Important to identify new technology to solve problems: A S Kirankumar

Ahmedabad, Dec 10 (PTI) Physical Research Laboratory management council chairman and former ISRO chief, A. S. Kirankumar, on Wednesday invoked the late Vikram Sarabhai as he underlined the importance of identifying new technologies to solve problems.

He addressed an international conference and a workshop on optics and photonics- SCOPOSIS 2025- organised by PRL, Ahmedabad.

"SCOP (Student Conference on Optics and Photonics) itself is a very excellent idea, which started 10 years ago, and is being strengthened. I suggest that you make people in the country aware of it by bringing out an article in Current Science", he said.

Remembering the founder of PRL, Ahmedabad, Kirankumar said, "It is important to identify a new technology as a source for solving problems, as done by Dr Vikram Sarabhai", he said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, while everybody was looking at how they could take advantage of the situation, India not only solved the problem for itself but also offered a solution to others without considering economic benefit, he said.

The event is jointly organised by the PRL Student Chapter in Optics and Photonics (SCOP) and the Optical Society of India Symposium (OSIS). It is jointly hosted by the Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (IITGN).

SCOPOSIS 2025 will host approximately 500 participants, including 350 national and 150 international experts from the USA, Germany, France, the UK, Japan, Israel, Spain, South Africa, Finland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and the Netherlands, according to an official release.

The conference represents participants from 13 countries and 22 states in India, covering more than 125 institutions, which include the State and Central Universities, IITs, NITs, IISERs, and others.

PRL Director Anil Bhardwaj said the SCOP intends to exchange developments happening in optics and photonics and to invite experts for discussions.

SCOP's purpose is to organise a conference of PhD students or post-doctoral researchers who are early-career scientists.

"This year, one more chapter has been added to it: the 48th Annual Conference of the Optical Society of India Symposium (OSIS). With this, the conference has become much larger this time, with more than 500 participants," he added.

Bhardwaj informed that various topics, including non-linear optics, lasers, ultra-fast forces, quantum communication, quantum metrology, quantum science, and all activities related to optics and photonics, will be discussed during the event.

The event was attended by Rajat Moona, Director at IITGN, Nilesh Desai, Director at Space Applications Center (SAC), and Achanta Venugopal, President of the Optical Society of India (OSI).

Moona said the focus of future wars is shifted from people to buildings and from equipment to capabilities.

"Cyber is one such capability, especially when we look at almost all our information stored somewhere in central stores, locked in computers. All you need to do is just cut the optical fibre, optical cable, and you will actually cripple countries", he added.

It is important to be safe and create alternative channels of communication so that our dependence is not compromised, Moona said. PTI KVM PD NSK