Book review
A book that introduces us to the other side of the Indian Space Programme and shows us that ISRO is not just rockets

Touching Lives is not merely a chronicle of the community outreach of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is the story of journeys to far corners of India meeting people whose lives have been transformed by technology. It is the account of people who have forged a different destiny for themselves, breaking the cycle of poverty and helplessness, with a little help from ISRO.

Throwing light on some of the million tiny revolutions sweeping the country, the book takes us from Jhabua to interior Karnataka, from the Sundarbans to Chamoli in Garhwal. It is our chance to meet everyday revolutionaries like Muni Raj, a farmer from Jaunpur who is reclaiming and treating unusable land with ISRO technology, like Suresh in a rural Karnataka school studying and dreaming big with lectures that are beamed to him through ISRO’s EDUSAT or like Girijavva Ganigar, a scheduled caste woman who was empowered to take leadership initiative in her panchayat after attending training programmes conducted by ISRO. We learn of celebrity cardiac surgeons treating poor patients for free from thousands of miles away through telemedicine and overhear what the fishermen of Lakshadweep, who are fishing smarter and better with ISRO maps, have to say.

These simple accounts and little triumphs show us that this is the real shining India, the India resurgent and hopeful, resolutely making its way towards a more ecologically and economically sustainable tomorrow.


About the author S.K. Das retired from the Indian Administrative Service as Secretary to the Government of India. He completed his education from the University of Delhi and the University of Hawaii, and has been a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Civil Service Reform (1998), Public Office, Private Interest (2001) and Rethinking Public Accounting (2006), all published by Oxford University Press. S.K. Das lives in Bangalore with his wife and two sons.