VIKRAM
AMBALAL
SARABHAI
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BRIEF
INFORMATION ABOUT
VIKRAM SARABHAI
•On August 12, 1919, Vikram Sarabhai was born in
Ahmedabad, India. His full name is Vikram Ambalal
Sarabhai and he was the son of Ambalal Sarabhai who
was a Gujarati industrialist. Dr. Vikram Ambalal
Sarabhai was an Indian physicist and an
astronomer who started the space research
organization and initiated the nuclear power plant
in India. Because of his achievement, he is regarded as
the Father of the Indian space program. He
was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1966 and the
Padma Vibhushan in 1972. Vikram Sarabhai passed
away due to cardiac arrest on December 30, 1971,
in Kovalam.
Vikram Sarabhai came from the famous Sarabhai family who was a
major industrialist
committed to the Indian Independence movement. Vikram Sarabhai
attended
the Gujarati college in Ahmedabad to complete his higher studies and
VIKRAM after
SARABHAI doing so he then took admission to the University of Cambridge in
England where
EDUCATION in 1940, he gave his final honour exam in the Natural Sciences.
Sarabhai returned to Cambridge post world war 2 to pursue his
doctorate and in 1945 he
submitted a thesis on “Cosmic Ray Investigation in Tropical Latitudes
ESTABLISHING THE PHYSICAL
RESEARCH LABORATORY
• After returning to independent India from Cambridge, Sarabhai
persuaded charitable trusts controlled by his family and friends to
endow a research institution in Ahmedabad, following which the
Physical Research Laboratory was founded on November 11, 1947.
Sarabhai was only 28 years of age when he established the Physical
Research Laboratory. He served the institution from 1966 to 1971.
Sarabhai was interested in different areas such as scientific
research, industry, business, and developmental issues. In 1947, he
founded the Ahmedabad Textile Industry's Research Association,
and looked after its affairs until 1956. Sarabhai also realised the
need for professional management education in India. Together
with different Ahmedabad-based industrialists, Sarabhai played an
important role in establishing the Indian Institute of Management
in Ahmedabad in 1962.
VIKRAM SARABHAI'S
ROLE IN NUCLEAR
RESEARCH
After the death of Bhabha in 1966, Sarabhai was
appointed chairman of the Atomic Energy
Commission of India. Sarabhai carried forward
Bhabha's work in the field of nuclear research, In 1966, Sarabhai was awarded the Padma
and was largely responsible for the Bhushan. In 1972, he was posthumously
establishment and development of India's awarded the Padma Vibhushan.
nuclear power plants. Sarabhai also laid the
foundations for the indigenous development of
nuclear technology for defence purposes.
CONTRIBUTION OF
VIKRAM SARABHAI TO
DRDO
•After the death of physicist Homi Bhabha in 1966, Sarabhai was appointed chairman
of the Atomic Energy Commission of India. Carrying forward Bhabha’s work in the field
of nuclear research, Sarabhai was largely responsible for the establishment and
development of India’s nuclear power plants. He laid the foundations for the
indigenous development of nuclear technology for defence purposes.
•As a result of Dr. Sarabhai's dialogue with NASA in 1966, Satellite Instructional
Television Experiment or SITE was an experimental satellite communications project
launched in India in 1975, designed jointly by NASA and the Indian Space Research
Organization (ISRO).
•The project made available informational television programs to rural India. The main
objectives of the experiment were to educate the financially backward and
academically illiterate people of India on various issues via satellite broadcasting, and
also to help India gain technical experience in the field of satellite communications.
FORMATION OF
ISRO
After the erstwhile USSR’s Sputnik satellite was launched in 1957, the entire attention
of the physics community shifted towards space sciences. Many countries ramped up
their development of a space programme.
In India, Sarabhai and his peers wrote to then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to
start a space programme, which came to be known as the Indian National Committee
for Space Research (INCOSPAR). At INCOSPAR, Sarabhai worked with Bhabha to set up
India’s first rocket station in Thumba, called the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching
Station. India’s first sounding rocket was launched on 21 November 1963.
INCOSPAR was revamped and rechristened ISRO in 1969. Here, Sarabhai was
instrumental in building India’s first satellite, Aryabhata, which was launched in 1975,
four years after his death.
Sarabhai collaborated with foreign space agencies regularly to make space more
accessible to Indian citizens and build the Indian space programme. He entered into
an agreement with NASA in the 1970s to use their satellites to broadcast educational
programmes to more than 5,000 Indian villages.
FIRST ROCKET
LAUNCHING
STATION IN
INDIA
•Architect of the atomic dream Dr. Homi
Jehangir Bhabha supported Dr. Sarabhai in
setting up the first rocket launching station
in India. This centre was established at
Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram on the
coast of the Arabian Sea, primarily because
of its proximity to the equator.
•After a remarkable effort in setting up the
infrastructure, personnel, communication
links, and launch pads, the inaugural flight
was launched on November 21, 1963, with
a sodium vapour payload.
At the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, he studied cosmic
rays under physicist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman.
He returned to Cambridge in 1945 to seek a doctorate, and in 1947
he completed his thesis, “Cosmic Ray Investigations in Tropical
MAJOR Latitudes.”
ACHIEVEMENTS,
INNOVATIONS
AND On his return to India, he established the Physical Research
INVENTIONS Laboratory in Ahmedabad.
BY VIKRAM
SARABHAI
In 1947, he founded the Ahmedabad Textile Industry Research
Association.
Sarabhai is also the founder of the Indian Institute of Management
in Ahmedabad, which was founded in 1962.
HONORABLE MENTIONS ABOUT Dr.
VIKRAM SARABHAI
• In 1962, he became the President of the Physics section, of the Indian Science
Congress.
• In 1970, he became the President of the General Conference of the I.A.E.A.,
Vienna.
• From 1966 to 1971, he served as the Chairman of the Atomic Energy
Commission of India.
• In 1971, he became the Vice-president of the Fourth UN Conference on
‘Peaceful uses of Atomic Energy.
• In 1972, he founded the Space Application Centre, an institution of research in
Ahmedabad under the support of the Indian Space Research Organisation or
ISRO. He served as the chairman of the same until 1971.
AWARDS OF VIKRAM SARABHAI
He was awarded the Padma Bhushan
in 1966.
1972
1966
He was awarded by the Padma
Vibhushan in 1972.
