Raja of India's atom bomb passes away

MUMBAI: The architect of India''satomic bomb programme, Raja Ramanna (79), passed away at Bombay Hospital inMumbai on Thursday following an illness. He had been staying inBangalore for the past few years and had returned to Mumbai only a few days agoto attend a conference. Two days ago, he suddenly took ill and was admitted tohospital.Ramanna shot into international prominence when he secretlyled a team of scientists of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) andconducted a nuclear test at Pokhran in Rajasthan on May 18, 1974.The test was then dubbed as a peaceful nuclear explosion. He wasthen director of the physics group at BARC. He later headed BARC between 1972and 1978 and again from 1981 to 1983.Reacting to his death,Ramanna''s former colleague P K Iyengar said, "Ramanna was the best nuclearscientist in the country and we learnt a lot from him." Iyengar wasa former director of BARC and also chairman of the atomic energy commission(AEC). R Chidambaram, who was also a colleague of Ramanna, said: "Iam shocked. I recently met him in Bangalore and he was cheerful and in goodspirits. He was a great nuclear pioneer," he said.Chidambaram, aformer BARC director and chairman of AEC, recalled that he joined BARC becauseof Ramanna. "He was not only a great scientist, but also a great human being,"he said.A graduate of Madras University, the scientist subsequentlydid research in physics in UK. In recognition of his scientific talent, he wasmade president of the Indian National Science Academy from 1977 to1978.When Morarji Desai became the PM, Ramanna and he did not getalong. This resulted in Ramanna being transferred to New Delhi as scientificadviser to the defence minister from 1978 to 1981. Later, he becameminister of state for defence between January and November 1990 and was electedto the Rajya Sabha the same year.