A Man With Golden Fingers

It is a really sad day, as far as I am concerned. Dr K Kasturirangan was more than a friend to me. The first time I met him was at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, in 1967.

- G MADHAVAN NAIR Former Isro chairman

He was a research scholar there, and we stayed together at a hostel for several weeks. When he took over as Isro chairman in 1994, I served under him for nine years.

We were intimately connected professionally, and the discussions I had with him were highly beneficial. He took over Isro just after the failure of the first Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in 1993.

It was a herculean task to recover from that and then ensure a successful mission as quickly as possible. Under his leadership, in 1994 itself, we were able to achieve the first successful launch of PSLV.