“No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come.” ❤️

“They tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds.”

India & Liberalisation | India and Space Research – Past & Present

How A False Case against ISRO Nambi Narayanan had brought down the Chief Minister of Kerala

“No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come.”

How Russia ‘halted’ its promised tech transfer to India under US Pressure

Nambi Narayanan & V. Narayanan | Quirky Similarities

An Inspirational Analysis

This day, 32 years ago, from my personal diary entry

1st January 1994

#memoriesfromdiaries

This is my second year of keeping a personal diary. Yes, officially, I was into my second year of journalling, in the year 1994.

And this particular year’s diary entries assume added significance for me, since it was from 1994 that I started documenting all the news-worthy articles in the day’s newspapers onto my personal diary.

On an aside, back then, when I was so sincerely jotting down this diary entry, never ever in my farthest dreams would I have imagined that, a day would come when I will be posting memorable vignettes from my past diary entries on this ‘futuristic something’ called a blog or a weblog! 😊

Coming back –

Today’s newspapers in English (The Hindu) had four newsworthy articles, as follows -

1. PM Rao rejects FM Manmohan Singh’s Resignation

2. TN Bill on Reservation Passed

3. Russia to Supply Four Rocket Boosters

4. In Rajasthan, the Sekhawat Government proves majority

So why-on-earth did the Union Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh submit his resignation?

And why-o-why did the Prime Minister reject his resignation?

Well, on 31 December 1993, Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Union Finance Minister, offered his resignation to Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, owning moral responsibility following a highly critical report by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).

The backdrop to his resignation was the 1992 Securities Scam involving ‘Big Bull’ Harshad Mehta. A Joint Parliamentary Committee was formed to investigate the scam. In its final report, submitted in late December 1993, the committee indicted the Ministry of Finance and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for serious failures in oversight.

Known for his high personal integrity, Dr. Singh felt that as the head of the Finance portfolio, he had to take moral responsibility for the lapses.

However, Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao did not accept the resignation, stating that, the country was in the middle of crucial economic reforms and that Dr. Singh’s leadership was indispensable for India’s financial stability.

So what are the crucial economic reforms heralded by Dr. Manmohan Singh, known as the ‘Father of Economic Reforms’ in India?

When Dr. Manmohan Singh took office in June 1991, India was on the verge of facing its worst economic crisis ever, signalling an impending bankruptcy ahead.

Can you imagine a dire situation way back in May 1991 - just before Dr. Singh took office - when the government – as a dire financial emergency – had to airlift 20 tonnes of gold from India’s reserves to the Union Bank of Switzerland to raise $200 million.

And yet again in July 1991, under the new Rao-Singh government, another 47 tonnes of gold had to be ‘urgently’ shipped to the Bank of England to secure a $400 million loan.

In fact, this very act of mortgaging India’s gold reserves was a psychological shock to the Indian public, as gold is culturally seen as the ultimate safety net.

This is when Dr. Manmohan Singh’s role assumes a lot of significance.

On 24 July 1991, Dr. Singh presented a landmark budget in Parliament, that slashed subsidies, and opened industries to private competition, and invited foreign investment.

His reforms, famously known as LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation, and Globalisation), fundamentally shifted India from a state-led model to a market-driven economy.

Dr. Singh had famously concluded his 1991 budget speech by quoting Victor Hugo’s inspirational lines -

“No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come.”

This quote literally gives us the goosebumps, ain’t it? 😊

Some of the proactive measures he initiated are as follows –

First and foremost, he broke the concept of “License Raj” that dictated what a company could produce and how much.

Secondly, he initiated the concept of Privatisation, thereby reducing state dominance. As a result, the number of industries reserved exclusively for the government was slashed from 17 to three: Railways, Atomic Energy, and Defense.

Thirdly, he pioneered globalization in India. Before 1991, India’s economy was largely closed to foreign trade and investment.

Finally, he heralded reforms in the banking sector, thereby giving banks more freedom to set their own interest rates rather than following strict RBI mandates. This paved the way for the entry of modern private banks (like HDFC and ICICI), which modernized the Indian banking landscape.

Coming back to the second important newsworthy article featured in this particular day’s newspapers!

It is on Russia’s supply of four rocket boosters to India.

Well, well, well…. this is indeed a real gripping narrative that has all the elements of a good spy novel or a techno thriller to it.

Probably the literary being or the film director in you can try coming up with a spy novel on this episode! 😊

You see, way back in the early 1990s, the Indian space programme was inching ahead boldly, towards a major breakthrough that would change global satellite launch dynamics forever.

Towards this end, in 1991, India’s ISRO signed a landmark $120 million deal with the Russian space agency, Glavkosmos, with the avowed aim of acquiring two cryogenic engines and, crucially, the technology transfer to build them in India.

However, Big Brother United States, was not at all happy you see!

Led by the Clinton administration and pressured by then-Senator Joe Biden, the United States vehemently opposed the deal. They claimed that it violated the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), raising fears that, cryogenic technology could power Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs).

Added, by 1993, Russia was facing a staring at a huge economic crisis. The U.S. offered Russia a $24 billion aid package - but with a massive string attached: Cancel the promised tech transfer to India.

Hence, under intense pressure, President Boris Yeltsin of Russia had to bow to US pressure-tactics. In December 1993, a strategic compromise was struck with India. Russia would supply seven engines (up from the original two), but without giving away any technology transfer, or training.

This way, Russia could keep the cash and the U.S. aid; India gets the engines, but is denied the ‘brain’ to build them.

But wait! Therein lies the story!

Or so the world thought… 😊

While diplomats from Russia and India were busy signing papers in public, ISRO was running a covert operation in the shadows.

They indirectly helped India with ‘technology transfer’ in a subtle and discreet way without Big Brother’s knowledge.

Because Air India required public manifests that U.S. intelligence could track, ISRO turned to a Russian carrier: Ural Airlines.

The Ural flight containing ‘technology transfer and the blueprints’ were officially logged in as transporting Indian aircraft parts to Russia for ‘wind-tunnel testing.’ However, in reality, the underbellies of these planes were packed with heavy cryogenic stages and loads of technical manuals.

At the Khimki facility in Russia, Indian engineers worked 24/7 to photocopy thousands of pages of blueprints, whisking them to the airport before the legal window slammed shut.

Project lead Nambi Narayanan later revealed that he and other senior scientists didn’t just coordinate from desks - they were on those flights, literally sitting in cargo holds or cockpits to ensure the crates weren’t intercepted by ‘American spies’ reportedly swarming Russian space centres.

Just as ISRO began integrating the smuggled technology, the momentum was halted in October 1994, by the infamous ISRO Spy Case that broke in! Nambi Narayanan and his deputy were arrested on charges of selling cryogenic secrets to Maldivian spies. The media went into a frenzy damaging the credibility of Nambi and his deputy.

Luckily, in the year 1996, the CBI cleared the scientists, concluding the case was a complete fabrication (by the US). Many, including Narayanan, believe the scandal was a CIA-led operation designed to dismantle India’s cryogenic program just as it was taking flight.

This threat of denial of technology or technology transfer forced India to start the Cryogenic Upper Stage Project (CUSP) from scratch.

It took two decades of gruelling research, and finally in the year 2014, India successfully launched a 100% indigenous cryogenic engine.

“They could delay us, but they couldn't stop us.”

Today, we’ve come a long way from scratch to self-reliance.

Fast-forward to today, and it is so heartwarming to see how India has prided herself on the space front.

Thought of reproducing an article in The Times of India, Chennai Edition, dt 1st January 2025, where ISRO Chairman S Somanath gives a press briefing on India’s space achievements in 2024 and informs them about upcoming launches.

True to his word, India has been a forerunner in launches in 2025.

Reproducing an article from The Times of India dated 25th December 2025, which shows how we have evolved over the decades.

From 1st January 2025 (a year ago)

It is indeed a full-circle moment for the Indian space programme, contrasting the struggles of the 1990s with a record-breaking commercial success in 2025.

While in the early 1990s India had to ‘smuggle’ cryogenic technology to survive U.S. sanctions in 1993, this article reports on ISRO’s heaviest-ever launch - ironically carrying a U.S. communications satellite!!!

25 December 2025, Times of India

What an amazing geopolitical shift it has been!

Indeed a a complete reversal of the 1993 era - where the U.S. actively blocked India’s progress, in sharp contrast to today – which saw India acting as the service provider for a U.S. company!

The article also foregrounds the fact that, India has moved beyond the original Russian technology, by utilising new indigenous upgrades to increase payload capability by over 150kg.

The mission marks ISRO’s 434th satellite deployment over a 45-year history.

On a very interesting note - quite a range of coincidences exist between V Narayanan, the current ISRO Chairman and Nambi Narayanan, the past ISRO Chairman.

Both share the same names.

Both are from Nagerkoil, Tamil Nadu.

Both are cryogenetic engine technology pioneers - One of the most complex challenges in aerospace engineering.

Both were first-rank holders in their respective degrees.

Both went through a lot of early hardships in their early life and education.

Both held the prestigious position of Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), the heart of ISRO’s engine development.

Both have been recognized by the Indian government and the scientific community for their contributions to space exploration.

When Nambi Narayanan was ISRO Chairman, in the early 1990s, the young  V. Narayanan was one of the young engineers sent to Russia during that era to train on the Russian engines. They later used that experience to lead the team that built the 100% indigenous version.

A real poetic conclusion indeed!

Well, for more on this saga, there are two must-read books from Nambi Narayanan and the second one from Rajasekharan J Nair, that reveal a lot of truths behind this bitter episode.

I’ve read the first one! The second one – I’m reading now!

The first one by Nambi Narayanan is titled, Ready to Fire: How India and I Survived the ISRO Spy Case published in the year 2016. The book provides a firsthand account of the 1994 ISRO espionage scandal, written by the man at the centre of the storm - scientist S. Nambi Narayanan.

[On an aside, the movie, Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, written, produced, and directed by R. Madhavan, who also played the lead role of Nambi Narayanan, was also based on this book.]

The book details on Nambi’s personal battle for justice – on how as a senior scientist leading India’s cryogenic engine project, he was falsely accused of selling rocket secrets to Pakistan through Maldivian conduits.

Moreover, the book also serves as a memoir of India’s space journey, chronicling the evolution of ISRO from its humble beginnings under Vikram Sarabhai and Satish Dhawan.

Beyond Narayanan’s personal ordeal, the book argues that the spy case was part of a larger international conspiracy intended to sabotage India’s space program. He argues that –

The entire case was foisted on him targeting the development of India’s Cryogenic technology, which would have made India a major commercial player in the global satellite launch market. He suggests that certain officials in the IB and Kerala Police may have been “pawns” for foreign agencies (such as the CIA) to stall India’s “inevitable march to space.”

And I quote from the book –

This was the same tactics the US had employed to stop the USSR from transferring the cryogenic engine technology to India in the early 1990s.

The US argued that cryogenic engines fell under technology for missiles. This was far from the truth.

No country, including the US, has a missile with a cryogenic engine. But already under the strain of the impending fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian facilities buckled under American pressure and changed the contract to just sell seven cryogenic engines, and not transfer the technology.

That this delayed India’s cryogenic programme by at least fifteen years is another tale.

On 20 October 1994, Thaniniram, a Malayalam eveninger, broke a story of a woman spy being arrested in Trivandrum. It spoke about a woman called Mariam Rasheeda, 38, a Maldivian spy on a mission to Trivandrum to get secret drawings of Indian rocket engines.

CPM mouthpiece Desabhimani followed up the story the next morning. Two days after the Maldivian woman’s arrest, Kerala Kaumudi, another Malayalam daily, dropped a bombshell: Inspector General of Police Raman Srivastava, an officer considered a favourite of Chief Minister K Karunakaran, has links with the spy ring.

On 13 January 1995, hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) by an NGO called Niyamavedi, a division bench of the Kerala High Court headed by Justice Sreedharan made some adverse comments on the CBI investigation, which did not find any evidence to link Srivastava with the case.

This led to the IPS officer’s suspension on the same day. The CBI moved the Supreme Court bench of Justice Sujatha Manohar and got the remarks expunged.

But by then, K Karunakaran was forced to step down as the Chief Minister after the opposition and a faction of the Congress accused him of shielding Srivastava and aiding the spy ring.

I felt sad for the senior IPS officer. A man respected in service and outside has been dragged into this cesspool. How? Why? I was to learn how bitter politics between two factions in the Congress in Kerala—one led by then Chief Minister K Karunakaran, and the other by A K Antony and his Man Friday Oommen Chandy—made this officer a scapegoat. It was no secret that Srivastava was one of Karunakaran’s favourite police officers.

It so happened that when the ISRO spy case broke out, a faction within the Congress party that was in power in Kerala, too, found it an opportunity to bring down K Karunakaran from the Chief Minister’s chair. This they succeeded when A K Antony, then Oommen Chandy’s leader, replaced Karunakaran in March 1995,

says Nambi Narayanan.

To sum it all up, at the end of it all, the subtle moral we glean from this episode is that –

The clouds may conspire to cloak the sun, and the wind may claim the day is won; but while the storm spends its fury in the street, the stars remain patient, and the truth, complete.

How true!