. Why Indian History needs to be re- examined Prof. Prodyut Das The short answer to the question is that as written and taught post- Independence it does not make sense to the ordinary people like me. Take the example of the myth that when Independence came in 1947 the British who had managed to extract some 43 trillion pounds of wealth during their regime simply shook hands with their ex -subjects and walked off leaving us of the sub -Continent to our devices. That is what a noted Historian (the late Hobsbawm?) would have us believe. Perish the thought they continued to meddle in our affairs in every way thereafter. This enormously powerful and ancient economic region of MahaBharata that predat...
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The Tejas Mk2 corrections Prof. Prodyut Das The news is that the Government will not fund development of the Tejas Mk2 without first securing the ToT for the F 414 engine. The Government has a choice of three suitors and would naturally like to drive a hard bargain. A subtle other possibility could be that the Tejas Mk2 Layout as was supposed to have been final has a serious flaw and getting a second opinion/confirmation is felt necessary. The idea of holding up the project until an engine is finalized could be a mask. I believe the hold is no bad thing because the project was driving towards a precipice. The Tejas Mk2 project was started in 2007. One should not need funds to think and pipe dream but the project was funded in amounts of Rs 500 crores in 2007 and 2500 crores 2017 so the usual ...
“Waddling around the deck” – Weighty Matters & the Tejas part 2. by Prof.Prodyut Das In the 1950’s war classic “The Cruel Sea” by Nicholas Monserrat, the Australian Gunnery Officer of the Frigate HMS Saltash, apparently dissatisfied with the performance of the gun crews he was working up, is heard to yell “If you jokers are trying to break my heart by waddling round and round the deck like a bunch of old whores on a picnic- you have to try a long, long time! Get cracking!”. Reviewing the blundering process of the Tejas programme I am reminded of Lt. Allingham’s exasperation. When I had mentioned in my blog “Weighty Matters” that the empty...
A technology demonstrator for the subsonic 5 th Gen. AMCA Prof. Prodyut Kumar Das The reader may find reading the earlier blog on Betaal and the specifications.c April 2023 on this blog relevant. The idea of a subsonic Fifth Generation AMCA is heretical but heretical ideas should be discarded only after due diligence. The De Havilland Mosquito was initially discarded for being a bomber without any defensive guns yet in service the RAF never had as many as it could have liked partly because the experts had deemed that when 4-8 defensive guns were the norm a gun less bomber would not survive and so delayed support. A non-supersonic 5 th generation Combat aircraft may initially sound as unpromising as the concept of the Mosquito. Both the US and China have large subsonic bombers, the B 52 and the Ho-6. These are valued assets prized for their versatility and upgradability. Ju...