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THE Indian National Superconductivity Programme (NSP) was initiated soon after the discovery in 1986 of high-temperature superconductivity (HTS), with the promise of an enormous industrial and economic potential. It was executed in as autonomous a manner as possible, with separate funding and project approval processes, and managed by a specially constituted board headed by the then Chairman of the Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (SAC-PM), C.N.R. Rao.
The total funding under this programme by the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research was about Rs.50 crores. Separately the University Grants Commission had funded a programme to the tune of about Rs.15 crores. Arguably, the total amount was perhaps sub-critical but that was all that the scientists in the field could absorb. In the ultimate assessment of the programme, except for publication of research papers (whose impact too needs to be looked at) there is nothing at all to show by way of devices, applications, technology or even high-temperature superconductivity material production capability. Indeed, even the way the programme was managed and administered was questioned by many people.
There is a similar programme now, the Nanoscience and Technology Initiative (NSTI), with a proposed annual funding of Rs.200 crores, which is nearly in order of magnitude more than the current funding for nanoscience projects, for five years. The 2005-06 Budget has already made an allocation of Rs.200 crores. Apparently, a synchrotron - an accelerator that acts as a light source in the ultraviolet to x-ray wavelengths - is being proposed to be bought for structure studies and lithography with nanomaterials towards which 70 to 80 per cent of the allocation may be spent. The NSTI expects that the DAE would contribute an equal amount.
This proposal would seem to mock at the upcoming synchrotron Indus-2 at the DAE's Centre for Advanced Technology (CAT), Indore. By all accounts, it should become operational in the next few months. According to some nanoscientists, the beam characteristics and its stability are unlikely to meet the precision required for nanoscience, particularly when Indus-2 is the DAE's maiden effort at building a major accelerator facility.
"I am baffled at this very suggestion," said V. Sahni, Director, CAT. "No one has told us what the requirements are. In fact, the problem that Indus-2 is likely to face is lack of enough users. Let them come and see its performance," he added.
"The country cannot afford two synchrotrons," said B.A. Dasannacharya, a material scientist and former Director of the DAE-UGC Inter-university facility at Indore. "Indus-2 with 2.5 GeV energy is sufficient for nanoscience research. In any case, you do not get synchrotrons off the shelf," he added. "Even if you wish to import it has to be built to specific design and requirements," observed S.S. Kapoor, an accelerator specialist at the DAE. "It would take five to six years. In any case, who would operate it? Is there any expertise besides the DAE?" asked Kapoor.
The NSTI is being coordinated by a National Expert Committee headed by C.N.R. Rao, the present Chairman of the SAC-PM.
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