India celebrates SKAO membership at Pune event

They were joined by members of the SKA India consortium, which has coordinated India’s SKA-related activities since 2015, and a delegation from the SKAO led by Director-General Prof. Philip Diamond. 

India joined the SKAO in July after signing and ratifying its founding document, the Convention Establishing the SKA Observatory. 

The government confirmed that it was pursuing membership in January, and approved funding for the next seven years of SKA construction, funded jointly by India’s Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Science and Technology. 

DAE Secretary Dr Ajit Kumar Mohanty described India’s membership as a remarkable milestone, coinciding with the department’s platinum jubilee, which puts India ahead in the global scientific forum. 

DST Secretary Prof. Abhay Karandikar said: “DST is proud to be a partner of SKA Observatory project which aims to build the biggest and most sensitive radio astronomy observatory for addressing a variety of cutting-edge science goals. 

“India, with its strong tradition in radio astronomy research is well placed to contribute significantly to the building of the SKAO.  For this, we are enthusiastic to contribute both in-kind through different work packages and via cash payments, towards establishing this next generation facility.” 

The Indian government was a party to the multilateral negotiations on the text of the Convention, and participated in the preparatory activities that led to the SKAO’s creation in early 2021. This makes India one of the SKAO’s founding members alongside the initial signatories. 

The Observatory’s membership now stands at 12 states, with more at advanced stages of the national governmental processes required to join.  

India has been deeply involved in design and development work since the SKA project’s inception, and has made significant contributions to the critical software elements that sit at the heart of the SKA telescopes. Since 2015, this work has been coordinated by the SKA-India consortium, comprising 24 academic and research institutes, led by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) and its Director Prof. Yashwant Gupta, who has championed India’s efforts in the SKA project for over a decade.  

Building on the NCRA’s leading role in the international Telescope Manager consortium during the detailed design phase, India will continue its work to supervise the development of the observatory management and control system, which will issue the commands required to carry out astronomical observations for our global community.  

In delivering this crucial element, India will call upon the expertise of a thriving software industry and decades of experience in developing radio astronomy facilities, not least the innovative, recently upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT).  

“India’s contributions to the SKAO have been substantial, spanning science, engineering, and governance, as part of the group of nations who helped to establish our intergovernmental organisation. India’s membership further enhances the diversity of SKAO members globally, connecting five continents through scientific excellence to create one of the world’s most ambitious research infrastructures,” said Prof. Philip Diamond.  

“The SKAO’s growth is an acknowledgement that being part of this unique endeavour brings a multitude of benefits, enabling domestic innovation to thrive, facilitating collaboration across borders, and creating broader socio-economic benefits that can help to address our shared global challenges.” 

India’s radio astronomy community, led by the late Prof. Govind Swarup, put forward one of the first concepts for a large radio observatory of the class of the SKAO in the 1990s, and there remains broad interest in the SKAO’s science cases. This is evident in the national-level SKA workshops, held almost every year since 2014, and the fact that scientists at Indian institutions are active in 12 of the SKAO’s Science Working Groups, with co-chair positions in several groups. India also notably hosted 2016’s international SKA Science Meeting.  

Supporting statements 

Prof. Yashwant Gupta, Director of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics. 

“As well as giving the Indian astronomy community access to the best facility in low and mid-frequency radio astronomy in the world, SKAO membership will bring many benefits to Indian industry as we plan to make in-kind contributions in a range of areas covering radio frequency electronics, digital hardware and signal processing systems, data processing software and also monitoring and control software. The technological knowledge and experience of working in/for the SKAO will also benefit the growth of research and development activities in India, both in terms of existing radio astronomy facilities as well as in applications to other allied fields of research.” 

Prof. Pankaj Jain of IIT Kanpur, Chair of the SKA-India Consortium  

“I am absolutely delighted that now India has formally joined SKA as a full member. India has always had a very strong tradition in Radio Astronomy. In recent years it has touched new heights with many educational institutions also developing strong groups that are working in all aspects of this field. This is particularly satisfying for me as a teacher since it allows us to involve students in an awe-inspiring research project whose scale and potential science implications are mind boggling”.