Vikram Sarabhai- A Life

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Vikram Sarabhai (1919-71) thought up the impossible and often made it happen. Founder of India's space programme, he dreamed of communication satellites that would educate people at a time when even a modest rocket mission seemed daring; of huge agricultural complexes serviced by atomic power and desalinated sea water. He envisioned research technology that would free Indian industry from foreign dependence, and of a world-class management college that would train managers for the public sector. Between 1947 and 1971, he built a thriving pharmaceutical business, conducted research into cosmic rays, headed the Atomic Energy Commission and set up India's first textile research cooperative, ATIRA, the first market research organization, ORG, the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, IIM-A, and the dance academy, Darpana. Handsome, charismatic, married to classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai and closely associated with the most influential figures of his time, Vikram led what seemed like a charmed existence. Yet, his personal life was troubled and his strong resistance in the late 1960s to India's move towards a nuclear test explosion put him at odds with powerful lobbies and fellow technologists.

Amrita Shah is a journalist and writer. She has worked for Time magazine, edited Debonair and Elle, and been a contributing editor with Indian Express. She is the author of Hype, Hypocrisy and Television in Urban India and Ahmedabad: A City in the World. She is an alumna of the Institute for Public Knowledge, New York University, and visiting faculty at the Centre for Contemporary Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

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