He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1976 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2013.

Scientist, communicator and institution builder, Dr Yash Pal, 90, who died in Noida on Tuesday, belonged to an era of scientists who espoused ‘Make In India’ decades before it became a politico-marketing cliché.

Pal passed away on Monday evening at the Max hospital in Noida, his son Rahul Pal, also a scientist with the Science and Technology Ministry’s Department of Biotechnology, said.

Self-reliance

In the 1970s, as director of the Space Applications Centre, a wing of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) set up to conceptualise applications for satellite technology for societal needs, Pal put together a team of young scientists from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai to develop remote-sensing technologies, disregarding suggestions that scientists be sent to the U.S. for training.

“Where did the Americans, who had launched their remote sensing satellite only a year back, send their people for training?” was his classic retort.

Pal, born in Jhang (in erstwhile undivided Punjab), had earned a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Multiple portfolios

He began his career as a professor at the TIFR. He went on to hold several senior position in government as Chief Consultant with the Planning Commission from in 1983, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology from 1984 to 1986) and as chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) for five years from 1986 to 1991.

A scientist of international repute, Pal was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1976 and India’s second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2013.

He made significant contributions in the field of science and to the study of cosmic rays, high-energy physics, astrophysics.

Reforms in education

In 1993 he led the MHRD panel on the issue of overburdening school children. The report of the committee, entitled Learning without Burden, remains a seminal document on Indian education.

He also chaired the NCERT’s steering committee for the the National Curriculum Framework in 2005. As chairman of the UGC he chaired a committee to suggest reforms to higher education in India in 2009.

A well known science communicator, Pal brought galaxies and cosmic rays to living rooms across India via ‘Turning Point’, an extremely popular science show on Doordarshan.