February 21st, 2005
The rise of India as a Knowledge Superpower is the flavour of the week (Feb 19, 2005 issue) at New Scientist. This issue has well over a dozen articles on India.
Some gems from the articles, “…India’s six remote-sensing satellites - the largest such constellation in the world. These monitor the country’s land and coastal waters so that scientists can advise rural communities on the location of aquifers and where to find watercourses, suggest to fishermen when to set sail for the best catch, and warn coastal communities of imminent storms…The system is also being used to extend remote healthcare services and education to the rural poor…ISRO’s projects have added between two and three times the organisation’s budget to the nation’s GDP…India is perhaps the only country where societal needs are met by the space programme in a cost-effective manner and the services are reaching the needy…90 kilometres from Pune in western India, into a home for the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) - the world’s largest, low-frequency radio telescope and India’s biggest basic science project.”
and some sombre thoughts, “…For the New Scientist reporters who have been in India for this special report, many features of the country stand out. First, its scale and diversity. With a population of more than a billion, the country presents some curious contrasts. It has the world’s 11th largest economy, yet it is home to more than a quarter of the world’s poorest people. It is the sixth largest emitter of carbon dioxide, yet hundreds of millions of its people have no steady electricity supply. It has more than 250 universities which catered last year for more than 3.2 million science students, yet 39 per cent of adult Indians cannot read or write…”
