Yash Pal: Physicist Who Made Science Popular

Yash Pal was an Indian physicist, a builder of institutions and a teacher of science. He was born on 26 November 1926 in Jhang, in undivided Punjab. He died on 24 July 2017 in Noida, aged 90.

Why do people remember him?

• He studied cosmic rays, the fast particles that reach Earth from space.
• He was the first Director of the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad.
• He led the University Grants Commission (UGC).
• He chaired the committee behind “Learning Without Burden”.
• He explained science to ordinary viewers on Doordarshan.

His career moved step by step from the laboratory to public service.

What did he study?

He took an MSc in physics at Panjab University. He then moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for his PhD. His speciality was cosmic rays.

He began his career at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).

Which posts did he hold later?

• Space: First Director of the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad.
• United Nations: Secretary-General of the Second United Nations Conference on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, known as UNISPACE II.
• Planning: Member of the Planning Commission.
• Science policy: Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
• Universities: Chairman of the UGC.
• Teaching: Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

The Space Applications Centre (SAC) is an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) centre in Ahmedabad.

What was his role there?

Two sources agree on the key point. He was the first, or founder, Director of SAC. Research Matters dates the appointment to 1973.

What else did the same sources say?

Research Matters notes that he joined the government’s ambitious space programme while he was at TIFR. National Herald calls him the founder director of ISRO’s Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad.

SITE stands for Satellite Instructional Television Experiment. It ran in 1975-76. ISRO calls it “the largest sociological experiment in the world”.

What did SITE do?

• It sent development programmes to villages by satellite.
• It used the American Applications Technology Satellite, ATS-6.
• It covered about 2,400 villages in six states.
• ISRO says it benefited around 200,000 people.
• It also trained 50,000 primary-school science teachers in one year.

Why was it a test and not a full system?

ISRO says a controlled experiment was needed before a full satellite system. A farm programme called Krishi Darshan came first. SITE was the next step.

What was the daily schedule?

NASA’s technical paper describes SITE as running in the second year of the ATS-6 satellite. Signals went up from Ahmedabad and Delhi. There were 6 clusters of 400 receivers, which makes 2,400.

• Morning: 1.5 hours of school programmes.
• Evening: 2.5 hours of adult programmes.

Do all sources give the same village count?

No. An ISPRS paper says more than 2,600 villages in six states. ISRO and NASA give 2,400. An MIT caption on the agreement speaks of some 5,000 villages. For an exam, use the number in the question’s source.

Who signed the deal with NASA?

An MIT exhibit shows Vikram Sarabhai, ISRO’s chairman, signing the agreement with NASA Administrator Thomas Paine. It covered instructional television for Indian villages. ATS-6 was launched on 30 May 1974. It was available to ISRO for one year from 1 August 1975.

Yash Pal was Chairman of the UGC from 1986 to 1991.

What are Inter-University Centres?

National Herald says he pushed for Inter-University Centres funded by the UGC. He took the model of the Nuclear Science Centre in New Delhi. That centre is now the Inter-University Accelerator Centre.

What came out of this idea?

The Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune emerged from this vision. IUCAA’s own website says the UGC set it up as an autonomous institution.

The UN also credits him with helping to set up the Centre for Educational Communication in Ahmedabad.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development set up a National Advisory Committee in March 1992. Yash Pal chaired it. Its report, “Learning Without Burden”, has a cover letter dated 15 July 1993.

Who sat on the committee?

• Chairman: Yash Pal.
• Members: Krishna Kumar, Poromesh Acharya, Dina Guha, Vibha Parthasarathi, V.G. Kulkarni and T.S. Saraswathi.
• Member Secretary: G.L. Arora.

What was it asked to do?

Its task was to advise on cutting the load on school students. It also had to improve the quality of learning, including the skill of learning on one’s own for life.

How did it gather views?

It received more than 600 memoranda and letters. It held consultations in Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram, Pune and Calcutta.

The report looked at two loads. One is the weight of the school bag. The other is the load of learning that a child cannot understand.

How heavy were the bags?

A Delhi survey found that the average school bag in primary classes of public schools weighed more than 4 kg. In MCD schools it was around 1 kg.

What was the “more pernicious” burden?

Yash Pal’s letter calls non-comprehension the more pernicious burden. He wrote that very little, fully understood, is far better than a great deal, poorly understood.

What did it recommend?

• Discourage individual competitions.
• Decentralise the curriculum and textbooks.
• Restrict CBSE to the Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas.
• Make homework radically different, and treat textbooks as school property.
• Enforce a teacher-pupil ratio of 1:40 and aim for 1:30.
• Start a television programme called “Shiksha Darshan”, like “Krishi Darshan”.

“Turning Point” was a science programme on Doordarshan. Gauhar Raza recalls it as a very high TRP programme in the early 1990s. TRP means television rating points, a measure of audience size. Yash Pal explained complex ideas in simple words.

What did UNESCO honour him for?

In 2009 the Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science went jointly to Yash Pal and Trinh Xuan Thuan of Viet Nam. UNESCO’s Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura, presented it in Budapest. This was at the World Science Forum.

UNESCO cited his TV programmes, including Turning Point and “Science is everywhere”.

What was the 2009 higher-education committee?

Deccan Herald reported on 24 June 2009 that a committee headed by Yash Pal was likely to submit its final report that day.

Its interim report of March had suggested scrapping regulators such as the UGC and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). It proposed a Higher Education Commission instead.

Which honours did he win?

• Padma Bhushan: 1976.
• Indira Gandhi Prize for Popularisation of Science: 2000.
• Meghnad Saha Medal: 2006.
• Kalinga Prize: 2009.
• Padma Vibhushan: 2013, India’s second-highest civilian honour.

On 26 January 2013, 108 Padma awardees were named: 4 Vibhushan, 24 Bhushan and 80 Shri. Yash Pal was one of the four Vibhushan names.

What were his last years like?

He was JNU’s Chancellor from 2007 to 2012. He died in Noida on 24 July 2017, aged 90.

What are the key points?

• Birth and death: 26 November 1926, Jhang, and 24 July 2017, Noida.
• Space: Founder Director of ISRO’s centre in Ahmedabad, from 1973.
• SITE: 1975-76, using the ATS-6 satellite.
• UGC: Chairman from 1986 to 1991, and IUCAA came from his Inter-University Centre idea.
• Report: “Learning Without Burden”, with a cover letter dated 15 July 1993.
• Honours: Kalinga Prize in 2009 and Padma Vibhushan in 2013.

What are the traps?

1. Two reports. “Learning Without Burden” is the school report of 1993. The 2009 committee looked at higher education.
2. Satellite. SITE used ATS-6, an American satellite, not an Indian one.
3. Village count. Sources give 2,400, more than 2,600 or some 5,000. Use the question’s source.
4. UGC years. The term is 1986 to 1991.
5. Prizes. The Kalinga Prize is for popularising science. The Padma Vibhushan came four years later.
6. IUCAA. It emerged from the UGC’s Inter-University Centre idea.