BENGALURU: Chairman of Board of Governors, National Design and Research Forum, Dr M Annadurai, on Thursday proposed Bharat Ratna for Prof UR Rao, to honour him for “foundationally conceptualising, defining, operationalising and setting the framework for India’s satellite development”, which is now scaling-up satellite manufacturing and deployment through the rapid emergence of the private sector in the Indian space arena.
Popularly known as the Moon Man of India, Annadurai said the golden jubilee year of the launch of ‘Aryabhata’ (India’s first satellite, which was launched on April 19, 1975) is the right time to accord the nation’s highest civilian honour to Prof Rao. He added that the latter is the only Indian space scientist to be inducted into Washington DC’s ‘Satellite Hall of Fame’.
Speaking on Prof Rao at RV College of Engineering, on the occasion of re-printing and distribution of the former’s biography, titled — ‘The Life and Times of UR Rao: From Humble Origins to a Space Legend – A Biographical Account’, Annadurai said Prof Rao is on a par with Dr Vikram Sarabhai and Prof Satish Dhawan. While the latter two developed the vision of space for India, Prof Rao crafted the mission for space development in India and executed their vision. “Prof Rao was a dreamer and visionary.
He should be honoured with the Bharat Ratna for establishing India as a space power. The biography captures the bewildering variety of knowledge, academic rigour and range, astonishing capabilities, and the legendary intellectuals he met, from all walks of life. It also reveals how he emerged as a top-flight scientific thought leader from a time when the chips were down,” he added.
“Prof Rao is primarily known as the man who brought satellite technology to India. His contribution to space development was to build a unified concept of satellite system with multiple applications,” he said.