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Ex-ISRO chief attacks blind faith, astrology

Former chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), Prof UR Rao, on Wednesday blamed astrologers and superstitious beliefs among people as major impediments for the country’s development.

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Former chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), Prof UR Rao, on Wednesday blamed astrologers and superstitious beliefs among people as major impediments for the country’s development.

Delivering the inaugural address at the Dhirubhai Ambani Commemoration Day, Rao hit out at astrologers for propagating superstitions and making fictitious predictions. “In our country, astrologers have become pseudo-scientists, who are all over television, making predictions that the Sun would be swallowed by a black hole. The closest back hole to Earth is some billion light years away,” he said.

The professor also criticised television channels for giving them space by broadcasting astrology programmes throughout the day. He added that this blind faith, along with corrupt politicians, would never allow development of a scientific temper among youngsters in the country despite having some of the best scientists.

Chancellor of Institute of Chemical Technology, RA Mashelkar, who delivered the Dhirubhai Ambani Oration on ‘Reinventing Business, Reinventing India’, elucidated the three freedoms that have catapulted India into a major economic force. They are: independence in 1947, opening up economy in 1991 and technological growth in 2008.

“The Indo-US nuclear deal signed in 2008, apart from the nuclear aspects, had a lot to do with the technological growth. The deal opened a lot on the technological front, which was earlier denied to India like the dual use of technology as in the case of the 14-seater Saras aircraft programme, which had faced a lot of difficulties,” he said.

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