Homi Jehangir Bhabha was the visionary who conceptulised the Indian Nuclear Programme and along with a handful of Scientists initiated the nuclear science research in India in March, 1944. He envisaged the vast potential of nuclear energy and its possible successful utilization in the field of power generation and allied areas. Dr. Bhabha started working with the goal of achieving self reliance in the fields of nuclear science and engineering and today�s Department of Atomic Energy which is a consortium of different and diversified fields of science and engineering is the final outcome of the farsighted planning of Dr. Bhabha. Thus, in his own words �When Nuclear Energy has been successfully applied for power production in, say a couple of decades from now, India will not have to look abroad for its experts but will find them ready at hand�.
Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, realizing the immense potential of nuclear energy as a viable alternative source for electric power generation, launched the Indian Nuclear Programme in March 1944. It was the farsightedness of Dr. Bhabha to start nuclear research in India at a time following the discovery of nuclear fission phenomena by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman and soon after Enrico Fermi etal from Chicago reporting the feasibility of sustained nuclear chain reactions. At that time very little information was available to the outside world about nuclear fission and sustained chain reactions and nobody was willing to subscribe to the concept of power generation based on nuclear energy.
Dr. Bhabha was an astute scientist and committed engineer, a dedicated architect, a meticulous planner and a perfect executive. An ardent follower of fine arts and music, he was a philanthropist too. The path to perfection paved by Dr. Bhabha has taken the Indian Atomic Energy Programme to one amongst the best in the world. The family members of the Department of Atomic Energy and also the whole country salute the great scientist of our country- Dr. Homi Bhabha and rededicate ourselves in the pursuit of perfection set forth by him through the coming years.
