Hall of Nations. ITPO doesn't want it, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry thinks it holds no currency, and the Delhi Government's Heritage Conservation Ccommittee see no heritage in it. So are there other ways to save it?  With this in view, Architexturez sent out a call over social media, we asked anyone, everyone, to 'save' the buildings by placing them everywhere in our imaginary, to see, if the universal values embodied in here can allow it to find new sites in our imagining - if they will endure. 

These are unique structures, we know, by chance and incident - they embody ambitions that characterise a moment in India's nation-building processes. What if the construction systems so well adapted for conditions of work and divisions of labour that obtained at the time, Mahendra Raj's innovations were replicated, as intended?1

We asked Shubhra Raje, who is an architect in Denver and Ahmedabad, to see if they fit2 around Launch Pad Four at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, if ISRO is to send somebody into space soon as expected, this will be the site of it and a site of National Pride in late 2010s, just as Pragati Maidan was in its day.

  • 1. see for example: Ghosh, Sumit, and Suchitra Ghosh. Talkatora Pool. New Delhi: S. Ghosh & Associates, 1978.
  • 2. ... but then, why stop on earth? Shubhra and Vrinda Jariwala extended the idea, to see if the buildings 'fit' into fictional universes and literature of the period, linked from below
Indian agency sends into orbit highest number of satellites ever launched in a single mission.
Indian agency sends into orbit highest number of satellites ever launched in a single mission. © Shubhra Raje

ISRO sets space record: Highlights of successful launch of Cartosat-2 and 103 other satellites

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, New Delhi. 

Updated: Feb 15, 2017 17:17 IST

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) set a new record in space mission achievements after it successfully launched 104 satellites in one go from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, on Wednesday morning.

This was ISRO’s first space mission for the year 2017, and the most complicated mission it has ever carried out. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee congratulated the space agency for the historic event that significantly boosts India’s space programme.

The space agency began the countdown for the launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)’s 39th flight on Tuesday after the Mission Readiness Review committee and Launch Authorisation Board gave its approval for lift off, ISRO said.

The PSLV-C37/Cartosat2 Series satellite mission included the primary satellite (Cartosat-2) and 101 international nano satellites. It also launched two of its own nano satellites, INS-1A and INS-1B.

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