Union Minister visits Kalam missile complex
He visited various work centres of DRDL like Astra Mk I & II, vertically-launched short-range surface-to-air missile and scramjet engine facilities and was briefed about the status of the projects by scientist and Director General (missiles and strategic systems) U. Raja Babu and Director, DRDL, G.A. Srinivasa Murthy.
RCI director Anindya Biswas briefed him on the critical work centres and progress of the indigenous navigation/aviation systems, onboard computer division, and imaging infrarred seeker facilities. The Minister commended the DRDO scientists for playing a crucial role in building 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' through realisation of state-of-the-art weapon systems. He exhorted the scientific community to continue strengthening the armed forces to face any challenges in the current scenario, said a press release.
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Hans India
9 hours ago
- Hans India
Union Minister Singh hails record Defence production of Rs 1.5 lakh crore in 2024-25
New Delhi: Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday hailed the public and private sector manufacturers for taking Defence production to an all-time high of Rs 1.50 lakh crore in the Financial Year (FY) 2024-25. In a congratulatory message on X, the Defence Minister said, 'Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi, India's Defence production has hit a record high!' 'The annual Defence production has soared to an all-time high figure of Rs 1,50,590 crore in the Financial Year (FY) 2024-25. These numbers indicate a robust 18 per cent growth over the previous fiscal's output of Rs 1.27 lakh crore, and a staggering 90 per cent increase since FY 2019-20, when the figure was Rs 79,071 crore,' said Defence Minister Singh. He went on to credit the collective effort of the public and private sector for the achievement. 'I commend the collective efforts of the Department of Defence Production and all stakeholders i.e., DPSUs, public sector manufacturers, and the private industry in achieving this landmark. This upward trajectory is a clear indicator of India's strengthening Defence industrial base,' he wrote on X. Defence Minister Singh's praise comes in the backdrop of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully completing 138 projects during the last three years. The organisation completed 30 projects between January 1, 2025 till July at a cost of Rs 1,859 crore. The DRDO had completed 60 projects in the 2024 calendar year at a cost of Rs 3,989 crore, according to the Defence Ministry. Earlier, Minister of State Sanjay Seth said that DRDO, Industry and Academic Institutes are collaborating for carrying out Directed Research and translating research to technology for strengthening the future requirements of national safety and security. He said that in order to support the engagement of startups, MSMEs and private industry, Long Term Directed Research Policy of industry engagement through academia has been launched. The policy provides the guidelines for involving the industry in DRDO Industry Academia Centre of Excellence, DIA-COE projects either through Transfer of Technology or for Technology Enhancement by engaging industry as Co-PI (Principal Investigator), he said.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Hindustan Times
The physics of violin, when music and science meet
In 1922 a young man, C Subrahmanya Ayyar, gave his first solo performance playing the violin at the Presidency College, Madras. The soiree was followed by a lecture by Ayyar's younger brother on the physical properties of the sound made by the violin. The latter was none other than the eminent physicist, Sir CV Raman. The connection between physics and the violin went much further. Ayyar himself would quote from the works of eminent physicists like Hermann von Helmholtz in his writings on the violin and Raman would go on to build a 'mechanical violin player'. By the 1920s, the violin had been thoroughly incorporated into Carnatic music. (HT Photo) In the roughly two decades between World Wars I and II, Indian physicists published nearly a dozen papers in the two foremost international physics journals of the day, The Physical Review and The Philosophical Magazine, on the violin or research closely related to it. There were many more papers in local scientific journals as well. The history of the violin in the hands of Indian physicists is an excellent opportunity to reflect on the relationship between science and culture. Music historian Amanda Weidman relates Ayyar and Raman's interest in the violin to the larger history of the creation of a 'classical' form of Carnatic music. The first violins had arrived in India in the 1760s in Calcutta. But they were soon taken up by musicians in southern India. Baluswamy Dikshitar, the brother of composer Muthuswamy Dikshitar; the composer-king of Travancore (in today's Kerala) Swati Tirunal; His court performer Vadivelu; and Varahappayar, the canny minister of Maharaja Serfoji of Thanjavur, are all known to have played the violin around the dawn of the 19th century. A century later, by the 1920s, the violin had been thoroughly incorporated into Carnatic music. But strenuous efforts were being made to distance it from its earlier historical connections to Irish and Scottish fiddling — from which the Kannada name for it, piteelu, had derived, and to establish it as a classical instrument. Even the way the instrument was held, often using one's feet, were vigorously criticised by reformers such as Ayyar who sought to reshape its profile and playing technique to align it with classical western conventions. Weidman also points to the explicit links between these classicising tendencies and the expression of modernised caste and class identities. There were even advertisements of violins targeted explicitly to the then-rising Brahmin middle class in colonial Madras. Such biographical and social context might suggest that the Indian physicist's enthusiasm for the violin was entirely derived from the social milieu of colonial Madras. That, however, would be misleading. If we look closer at the places and people involved in violin research, we find a more complicated history. The man who published the most in international journals on the violin was Kulesh Chandra Kar. His very first paper on the subject, while still a student, would be published in the Philosophical Magazine. It was indeed Raman himself who first suggested this line of research to Kar. Kar was himself a musical enthusiast and so he readily embraced the research. But Kar had no discernible relationship to Carnatic music or the social life of Madras. Born in Bihar, Kar was mostly educated in Calcutta and went on to teach at the physics department of Presidency College, Calcutta. As a charismatic teacher, Kar was successful in getting several talented students interested in violin research. One of the students who took up violin research through his influence was BK Sen. Sen went on to work at the physics department of Rajshahi College, in present-day Bangladesh. Like Kar, Sen too rebuilt and improved upon the mechanical violin player originally designed by Raman. Unfortunately, Sen's model was left behind and eventually destroyed during the Partition. Other, younger researchers such as NK Datta and SK Ghosh, at Presidency College, Calcutta and RN Ghosh at Allahabad University would also publish multiple papers on violin-research. They too worked with versions of the mechanical violin player. Based in Allahabad, Calcutta, Shibpur, and Rajshahi, most of these researchers were Bengalis. They had little exposure to Carnatic music and certainly were not caught up in the social processes of colonial Madras, as Ayyar and Raman had been. Those amongst them that were musically inclined had their ears tuned to Hindustani classical music, rather than Carnatic. The violin had never been adopted into Hindustani music the way it had been absorbed into Carnatic music. It was only around the mid-1940s that VG Jog began to introduce the violin into Hindustani classical circles. Scientists like Kar, Datta, or Ghosh, would, therefore, be unlikely to associate the instrument directly with their own musical tastes. In fact, it is possible that the basis of the interest in violin acoustics amongst Calcutta physicists had roots that predated Raman's. Ramendrasundar Tribedi, a physicist and prolific science-writer, had written about experiments with the violin that were similar — though much simpler — than the ones conducted by Raman sometime around the 1910s. The essay was published in 1926, four years after Tribedi's death. Tribedi was extremely prominent in Calcutta's intellectual circles. He was a close friend and later relative by marriage to Rabindranath Tagore as well as being a founding member and president of the Bengali Literary Association. His work and writings would therefore have been influential for younger researchers. Yet, Tribedi was a connoisseur and student of Hindustani classical music. The roots of Tribedi's influence, like Ayyar's, went back to the research of Helmholtz, whom Tribedi addressed as 'Mahatma Helmholtz'. While personal interests and cultural resonances often amplified the attraction of particular lines of research, physics also had its own intellectual lineages. The violin, through Helmholtz, had emerged as much a research tool as a musical instrument. The two biographies of the violin — as research tool and musical instrument — occasionally intersected and occasionally did not. To completely conflate the two would not only be misleading but would also caricature the complicated relationship between science and culture. Like people, objects such as the violin, perform in multiple arenas of human existence and creativity. Culture and science are both such arenas. The mutual relationship of these two arenas cannot be predetermined. It unfolds differently in different historical contexts and through the actual traffic of people and objects between these arenas. Projit Bihari Mukharji is professor of history, Ashoka University, specialising in the history of science. The views expressed are personal.
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Indian Express
DIAT ramps up focus on semiconductor design, defence & space electronics, quantum tech in wake of Op Sindoor
Amidst an increased push for niche indigenous technologies in the backdrop of Operation Sindoor, Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT) has started a specialised programme — with another to be launched — in semiconductor design and defence and space electronics, said DIAT Vice Chancellor Dr BHVS Narayana Murthy on Thursday. He added that a futuristic quantum technology laboratory will also be launched. Dr Murthy was speaking at a curtain raiser event for the 14th Convocation Ceremony of DIAT which will be held on August 9. The convocation will be presided over by chairman of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and secretary of Department of Defence Research and Development, Dr Samir V Kamat, who is also the chairman of the Governing Council of DIAT. DIAT, which is an autonomous organisation of the Department of Defence Research and Development, offers post graduate programmes — including MTech, MSc and PhD — that are tailored towards defence and security applications. Dr Murthy said, 'After the recent Operation Sindoor, a lot of thrust is being given by the government and the tri-services to the indigenous weapons systems and defence technologies. There is a lot of thrust on getting skilled human resources in this area. To that end we launched an advanced course in semiconductor chip design — an area which has seen a lot of government push and another one in Defence and Space Electronics — which will cater for advanced defence and space payload electronics research. To encourage more systems engineering concepts, we are introducing an industrial system engineering programme for working professionals which will be conducted in hybrid mode on weekends.' 'As part of the DRDO reforms, DIAT has been chosen as the main institute to offer MTech in Defence Technology programme for its new recruits. We are successfully conducting a course for the Ministry of Home Affairs to train Cyber Commandos for six months. The first batch completed its course and the second will soon join. The DIAT is also involved in niche and advanced research areas with key defence applications. One of them is free-space high data laser communication, in which we have successfully demonstrated proof of concept. Our quantum technology group is also involved in key research, particularly quantum communication, quantum sensing, quantum computing and quantum key distribution. A dedicated quantum research laboratory is set to be inaugurated,' Dr Murthy added. 'Our Electronics and Physics Departments are working on photonics based electronic warfare systems and radar sensor systems. Many technologies which are a result of indigenous research have been completed and inducted. Like we saw in Operation Sindoor like Akash, Brahmos and direct energy weapons. In the coming years, the projects that are in the final stages of development, will undergo user evaluation trials and will be inducted into the forces. And the industries including PSU will play a major role in the process,' he said. Answering questions on the success of homegrown guidance, tracking and sensing systems during Op Sindoor and ongoing work in these areas, Dr Murthy said, 'DIAT is conducting PG courses like aerospace, which covers guide missiles, UAV and air armaments. We have a course in radar and sensing technology.' Speaking about research futuristic technologies, he said, 'One is free-space high data laser communication. With space being a domain of warfare, we are giving a thrust to space payloads as part of the defence and space electronics programme. The quantum group is working on quantum sensors. There is ongoing research on photonics based radars which will make the systems compact and also give systems jamming immunity. We are also working on advanced material for aircrafts and missiles. Many recent conflicts globally have highlighted the use of drones not just for surveillance but actual combat. Swarm drones are also a key sector. Our teams are working on various aspects including the anti drone systems.' Sushant Kulkarni is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express in Pune with 12+ years of experience covering issues related to Crime, Defence, Internal Security and Courts. He has been associated with the Indian Express since July 2010. Sushant has extensively reported on law and order issues of Pune and surrounding area, Cyber crime, narcotics trade and terrorism. His coverage in the Defence beat includes operational aspects of the three services, the defence research and development and issues related to key defence establishments. He has covered several sensitive cases in the courts at Pune. Sushant is an avid photographer, plays harmonica and loves cooking. ... Read More
