Lok Sabha Question No. 1969 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-03-09
Subject: Theories of Gravitation
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: CHINTAMAN NAVSHA WANAGA

- (a)
- Yes Madam.
- (b) On February 11, 2016, the international Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) Science Collaboration announced the  discovery  of  gravitational  waves  arising  from  the  merger  of  two black  holes  that  are  13  billion  light  years  away  by  the  two  LIGOs operating  in  USA.  The  discovery  provides  the  most  crucial  proof  of Einstein's  theory  of  gravitation  proposed  in  1915,  by  showing  the existence of an effect that is predicted by Einstein's theory of gravitation, but not expected from earlier theories of the same.

While Einstein's theory of gravitation has indeed successfully matched up  to  many  tests  over  the  century,  the  experimental  validation  of gravitational  waves  is  the  fundamentally  distinctive  prediction  of  this theory  relative  to  the  Newton's  theory  of  gravitation  that  it  replaced. Newton's  theory  does  not  predict  Gravitational  waves  at  all  and  is  in contradiction with that of the Einstein information cannot be transmitted at  speeds exceeding that of light. Hence, this scientific milestone has been dubbed as the most significant scientific discovery of the world.

- (c)
- Yes Madam.

## MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 1969 TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, March 09, 2016

## THEORIES OF GRAVITATION

## 1969. ADV. CHINTAMAN NAVASHA WANAGA:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is aware that theories of gravitation have been proved recently;
- (b)
- if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether scientists from India were also involved in this said achievement;
- (d) if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the Government to reward those scientists; and
- (e) if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES

## (DR. HARSH VARDHAN)

- (d) A  significant  presence  of  Indian  scientists  exists  in  this  milestone scientific  achievement.  India  can  also  boast  of  three  decades  of research pursued at Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune and Raman  Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru at the frontiers  of  theory  and  signal  extraction  algorithm  in the quest for discovering gravitational waves. Some of these accomplishments from India have directly contributed to the detection and are prominently cited in the discovery publication. In all, there are 37  authors  from  9  Indian  Institutions  in  the  scientific  article  that presented  the  world  with  the  first  discovery  of  Gravitational  Waves published in the Physical Review  Letters by the  LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration.  The following Indian Institutions have participated in the global invention efforts:

|   S. No. | Name of the Institution                                                                                      |   No. Scientists Engaged |
|----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------|
|        1 | Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI), Chennai                                                                |                        2 |
|        2 | International Centre for Theoretical Sciences- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (ICTS-TIFR), Bengalure |                        7 |
|        3 | Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER), Kolkata                                            |                        2 |
|        4 | Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER), Thiruvananthapuram                                 |                        3 |
|        5 | Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Gandhinagar                                                            |                        2 |
|        6 | Institute of Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar                                                              |                        3 |
|        7 | Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune                                           |                        9 |
|        8 | Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technoloyg (RRCAT), Indore                                                  |                        6 |
|        9 | Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai                                                        |                        3 |

Days after the above discovery announcement, the Union Cabinet had in principle approved a proposal to establish a gravitational wave detector in India as a reward to the Indian group of scientists who were part of global discovery. Known as the LIGO-India project, it is expected to be jointly  piloted  by  the  Department  of  Atomic  Energy  (DAE)  and  the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

- (e) Does not arise.

*****