NASA eating the humble pie !!

NASA has been in the space business for more than 50 years, experimenting with real rocket science. They had nobel prize winners on their staff from great Universities advising them and guiding them to reach great and noble goals in the space business. They believed they were undoutedly the best in the race.

Not finding anything productive coming out of their successful Apollo missions to the Moon ( the world is made to believe so), due to the high costs they were forced to abandon it. It took just one moon mission from India, the Chandrayaan to prove there are traces of water vapour in the moon environment.

All through their journey what they forgot to keep track was the poor reliability of their missions, even though many space missions like the Pioneer and Voyager have cruised through space since 1972 even going out of the solar system.. The cost component was never a constraint for them, neither was innovation a driving force.  Probably their political leaders were under the impression that leadership in space would give them the superiority to lead back on earth.

With the passage of time and the power gravity shifting from west to east, NASA is having a rethink at the basis of its very existence. If it has to survive, it needs to improve reliability from the present reliability for inter planetary missions from below 50% to at least 90% and cut costs drastically. For every interplanetary mission NASA undertakes, ISRO can undertake ten.  That is demeaning to NASA and undermining their supposed superiority.

After all these exercises, exploding launches, bloated inter planetary missions will it be able to match up with ISRO ? Will ISRO again be given the responsibility to prove existence of water vapour or even life in martian atmosphere ? Time will tell !!

Ge..

Mangalyaan features as top 25 inventions of 2014 ..

It was great to read that Mangalyaan has been declared as one of 25 greatest inventions of 2014.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/science/mangalyaan-named-among-best-inventions-of-2014-by-time-magazine/articleshow/45226354.cms

With this India is really giving leadership to the world in space exploration. 

ge..

P Kunhikrishnan's talk at Alliance Uty, Bangalore

Talk by P. Kunhikrishnan, Mission Director, Mangalyaan at Alliance University, Anekal, Bangalore on 19 Nov 2014.

Alliance University was very fortunate to play host to a young, energetic and dynamic space scientist at their central campus in Anekal, Bangalore on the 19th of November 2014 from 3 - 5 PM. Kunhikrishnan started the talk with the question, what is space and what makes space such a hostile territory ? 

Space is all the part above 100 km from earth’s surface. Kunhikrishnan has been associated with the PSLV missions at ISRO from the the PSLV mission C15 onwards till the present mission C26. Some technical details of the talk are reproduced here.

Kunhikrishnan

The assurance tests ISRO does on its different models before the actual flight is an interesting matter to be understood. At least 100 simulations are done on digital computer before the actual firing of any rocket to ensure that the flight and the payload are not wasted. Before any flight is authorised, it is subject to Mission Readiness Review and Launch Authorisation Board. Only after these boards authorise the launch does the actual physical firing happen and launch take place.

Regarding economies, maintaining an army of workers and scientists at ISRO and SHAR centre makes sense if only a minimum of 4 launches are taken up every year. Accordingly, the next four launches will be of the remaining four satellites D,E,F and G of IRNSS series the whole of next year. PSLV at its initial stages had imported components to the tune of 29% which at present is anywhere between 9-10 %. The active support given by the private sector manufacturing companies helping in fabricating different components for the rocket has to improve stil better as the speaker felt that in other countries, the private sector played a still bigger role which helped it to plan and execute still larger and powerful missions. After giving details of the harsh and cruel confines of space, the speaker went on to explain about the Mangalyaan project.

The MOM Mangalyaan mission to orbit Mars was launched on PSLV C25. The speaker actually gave us a good discussion on space and the machines which ISRO has been using over the years to conquer the unknown frontiers of space. He clearly explained the steps by which ISRO attained what very few other countries had achieved so far, to get an orbiter orbit Mars. ISRO did not wait for the more powerful GSLV rockets to be ready to launch the Mars mission, instead used its less powerful time-tested PSLV rockets to achieve this. To take a payload of 1337 kg out of earth’s orbit has been achieved with the PSLV rocket with the help of a very innovative sling-shot technology.

After cruising in interplanetary space from earth’s orbit to martian orbit for about 10 months travelling at the speed of 11 km/sec, the Martian orbit Insertion (MOI) was the most tricky part of the whole mission. To slow down a fast moving rocket  and get it under the gravitational attraction of Mars is the most difficult task, which the team achieved with great precision using very less amount of energy. A signal to control the MOM from earth would take 25 minutes to reach the 214 million kms to the orbiter, even though the signals travel at the speed of light of 3 lakh kms/sec.This makes it all the more difficult to issue signals to the orbiter and to wait for the feedback.

When asked how ISRO inspite of being a government organisation has still not yet got any of the painful bureaucratic issues and lethargy associated with government manufacturing organisations, the speaker was quick to point out that the self-initiative nature of the ISRO workforce is the biggest blessing of ISRO. Even at the final stages of launch, the most junior in the organisation has got power to express his doubts about mission readiness and his objections would be very clearly scrutinised. This adds a great sense of belongingness for each employee to the organisation.  

The session ended with a beautiful rendition of a Carnatic music piece by Kunhikrishnan on his flute making it very clear that even at such busy tensed sessions, he finds time to destress himself on the flute.. It was the first time that after the success of Mangalyaan MOI insertion, a senior scientist was going out to an educational institution and addressing students. The speaker not only explained the basics of space and rocket science in simple language, he went on to explain the intricacies of rocket science and launches in a more detailed manner, which was understood and appreciated by the audience.

The students will remember this interesting and excellent session from a senior Scientist from ISRO for a long time.

ge..

ASQ Bangalore Event | 29 Nov 2014 | Quality for Nation Building |

 

ASQ and Alliance University

Presents a one day Summit on

Quality for Nation Building

Please join us at ASQ Bangalore’s First Annual Conference in association with Alliance University. The event brings together speakers from Industry and Academia on a common theme of – Quality for Nation Building.

The theme is in synch with the agenda our new Prime Minister is setting. We will collate ideas and channel them to ASQ and QCI (Quality Council
of India). Select ideas will be published through ASQ Blogs for interested agencies to implement.

Event details are:

Date: Saturday, 29 Nov 2014

Venue: Alliance University campus, Anekal, Bangalore

Timing: 9 am to 5 pm

This event is open to ALL but needs prior registration.

Speakers include:

V Ramesh, Senior VP, Toyota Kirloskar Motors

Pankajam Sridevi, MD, ANZ Support Services India

Shridhar Venkat, CEO, Akshaya Patra Foundation

Umesh Krishnappa, Head, Car program, Mahindra Reva

The student presentations will be judged by:

Dhirendra Dubey, CEO, Lean Management Institute of India

Student Participation: Current students of management institutes in Bangalore in teams of two each can participate. All submissions have to be supported by an approval from senior faculty or Dean of the Institute. There is no participation fee but each institute can send a maximum of two entries. All participants will receive a certificate from ASQ.

Please write to Dhiresh Pradhan (dhireshkumar@gmail.com) if you want to send a team from your institute.

Questions/clarifications please call Anshuman Tiwari / George Easaw on 9972309782 / 9742046184 or email at Anshuman.tiwari@hsbc.co.in / George.easaw@alliance.edu.in

Registrations: Please write to dhireshkumar@gmail.com. Dhiresh will confirm your registration and you must bring this confirmation email to the event. There is no registration fee for this event.

Event Partners:

                                      

ASQ: ASQ (American Society for Quality) is a global community of people dedicated to quality who share the ideas and tools that make our world work better. With individual and organizational members around the world, ASQ has the reputation and reach to bring together the diverse quality champions who are transforming the world’s corporations, organizations and communities to meet tomorrow’s critical challenges. For more on ASQ please visit www.asq.org

Alliance University: Alliance University is a private University established in Karnataka State by Act No.34 of year 2010 and is recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi. Alliance University is a renowned university of higher learning located on an extensive state-of-the-art campus in Anekal, Bangalore offering a variety of degree courses. The University has baccalaureate concentrations, postgraduate offerings, doctoral degree programs and several professional certificate programs. Check the website for more details, www.alliance.edu.in  

Why Mars matters !

While my gentle observation says "Technology for the elite" is US NASA's motto of its technological robotic missions to Mars, "Technology for the masses" is the motto behind Indian ISRO mission to Mars, the author of this article from CS Monitor seems to have differing viewpoints.

Though the high reliability of ISRO Mars missions as compared to the less than 50% reliability of NASA missions has never been an issue for NASA scientists and never found mention in mainstream US media for obvious reasons, the cost-value-technological superiority of ISRO Mars missions over NASA Mars missions too has been very conveniently overlooked by NASA scientists and media.

The coming two decades may decide who will prevail in the end, like when US abandoned its Apollo missions to the Moon for being prohibitively expensive in the 70s. Everywhere cost matters at the end !!

Will US ever be magnanimous enough to accept and acknowledge the techno-commercial edge India holds when it comes to deep space inter-planetary missions (even under transitioning governments back in India) is yet to be seen.

Hear more on this at Alliance University Bangalore on 20 November at 2 PM. Kunhikrishnan has extended a warm invite to CETians !!

Click on this news item for more details on Indias Mars mission ..

http://m.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0925/India-reaches-Mars-Why-it-matters-video

Perestroika in Beijing ??

By fighting corruption, acting against corrupt officials and slowly moving to a ruling dispensation that will stick to the Chinese constitution, is the Gen. Secretary of the Chinese Communist party and Chinese President Li Jinping promising to the world of doing a Perestroika and taking China the USSR way ?

Ge .

Prof Jean Tirole's work discussion !!

Prof Shamim Mondal from Alliance Uty (Rochester, NY) discussing the path breaking work on competition theory of 2014 Economics Nobel Prize winner Prof Jean Tirole from Toulouse School of Economics, France at Alliance Uty this afternoon to an interested audience of faculty and students. Had the good wishes of Prof. Jean Tirole himself.

India and APEC ..

All the big names from the world were in Beijing over the past two days for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meeting hosted by the world's largest economic power China in Beijing. The no.2 country US was also represented.

The recent deep space power and third largest economy in the world, with the potential to lead the world in another 20 years, India is yet to find a place in this 21 member nation group.

Strength of Indian democracy !!

The new defence minister, the academically brilliant and brainy, yet simple Manohar Parrikar with the defwnce services chiefs.

The strength and beauty of Indian democracy is demonstrated here when the three defence service chiefs meet the new people's representative stressing the fact that people power is supreme in a democracy !! In contrast in our neighbouring failed state of pakistan, defence minister would have been decided by the services chief and would have met the Press at the service chief's office ! A sad state of affairs there !!

Thanks to the leaders and framers of Indian constitution and to our politicians and service chiefs all these years for maintaining its sanctity and holding it sacrosanct !!

Ge..

Watch "US Debt Crisis - Perfectly Explained" on YouTube

A must-see video on how US is leading the global economic collapse by spending more than it earns !! Gullible Indian migrants and migrants from other parts of the world fail to realise the volcano on which they sit, which will erupt one fine day for sure, when is the only question !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln6VGCB8f_c&feature=youtube_gdata_player

RE: Prof Jean Tirole's work - talk by Dr Shamim Mondal

Thank you for the kind words !

All the best

Jean Tirole

 

 

De : George Easaw [mailto:geasaw@gmail.com]
Envoyé : Tuesday, November 04, 2014 4:15 AM
À : geasaw.blogposting@blogger.com
Cc : Jean Tirole; ALLIANCE UNIVERSITY Chancellor; anubha@alliance.edu.in; Sajan Mathew; shamim.sm@alliance.edu.in
Objet : Prof Jean Tirole's work - talk by Dr Shamim Mondal

 

Prof. Jean Tirole (Toulouse School of Economics, France), 2014 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, is one of the most influential economists who have extensively worked on business in the field of Game Theory and its application to Industrial Organization. More specifically, his work has focused on the nature of competition and cooperation that pervades business environment and markets, and how regulatory bodies should respond to their responsibilities of looking after consumer interest by enhancing competition and looking after business interests to encourage innovation. Significantly, he has done some path-breaking work in the domain of network externalities and two-sided markets, which are helpful in understanding the businesses of credit card, application development for operating systems, internet etc.

The talk to be delivered by Prof. Shamim Mondal, economics faculty of Alliance Uty for the students of Alliance uty Bangalore will focus on some of these issues.

Date : 11 Nov, 2014
Time : 2.30 - 4 pm
Venue : LHW 203, Learning centre, AU, Bangalore.

All interested are welcome !!

Prof Jean Tirole's work - talk by Dr Shamim Mondal

Prof. Jean Tirole (Toulouse School of Economics, France), 2014 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, is one of the most influential economists who have extensively worked on business in the field of Game Theory and its application to Industrial Organization. More specifically, his work has focused on the nature of competition and cooperation that pervades business environment and markets, and how regulatory bodies should respond to their responsibilities of looking after consumer interest by enhancing competition and looking after business interests to encourage innovation. Significantly, he has done some path-breaking work in the domain of network externalities and two-sided markets, which are helpful in understanding the businesses of credit card, application development for operating systems, internet etc.

The talk to be delivered by Prof. Shamim Mondal, economics faculty of Alliance Uty for the students of Alliance uty Bangalore will focus on some of these issues.

Date : 11 Nov, 2014
Time : 2.30 - 4 pm
Venue : LHW 203, Learning centre, AU, Bangalore.

All interested are welcome !!

Report- TEDx simulcast at Alliance uty, 2 Nov 2014.

Report of TEDx Gateway Conference Simulcast at Alliance University, Bangalore, 2 Nov 2014

TED is an American non-profit organisation famous for its talks with the theme on "ideas worth sharing". Started in 1984, successful people from different walks of life have contributed the ideas which they hold very close to their lives by way of talks which have become their life mission to be shared with the people of the world.

Student and faculty members volunteer group

About 1800 TED talks have been delivered till date and have generated about 2.5 billion views globally. Each talk of not more than 18 minutes duration is very crisp, well rehearsed, precise and holds the audience spellbound for the duration of the talk. In Management classrooms, TED talks are viewed for grasping ideas on successful social organisations and ideas that make a difference to the people of the world.

The 2014 Gateway Conference of TEDx was happening in Mumbai, NCPA on 2 November from 10 AM to 6 PM. A live feed was arranged by TEDx authorities to Alliance University and accordingly we arranged a simulcast in first floor Seminar Hall in Learning Centre on Sunday from 9.30 AM. The previous day, student volunteers led by Sourabha BK from Jan 13 batch had gone through the site www.tedxgateway.com  and downloaded speaker details and it was well publicised. Total of 29 speaker details were publicised. A google registration form also was arranged by the students to allow easy and fast registration to attend the talk.  The live feed was available at www.tedxgateway.com/live under sopecial arrangement with TEDx Mumbai.

The talk started at 10 AM, with about 50 students and 5 faculty members in the first floor, seminar hall in the Learning Centre. The talks were all of world-class, highly inspiring, each one better than the earlier one. With speakers ranging in their ages from 14 years to 65 years, speaking on topics as diverse as technology, Internet bullying, Dr Anita Hegde spoke about her NGO ARMAAN and on best medical practices in preventing fatalities in infant and maternal health. Stuart Sender who spoke on the word Forgiveness was elaborative on how forgiveness had a financial dimension to it and helped Nelson Mandela help build a strong and prosperous South Africa through the Truth and Reconciliation Mission, Ramesh Raskar from MIT Media Labs elaborated on the arrangements by technology intervention for helping the smooth conduct of Kumbhmela in 2015 to be attended by 30 million Indians and in finding missing children and Madan Padaki spoke on helping the uneducated to aspire for education, acquire it and land in better jobs were some of the interesting talks.

Prof. Nirmalya Kumar from the London Business School spoke on how the Indian diaspora settled in different parts of the world could contribute to India’s growth in under 18 minutes sharp to the wide appreciation of the audience. Minister of State at New Delhi Piyush Goyal spoke on how different perspectives of looking at things will help us solve some of the insurmountable problems of the country. Xenia Tata spoke brilliantly and eloquently on how technology could make our lives better.

Deepak Ramola, the 14 year old boy who spoke of his life mission of learning from other people’s lives,  the Project FUEL, Joe Madiad who spoke on improving the sanitation in Indian villages which would ensure communicable diseases reducing by almost 90% was an eye opener for many in the audience. Jerry Sanders speaking of Skytrains and how it would reduce traffic congestion in the Indian cities attracted good attention from the audience. Young Trisha Prabhu, all of 14, spoke on how youngsters could save themselves by not falling prey to cyber-bullying.

Anuradha Koirala speaking her life’s mission of emancipating women and young girls caught in human trafficking from Nepal to India and other parts of the world and helping in their rehabilitation back in Nepal was by far the most touching and effective talk of the day. The best was kept for the last.

Were it not for the strong support from student volunteers led by Sourabha and team from Jan 13 and July 13 MBA batch, the event would not have been a success. A big thanks to them !!

The talks will all be edited by the professional team from TED and within a span of 3-4 weeks will be released as TED talks at www.ted.com for the world to watch, learn and get inspiration from. The experience was a world-class memorable one and the students are excited about having established a link with the TEDx group in Mumbai so that we can continue to participate in future TED activities in India and rest of the world.