Tag: 2024

  • Pooradam

    We are in Kerala on account of Onam. Celebrated Pooradam which is Children’s Onam today.

    Flower carpet made for Pooradam Day. Photo: Pradeep Mohandas

  • A Return to Regularly Scheduled Programming

    My last blog post on this blog was on 3 November 2023. Since then, I have been writing on another website. I did not post about it here because it was an experiment.

    I am back now.

    I had moved from WordPress to Blot. Blot is a service that allows you to write in an editor of your choice. You can then upload the document on Google Docs or Dropbox, and the Blot will publish it.

    I had an itch to try out a service other than WordPress. I was partly impressed by the IndieWeb movement. I was in love with open source software. I was in love with simple software.

    This is a post to help you catch up with what has happened since I last wrote here.

    I am still living in Pune with my family. I went on two drives this year – one to Tamhini Ghat and another to Panshet Dam. I celebrated my son’s first birthday in Pune.

    I had the honor of having two articles published in The Hindu – one on ISRO Chairman Dr. S Somanath’s comment on having more rockets than satellites, and a recap of space events on the occasion of National Space Day. Thanks to VM for the opportunity.

    My reading has been slowing down this year. So has my listening on Audible. This implies that my writing has also been affected. My space newsletter writing has also not been regular. My work-related writing has improved after a slump in the first half of 2024. I am very happy with Q3, 2024.

    I will move all the posts I wrote on the other blog to this one. I will link to them on my weekly updates so that you can read them.

  • Delhi is not far

    [Originally written when I moved to blot.im, here.]

    India setup the headquarters for its space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bengaluru to stay far away from political influence or interference. Or so, the legend goes. But it’s success has got it Delhi’s attention.

    The political interference began with Delhi giving ISRO a target of 2022 for flying an Indian into low earth orbit in an Indian vehicle. The opening up of the space sector and the creation of various institutions to regulate the sector have still not stabilized. The lack of a Space Act is a big part of this lack of stability.

    In a recent podcast episode of The Seen and the Unseen, K P Krishnan suggests that the government is shaking up institutions that it sees as being captured by elites. I wonder if it is doing the same to ISRO and the space sector. If so, this is a welcome move.I think the engineering and the science focus of the space sector may save it more than anything else.

    The government is the only institution that can invest in space and wait patiently (as it has for the past seventy years) as it develops. Even with the opening up of the space sector, the sector will need continued patronage of the government to grow. The private sector can, at best, make more efficient use of the capital that the government deploys for developing new technologies and applies it in various fields.