Remembering 3 renowned scientists from Bhabha-Sarabhai era

The country has lost three stalwarts in a month — Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan (October 24, 1940 –  April 25, 2025), MR Srinivasan (January 5, 1930 – May 20, 2025), and Jayant V Narlikar (July 19, 1938 – May 20, 2025). Each of these luminaries made significant contributions to the strengthening of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), an institution founded by the legendary Homi Bhabha on June 1, 1945, on the campus of the Indian Institute of Science.

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Bhabha referred to TIFR as the cradle of atomic energy research in India and played a pivotal role in laying the foundation for India's space programme by establishing the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) at TIFR in February 1962, under the chairmanship of Dr Vikram Sarabhai, his contemporary at IISc.

Dr MR Srinivasan was inducted into the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) by Bhabha in September 1955, coinciding with the commencement of construction on India's first nuclear research reactor (named Apsara later). Bhabha had presided over the first International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva from August 8-20, 1955. Srinivasan progressed to become the chairperson of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in 1987. Prior to it, he had served as the director of Power Projects Engineering Division located in the barracks put up on the residential area of TIFR premises from 1974 onwards. He came in contact with several faculty members of TIFR, facilitating its expansion and diversification in the domains of radio astronomy and biological sciences, led by Govind Swarup, FRS and Obaid Siddiqi, FRS, respectively. He remained a member of the AEC for thirty-eight years, till he passed away.

He played a critical role in shaping the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement, and in safeguarding indigenous atomic energy programme. His continued membership of AEC added a unique value and perspective to the Commission. TIFR had a well-wisher in Srinivasan as a member of AEC, as he truly understood the autonomy that Bhabha had desired for it, while functioning within the privileged domain of DAE. He once candidly admitted that he had a difficult choice to make between the two candidates for director, TIFR — one of whom was Jayant Narlikar. As a non-physicist, he went along with the alternative choice.

The above stated situation, presumably prompted Prof JV Narlikar to move forward with his proposal for the creation of Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), outside the domain of DAE. Prior to it, Narlikar — in partnership with Govind Swarup of TIFR-National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune — had promoted the idea of TIFR-University of Poona joint MSc programme under the aegis of UGC. Yash Pal, an ex-TIFR professor, as then then Chairman, UGC, facilitated the quick nucleation of IUCAA by Government of India. Yash Pal himself had left TIFR in 1972 to join as director, Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad, to fill the void created by sudden passing away of Sarabhai. Narlikar had chosen to return from Cambridge to join TIFR in 1972, where his Cambridge companion SM Chitre was already a faculty member. Mangala Narlikar was also a PhD student in School of Maths of TIFR before they got married in 1966. JV Narlikar and Kumar Chitre, with few others, built the world-class theoretical astrophysics group, independent of the institute’s theory group that had been initiated by Bhabha.

Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan had obtained his BSc and MSc degrees in physics from Bombay University. However, he chose to join Vikram Sarabhai at his Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, for his PhD in 1963, instead of Bhabha’s TIFR. On completion of his PhD, he had an offer to do post-doctoral work with Nobel Laureate Luis Walter Alvarez at University of California at Berkeley. However, Sarabhai persuaded him to work for ISRO with Dr UR Rao to build the 40 kg Rohini satellite. By providence, Sarabhai passed away in his sleep on December 31. Both UR Rao and Kasturirangan progressed to head ISRO and steered the space programme. Kasturirangan also worked with Yash Pal for several years in the Department of Space.

Bhabha’s protégé, Raja Ramanna and MGK Menon were inducted into Rajya Sabha after their superannuation from government service. Yash Pal had remained engaged in devising policies for higher education in India, long after completing his tenure at UGC. Kasturirangan followed the paths of all his mentors after completing his innings as the chairperson of the Space Commission (1994-2003).

Kasturirangan served as the director of National institute for Advanced studies, Bengaluru — whose first director was Ramanna. Kasturirangan served in the Planning Commission as well, like MGK Menon. He was a member of Rajya Sabha (2003-09), chair of the Governing Council of IISc-Bangalore for a decade, member of TIFR Council of Management for over two decades and chairperson of the RRI Council till he passed away. He had the distinction of working with six Prime Ministers. His last significant contribution has been the enunciation of the New Education Policy (2020), which in a sense accomplished the task left unfinished by Yash Pal.

JV Narlikar had delivered a public lecture titled ‘Strange events in our Solar system’ on the occasion of  Ruchi Ram Sahni's 150th birthday (April 5, 2013) at Panjab University. Kasturirangan had delivered the presidential address on the occasion of the annual meeting of Indian Academy of Sciences in November, 2002, at PU campus.