India’s top space scientist G. Madhavan Nair emphasized that the Oman needs an excellent technology institute as that of IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) from India. He was interacting with students of Indian School, Salalah.
The Governments of India and Oman should jointly initiate steps to set up IIT model academic institutes offering technology education for the benefit of the students in the Sultanate, said top Indian space scientist G Madhavan Nair.
“A higher education institute based on the model of IITs in cooperation with the Indian government will be a boon for students in the Sultanate. In India, IITs are now offering four-year degree courses on both pure and applied sciences and technology. If we succeed in setting up an institution like the IITs in the Sultanate it will be a great help for the entire student community here,” Nair said.
The IITs are a group of autonomous engineering and technology-oriented institutes of higher education. The IITs in India are “institutions of national importance” and created to train scientists and engineers, with the aim of developing a skilled workforce to support the economic and social development of India. “An IIT-model institution can be set up with around RO50 million, which is not a big sum of money for a country like Oman,” Nair added.
The leading rocket technology scientist, who has led 27 successful space missions for India,. Nair is a leading technologist in the field of rocket systems and has made significant contributions to the development of multi-stage satellite launch vehicles, achieving self-reliance in independent access to space using indigenous technologies in India.
Nair, who has been on top positions of various space and rocket research organisations since 1967, said that the most challenging and satisfying moments in his four-decade-long career was the successful development of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which has since become the workhorse for launching Indian remote sensing satellites, and ‘Project Chandrayan’, India’s first unmanned lunar probe vehicle.
He said the prime focus of students should be on studies. “If our basics are good then we will not stumble while we go to higher levels. Learning never ends. We should be hard working and have the urge to learn new things. Our success is based on it,” he said as an advice to the student community.
When asked about why the new-generation students in the Gulf countries are often not opting for pure science and space research in higher education, he said, “Schools should give more importance to generate interests among students in pure science. Orientation for this should be given from the beginning itself. We should try to generate interest among students in lab experiments. More labs should be set up in schools. Scientists and technologists should be brought in Gulf countries frequently for interaction with students.”
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