Former chairman of Space Commission and ISRO K. Radhakrishnan on Friday said the next point of inflexion and a logical forward step for India’s space programme will be human presence in solar system.
That is fundamental to India’s positioning among the space comity in the future. “India has to be there,” he said at the Graduation Day for 2018 post-graduate programme (PGP) and PGPMAX 2017 of the Indian School of Business (ISB) here.
The frontline and pristine areas to focus ahead are such as habitat in Moon and Mars, reusable orbital re-entry vehicles for two-way cargo movement among Earth, Moon and Mars as well as downstream technologies to harness lunar and Martian resources for humanity on earth, he said.
He also highlighted the significance of transplanting the cognitive capabilities of human beings partially into robots.
The future belongs to a judicious mix of brain inspired space robots and human habitat, he said. Mr.Radhakrishnan, whose tenure as Chairman was marked by the country launching its own cryogenic engine, first planetary exploration to Mars besides several PSLV flights, said this seeking to draw attention of management professionals to the opportunities in space enterprise.
A prominent area to reckon with, given the size, complexity, business opportunity and strategic regime, space enterprise, he said, would be a paradigm shift.
Hoping some of the management professionals would get “engaged in interplanetary business,” he said “your supply, delivery chain will be discussed there”. Setting up outposts in Moon and Mars for harnessing in-situ resources and getting the cargo back to earth be part of the business.
Highlighting India’s space programme, he said with the forthcoming Lander Mission to Moon — Chandrayaan-2 — the country would be climbing the next level of technology ladder.
Reimagining roles
ISB Chairman Harish Manwani said in the fast changing and increasingly complex global environment, companies will have to reimagine their role in society. This calls for a “new kind of leadership. It needs leaders who can, of course, grow businesses and creative shareholder value but are also conscious of their broader responsibilities of serving the needs of multiple stakeholders...”
Noting that the ISB graduates were well prepared to take on this changing leadership role, he said the institution ranks 28th among the top B-Schools in the world as per the FT Global MBA Rankings 2018.
The alumni base of ISB is nearly 10,000 and it is “our strongest endowment,” Dean Rajendra Srivastava said. The graduation ceremony marked the passing out of 602 students of the PGP Class of 2018 and 55 of the PGPMAX Class of 2017.
