November 21, 2001

   Indian scientists and engineers have made remarkable progress in the vital area of cryogenics, both in basic research as well as applications. There are more than a dozen centres of excellence in India in this diverse field pursuing basic research. Our future GSLV launch will be using the indigenous cryo-engine. This was disclosed by the Minister of State for Science and Technology Shri Bachi Singh Rawat while inaugurating here today a national symposium on cryogenics organised by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

    Shri Rawat said that common man in India became aware of cryogenic engine technology some years ago when it was denied to us by the West. Our scientists rose to the occasion and started developing our own cryo-technology which might prove better than the old one denied to us. Our first geo-synchronous satellite was successfully launched a few months ago, he said.

    The areas of cryogenic application appears to be endless. It varies from basic research to food preservation, power generation to fishries and petro-chemical complexes, liquid natural gases to steel industries, cryo-surgery to nuclear magnetic resonance, structural studies, magnetic resonance imaging to mineral industry, cryo-preservation of human blood and other organs to high-energy physics and it goes on. A number of institutes and organisations in our country are making note-worthy progress in most of these areas, Shri Rawat said. India’s advancement in the area has made a mark in the international arena and recognising this the international cryogenic community insisted on holding the 18^th International Cryogenic Engineering Conference at IIT Mumbai last year. The Minister also called for developing better mutual trust between the research and development laboratories and the industry. He urged the industry to plough back its profit to further R&D.

    The area of cryogenics is a fascinating one and the quest for achieving lower and lower temperature has never stopped. Scientists have been trying to get absolute zero or 273 degree Celsius below the ice point known as zero Kelvin, which is theoretically unachievable. However, it is amazing that scientists involved research in this area have gone down to nano and pico Kelvin temperatures, which is almost, but not exactly absolute zero.