Mega Science, Mega Dreams: A Mega-Science Project Bound to Put India on the Map for Cutting-Edge Research

Why in News?

• A fortnight ago, the Union Cabinet approved the full budget for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)-India mega-science project.
• This approval further emphasises India's commitment to meet the rising aspirations of Indian science and make a far-reaching impact in the global arena.

 

Introduction to the LIGO-India mega-science project

• The “in-principle” approval was granted by the Union Cabinet in February 2016 with the aim to provide a wide range of opportunities for Indian youth to pursue research careers in cutting-edge areas of science and technology.
• LIGO-India project includes the construction, commissioning, and joint scientific operation of a state-of-the-art, advanced LIGO in India in collaboration with the NSF-funded LIGO Laboratories, USA, operated by Caltech and MIT.

 

Significance of LIGO-India project

• Enhance global capability:
  • In the emergent field of gravitational wave astronomy and astrophysics (A&A).
  • To enable an entirely new window to our universe that will lead to the growth of modern astronomy.
  • The scientific community feels that LIGO-India holds the key to gravitational-wave observations developing into an important and valuable component of multi-messenger A&A.
• By integrating lasers, optics, vacuum, etc., LIGO-India will bring together researchers in fundamental and applied sciences from national research laboratories, IITs, IISERs, and the industry on a common platform.
• This will also attract talent from the large pool of researchers spread worldwide.
• Provides an opportunity for India to take lead in the advancement of Gravitational wave detectors and feed in expertise to the mission.
• The project will enhance capability and capacity of manufacturers of complex components with precision to meet stringent scientific requirements.
• The commissioning of LIGO-India will enhance the reputation of the Indian industry.

 

The advent of Mega Science Ventures in India

The Planning Commission’s 11th plan period recognized, defined and delineated a distinct category of scientific enterprise.

Defining features of the proposed Scientific Enterprise

• To lead or partner in very high science goals.
• The goals are to be achieved by large scale collaboration efforts.
• The goals require highly skilled human resources, significant fiscal capital, infrastructural investment, and close academia-industry partnership.

Need for such large-scale Mega Science Projects

• The need of such projects would span across multiple departments of the government.
• Thus, it will encourage cooperative coordination structures between partnering agencies.

Funding provisions

• An MoU was set up between the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to jointly fund and administer “mega-science” projects.

India’s success so far in “mega-science” projects

• LIGO-India and Indian based Neutrino Observatory (INO) are major projects.
• These projects are expected to extend the legacy of very successful world-class facilities such as Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) near Pune and Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) in Ladakh.
  • Wider partnerships by including other departments and agencies such as Department of Space, Department of Higher Education could diversify the landscape of mega-science in India.
• It took four decades of research before gravitational waves were first detected by LIGO in the US.
• In India, within the first decade of the new millennium, planned advanced gravitational waves (GW) detectors indicated the imminent detection of gravitational waves from expected compact binary black hole and neutron mergers.

India's partnership in “big-science” frontier international ventures:

• Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Facility for Antiproton & Ion Research (FAIR);
• International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) for taming thermo-nuclear fusion for energy generation;
• Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and
• Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

India’s “Early Start” advantage

• Researchers built on the success and created an organised scientific consortium that planned and prepared a research programme and a national facility.
• This has helped the LIGO-India project team achieve all the goals set out in the pre-project stage and be in a stage of high readiness to commence full scale construction, installation and commissioning.

 

Conclusion

• With the set up of LIGO-India, there is confidence that India’s demographic advantage coupled with excellent education system should see India attain global eminence in mega-science projects.
• The success of LIGO-India and other mega-science ventures will strongly reinforce the view that a healthy sprinkling of mega-science projects in the overall Science and Technology policy empowers and enriches the nation

 

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Q1) What is the significance of LIGO-India for India inc?

LIGO-India will enhance capability and capacity of India inc in manufacturing of complex components with precision. 

 

Q2) What is the primary challenge faced by Mega-Science projects? 

The primary issue is to create a very close collaboration between researchers from different areas of science and technology, and across geographies, working within an organised, goal oriented management structure.

 

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Source: The Indian Express