International Women’s Day, 8 March, 2023 - DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality.

 

यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देवताः । यत्रैतास्तु न पूज्यन्ते सर्वास्तत्राफलाः क्रियाः ।। मनुस्मृति ३/५६ ।।

 (Loosely transcribed in English - Yatra naryastu pujyante ramante tatra Devata, yatraitaastu na pujyante sarvaastatrafalaah - Manusmriti). Meaning - Where women are honoured, divinity blossoms, and where women are dishonoured, all action, no matter how noble, remain unfruitful. 

 Unfortunately, although historically there is so much material evidence to suggest equal if not a higher position of women in the Indian society, yet, it is paradoxical that women continue to face the worst of discrimination. Not just in India but globally. The situation is so grim that even in the third decade of the twenty first century (2023) we have to remind ourselves to rightfully demand for a jest gender equality. This is enshrined as one of the important goals in the United Nations, Sustainable Development Goals - to ‘achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’. This is all the more important when it comes to the reach of digital technology. It is in this context that commemorating this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) with its theme, DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality, is timely for reinforcing the urgent need for constant introspection for affirmative action to achieve the UN SDG. 

 From the dim millennium of prehistory to the modern times where digital technologies are integral to our lives - computers, Internet enabled mobiles, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, machine learning, 3D printing, etc. - innovation & technology has been inextricably woven into the fabric of human society. However, across time and space, when it comes to harvesting its benefits, women have been majorly discriminated, not just in benefitting from its applications but also in crediting their contributions. IWD is therefore an occasion to remind us of our solemn duties for action to expedite removal of the growing inequality, particularly in the reach of digital technology, so that it truly becomes DigitALL. 

The genesis for the struggle for equal rights for women began in the early 1900s. The oppression and inequality were pushing women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. Looking back in history, it was on this very day – 8th March - in 1908 that women labours movement started as a united march in which some 15000 women marched in an organised way through the New York City, demanding shorter working hours and better pay and right to vote for women, who until then were treated unequally in US. Encouraged by the response that the women’s march received, the Socialist Party of America joined hands with this movement and demanded for declaring the day as the National Woman's Day. The idea to convert this day into an International Women’s Day came from Clara Zetkin, leader of the Women’s Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany. She tabled the idea of an International Women's Day during the International Conference of Working Women held in Copenhagen in 1910. She proposed that every year in every country, there should be a celebration on the same day to press for change, thus was born the International Women's Day. In the very next year, 1911, this day was celebrated as the Women’s Day in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. However, it was only in 1975 that the United Nations (UN) acknowledged and started celebrating this day as International Women’s Day. Ever since the IWD has been celebrated every year with a theme on this day. 

I take this opportunity to wish every one a very happy IWD and hope that the wonderful theme of DigitALL is truly achieved much before the goal for achieving the UN SDG. 

We have passed through the worst of times during the Covid pandemic (2020- 2022) with loss of millions of lives and livelihood. Fortunately, the misery and pain for the society was partially minimised with the use of digital technology. Digital technology and Internet helped us to tide through this situation, passing through trials and tribulations. The significance of the digital technology and its use in current times can best be seen when one looks at the pace at which the on-line activities have grown in India, including digital payments in the last three years. Observers Research Foundation (ORF) has said that the COVID-19 has propelled a 500 percent increase in tele-health consultations, a structural shift towards online shopping with e-retail reaching 95 percent of Indian districts, and digital payments touching a 100 million transactions per day mark. Added to this are the online academic sessions and office works etc. all of which have shown an exponential growth in the use of digital technology. Unfortunately, the rapid spread of digital technology in India has also amplified the digital divide, which is evidenced in the recently released Oxfam ‘India Inequality Report 2022: Digital Divide’. 

The report, published on 5th December 2022, highlights the impact of the ‘digital divide’ in India in fields like education, health and financial sectors. The report bases its findings on the data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, Mumbai, which was gathered through surveys conducted between January 2018 and December 2021. The report examines access to digital technology among groups belonging to different castes, regions, religions, economic backgrounds, genders and levels of education. The report says that less than 32 per cent of women in India own a mobile phone - compared to over 60 per cent of men. The report also says that ‘women generally have handsets that cost less and are not as sophisticated as those used by men and the usage of digital services is usually limited, only to phone calls and text messages. It further adds that “women use digital services less often and less intensively, and they access the internet less frequently”. The Oxfam report and many other findings emphasize the digital divide that is quite rampant as a result of the vast gender discrimination not just in India but globally. 

Speaking of achieving DigitALL, I am reminded of an important initiative that we had taken, during my service with NCSM, which resulted in the development of a Cyberskool at National Science Centre, New Delhi in 1996 and 1997 in two phases. The importance of this new facility with multimedia state of the art networked computer with dial internet access can be contextualised when we look at the period when internet was launched in India. 15th August, 1995 marks the dawn of internet in India. It was introduced by VSNL, under the leadership of the veteran telecom engineer, late Mr. Brijesh K Syngal. It had huge hiccups and technical issues, when it was launched in India. Only three metro cities were connected to the Internet, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Even the Silicon Valley of India Bangalore had no internet access in 1995. Moreover, there were very few individuals, corporates, companies and government institutions, which had the privilege and luxury to be connected to the internet in 1995. 

In less than one year of the launch of internet in India, the National Science Centre Delhi was connected to the Internet in June 1996, courtesy a new facility the Cyberskool, which was introduced at the centre in partnership and with sponsorship from Intel. I had the honour to be the Project Coordinator of this project and from Intel side, the current NASCOM president Ms. Debjani Ghosh was the lead for this project. The significance of this project was so profound that the head of Intel, Dr Craig Barrette flew down to open this facility at the NSCD. In the very next year, this facility was further extended and even the extended facility was opened by the head of Intel, Dr Craig Barrette. Cybeskool opened up the facility of Internet and digital technology and its use for the school and college students of Delhi and so also for the public way back in 1996. 

The Cyberskool was a centre point for us – Intel and NSCD - to collectively launch a wide-ranging digital learning and engaging programmes in Delhi, primarily for the benefit of students. Project Vidya was one such program, which launched to educate the teachers from across the country and training them to harvest the benefits of digital technology and internet in education - majority of the beneficiaries were lady teachers. Another important program that I vividly remember which was meant for girl students was the STAR program which was organised at Cyberskool in association with IEEE. IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) is a global network of IEEE members and volunteers dedicated to promoting women engineers and scientists, and inspiring girls around the world to follow their academic interests in a career in engineering and science. STAR Program is one of their important programs, which is aimed at mentoring young girls in middle and high schools and motivating them to pursue electronic and computer engineering as their career. 

The STAR educational outreach program, which promotes involvement of IEEE members with girl students in schools in order to create a positive image of engineering careers, was started by us in Delhi and it involved around 100 girl students chosen from different schools in Delhi and surrounding. The international STAR program had begun in 1995 by IEEE WIE. We at NSCD used the facility of Cyberskool to collaborate with IEEE local chapter in Delhi and Intel and tied up a long-term program with IEEE WIE. It helped us to identify around 100 girl students from different schools in Delhi and they were enrolled with us for the one-year STAR program. On almost all week ends these girls were mentored and trained by women engineers and they were allowed access to our Cyberskool and the internet facilities. They were also taken to different engineering colleges and institutions, like IIT Delhi, Delhi College of Engineering, National Physicals Laboratory etc. where they had an opportunity to interact with faculty and scientists and to see their labs and to learn of the careers in electronic and computer engineering. This program went on for three years from 1998 to 2000. Even today the science centres can start this STAR program to improve the perception of the field of engineering for girls and to continue to attract more girls to pursue an engineering career. This will incrementally aid in achieving the DigitALL aim which the IWD 2023. 

This IWD - 8 March, 2023 - let us hope that the collective efforts of the international community, governments, activists, NGOs, private sector and all other stakeholders, will accentuate the goal to make the digital world safer, more inclusive and more equitable to achieve a ‘DigitALL’ society, by embracing everyone. 

Once again wishing you a very happy International Women’s Day. 

 Images : Courtesy Wikipedia and NSC Delhi

75th year of the Punyatithi of the Mahatma - January 30, 2023.

It was on this day – 30th January – 1948 that the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, was assassinated by Nathuram Godse in the compound of the Birla House, New Delhi, where was taking a routine walk in the campus after the multi-faith prayer meeting. This place now serves as a pilgrimage and the lane on which the Birla House is located is aptly called 30 January Marg. It is said that the last words Gandhi ji uttered after he received bullet wounds on his chest, when was fired at close quarters, were “Hey Ram”. Ever since this day is also commemorated as Shaheed Diwas. It is now universally recognised that Gandhi chose satyagraha and ahimsa over guns to achieve Independence for India. Gandhi and his philosophies, thoughts and ideas have not only touched Indians but also globally with Nelson Mandela and Martyn Luther King Jr. among many other global leaders, who looked up to the Mahatma as their inspiration for their freedom struggle and were majorly influenced by the Mahatma and his Satyagraha – nonviolence.

I attended the commemoration of this event  at the Mani Bhavan, home to Gandhi ji in Mumbai and so also his headquarters in Mumbai for about 17 years, from 1917 to 1934 and a historic place which houses a small museum of Gandhi and so also an excellent library. What was very pleasing was to see good number of school students taking part in the event with the singing of the Sarva Dharma Prarthana (multifaith prayers) and other events, which were organised at the Mani Bhavan to mark this occasion and to pay our reverence to the man about whom the great scientist Albert Einstein had said ‘Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth'. 

This year’s Mahatma’s Punyatithi is special for me since the members of the Board of Trustees of Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, Mumbai, have unanimously decided to invite me to be one of the Trustees in the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, a great honour which I have humbly and with humility accepted. I am sharing some of the images of the event, which I attended today at the Mani Bhavan. 

On this occasion, I am tempted to share a link to the blog, which I had written on 2nd October 2020 to commemorate the culmination of the sesquicentennial birth anniversary of the Mahatma on a subject entitled “Gandhi and Science”. 

https://khened.blogspot.com/2020/10/commemoration-and-culmination-of-150th.html

National Science Centre, New Delhi turns Thirty-one

It was on this day 9th January, 1992, 31 years ago, that the National Science Centre, Delhi (NSCD) - a constituent unit of National Council of Science Museum (NCSM), Ministry of Culture, Government of India - was dedicated to the nation by the then Prime Minister of India, Shri PV Narsimha Rao. While wishing the Centre all the very best, I am inclined to recall some nostalgic moments of my association with the NSCD, where I worked in two innings for nearly 17 years (1988 - 2001 and 2007 - 2010). Besides, NSCD is the only centre where I was involved in its development, from scratch. This centre, from bare land to its current status was developed under our eyes, at Pragati Maidan. I was tasked with a responsibility to be involved in not only curating exhibitions – the primary job of curators - but also in the construction - electrical part - of the marvellous castle like building, a creative cranial construct of Achyut Kanvinde, late architect of international repute.

 NSCD has to its credit many memorable moments and achievements.  I wish to recall some of them which are unique only to NSCD. When the centre opened in 1992, it was the first science centre under NCSM to boast of an Escalator which was so beautifully blended with the largest energy ball exhibit – an art installation of its kind and the first of its kind in its scale and size in NCSM – in which the visitors could see nylon balls perform several acrobatics passing in loops to learn in an immersive way, the concept of energy and its transformation – potential to kinetic. The escalator traversed the visitors from the reception lobby in the first floor to the third-floor entry to the Heritage Gallery, immersed in an experiential learning of the concept of energy, from looking at the energy balls which encircled them performing various acrobatics.  

 Then there is the Information Revolution gallery, which was curated in an unorthodox style, during the period of its development and opening in 1992. This gallery went on to receive the coveted Dibner award instituted by the Smithsonian Institution. No wonder even today - 31 years later- the introduction and three other sections of the gallery has remained almost the same, primarily because of its extraordinary appeal and connect with the visitors. Incidentally, I was one of curators involved in the development of this exhibition.

 While there are innumerable other achievements of the centre, I am attempting to present and highlight some them in this post. 15th August, 1995 marks the dawn of internet in India, introduced by VSNL, under the leadership of the veteran telecom engineer, Mr Brijesh K Syngal. It had huge hiccups and technical issues, when it was launched in India. The silicon city of India – Bangalore – did not have a direct dial up facility for logging on to the internet for which they had to place an STD call to one of the three metro cities – including Delhi – which was one of the cities to provide internet, when this facility was launched. Moreover, there were very few corporates, companies and institutions and government institutions, which had the privilege and luxury to be connected to the internet, which is now ubiquitous and omnipresent and inextricably linked to our lives.

In less than one year of the launch of internet in India, the National Science Centre Delhi was connected to the Internet in June 1996 and this facility was introduced to the visitors, primarily students, a rare and distinguished achievement for NCSM, courtesy the Cyberskool facility which we introduced at the centre in partnership and with sponsorship from Intel. I was incidentally the Project Coordinator of this project and from Intel side, the current NASCOM president Ms. Debjani Ghosh was the lead for this project. The significance of this project was so profound that the head of Intel, Dr Craig Barrette flew down to open this facility at the NSCD.

Another event which I remember vividly is an International Micro-mouse and Software competition, which was organized in 1997 at the NSCD. This event witnessed participants from several countries and the task of making an exacting standards maze was taken up successfully by NSCD. Courtesy late FC Kohli, former Chief of TCS, this event was completely sponsored by TCS and was organized at NSCD in collaboration with Computer Society of India.

Much before the dawn of the era of CSR, NCSM started soliciting sponsorship for the exhibitions and events and one such Mega event was the Dinosaur Alive Exhibition which NCSM had developed and marketed so very successfully under the leadership of Dr Saroj Ghose, whose brain child it was to develop this exhibition departmentally in NCSM. This exhibition was a roaring success and it also earned revenue from stalls and eateries, which were a big hit at the exhibition venue. Aping this success, the successor of Dr Ghose, Mr I K Mukherjee, led creation of two such large travelling exhibitions with an eye on generating revenue. These exhibitions were Giants from the Backyard and Science of Sports. Although none of these exhibitions came anywhere near the success that the dinosaur exhibition received, yet both these exhibitions received sponsorship from Discovery Channel and ESPN Star Sports at NSCD – a first of its kind for NCSM. A specially developed promo video advertisement of 20 seconds was shown in the Discovery Channel. And this too was the first for NCSM, and I had the honour to be the lead for getting the sponsorship from Discovery Channel and ESPN Star Sports, and the proposal which was prepared thoughtfully for soliciting sponsorship became some kind of a template in NCSM. I had the honour to prepare this document and also to be the lead for the marketing of these two exhibitions in NSCD.  

How I wish I could write many more such remarkable achievements of NSCD a first for NCSM, but I shall end with two more. The year 2010 was remarkable for NSCD, it was the year when Delhi hosted the Common Wealth Games. NSCD was involved in several projects during this occasion, which included the complete renovation and upgradation of the Nehru Planetarium project and that too in just 5 to 6 months, which the team of NSCD achieved so successfully. NSCD was also involved in works related to organising the Aneesh Kapoor exhibition at NGMA Delhi, in taking up several works of signages and chariot covering for the National Museum, works of creating a safe and aesthetically looking cabinets to house the Gandhi Memorabilia at the Gandhi Smriti Darshan Samiti. The year ended with an astounding exhibition “Network of Innovation” which travelled to India from the Nobel Museum, Sweden. NSCD was successful in hosting this exhibition against some tiff competition from other museums in Delhi – NGMA and National Museum - which had far better resources and facilities.  

One of the main problems that ails the scientific institutions in India and so also other institutions is the bureaucracy and so has it been for the NCSM, where the administration which is supposed to be a facilitator, often times ends up becoming a spoil sport and kind of a bully with Himalayan egos to add to the problems. There was one such egoistic head of the office – Administrative Officer – at NSCD, who had come on a deputation and boasted of an IAAS Indian Audit and Accounts Service - to his credit, which made him feel taller than everyone else, including scientific and technical staff. I recall an instance where most of the staff were in for a rude shock of getting a tax deduction at source without any consultation or information from the Administration. Unfortunately, most of them ended up on my desk seeking for redressal of their problem. I submitted a cogent and a well-reasoned note to the Director requesting him for his indulgence to refund the money to those who were not under tax slab. But then this note hurt the Himalayan ego of the head of office, and what followed would have been a harrowing experience for me had I not engaged myself in self learning rules including the duties and responsibilities of the DDO under the Income Tax Act. An allegation of misrepresentation of income details by me in the previous year was made against me including removing some documents from my records to target and silence me. But then those were the days when I was made up of a different mettle, particularly against the administration who were trying to behave like big bosses.

The note that I had submitted to the Director ran front and back including bringing on record the above-mentioned false allegations against me. My tenacity to face this and so also my put across on papers my defense and argument were a shock for the so-called administrative head. While he did end up getting defeated and pay back the wrongful deduction of tax to staff there were some interesting exchanges on the note. However, in the notes I had purposefully avoided use of niceties like please and kindly when it comes to addressing the egoistic Head of Office. Even as he admitted of his “inadvertent error” of wrongful deduction of tax from lower staff, the officer wrote on file that “the officer” - meaning yours truly – should be educated by the Director to respect the seniors and use proper etiquettes while writing notes. It is another matter that he was not senior to me in scale but definitely he was far senior in age. When I disagreed to his plea to address him with words like please and or kindly, since he was senior, he ended up saying that he may not be senior in hierarchy but definitely senior in age. This too was countered by on the note with a statement which will remain etched in my memory. I wrote “ If age is the sole criterion for seniority then fossils are to be worshipped “ and sent it back to the Director. It was here that the Director decided to call us face to face to resolve this issue and call it a close.

 I am writing this episode to since even today that habit of bossing over by administration has continued for long and that too inconveniencing the staff with even monitory losses. But then NCSM is a small microcosm of the powerful bureaucracy the India faces which had forced the then PM Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee to say in one of the India Science Congress that “ our scientists are becoming prisoners of procedures rather than achievers of excellence” Will this end and of so when is a million dollar question, more so since I have witnessed this in NCSM.

 Long live NSCD and may it continue to inspire millions of visitors, particularly students to harvest benefits of application of science for the societal good.  

Greetings for a Happy New Year 2023

 

The dawn of a new year is time to invoke Alfred Tennyson “Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.” 

Wishing you all a very happy new year 2023.

At the dawn of each new year we pull out those ubiquitous old calendars to make way for the new calendars with a hope and aspiration that the new year dawns a better future. Now that the year 2022 is behind us it is time to spare a thought for human ingenuity to create calendars that have defined years, days and month, which are inextricably linked to our lives. Calendars govern our lives and are designed based on scientific system to reckon time in periods convenient to the conduct of our day today lives and help us knit in sync with each other, cutting across time and space and also in chronicling our collective history for posterity.

Calendars have held sacred status across all regions, for they help us in maintaining social order, provide the basis for planning of agricultural, economic and industrial activities and so also in chronicling our collective history for posterity.  Calendars provide a basis for maintaining cycles of religious and civil events. As we prepare ourselves to welcome yet another new year, let us spare a thought for the makers of the calendars, which have led us to celebrating the new year year after year.  

Calendar has its origin from the Roman word Calends or Kalends,  meaning a method of distributing time into certain periods adopted for the purpose  of civil life. The story of the calendar begins with the fascinating history of mans endeavour to organize our lives in accordance with celestial cycles of Earth, moon and sun. All calendars are founded upon some combination of the movement of these celestial bodies. Moon has always influenced the timing of different religious festivals, and seasons, and the Sun has influenced the time of sowing and harvesting. Calendars based on observations of moon are called the lunar calendars and those based on the observations of the Sun are called the Solar calendars. These two calendars have been used widely in different cultures of the world; Chinese, Hebrew, Islamic, Gregorian and our very own Hindu calendars. While each of these calendars are unique in how they are used, however, they all share a set of common features borrowing from each other.  Like all great efforts that require dedicated collective work of a group of people, the establishment of a standardised calendrical system was no trivial matter. It required knowing how to make observations, which observations to make, and how to keep records over a long period of time. 

One of the oldest calendar systems is our very own Hindu calendar, which is based on the lunar revolutions and included adjustments (intercalation/extracalation) to solar reckoning. It divides an approximate solar year of 360 days into 12 lunar months of 27 days each according to the Taitriya Samhita and also Atharva Veda. The resulting discrepancy was resolved by the intercalation of a leap month every 60 months. The months were counted from full moon to full moon and were divided into two halves Shukla paksa of waxing period and Krisna paksa of waning period. The new moon days were observed as amavasya and full moon as Purnima’s and most religious rituals were performed around these two events. Each of the months has thirty days (tithi) and the day (divasa) thirty hours (muhurta). A new form of astrology that is in vogue today is based on the old Hindu calendrical system, which did under go a change in its classic form according to the Surya siddhanta in 4-5th century AD. The year was divided into seasons, ऋतु, spring (वसॉन्था) from mid March until mid May; summer (ग्रीष्म), from mid May until mid July; the rains (वर्शा), from mid July until mid September, autumn (सरद) from mid September until mid November and winter (हेमन्त) from mid November until mid January and the Dews (सिसिरा), from mid January until mid March.

Most calendars had some or the other discrepancy, which needed correction. The discrepancy in the Indian calendars and controversy associated with it can be traced back to the period of the great epic Mahabharata. The epic mentions two periods - the Vanavasa (period of exile) and the agnyatavasa (the period of incognito living) - which the Pandavas were mandated to observe in obeisance of Yudhisthar’s commitment to the Kauravas. The epic battle of Kurukshetra was fought with a consideration that the Pandavas, according to Duryodhana, failed to keep their promise to stay in exile for twelve years and in hiding for one year. However, Bhisma reckoned that the Pandavas adhered to their promise and observed the two periods. Bhisma substantiated his argument with the fact that the calendar adds an extra month every five years. The interpretation of the calendar or the complications involved in the calendar making are therefore legendary.

From historic times calendar makers have relied on the sunrise and sun set to determine the day, while the period between the full moon determined the month. Even in modern times the celestial bodies continue to provide the basic standards for determining the measurement of the day, month and the year. The day can be measured either by the stars or by the sun. If stars are used, then the interval is called the “Sideral day” and is defined by the period between two passages of a star across the meridian. The mean Solar day is 24 hours, 3 minutes and 56.55 seconds long. The measurement of the month is determined by the passage of the moon around the earth. There are two kinds of measurements for the month, first, the period taken by the moon to complete an orbit of the earth and second, the time taken by the moon to complete a cycle of phases. The former is defined as the orbital month. However, the problem with this is that the moon's orbit is elliptical and it will be travelling faster when closer to the earth (perigee) and slower when further away (apogee) and therefore it has anomalies. The Anomalistic month is the time between perigees (27.55455 days mean value). The second measurement of the month by the phases of the moon is called the synodic month (synod = meeting, in astronomy it means conjunction or lining-up) which measures 29.53059 days.The synodic month forms the basis of the calendar month.

Determining the length of the year also has its own problems. The Earth does not rotate whole number of times for each revolution of sun. The Sidereal year is the time for the Earth to return to the same position relative to the fixed stars, which measures  365.25636 days and its mean value increases by 0.00000012 days per century. Because it is slightly longer than the tropical,  the equinoxes will gradually creep westward around the ecliptic by 1 in 71.71 years or 360 in 25800 years. The common year is called the Tropical year meaning the time between spring equinoxes (365.24219 days mean value decreasing by 0.00000614 days per century). Because the Earth's orbit is elliptical it will travel faster at perihelion (closest, now early January) and slower at aphelion (furthest, now early July). This means that the season around perihelion will be shorter than the one around aphelion. Currently the gaps between equinoxes and solstices are, starting at the Northern Hemisphere Spring Equinox, 92.72, 93.66, 89.84, and 88.98 days. The southern hemisphere gets a few extra days of winter and the northern hemisphere gets a few extra days of summer. Choosing either of the years leaves the calendar maker in an awkward position of having the following New Year beginning in the middle of the day.

The Julian Calendar : Of the several calendars of antiquity, the Egyptian and the Roman calendars developed into the Julian calendar, which was used for more than 1500 years. The Roman republican calendar, introduced around 600 BC, was a lunar one, short by 10.25 days of a Tropical year. It included an extra intercalary month, every two years, which fell in late February. Nonetheless, by around 50 BC, the lunar year had fallen eight weeks behind the solar one, and it was clear that the Romans were out of Sync. There was total confusion when Julius Caesar came to power as the Roman’s 355 day lunar calendar was 80 days out of sync with seasons when Caesar took the throne. Julius Caesar, it is believed got acquainted with the Egyptian calendar on the same trip during which he got to know Cleopatra. He then came in contact with the famous Greek Egyptian astronomer, Sosigenes. In the year 46 BC, Sosigenes convinced Julius Caesar to reform the calendar to a more manageable form. Sosigenes' message to Caesar was that the moon was a nice god but knew nothing about when things happen. Armed with this information Caesar returned to Rome and made big changes. The old lunar system with intercalary months was abandoned and a new solar system was introduced with fixed month lengths making 365 days and an intercalary day every forth year in February which would have 29 or 30 days. To shift the equinox back to March 25 he added three extra months to 46 BC, making it 445 days long ('the year of confusion') and the Julian calendar began on 1st January 45 BC.  In recognition of his contribution to the calendar reforms the month of July is named in his honour.

Caesar’s nephew Augustus (originally named Octavius) also did some cleaning up of the calendar, details of which however are not very clear. One source (Britannica) suggests that the priests got the leap years wrong having one every third year for forty years so he had to skip a few until 8 BC. In recognition of this, they renamed Sextilis with August in his honour but had to pinch a day from February to make the month of August have the same length of days as July. The tradition has lasted until today and therefore contrary to any logic the immediate months of July and August have 31 days each.

Anno Domini : Things went smoothly for a while; the seasons were finally put in proper place in the year and festivals were happening at sensible times - almost. At the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, Easter was decreed to be the first Sunday after the full moon after the vernal equinox. The early Christians were keen to cleanse contrary ideas (like the spherical Earth) so in 526 AD; the Abbot of Rome, Dionysius Exiguus proclaimed that the birth of Christ should be the event from which years are counted. He also calculated the event to be from December 25 and asserted that it should be called 1 AD (Anno Domini = in the year of our Lord that has now been changed to CE or Common Era) and the year preceding it should be called 1 BC (meaning Before Christ, which has further been changed with a secular abbreviation BCE - Before Common Era) with prior years counted backwards. The omission of a year zero was a dumb idea.  About this time the seven day week was introduced. Although it may have appeared earlier in the Jewish calendar and also in the Hindu calendar, it was tidied up in the fourth century. Cycles of four to ten days had previously been used for organising work and play. Seven was chosen apparently in acknowledgment of the Genesis story where God rested on the seventh day although there is a strong suggestion that it also reflected the seven gods visible in the sky as the planets, sun and moon. 

Pope Gregory XIII : By the middle ages the seasons had slipped again. Pope Leo X tackled the problem in 1514 AD ( CE or Common Era) by engaging a number of astronomers, including the famous Copernicus, who quickly recognised that there was a more fundamental problem than rearranging the calendar and suggested the rearrangement of the universe by putting the sun at the center as against the earth. The Church though did not accept the suggestions. Half a century later Pope Gregory XIII was sane enough to have another go to sort out the discrepancy and assembled a team of experts, led by the German mathematician Christoph Clavius(1537-1612) and Italian physician and Astronomer Aloisius Lilius who spent ten years finding a solution to the problem. By 1582 AD the Julian calendar was full 13 days behind the seasons. By then the Christian churches had scheduled certain of its feasts, such as Christmas and the saint’s days, on fixed dates. The Julian calendar, which was running 13 days behind the sun, had little or no effect on the lives of the ordinary folks, but it disturbed the functioning of the Church, because it pushed the holy days into wrong seasons. This prompted the church to issue clearance to Pope Gregory XIII to implement necessary changes in the calendar.

Gregorian Calendar : The change made by Gregory XIII to the calendar envisaged skipping ten days, sometime to bring the seasons back in line and skip a few leap years now and again. The extra day every fourth year is too much so skip the leap year at the end of the century. This is now a touch short so put back a leap year every fourth century. The leap year is therefore defined as a year if it is a multiple of 4. However if the year  is a multiple of 100 it is not a leap year. There is an exception to it. If the year is a multiple of 400 it will once again be a leap year. Since this still produces an error of a day in 3,323 years we will also be skipping the leap year in 4000 AD. Applying all these principles in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII, decreed that the day after October 4, 1582, would be October 15, 1582. And according to the prescribed rule 1600 was a leap year but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not and the year 2000 AD was again a leap year.  

The changeover to the Gregorian calendar was not smooth. France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal changed in 1582; Prussia, Switzerland, Holland, Flanders and the German Catholic states in 1583; Poland in 1586 and Hungary in 1587. The Protestant countries weren't too keen to follow, so for nearly two centuries there were two calendars running in Europe ten days apart. Matters came to a head in 1700 when the Protestants had a leap year and the Catholics didn't, increasing the gap to 11 days. Denmark and the German Protestant states changed in 1700 and Sweden came up with the brilliant plan of simply skipping all leap years until they caught up in 1740. England and America switched over in 1752, skipping 11 days by making September 3 as September 14 and shifting the start of the year to January 1. There was much unrest in the US - 'give us back our eleven days' was a popular campaign slogan.  Many other countries were slow to adopt the standard and it was not until the early twentieth century that the entire world was finally synchronised. Japan changed in 1872, China in 1912, Bulgaria in 1915, Turkey in 1917, Yugoslavia and Rumania in 1919 and Greece in 1923. The Gregorian calendar is now recognised world wide although there are still many other calendars running alongside it, for religious purposes. 

In India, calendar reform took place in 1957.  The National Calendar of India is a formalized lunisolar calendar in which leap years coincide with those of the Gregorian calendar (Calendar Reform Committee, 1957). However, the initial epoch is the Saka Era, a traditional epoch of Indian chronology. Months are named after the traditional Indian months and are offset from the beginning of Gregorian months. In addition to establishing a civil calendar, the Calendar Reform Committee set guidelines for religious calendars, which require calculations of the motions of the Sun and Moon. Tabulations of the religious holidays are prepared by the Indian Meteorological Department and published annually in The Indian Astronomical Ephemeris. Despite the attempt to establish a unified calendar for all of India, many local variations exist. The Gregorian calendar continues in use for administrative purposes, and holidays are still determined according to regional, religious, and ethnic traditions. Years are counted from the Saka Era; 1 Saka is considered to begin with the vernal equinox of 79 CE.

The reformed Indian calendar began with Saka Era 1879 CE, Caitra 1, which corresponds to 22nd March, 1957. Normal years have 365 days; leap years have 366. In a leap year, an intercalary day is added to the end of Caitra. The calendars that we use today are  based on the recommendations of the Calendar reform committee,  which was headed by Meghnad Saha, one of the great Indian scientists. As we enter into yet another new year 

So while we enjoy and welcome the new year, let us also understand the Genesis of what the new year means and how has it evolved and become a part of our lives.

Once again wishing you all a very happy New Year 2023. 

Bapu and Shastri Jayanti.

What a providential coincidence it is that Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri - two of the most loved leaders of this country - share their birth date. Unfortunately, due to this coincidence, unwittingly, the saga of the extraordinary life, works and contributions of Lal Bahadur Shastri are often dwarfed in its public reportage. 

2nd October -  marked as Gandhi Jayanti - keeps reminding us of the Mahatma, the man about whom the great Albert Einstein said ‘Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one, as this, ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth’. While remembering the Mahatma on his birth anniversary - born on  02.10.1869 - we must also remember with equal reverence another legend - Lal Bahadur Shastri, who was also born on this day (2.10.1904). The physical stature of Shastri ji may have been very small but his standing is as tall as that of the Mahatma when it comes to his contributions to our country. Lal Bahadur Shatri and his ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’ clarion call, that he made to the nation in the face of the Indo-Pak 1965 war, which came on the back of the defeat that we faced against the Chinese in the 1962 war and at the time when India was also facing shortage of food grains, served as a major boost to the nation, which reverentially supported our Jawans and Kisans in equal measures the tradition of which has perpetuated even today. Shastri’s  contribution must therefore be remembered with equal reverence.

While so much has been written on the Mahatma and his nonviolent freedom movement yet very little is known about his interest in science and technology, particularly astronomy - star gazing. During the culmination of the two year celebrations of the sesquicentennial birth anniversary of the Mahatma, the Nehru Science Centre had organised two online lectures,  the first one by Dr Rathnashri on ‘Bapu and Khagol Shastra’ and the second one ‘Mahatma Gandhi and Science and Technology’ by Sudheendra Kulkarni.  Here is a link to the blog which I had written, two years ago,  which describes in greater details the connect that Gandhi had with science, technology and astronomy, based on the above two lectures which Nehru Science Centre had organised. Those interested may please read my long blog leisurely. 

https://khened.blogspot.com/2020/10/commemoration-and-culmination-of-150th.html

Gandhi had fallen briefly in love with star gazing while he was incarcerated in the Yerwada Jail. Dr Rathnashri, Director Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi - who most unfortunately succumbed to COVID last year - has thrown new light into Bapu's interest in star gazing, which she converted into a Planetarium show titling it ‘Bapu and Khagol Shastra’. This planetarium show featured during the sesquicentennial birth anniversary of the Mahatma at the Nehru Planetarium. She also conducted several workshops across the country communicating the hitherto unknown facets of Gandhiji's interest in science, particularly his interest in star gazing.

The name of Shastri and his impeccable integrity and beyond imagination simplicity are legendary and synonymous. The diminutive Shastri ji had a Himalayan determination and trust in his fellow Indians, which was evidenced when the Pakistani General tried a misadventure in the 1965 Indo Pak war only to face a bloody nose and a defeat at the hands of the great Indian army. His eponymous 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan' slogan touched a chord with the people and energised both our Jawans and Kisans to raise up to the occassion - the former in defeating the enemy, Pakistan, and the later in ushering the green revolution - with help of agriculture scientists, Normon Borlaug, Swaminathan and many other leaders - and the rest is history. Infact there have been many new slogans coined, which have mostly remained as slogans while the Jai Jawan Jai Kisan slogan was translated into reality in a mission mode, particularly the agricultural aspect of it. The slogan of Shastri is what drove the the mission made approach to ushering of green revolution about which lot has been written. It is time that similar mission mode approach be followed and focused efforts and attention be made to emulate the achievements of the slogan of Shastri ji it while making the new slogan - Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan and Jai Anusandhan translate in to its success and not just remain a slogan for sloganeering. 

Some of the often heard anecdotes of Shastri include his resignation as the Railway Minister while owning up responsibility for a Rail accident. Shastri ji was the Railway Minister in Pandit Nehru’s cabinet. There was a major railway accident in Mahabubnagar - formerly in the state of Andhra Pradesh and now in Telangana state - which occurred in August 1956. The accident resulted in the loss of 112 precious lives who were killed in this accident. Shastri ji owned up the moral responsibility for this accident and sent out a  his resignation letter to the PM, Nehru, who did not accept his resignation and instead persuaded Shastri to withdraw his resignation. Unfortunately, as misfortune would have it for Shastri, a few months later -  in November 1956 - there was another major railway accident in Ariyalur in Tamil Nadu, which resulted in 144 deaths. Shastri once again promptly submitted his resignation to the PM and pleaded for its early acceptance. Such was his impeccable integrity. Unfortunately,  his untimely death just after signing of the Tashkent agreement, continues to be one of those unsolved mystery where the last word has not yet been written conclusively. 

May both - Bapu and Shastri - continue to live in the hearts and minds of the people. 

Images - courtesy Wiki commons and Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai

Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Jai Vigyan, Jai Anusandhan.

Sathya Meva Jayathe.🙏🙏

Dissent, “Treacherous Eight” & the Birth of the Silicon Valley

 

                                         

18 September, in a way is celebrated as a birthday of sorts for the Silicon Valley in the US of A. It was on this day (September 18) in 1957, eight brilliant minds - Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Gene Kleiner, Jay Last, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, and Sheldon Roberts - who were working with a genius Nobelist, William Shockley in the Shockley Semiconductor company, resigned en masse to chart their own future. It was this historic decision which paved the way for the birth of what we now call as the Silicon Valley. The eight of them were collectively dubbed as ‘treacherous eight’ by their boss, William Shockley, an ‘erratic, mistrustful, and impatient boss’. Shockley was suspicious of his employees and went to an idiotic extent of spying on them by hiring detectives and sometimes asking them to take a lie-detector tests. It was therefore no wonder that eight of his best employees decided to call it quits.

Shockley was a brilliant scientist who had served for long with the Bell Labs and one of his most significant achievements at the Bell Labs was the transistor. It is pertinent to note that the computers of that time - ENIAC - used power hungry and bulky vaccum tubes which often times blew out due to extreme heat leading to the breakdown in the functioning of the devices. The discovery of the transistor effect and the subsequent mass production of the small transistors paved the way for a transformational change in the electronics industry. The market impact of William Shockley’s research at the Bell Labs can be understood with just one just example - The Sony Corporation. This Japanese company, which is now a global leader in the consumer electronics industry, owes its success to the Ball Labs transistors using which Sony began manufacturing radio transistors to make an international market presence for the Sony products. In recognition of his research, William Shockley was awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics which he shared with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain "for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect".

Bell Labs knew the market potential of the discovery of the transistor effect and therefore they organised an international demonstration of how their new device - transistor- could replace the power hungry Vacuum tubes and also reduce the size of the computers and make them more reliable, besides being economical. One of the beneficiaries of their discovery was Sony which helped Japan to become the consumer electronics leader in international market. Shockley therefore was expecting a reward from Bell Labs, which was commensurate with the market potential of his discovery. Unfortunately, the management of the Bell Labs did not entertain Shockley’s demand. Unhappy with the treatment that he was getting in Bell Labs, Shockley decided to part ways with his company and start his own semiconductor company. Until then, it is important to note that most of the business enterprises were mostly located in the east coast in US including Bell Labs, which was located in New Jersey. Shockley decided that he will not only quit Bell Labs but will move to the other side - the west coast, to establish his own company far away from the Bell Labs.

Shockley founded the Shockley Semiconductor company in 1955 with an objective to work on semiconductors and to build transistors. He managed to obtain funds for his new venture from Beckmann Instruments. Shockley Semiconductor opened its business in 1955 at Palo Alto, California, near Stanford University, which is now at the heart of the Silicon Valley. Shockley knew that if his company was to succeed he would need the best of minds. Moreover, Shockley had a knack for identifying the best of talent. He scouted for the best talent in the universities and managed to put together a team of highly talented young men to work for his company. His team was referred to as the ‘greatest collection of electronic geniuses’ ever assembled under one roof.

Shockley Semiconductor became the first High Technology company in what would become the Silicon Valley. Unfortunately, things did not go well for the company from the beginning. Most of the brilliant young men hired personally by Shockley were actually attracted to the the glamor of working under the genius scientist, Shockley - the co-creator of the first transistor. Unfortunately, that was not to be. During those early days there was limited talent with specialised semiconductor knowledge in the market, and among those talent, the best of it was working with Shockley. The researchers working under Shockley faced a myriad of challenges. They were never given a free hand to work on their passion in the frontiers of the semiconductor technology. Their preference to work with silicon semiconductors was rejected by Shockley. They were constantly heckled by Shockley with micro-management, impatience, and skepticism. Moreover, Shockley’s paranoia of internal mutiny by his genius employees made him to resort to extreme measures. He hired detectives to spy on his employees and often put them to lie detector tests. Shockley had no sense of professionalism and his employees saw him as an incompetent businessman. The constant outburst of Shockley on his employees were a cause for mounting friction. The resulting work environment in the company, which was to work in the state of the art research field, was contemptuous, stressful, and stifling. What would happen next would give rise to perhaps the most influential birth of a tech giant companies in late 1950s

Among the people who were continuing to be ill treated at the Shockley Semiconductors were the ‘traitorous eight’. These eight best minds (Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Gene Kleiner, Jay Last, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, and Sheldon Roberts), who would become famously known as "the traitorous eight", went on to form their own company the Fairchild Semiconductors, which ushered in unprecedented growth and innovation and laid a strong foundation and a culture of innovation in the Silicon Valley. The description given by Arthur Rock, a Venture Capitalist, defines the nature of the eight people who revolted against Shockley to found their own company. “These were, by their résumés, very superior people. And I thought, gee, maybe there is something here, something more valuable than just being an employee.” - Arthur Rock, Venture Capitalist.

One fine day on a hot summer morning in San Francisco in 1957, the eight of the most talented young minds working for Shockley Semiconductors convened for a clandestine meeting at the Clift Hotel. They gathered over breakfast in the famed Redwood Room, a bastion of the city’s old guard. One of them was Robert Noyce, an MIT genius engineer, who is also to be credited for the invention of the Integrated Chip, for which Jack Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize. Robert Noyce was the leader they needed. Noyce was initially not keen to revolt against Shockley and leave his company since he had a young family to care for. However, the remaining seven of the traitorous eight persuaded Noyce to join them for creating a new company in a new field based on nothing more than combined knowledge, faith, ideas, and passion. The result was the formation of Fair Child Semiconductor company.

It was on September 19, 1957, a day after these eight brilliant minds left Shockley Semiconductors company, that they signed on a dollar bill promising to establish their own company. Their startup, Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation, went on to develop some of the most important innovations in 20th century electronics technology and sowed seeds that spawned Silicon Valley and changed the world. In the formation of their new company the eight of them were assisted by Arthur Rock, who later formed one of the first West Coast venture capital firms. The eight men raised $1.38 million from East Coast−based Fairchild Camera & Instrument Corporation. Their timing was impeccable. This was the time when USA was lagging far behind their Cold War rivals the Soviet Union in every space venture and it was time for the US to recoup the loss of leadership to the Soviet Union. This resulted in the military contractors engaged in crash programs to miniaturize and improve the reliability of aerospace electronic systems. Fairchild founders identified this as an opportunity for a new kind of silicon transistor to serve these applications.

In just five months they outfitted an R&D facility in Palo Alto, developed new processes and equipment, and introduced a range of new transistors which found instant acceptance in the space market. Fairchild’s rapid growth in revenue, number of employees, and impact on the local community can be compared to that of Google 40 years later. This extraordinary level of success was built on revolutionary insights by three co-founders—Jean Hoerni, Robert Noyce, and Gordon Moore and amplified by what is called as a start-up and innovation culture with the best of creative engineers and scientists. Fair Child continued to innovate and churn out new products and services all through the 1960s. Fairchild scientists pioneered reliable metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) production and also patented the all-important complementary MOS (CMOS) technology which is so fundamental to mainstream chip manufacturing today. Fairchild also developed analog chips and the most famous among them is µA709 operational amplifier (op-amp), which was developed in 1965. This IC established a mass market for analog devices and a highly profitable business unit for Fairchild. Fairchild alumni started many important analog IC companies including Linear Technology and Maxim.\

The Fairchild company grew from twelve to twelve thousand employees in no time and was soon raking in some $130 million a year. Led by Robert Noyce, the company introduced what has become a distinctly "Californian" style of management, complete with casual clothing and laid back atmosphere. Fairchild was the seedbed for a great industrial complex, as over the years many of the founders left to form other companies. Dubbed the "Fairchildren," these defectors helped Silicon Valley grow into the semiconductor ‘Mecca’ it has grown to become today.

According to journalist Michael Malone, “Fairchild Semiconductor was a company of legend – perhaps the most extraordinary collection of business talent ever assembled in a startup company. If Fairchild had a corporate culture it could only be described as volatility incarnate... brilliant young engineers and marketers working long days, and partying long nights... And somehow in the middle of it all, they also managed to invent the integrated circuit, the defining product of the late 20th century, and in the process helped to create the modern world”.

The management style that emerged from this culture differed from the conventional, bureaucratic, almost feudal ethos of the East Coast companies. Youth, inexperience, undying spirit, passion, a diverse mix of immigrants from across Europe and Asia, particularly from India, a tolerance for risk-taking, and a strong engineering discipline evolved into a formula that was replicated across the Valley. This culture now spans to successor companies such as AMD, Intel, and National Semiconductor and on to Apple, Atari, Netscape and Sun and also to Cisco, Google, Facebook and beyond.

The Fairchild Semiconductor reached heights of influence in no time. But then as it happens with most companies Fairchild too was beset by inept absentee management woes. Key people started leaving the company to chart their own paths and to found new companies of their own. Among those who left the Fair Child to form their own companies included their founder, the MIT genius engineer, Robert Noyce. He co-founded Intel with Gordon Moore in 1968. This process haemorrhaging key people continued with the company and those who left the company went on to found new semiconductor companies like Intel, AMD, National LSI Logic and many others. It is estimated by some that more than 400 companies can trace their roots to the Fairchild Semiconductor company, which was formed by those "Fairchild Eight" the most famous being Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, who co-founded Intel Corp. in 1968.

Today, that culture which was created by the founders of Fair Child Semiconductors in the Silicon Valley continues unabated. And this culture is inextricably linked to Innovation and entrepreneurship and it is/was here that the so called ‘geeks’ work passionately in an informal work culture, alongside their unending and night partying- ‘to give birth to the future’. The origin of the raise and raise of this new knowledge culture in the Silicon Valley, where innovation is a norm, goes back to the decades of the 50s, 60s and 70s of the twentieth century. This tradition has continued to remain uninterruptible even today and the culture of innovation, creativity and birthing new technologies in the Silicon Valley has spread to far off places across the world including in cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Gurugram in India.

The semiconductor industry was, is and will continue to be the engine that drives the Silicon Valley. It ushered the much heralded Information Revolution, the computers, cell phones, satellites, internet etc. and these new technologies, which owe their existence to the semiconductor industry have completely transformed our lives and collectively led us to the knowledge society and to what is termed the Fourth Industrial Revolution - IR4.0.

The history of the Silicon Valley therefore owes its Genesis to the dissent by the eight brilliant minds who left en-masse the Shockley Semiconductors company on this day to not only found their own company but also create a culture which thrives even today in the valley.

India has been immensely benefitted from this culture. Bangalored, a neologism, which became famous because of Barack Obama’s, (former American president) election address to the Buffalo audience, where he spoke on the dangers of the Buffalo (American) youngsters losing their jobs to their Bangalore counter parts in India, reminds us of the spin off benefits that the exponential growth of Silicon Valley in San Francisco Bay Area has brought for India, particularly to Bangalore which is considered to be the Silicon Valley of India. Let us owe it to those traitorous eight who made this possible.

Long live Creative culture which was birthed in the Valley to create more opportunities for India.