India's Nuclear Bomb Project
India has a long history of undertaking indigenous research and efforts in the nuclear sciences and related technology. The history of the Indian nuclear program dates back to 1944, when physicist Homi Bhabha submitted a report on nuclear energy to the Indian Congress; a year later he established the Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). As early as the 1950s, preliminary studies were carried out at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, and plans were developed to produce plutonium and other bomb components. In 1962, India was intimidated by China when India lost its northern territory, and in 1964 the Chinese 596 nuclear test further goaded India into militarising its nuclear program. Following the deaths of Nehru and Bhabha, the nuclear program was revived and transferred to the chairmanship of Vikram Sarabhai, who in 1965 was also made director of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) by Lal Bahadur Shastri.
After the death of Shastri, the nuclear program was consolidated by prime minister Indira Gandhi and was delegated to Raja Ramanna in 1967. Indira Gandhi decided to develop nuclear weapons after learning of another test by China, Test No. 6. Finally, in 1974, Indira Gandhi authorised the Smiling Buddha nuclear test.
Read more about this topic: Pokhran-II
Famous quotes containing the words india, nuclear, bomb and/or project:
“India is an abstraction.... India is no more a political personality than Europe. India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the Equator.”
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965)
“The problems of the world, AIDS, cancer, nuclear war, pollution, are, finally, no more solvable than the problem of a tree which has borne fruit: the apples are overripe and they are falling—what can be done?... Nothing can be done, and nothing needs to be done. Something is being done—the organism is preparing to rest.”
—David Mamet (b. 1947)
“[A] Dada exhibition. Another one! What’s the matter with everyone wanting to make a museum piece out of Dada? Dada was a bomb ... can you imagine anyone, around half a century after a bomb explodes, wanting to collect the pieces, sticking it together and displaying it?”
—Max Ernst (1891–1976)
“From a bed in this hotel Seargent S. Prentiss arose in the middle of the night and made a speech in defense of a bedbug that had bitten him. It was heard by a mock jury and judge, and the bedbug was formally acquitted.”
—Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)