Eminent scientist Roddam Narasimha quits space panel

Eminent aerospace scientist Roddam Narasimha has resigned as member of the country’s space commission in protest against the Centre’s decision to ban former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair and three other scientists from holding any government jobs over the controversial Antrix-Devas deal.

Narasimha along with former cabinet secretary BK Chaturvedi was a member of the high powered review committee set up by prime minister Manmohan Singh to probe into the deal following allegations that ISRO suffered financial losses for selling spectrum to Devas Multi-Media.

Narasimha who is the senior most member of the space commission has written to the prime minister asking him to be relieved from his post as he considered that the actions taken recently against certain ISRO scientists could not only demoralise the ISRO scientific community but also adversely affect its ability to take the kind of technological initiatives.

“Most ISRO scientists have committed their professional lives to the pursuit of the extraordinary technological challenges posed by a national space programme. Their achievements have brought great credit to the country, and their occasional failures have served only to strengthen their resolve to pursue even more ambitious goals,” he said in statement.