India's Contribution to Science & Technology

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 18 Nov 2006 18:43

TIRUCHI: The Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, has awarded the Young Scientist Fellowship, worth Rs. 12 lakh, to K. Nataraja Seenivasan, Reader, Department of Microbiology, Bharathidasan University.

It is to help him carry out research on `Combinatorial analysis of Recombinant LipL32: Effective Detection of Leptospire specific antibodies by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay.'

Utilising the funds sanctioned under the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) Fast Track Scheme, Dr. Sreenivasan will focus on molecular cloning of leptospiral genes, furthering the development of recombinant proteins. By using the proteins, he plans to develop the tools for early diagnosis of leptospirosis.

The SERC Fast Track Scheme will be another feather in the cap of the university's Bio-Medical Diagnostic Laboratory, which is one among the few centres in the country to undertake quick diagnosis of leptospirosis.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 23 Nov 2006 19:36

Carry hard disk in a pen drive!

His first tryst with programming was in a computer class at St Paulâ€™s English School, Bangalore . That very moment he knew he was made for the world of programming.

From then on, Anil Gulecha has been on an aggressive learning mode. The internet and books have been his tutors. He is still learning . But he has already accomplished a unique feat â€” that of putting a whole operating system (OS) on a thumb/pen drive and enabling it to run live on any computer without having to install it on the computerâ€™s hard disk.

In other words, you can now carry your hard disk or your entire operating system in your pocket. This effort takes computing to a whole new level.

Moinak Ghosh, an engineer at Sun Microsystems, Bangalore, recently took the lead on Solaris 10, the flagship operating system of Sun Microsystems , and came up with the version called BeleniX. As TOI reported in July, Moinak took the whole OS and put it together as an abridged LiveCD version. Thanks to the 20-year-old Anil Gulecha, BeleniX can now â€œboot from a USB thumb drive.â€™â€™ The challenge for Anil was to take the existing LiveCD programme and modify it in a way that it identifies USB drives when these are inserted.

â€œYou can now buy a thumb drive, visit the BeleniX website and mount the whole OS on to it. You can then carry this with you and use it. Weâ€™ll now work on enhancements for future versions,â€™â€™ he said.

Anil is a third year computer science student at JSS Academy, Bangalore. He worked on BeleniX during his spare time and happened to cross paths with the BeleniX team at a college tech fest, where Sun was organising a contest for hackers.

Moinak helped Anil identify the need for BeleniX to be mounted on a thumb drive and then helped him through the project. â€œThis is my first open source project and my first experience with Unix. Iâ€™m happy with the outcome and encouraged by Moinakâ€™s support,â€™â€™ he said.

Anil looks forward to the days when new variants of the OS would make computing more simple and effective.
Meanwhile, plenty of accolades have piled up. â€œAnil has received huge appreciation from the top management at Sun. He has been nominated as one of our technology ambassadors â€” to talk about Sun technologies in colleges. We equip these ambassadors with tools and information to work on new technologies and applications,â€™â€™ K P Unnikrishnan, director in Sun Microsystems India, said.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 07 Dec 2006 05:33

Scientific breakthrough:

http://www.physorg.com/news84633896.html

Another fundamental particle discovered by an Indian.

(Yawn) it's becoming so commonplace nowadays.

Alok_N · Post by **Alok_N** » 07 Dec 2006 09:11

Sanjay M wrote:Scientific breakthrough:

http://www.physorg.com/news84633896.html

Another fundamental particle discovered by an Indian.

this "physorg" seems to be a bogus site ... just like this claim of discovery of the axion is bogus ...

(Yawn) it's becoming so commonplace nowadays.

I am glad you are bored ... however, *no Indian* has discovered *any* modern fundamental particle *ever* ...

Tilak · Post by **Tilak** » 07 Dec 2006 09:26

Alok_N wrote:
(Yawn) it's becoming so commonplace nowadays.
I am glad you are bored ... however, *no Indian* has discovered *any* modern fundamental particle *ever* ...

Alok_N,

Do Tachyon's qualify ?, just wanted to know.

Alok_N · Post by **Alok_N** » 07 Dec 2006 10:03

Tilak wrote:Do Tachyon's qualify ?, just wanted to know.

no tachyon has ever been seen ... it was a theory propounded by ECG Sudarshan for fun ...

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 07 Dec 2006 10:30

Abdul Salaam is indian, as are all pakis...a bit lost but they will find their way back eventually. he was excommunicated for being ahmediya ofcourse - poor chap.

so pls chalk up "boson" on the list.

Alok_N · Post by **Alok_N** » 07 Dec 2006 10:38

salaam didn't discover any bosons ... he contributed to the theory that unified eletromagnetic and weak forces ... the vector gauge boson particles had been predicted earlier by others and discovered by yet others on later dates ...

I am careful about such claims ... I repeat, no Indian has discovered any of the modern particles ... not even minor ones like resonances that were being discovered dime a dozen in the 50s and 60s ...

ASPuar · Post by **ASPuar** » 11 Dec 2006 18:27

A link to the PARAM Padma supercomputer by CDAC.

http://www.cdac.in/html/parampma.asp

So I see the applications are for meteorology, computational dynamics, etc. But can someone explain to a layperson like me what this means?

Will a supercomputer like this only be of use to IITs, etc, or is it of some use to a regular engineering college as well?

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 14 Dec 2006 08:22

Alok_N wrote: I am careful about such claims ... I repeat, no Indian has discovered any of the modern particles ... not even minor ones like resonances that were being discovered dime a dozen in the 50s and 60s ...

I had thought one Nariman Mistry from Cornell (?) circa 60's was on the lederman experiment. Need to go back and check the authorship to verify. What about the many yindoo Do zero and cant do phyziks folks

for top discovery ?

Alok_N · Post by **Alok_N** » 14 Dec 2006 08:38

Bade wrote: I had thought one Nariman Mistry from Cornell (?) circa 60's was on the lederman experiment. Need to go back and check the authorship to verify. What about the many yindoo Do zero and cant do phyziks folks for top discovery ?

Yes, Nariman Mistry was a student on Lederman experiment that confirmed that muon neutrinos are distinct from electron neutrinos ...

Here's Lederman's joke about Nariman:

"The experiment was using old battleship parts as shielding. A cannon, packed with beryllium, was to be used as the beam stop/target. Nariman was this small guy and was given the job of cleaning out the inside of the cannon. He started on the job and then crawled back out disgusted. He threatened to quit. And I said, 'no don't do that, where else will I find a student of your caliber?'... "

btw, top "discovery" is a joke ... however, if someone wants to claim 1/800th of the "credit" they are welcome to do so ...

as for "Do Zero", I prefer to call them jokers "D-Void" ...

and watch your spelling, its "Can't Do Fyzziks" ... in the early days it was Crack Dominated Facility ....

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 14 Dec 2006 08:53

Interesting anecdote. Wonder what Mistry thinks of it.

But then Fizzicists are not known to be gentlemen either.

Alok_N · Post by **Alok_N** » 14 Dec 2006 08:59

Leon Lederman is no gentleman ... here's my own anecdote ...

when Leon won the Nobel Prize, there was this big party at Bjorken's house ... the beer was a keg of Budweiser ...

Me: "Leon, if I won the Nobel Prize I would serve something better than Bud"

Leon: "Yes, if you won the Nobel Prize, I would serve something better too"

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 16 Dec 2006 07:23

Pacetronix to diversify into implantable devices
[quote] KOLKATA: Pacetronix, the sole Indian maker of pacemakers, has decided to venture into other specialty implantable medical devices. The company is working closely with several partners, including Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to sell implantable cardio-defibrillators, titanium dental implant and cochlear implants.

Pacetronix aims to launch these products at a price-point of about Rs 1-2 lakh, which will be a huge price reduction for this product range. While cochlear implants are sold at a price of about Rs 10 lakh in India, implantable cardio-defibrillators are sold in the Rs 6-8 lakh range.

â€œThereâ€™s a huge market for these specialty implantable devices but the main barrier is the high price. When we launch these products over the next two years, we will break the price barrier,â€

Gaurav_S · Post by **Gaurav_S** » 19 Dec 2006 12:33

Dont know if posted before..!

Can India produce billion-dollar innovations? PART 1

http://www.rediff.com/money/2004/aug/10ariban.htm

How India can produce big-bang innovations PART 2

http://www.rediff.com/money/2004/aug/11ariban.htm

Innovation: Where has India succeeded and failed PART 3

http://www.rediff.com/money/2004/aug/12ariban.htm

Author Arindam Banerji

article is published in 2004 but the fact remains the same

So, what is institutionalised innovation?

Okay, so what is institutionalised innovation anyway -- encouragement for innovation when embedded deep within key institutions of society allows for a steady stream of high-impact innovations like the Polaroid, cell-phone, Xerox machine, MEMs (micro-electromechanical systems) and so on -- the hoops that innovators have to jump through to make a difference gets lowered.

You do not have to be one-in-a-billion to make a difference -- being one-in-10-million is good enough. And those numbers make all the difference. It is this improvement of odds that forms the crux of 'Institutionalisation of Innovation.'

So, ask yourself: would it take one Indian in a 100 million who could -- while working in India -- come up with something as earth-changing as the jet-engine? Or do you think it would take one Indian in a billion to achieve that feat?

Now ask yourself: what would it take to reduce the odds so that one Indian in 10 million could produce something fundamentally earth-changing like the photocopying machine?

How would we have to change as a society and as a country to reduce those odds of one in a billion Indians innovating the next radical shift in technology to, perhaps, one Indian in a 10 million achieving the same?

If you can figure out the changes, you have figured out how to institutionalise innovation. You have figured out what it takes not only to produce one good innovation every couple of decades, but to produce the kind of steady innovative disruptions that Tables 6-9 indicate.

Look closely, every few years within the US, somebody has come up with and produced an earth-shattering innovation or two. That does not happen by magic or coincidence and it isn't because the Americans are any smarter than the Indians.

It's because the US society, academia and industry have institutionalised innovation.

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 21 Dec 2006 03:03

India carves a niche in deep sea mining with new technology

NEW DELHI: Exploring minerals, buried deep in the ocean, is one of the most daunting tasks for scientists around the globe. And making a major breakthrough, Indian scientists have taken deep sea mining technologies to a new level, said the union minister for science and technology and ocean development, Kapil Sibal.

The scientists from the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) have, for the first time, developed a world class Remote-Operated Vehicle (ROV), an Underwater Crawler and an In-Situ Soil Property Measurement System (SPMS).
Through these devices, India can now explore greater depths in the ocean and sea-bed as the machines are capable of working in extreme weather conditions and tumultuous seas. They will also assist in rescue operations, taking measurements and samples from the sea bed, repairing instruments and gadgets in the water, and will also help companies involved in offshore drilling.

â€œThis has put India in the coveted list of developed countries involved in deep-sea technology. Through this Indian scientists can also explore non-living resources in the ocean bed,â€

msdogra · Post by **msdogra** » 21 Dec 2006 03:32

Sridhar wrote:Let me add a poetic contribution to this thread. I wrote a poem in Hindi on New Year's Day 2004 and BR Monitor published it as a Republic Day special. It is about 'scientists' (the term being used somewhat loosely and including 'proto-scientists') of India from ancient times till today. It gives some kind of a summary, though by no means comprehensive, of India's contribution to Science and Technology - the title of this thread.

There is an overlap of people featured in the poem and on this thread.

I also have an extensive glossary for those not very familiar with Hindi and that also contains detailed biographies of all the featured 'scientists'.

Since there are a couple of changes to the poem that have not been updated on BRM, I am providing a link to a non-BRM source first, which I recommend to anybody interested. (President Kalam happened to have read the poem and sent a personal reply, which I have also scanned and put up on this site).

Updated version of the poem
http://www.geocities.com/nsridhar74/naara_purkhon_ka.htm

BRM version
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/MONITOR/ISSUE6-4/sridhar.html

Very beautiful poem. Keep it up.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 25 Dec 2006 21:07

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/309434/wh ... dians_3_6/

mandrake · Post by **mandrake** » 26 Dec 2006 01:10

Mahalanobis Named "Scientist of the Year"
ECE Alumnus Receives Minorities in Research Science Award
September 12, 2006

ECE alumnus Abhijit Mahalanobis (M.S. 1985; Ph.D. 1987) won the "Scientist of the Year" Emerald Award from the Minorities in Research Science (MIRS) organization. Emerald Honors are considered the premier awards for African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and Native Americans working in the research sciences. The recipients will be featured in Science Spectrum magazine.

The "Scientist of the Year," designation, which Mahalanobis will accept at the MIRS Conference this week in Baltimore, is the highest honor bestowed at the event, given to a person who advances critical knowledge, driving development of new lines of products and services that reshape the industry's tools and offerings. The winner works on the cutting edge of basic research or process control and is a research team leader whose blend of scientific knowledge and managerial expertise lifts an entire organization to new levels of achievement.

Mahalanobis is the technical lead and manager for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control's Signal Imaging and Processing group in the Research & Technology organization. He develops major components of the missile defense system for the U.S. Army and has won his corporation's NOVA Award and been named a fellow, distinctions reserved for top employees.

"Abhijit is the most brilliant innovator and research team leader I have observed in my 25-year career in research and development," said Mike Dudzik, who directs Mahalanobis' group at Lockheed Martin.

"Not only has he made extensive original technical contributions to new theories in correlation pattern recognition, he has reduced his theories into practical algorithms which are at the foundation of several key products," Dudzik added. "Furthermore, university research groups worldwide are using his theories to address image processing challenges in other fields."

Mahalanobis provides the background for his theories in the textbook "Correlation Pattern Recognition," which he co-authored with ECE Professor Vijayakumar Bhagavatula and Richard Juday, a retired researcher from the NASA Johnson Space Center. David Casasent, George Westinghouse Professor of ECE, advised Mahalanobis when he was a student at Carnegie Mellon.

Another Emerald Award winner this year is ECE Professor Shawn Blanton, who won the Educational Leadership Award for outstanding leadership in recruiting and mentoring minorities for advanced degrees in science and technology. Blanton is the Associate Director of the Center for Silicon System Implementation at Carnegie Mellon. His research interests include developing systems used for testing integrated semiconductor circuits and microelectromechanical systems. He joined the ECE faculty in 1995, after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Sources: Career Communications Group Inc. and Lockheed Martin Corporation

Abhijit Mahalanobis, named â€œScientist of the Yearâ€

Raju · Post by **Raju** » 27 Dec 2006 09:14

Isn't the famous 'Damascus sword/steel' made from centuries old Indian derived tech ..
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/061113/ ... 13-11.html

Think carbon nanotubes are new-fangled? Think again. The Crusaders felt the might of the tube when they fought against the Muslims and their distinctive, patterned Damascus blades.

Sabres from Damascus, now in Syria, date back as far as 900 AD. Strong and sharp, they are made from a type of steel called wootz.

Their blades bear a banded pattern thought to have been created as the sword was annealed and forged. But the secret of the swords' manufacture was lost in the eighteenth century.

Materials researcher Peter Paufler and his colleagues at Dresden University, Germany, have taken electron-microscope pictures of the swords and found that wootz has a microstructure of nano-metre-sized tubes, just like carbon nanotubes used in modern technologies for their lightweight strength

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 08 Jan 2007 07:20

http://deccanherald.com/deccanherald/ja ... 200718.asp

in 21st century, our scientists needs more funds to make know to the hindutvans that though it may be revered, it definitely need not be attributed to something magical, mystical and non-science.

science has still reach many quarters, and its a long way.. in the sense, the world is still wide open.

what would be nice for hindutvans would be acclimatize with science and make it a scientific-reverence rather, so that future generations appreciate such concepts, and ensure religion and customs are given respect.

Victor · Post by **Victor** » 14 Jan 2007 09:18

This looks like a really big deal. Shabash India!

Big drug delivery breakthrough

This is probably the biggest techno-medical breakthrough from India in the past few years....

..The only other similar compound approved by the FDA was introduced in the US in 2005, but the hyaluronic acid-based compound, costs a whopping Rs 1.5 lakh for one gram...

..The gelatin-based polymer developed by AIIMS and IIT costs a mere Rs 40 per gram.

..as it is biodegradable, it will degrade on its own..

..For cancer patients, the best thing is that chemotherapy drugs can now be given straight at the organ affected so that side effects like hair and immunity loss will be hugely reduce..

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 19 Jan 2007 00:36

http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk ... index.html

Indian Mathematics: Redressing the balance
Ian G Pearce
CONTENTS

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Early Indian culture - Indus civilisation
4. Mathematics in the service of religion:
I. Vedas and Vedangas
II. Sulba Sutras
5. Jainism
6. The Bakhshali manuscript
7. Decimal numeration and the place-value system
8. The Classical period:
I Introduction
II. Aryabhata and his commentators
III. Brahmagupta, and the influence on Arabia
IV. Mathematics over the next 400 years (700AD-1100AD)
V. Bhaskaracharya II
VI. Pell's equation
VII. The end of the Classic period and the state of Indian mathematics abroad by the 12th century
9. Keralese mathematics:
I. Introduction
II. Mathematicians of Kerala
III. Madhava of Sangamagramma
IV. Possible transmission of Keralese mathematics to Europe
10. Conclusions

References

Contrary to Euroscentric belief, scholars from India, over a period of some 4500 years, contributed to some of the greatest mathematical achievements in the history of the subject. From the earliest numerate civilisation of the Indus valley, through the scholars of the 5th to 12th centuries who were conversant in arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, geometry combinatorics and latterly differential calculus, Indian scholars led the world in the field of mathematics. The peak coming between the 14th and 16th centuries in the far South, where scholars were the first to derive infinite series expansions of trigonometric functions.

In addition to mighty contributions to all the principal areas of mathematics, Indian scholars were responsible for the creation, and refinement of the current decimal place value system of numeration, including the number zero, without which higher mathematics would not be possible. The purpose of my project is to highlight the major mathematical contributions of Indian scholars and further to emphasise where neglect has occurred and hence elucidate why the Eurocentric ideal is an injustice and in some cases complete fabrication.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 02 Feb 2007 02:58

India as a hub for innovation?

B.S. Prakash

Will innovation in products or processes on a global scale become the next wave?

CAN INDIA aspire to be a hub for innovation on a global scale? In its external economic dimension, can this be the next big opportunity for India? These questions assume importance as the search for new options and directions to maintain growth and create employment has to be a constant for us. Moving beyond India's now well established success in information technology, are there any unique possibilities in innovation?

These reflections emanate from several stimulating discussions in Silicon Valley, which is itself recognised as a global centre for innovation. To mention only two recent events, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) together with The Economist magazine organised a Conference in October 2006 on India as the next hotspot for innovation. In December 2006, a seminar at Stanford University in California looked at the "fluidisation of the location of work" that may lead to new types of design and product development requiring sophisticated mental inputs capable of being undertaken in India. More about the findings from these later. But aside from academic analysis, we already see a number of emerging partnerships between global and Indian entities to leverage the advantages that are inherent in working together, which go well beyond the now familiar area of outsourcing. What are these?

Before addressing the issue, it may be useful to briefly look at what is innovation. The dictionary definition of innovation is "the process of making improvements by introducing something new." But a more useful idea is that of Peter Drucker, the management guru, who saw innovation as "the change that creates a new dimension of performance." Innovation is thus not invention, nor is it basic research, but essentially some form of improvement that typically adds value to an existing process or product. It is doing something different and better that multiplies the utility, or brings down the cost, or enhances the value of a known entity.

If innovation involves an aptitude to do things differently, does the Indian mind have it? This is debatable, but it can be seen that we do have some attributes that are relevant. To begin with, both common sense and empirical evidence tell us that some of the conditions that foster out-of-the-box solutions include scarcity and need. If necessity is the mother of invention, scarcity may be the mother of its cousin, innovation. Secondly, a constant exposure to diversity and a ready acceptance of things being handled differently instead of uniformity or conformity also influences mental attitudes. Anyone who knows India would agree that we have this trait and that to try out flexible solutions to vexing problems is a part of the Indian reality. Going beyond these necessity-induced traits, there are other attributes that characterise us: valuing knowledge and education, respect for mental work, a propensity to take shortcuts, an "argumentative mind." If this is true, it could be postulated that the spirit of innovation is not alien to the Indian mind.

If all this is so, it will be asked, how is it that we do not have too many success stories in developing new solutions? Why is there no established track record of innovation in products or processes?

It is a fair question. The answers may lie not in the psychological realm of the "Indian mindset," but elsewhere. First, it may be noted that the Indian mind has not lacked in experimentation or innovation in non-material realms â€” be it techniques of yoga or meditation or ahimsa as a political tool. Turning to the material and the management world, our economic and social environment in previous decades may have played a role in limiting the innovative spirit. The controlled economy, the over-regulation, the limits on expansion and scaling up of enterprises had probably affected innovative thinking in business. Further, an insular approach and sheltered markets may have lessened the need to aggressively seek new solutions. All this has no doubt changed in the last decade. With the acceptance of globalisation, the resulting competition and opportunities for unfettered expansion, we are already seeing Indian business entities succeed with new and innovative approaches. Some of the notable success stories hitherto relate to innovation in supply chain, marketing, services or in the business model itself. There are case studies â€” Amul, the Mumbai dabbawalla (lunch carrier) system, shampoo in a sachet to reach the rural market, the cellphone explosion â€” these illustrate business in India adapting practices uniquely suited to Indian conditions and thus creating opportunities for growth.

Can this accelerate and will innovation in new products or processes on a global scale become the next wave? The discussions mentioned above and this writer's own professional interactions with Silicon Valley companies point towards some new directions.

Significant growth area

The NASSCOM-commissioned study by a major consulting firm concludes that Engineering Services Outsourcing (known as ESO) may be a significant growth area. The concept here is that of specialised manufacturing (as distinct from mass manufacturing) using sophisticated skills and techniques, including but not limited to IT skills. The process includes designing new products or making improvements in them and bringing an affordable product to the market as fast as possible. It was interesting to note from the discussions that the Indian advantage in this process is not in cost alone, though with the large pool of professionals this is indeed a factor. But apart from the cost, the size and the quality of the multi-disciplinary talent available are also regarded as crucial in a globally competitive environment. An additional factor is the large size of the Indian domestic market that makes product development in India an attractive proposition since a prospect in both the Indian and the global market gives any such operation the economies of scale.

Thus the attraction of India as a locale is based on cost, talent, market, and innovation arbitrage, as the management jargon has it. For all these reasons today more than half the Fortune 500 companies are already present in India and many have a research and development or a design centre to use some of these advantages.

In the Stanford seminar, "the globalisation of product development" was deemed as the inevitable next stage. This is because in recent years, high technology companies, say for instance mobile phone manufacturers have faced increasing pressures to innovate new products with rich features, bring them to developing country markets as fast as possible and before competitors, sell them at ever lower prices and sustain their operations on the basis of large volumes. In these circumstances, new locales for design, development, and manufacturing become attractive. Some of the interesting examples mentioned were in chip design, memory systems or medical equipment. Other examples already well on the way are in the automotive components field, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, and in some process innovations.

According to the NASSCOM study, even if India aims at 20 per cent of the total size of the ESO market by 2020, the volume of the business can be in the range of $60 billion which can match the revenues from the IT services. It is a sizable chunk and, what is more, is likely to generate significant employment too.

Familiar constraints

The constraints in working towards these objectives are familiar. Mention was made of the infrastructure constraints â€” power, roads, ports; lack of experienced management professionals despite the large numbers; and the need to have new urban centres to act as innovation hubs. Though these are formidable constraints, it is also known that the Indian establishment, both in government and industry, is acutely aware of them.

As the world changes and as India too changes and gets more integrated into the global system, there will be newer opportunities. Innovation is one of them. We have to work intelligently towards harnessing these opportunities to create another success story.

(The writer is India's Consul-General in San Francisco and can be reached at cg@cgisf.org.)

ashkrishna · Post by **ashkrishna** » 04 Feb 2007 22:34

being a number theory enthusiast...here are a few indians who've made significant contributions...i am quoting from a book on NT

prime no-- 2098960 digits -------N.Hajrawala
twin primes- 7439 digits each - a. narayanan
N. kaprekar...any one heard of the kaprekar numbers(recreational NT)
sophie germain prime of 6122 digits - A>Narayanan..

honestly.. we need a ramanujam institute of pure mathematics to build on our traditional prowess in this field..

some interesting facts.

Brahmagupta proved the pythogoras therorem in a different way....anybody interested?

when u use pi = 22/7 for approximate work...do u know who to thank - ans.. Bhaskara.

Calvin · Post by **Calvin** » 05 Feb 2007 03:06

Are Indians entering or remaining in this field because of what happened in the past, or because of what the future holds?

There is a need to preserve our past, but our future is not dependent on our past but on our efforts and enterprise TODAY. When the future is secure, enough private individuals will band together to preserve the past. There is no need for government to meddle in this.

mandrake · Post by **mandrake** » 05 Feb 2007 03:59

ashkrishna i agree we need a institute for Pure Mathematics.
We invented the zero...too.

It wont take too much investment - is it possible if i make such a appeal to state govt through college students?

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a prodigy.

Calvin · Post by **Calvin** » 05 Feb 2007 05:43

Why should the state be involved in this? Isn't Ramanujam's experience with state education sufficient evidence to keep the state out of this?

Sparsh · Post by **Sparsh** » 05 Feb 2007 09:52

when u use pi = 22/7 for approximate work...do u know who to thank - ans.. Bhaskara.

A related bit of pi trivia: We can construct an arbitrarily accurate rational approximation of pi via a high enough convergent of its (simple) continued fraction representation.

22/7 is the first convergent, 333/106 is the second convergent, and 355/113 is the third convergent. This last one is accurate to six decimal digits and is my personal favourite approximation for pi. The fourth, fifth, and higher convergents are even more accurate but are not so easy to remember.

Nandu · Post by **Nandu** » 05 Feb 2007 10:37

Madras University does have a Ramanujan Institute for the study of advanced math.

ashkrishna · Post by **ashkrishna** » 05 Feb 2007 14:15

related bit of pi trivia: We can construct an arbitrarily accurate rational approximation of pi via a high enough convergent of its (simple) continued fraction representation.

22/7 is the first convergent, 333/106 is the second convergent, and 355/113 is the third convergent. This last one is accurate to six decimal digits and is my personal favourite approximation for pi. The fourth, fifth, and higher convergents are even more accurate but are not so easy to remember.

3+(1/7)-(1/7*106)+1/(106*103)................

ahhh....a pleasure to be reminded of that....

ashkrishna · Post by **ashkrishna** » 05 Feb 2007 14:20

there is also a serious need to make the non euclidean geometries more popular in india...an absolute must for modern physics and pure mathematical research.....but with the way relativity is explained in the NCERT textbooks...it makes be wonder???

Are we allowing students to develop a genuine interest in the subject, which is a prerequisite for the scientific breakthroughs of tomorrows...the solution to these problems becomes simpler if we take a scientific approach...strip off al the irrelevant factors and focus on the core issue of making science an inspirational tool rather than a mere chore which has to be completed.....

Alok_N · Post by **Alok_N** » 05 Feb 2007 20:55

ashkrishna wrote:...but with the way relativity is explained in the NCERT textbooks...

have they been pushing wrong explanations?

ashkrishna · Post by **ashkrishna** » 05 Feb 2007 21:10

not wrong....but in a totally unimaginative way...thus a theory which should , in effect be given a lot of importance, is transalated into a set of formulae, which in turn inhibts the development of even a vague physical understanding of the actual concept... this continues onto college and manifests itself in the form of 'unemployable' technical companies.

This is precisely why many students get into the IT profession , because they are not employable in the technical field.

I am doing my 6th sem, and i was recently told this by a rep. from tata motors- the amount of technical problems that remain unsolved in 'core' mechanical and civil engg. sectors are huge and with the lack of employable manpower (which is gobbled up by IT) , the manufacturing sector faces trouble.. the only way out is to provide an even more attractive salary than th IT majors which , for many manufacturing firms is not feasible.

Alok_N · Post by **Alok_N** » 05 Feb 2007 21:23

I assume that you are in the 6th sem of IIT? ... what influence does NCERT have over your curriculum? ...

I would imagine that the prof who taught relativity had access to any number of books in the library and the internet ... why does NCERT enter this picture?

ashkrishna · Post by **ashkrishna** » 05 Feb 2007 21:31

not from iit..college of engg. guindy, opp. to IIT madras..

Relativity is not taught in core engg. courses. i was merely using it as an example to stress on the fact that some of the most important physical concepts which are essential to any research on science and tech. are being overlooked and a mere bookworm is being produced instead of a student.

I was involved in a project along with a few profs of mine to select proficient students(school going) from with in the chennai region for more focussed and advanced training in physics and math....it was then that we realised that a flaw exists in the methodology of geting the message of science across and in this process the mesage is lost.

The NCERT textbooks are used extensively in schools and this is where the foundations are built. A weak foundation results in a tremendous problem in college. Most of the questions that the students are asked to solve are of the format -"given a,b,c,d and e , find the value of f' this involves mere forumulae substitution and caculation. Thus when they are asked to imagine and think of solutions to more practical problems, they struggle even though there is an additional flexibility available to them, they are thus unable to move out of the rigid problem solving routine and this leads to what academicians call "blank paper syndrome" or what we engineers call "the inability to apply a concept to a practical design problem".

As a matter of fact, while a teacher plays an important role in inspiring a student , the material to which he has immediate access to should also be equaly attractive and not a mere monotony..
Even in the case of engg. books, a 'local' author is inferior to a foreign author no because he is any less capable, but because he cannot present the information as beautifully as the latter

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 05 Feb 2007 21:46

Alok, He is saying the baggage starts earlier than college.

Ash Welcome. How is the deer & snake park and all that? Was in IITM in the mid 70s. So lot of changes I guess.

Ash try to make them think originally and question established theories.

Alok_N · Post by **Alok_N** » 05 Feb 2007 21:46

let's take this to the education thread ... times have changed and textbooks no longer have the importance that they used to have ...

ultimately, "learning" is an experience ... the student has to want to learn ... the teacher is a primary facilitator ... places like NCERT have a tertiary role ...

ashkrishna · Post by **ashkrishna** » 05 Feb 2007 22:05

to the education thread then....

Yes, lot of changes...keep headed towards adyar from IIT...and voila....Tidel park and IT highway, there's also an IIT sponsored research park comin up near by, plans to link IITM and the park by means of an underground tunnel and all... the highways research station doesnt exist anymore its CEG land now, expanding our campus there..... snake park, still the same, and i dont know if the cancer institute existed back then.

dont belive in textbooks is what we thought them first....then all we did was to give them a few 'heuristic' hints now and then.the results were fascinating... one of them even designed a tennis ball thrower...

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 05 Feb 2007 22:15

Thanks ashkrishna. BTW how many follow BR at Guindy? How about setting up a BRF members group? Guindy was always ahead of the curve. Lets take this up in the nukkad thread.

Bharat Rakshak

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Damascus blades had nanotube inclusions . .