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unforeseen costs. “You name the thing and I will get it for you, but do not ask for time,” he said. At times, I often laughed at his impatience, and read for him these lines from T.S. Eliot’s Hollow Men: Between the conception And the creation Between the emotion And the response Falls the Shadow. Defence R&D at that time was heavily dependent on imported equipment. Virtually nothing indigenous was available. Together, we made a long shopping list and drew up an import plan. But this made me unhappy—was there no remedy or alternative? Was this nation doomed to live with screwdriver technology? Could a poor country like India afford this kind of development? One day, while working late in the office, which was quite routine after I took up the RATO projects, I saw a young colleague, Jaya Chandra Babu going home. Babu had joined us a few months ago and the only thing I knew about him was that he had a very positive attitude and was articulate. I called him into my office and did a bit of loud thinking. “Do you have any suggestions?” I then asked him. Babu remained silent for a while, and then asked for time until the next evening to do some homework before answering my question. The next evening, Babu came to me before the appointed time. His face was beaming with promise. “We can do it, sir! The RATO system can be made without imports. The only hurdle is the inherent inelasticity in the approach of the organization towards procurement and subcontracting, which would be the two major thrust areas to avoid imports.” He gave me seven points, or, rather, asked for seven liberties—financial approval by a single person instead of an entire hierarchy, air travel for all people on work irrespective of their entitlement, accountability to only one person, lifting of goods by aircargo, sub-contracting to the private sector, placement of orders on the basis of technical competence, and expeditious accounting procedures. These demands were unheard of in government establishments, which tend to be conservative, yet I could see the soundness of his proposition. The RATO project was a new game and there was nothing wrong if it was to be played with a new set of rules. I weighed all the pros and cons of Babu’s suggestions for a whole night and finally decided to present them to Prof. Sarabhai. Hearing my plea for administrative liberalization and seeing the merits behind it, Prof. Sarabhai approved the proposals without a second thought. Through his suggestions, Babu had highlighted the importance of business acumen in developmental work with high stakes. To make things move faster within existing work parameters, you have to pump in more people, more material and more money. If you can’t do that, change your parameters! Instinctive businessman that he was, Babu did not remain long with us and left ISRO for greener pastures in Nigeria. I could never forget Babu’s common sense in financial matters. We had opted for a composite structure for the RATO motor casing using filament fibre glass/epoxy. We had also gone in for a high energy composite propellant and an event-based ignition and jettisoning system in real-time. A canted nozzle was designed to deflect the jet away from the aircraft. We conducted the first static test of RATO in the
twelfth month of the project initiation. Within the next four months, we conducted 64 static tests. And we were just about 20 engineers working on the project! * * *
Page 4 and 5: WINGS OF FIRE As chief of the count
Page 6 and 7: provides only a thumbnail sketch of
Page 8 and 9: tributes to these fine persons, I a
Page 10 and 11: 1 I was born into a middle-class Ta
Page 12 and 13: partnership with Him. He would pres
Page 14 and 15: his best to break social barriers s
Page 16 and 17: 2 O nce I settled down at the Schwa
Page 18 and 19: seeks acceptance under the guise of
Page 20 and 21: Plate 2 The locality in which I gre
Page 22 and 23: Plate 6 A family get-together. Plat
Page 24 and 25: technologies and expected his stude
Page 26 and 27: (HAL) at Bangalore as a trainee. Th
Page 28 and 29: sorrow. He offered no explanation o
Page 30 and 31: time to review the progress of our
Page 32 and 33: interviewers usually display when t
Page 34 and 35: II
Page 36 and 37: 4
Page 38 and 39: procrastination. Actually, problems
Page 40 and 41: out target-tracking functions. The
Page 42 and 43: Dreamers D uring his frequent visit
Page 44 and 45: woven into a matrix that encloses i
Page 46 and 47: unfolded his plan of developing a r
Page 50 and 51: 6
Page 52 and 53: awareness of Stage IV problems thro
Page 54 and 55: Electrical and mechanical integrati
Page 56 and 57: Dr Brahm Prakash advised me to take
Page 58 and 59: 7
Page 60 and 61: Through mechanical engineering, the
Page 62 and 63: in the areas of aerodynamics, struc
Page 64 and 65: help determine the forces that dete
Page 66 and 67: 8
Page 68 and 69: temple, shining sand and dancing ti
Page 70 and 71: own destinies. Was I too stubborn o
Page 72 and 73: Total commitment is a crucial quali
Page 74 and 75: spellbound to see our hopes flying
Page 76 and 77: Builders Dr Brahm Prakash helped me
Page 78 and 79: discussing some finer aspects of th
Page 80 and 81: envisaged, though as a distant drea
Page 82 and 83: Padma Bhushan award on me. The next
Page 84 and 85: PROPITIATION [ 1981 - 1991 ] Let cr
Page 86 and 87: Seekers A minor tussle over my serv
Page 88 and 89: air. Once we opened the windows wid
Page 90 and 91: Plate 12 Two gurus of Indian Space
Page 92 and 93: final phase of integration. He help
Page 94 and 95: Nothing to be discouraged! We have
Page 96 and 97: Joshi, and Air Chief Marshal SK Kau
Page 98 and 99:
stature, sitting in the all-powerfu
Page 100 and 101:
Stewards T he launch of the IGMDP w
Page 102 and 103:
to share their power with others an
Page 104 and 105:
agencies would participate in the c
Page 106 and 107:
12
Page 108 and 109:
Shrimati Gandhi asked. I said, “J
Page 110 and 111:
weaver shall look into the whole cl
Page 112 and 113:
Triumphant The young engineers, 280
Page 114 and 115:
was related to the tremendous speed
Page 116 and 117:
motivational inventory of a leader
Page 118 and 119:
a circle within which 50 per cent o
Page 120 and 121:
Torchbearers Indian core competence
Page 122 and 123:
clock for the next ten days, our sc
Page 124 and 125:
In today’s world, technological b
Page 126 and 127:
CONTEMPLATION [ 1991 - ] We create
Page 128 and 129:
Emancipators O n Republic Day 1990,
Page 130 and 131:
dedicated to making solid achieveme
Page 132 and 133:
of an indigenous ship-launched anti
Page 134 and 135:
16
Page 136 and 137:
continues on a regular basis as the
Page 138 and 139:
centres and 41 production centres s
Page 140 and 141:
uilt nothing, possess nothing—no
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