Dr Chitnis, a Padma Bhushan awardee, was a close associate of Dr Vikram Sarabhai, the founding father of ISRO. He lived a remarkable 100 years, born on July 25, 1925, in Kolhapur. Very few people have the honour of celebrating their own birth centenary. There are a few parallels to the veritable nation-building life that Dr Chitnis lived. In his passing, India has lost one of the last living links to the founding generation of scientists associated with the Indian
space programme.
Prof Chitnis left behind a lucrative government job at All India Radio with a salary of R500 per month to join Dr Sarabhai as a voluntary researcher at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, in its formative years. This decision cemented Chitnis's lifelong association with the Indian space programme. His long journey, from a young physicist studying cosmic rays at PRL to becoming the founding secretary of the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), precursor to ISRO, and later the architect of ISRO's Space Applications Centre (SAC), was marked by extraordinary achievements that shaped ISRO on its path of becoming the canonical institute it is today, loved by all Indians.
On Prof Chitnis's birth centenary, the National Centre for Science Communicators (NCSC) had organised a centenary conference at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Pune. The conference celebrated the life of the 'living legend'. As an NCSC member, I was part of the planning for this conference, which was attended by luminaries from India's space fraternity. The conference underscored the profound impact Dr Chitnis had on ISRO's journey. As we mourn his passing, it is fitting to reflect on his remarkable contributions to the Satellite Instruction Television Experiment (SITE) programme, which changed the social fabric of rural India. Chitnis was a bridge between the vision that Dr Sarabhai had to bring regarding the applications of space technology to the people of India and its implementation in uplifting society. The conference also showcased the predominant role played by Dr Chitnis in the founding of ISRO and its precursor, INCOSPAR.
Dr Chitnis was instrumental in identifying Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram as the site for the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS), from where the journey of ISRO began in those early years. The scientific importance of the geographical location of TERLS -- it lies on the magnetic equator where many interesting phenomena occur in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere -- helped it become an important centre for extensive scientific collaborations with scientists from the USA, France, Russia, and Japan. It was from this place that India blasted off those early sounding rockets and collaborated on scientific experiments with other nations. TERLS attracted worldwide interest and laid the foundation for ISRO's future space endeavours.
Chitnis's legacy is immortalised by the SITE programme of 1975-76. Conceived by Sarabhai and implemented by Chitnis in collaboration with NASA, SITE was a path-breaking experiment that used satellite broadcasting to educate and empower rural India. Using NASA's ATS-6 satellite, SITE beamed developmental programmes on agriculture, health, hygiene and education to over 2400 villages in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Rajasthan. The UNESCO report 'The SITE Experience' documented how this programme maximised social impact, despite the technical hurdles. SITE improved literacy, modernised agricultural practices, and created awareness about health and family planning. SITE was a social revolution, which demonstrated how space science could be harnessed for inclusive growth, an idea far ahead of its time.
The success of SITE directly influenced the expansion of Doordarshan, India's national broadcaster, through the 1970s and 1980s. Lessons from SITE shaped the INSAT satellite programme, enabling low-cost, widespread access to television. Within a decade, India saw a communication revolution that bridged the urban-rural divide. Dr Chitnis's influence was deeply felt by generations of scientists, including Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, to whom Dr Chitnis was a mentor. He recommended Kalam's name for the project director for the SLV 3 Project. Dr YS Rajan, a long-time ISRO associate and the man who co-authored a book titled 'India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium' with Dr Kalam, once observed that "the trinity of Sarabhai, Kalam and Chitnis shaped ISRO's ethos, bridging science with sociology, and technology with ethics. As we bid farewell to Dr Chitnis, let us remember him for the transformational societal benefit he brought to the people.