each of NAL's successive Directors. There was only one moment of discord: when Dr K N Raju ordered that we stop mailing the Pasteboard to the press persons because a reporter twisted something that we wrote and this upset HAL Chairman R N Sharma. I tried hard to get Dr Raju to change his mind, but he stuck to his guns.

I shall miss all this fun of attending a meeting, scribbling something on a writing pad and then returning to write a lead story. Rather curiously, the fingers refuse to move till my deadline (5 pm every Friday) is just about an hour away. This delay creates some small panic in the minds of my colleagues (A S Rajasekar, who assembles all the material, composes every issue, painstakingly manages the archives and watches the mailing list, and Shailaja Menon, who makes up the web pages, equips herself with all photographs and sketches and thoughtfully inserts all the relevant hyperlinks), but we eventually make it just in time.

As I hand over the baton, the heart is heavy. I have had an intimate association with the Information Pasteboard (I even chose this awkward sounding name!) and the parting won't be easy.

Srinivas Bhogle

Dr Srinivas Bhogle calls it a day

#IP 730 11-17 Sep 2006

C-MMACS Foundation Day

Unexpectedly heavy traffic and a major road diversion delayed one's appearance at this year's C-MMACS Foundation Day function (C-MMACS was set up on 15 July 1988), and one was especially sorry to miss Dr Gopal Patra's melodious invocation. The C-MMACS Auditorium was overflowing; with Dr J J Isaac slated to deliver this year's Foundation Day Lecture this was no surprise. Dr Isaac gave a vivid account of the R&D activities at Propulsion Division in the advanced areas of hypersonic air breathing propulsion and advanced gas turbine technologies. He made the very important observation that innovations in propulsion are the fundamental drivers in the progress of air transportation. Dr G Prathap, Scientist-in-Charge, C-MMACS, after seeing Dr Isaac's colourful illustrations wondered if CFD was indeed the abbreviation of "colourful fluid dynamics". The function, graced by Dr K S Yajnik and Prof V K Gaur among others, ended with the vote of thanks by Dr Anand Kumar.

List of C-MMACS Foundation Day Lectures

New book on flight vehicle system identification

AIAA has recently published the book titled "Flight Vehicle System Identification: A Time Domain Methodology" by Dr R V Jategaonkar, formerly a NAL scientist and, since 1986, with DLR's Institute of Flight Systems. This 500-page volume contains chapters ondata gathering, model postulates and simulation, output error method, filter error method, equation error methods, recursive parameter estimation, artificial neural networks, unstable aircraft identification, data compatibility check, model validation and selected advanced examples.

Hindi fortnight celebrations

Driving on Bangalore streets, I have seen a large number of cloth banners at the entrance of PSU's, academic institutions and R&D establishments announcing Hindi fortnight celebrations.

These Hindi celebrations are cheerful affairs, and there are a large number of attractive events and cash prizes (why always cash prizes I wonder?).

NAL too rounded off its fortnight-wide celebrations with an impressive function with Prof M Vimala of Bangalore University as the chief guest, and featuring the Hindi Day lecture by Dr R M V G K Rao, Head, FRP Division; I would've loved to be present for Dr Rao's lecture because he has wide experience in managing R&D programmes (his lecture was titled: "R&D - How to balance?"), but sadly I had to be away to deliver a lecture in HIndi myself elsewhere!

As always, Dr P S R Murthy and his Hindi Cell did a fine job in organising NAL's Hindi celebrations.

"Photography is strictly prohibited!"

While travelling last week in the Andaman Islands, and indeed after visiting practically every government establishment, I can't help noticing how often we are alerted that photography is strictly prohibited. It makes you wonder: why are we doing this?

Photography is an enjoyable, and almost always, a harmless pastime. Seeing photographs is, if anything, even more enjoyable.

I am tempted to conjecture that this business started off for a perfectly valid reason, but somewhere down the line this warning became the vehicle for government officials to show off their "power". /SB

#IP 729 4 - 10 Sep 2006

First Prof A K Rao  Memorial Lecture

The decision of the Indian Society for Advancement of Materials and
Process Engineering (ISAMPE) to institute a memorial lecture in memory
of Prof A K Rao, who passed away on 10 December 2005, is laudable;
Prof Rao was the guiding spirit behind the ISAMPE movement.

It was also appropriate to invite Dr Baldev Raj, Distinguished
Scientist and Director, IGCAR, to deliver the first Prof A K Rao
Memorial Lecture at NAL on 7 September 2006, especially because Prof A K Rao was his Ph.D. supervisor. Dr Baldev Raj spoke on A perspective on nuclear energy in India -- Achievements and challenges in materials
science and technology. In a well-articulated lecture, Dr Baldev Raj explained why nuclear energy via the fast breeder reactor route was the best option for India in the long run.

Dr A R Upadhya, Director, NAL, presided over the meeting and paid a moving tribute to Prof A K Rao: "He was an icon for so many of us. He had so many marvellous gifts. I was continually amazed by his ability to
extract so much information from an apparently straight-forward X-Y
plot!".

Dr P D Mangalagiri, President ISAMPE welcomed the gathering. Dr Ramesh
Sundaram, Secretary, proposed the vote of thanks.

First Prof A K Rao Memorial Lecture | ISAMPE Workshop | Report on the Twenty First AGM of ISAMPE
| 7th AGM of ISAMPE Bangalore Chapter - Lt. Gen (Dr) V. J. Sundaram on MAV’s |

Gujar Mal Modi Award for Dr Kota Harinarayana

It is a pleasure to greet Dr Kota Harinarayana on being conferred the 2006 Gujar Mal Modi Award "for his important role in the development of India's light combat aircraft, Tejas". This is a much respected award; previous winners include Satish Dhawan (1988), C N R Rao (1989), R Narasimha (1990), A P J Abdul Kalam (1996) and K Kasturirangan (2002).

The way Dr Kota drove the LCA project was amazing; he worked 18 hours a day for perhaps 15 years to help the LCA fly. And he made everyone around him work just as hard ... not by being an imperious manager, but by giving a cheerful pat on the back, a friendly wink, or uttering an affectionate word of endearment. Dr Kota was also among the first to realize the tremendous value of team work.

I have often wondered why Dr Kota Harinarayana's stupendous effort has never received the full recognition that it deserves. This G M Modi Award is therefore heart-warming. It is much harder to perform in publicly-funded institutions, but dedicated gentlemen like Dr Kota show us that when there is the will, a way can still be found.

Srinivas Bhogle

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