Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917—2008), British physicist, inventor and science writer of renown proposed a novel idea for worldwide communication through satellites without wired networks. Much before the Satellite Age began, he wrote in Wireless World how with three satellites in the geosynchronous orbit, the world could have a new era of instant and clear communication. The idea caught on and the world slowly learnt how to use the orbit for communications with dramatic clarity.The geosynchronous orbit has since been named as Clarke orbit in his honour.

     In another prophesy, which is not widely known, Clarke envisaged India as a country that would master the technology he had proposed, even before many Indians imagined it!

   Clarke visited India in 1972, when he gave me anexclusive interview in New Delhi. I was struck by his familiarity with the developments in India relating to space science and technology: by then a....