Vedic and modern science is a fascinating fusion: Ex-DRDO chairman

Hyderabad: Former Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister and former Chairman, DRDO, Dr G Satheesh Reddy, speaking as chief guest at a two-day International Conference on ‘Bridging Heritage: Vedic Knowledge and Modern Technologies’, on the first day of the two-day conference, said that the conference beautifully bridges the wisdom of ancient sciences with the innovations of modern technology.

The two-day international conference organised under the aegis of the Icon Bharat concluded on Sunday. The conference is organised in collaboration with premier scientific institutions such as BrahMos, DRDO, DSIR, University of Hyderabad; Aspire University, Hyderabad; TBI University, Hyderabad; Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani; Atal Incubation Centre, and T-Hub.

Dr Satheesh Reddy said that enthusiastic response from delegates, eager to delve into this fascinating fusion shows the keen interest reflects a growing recognition of the value in learning from our rich past—a response that, for something rooted in Vedic sciences, is both remarkable and heartening. Explaining the progress made in the last 10 years in new material identification and production, he said that India is making significant strides in this direction.

He said that there are many well-proven technologies in the Vedic Sciences, in the area of materials, techniques like cryptology, and cryptography-themed aspects are very much there and are very useful to us. “SRIVT carried out research and came out with various proven materials, which in itself is a testimony in this area,” he said. In several instances, the process used by SRIVT, was found to be much more efficient than the process followed in modern science. He requested ABS Sastry and the research scientists attending the conference to identify the materials, work on them and produce them.

Prof V Ramgopal Rao, Vice Chancellor, BITS, Group of Institutions & former Director, IIT Delhi said that what ABS Sastry is doing is fascinating and institutions like DRDO have utilised this material produced by Sastry for certain strategic applications. “It is an amazing kind of work. We need more people like him to bridge the ancient science with the modern science. I would be quite keen to collaborate with Mr Sastry at BITS, Pilani and explore and design the kind of courses we can offer so that more and more people be able to use this knowledge and do something for the benefit of society,” he said.

ABS Sastry said, “IIT Madras tested the material produced by the traditional methodology and concluded that the process I used ensured material with superior properties than the modern processes. That generated interest in the scientific community. We developed a nano zinc oxide based on a Sloka from herbal elements. We can actually say, that Vedic sciences as the advanced sciences and not ancient sciences, purely based on the outcomes from Vedic sciences. We developed so many nano materials, that in IIT Madras I was known as Nano Sastry, because I produced a solution for every nano requirement of theirs.”

Srinivas Rao, CEO, T-HUB, said, “Today, there is immense interest in ancient Indian Sciences, some of it influenced by the nationalistic narrative which is building up. The work Sastry is doing is truly amazing, overcoming the scepticism and ridicule faced. There was a lot of science in our heritage, but the challenge is, we haven’t learnt how

to codify it.”