Road ahead for the LIGO-India project

(MainsGS3:Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.)

Context:

• The Union Cabinet’s approval to set up a gravitational-wave detection facility in Maharashtra with outlay of ₹2,600 crore.

Pinpoint sources of gravitational waves:

• A detection facility in Maharashtra is one that will consist of a detector called the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), to be built in the image of the twin LIGO instruments already operational in the U.S. 
• Their detection of gravitational waves, in 2016, launched a new era of astronomy. 
• A third detector is being built in India as part of the LIGO-India collaboration in order to improve the detectors’ collective ability to pinpoint sources of gravitational waves in the sky.

Opportunities for India:

• India could become a global site of gravitational physics research, aiding training and the handling of precision technologies and sophisticated control systems, ultimately, cementing a reputation for successfully running an experimental Big Science project. 
• The starting requirement here is the timely release of funds for construction, followed by issuing the allocated resources without delay.
• LIGO-India can demonstrate an ability to reckon intelligently with Indian society’s relationship with science, using the opportunities that Big Science affords.

Contested relationship:

• India has had a contested relationship with such projects, including, recently, the Challakere Science City and the stalled India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO). 
• Contests over land rights, against the backdrop of the sustainable use of natural resources, carbon sequestration targets, just transitions, and human rights, recall the interplay between the history of science and settler colonialism, for example is Hawaii’s Thirty Meter Telescope, to be built on land the locals hold sacred.
• Trailed experimental Big Science undertakings, including the INO, in the economically developing world: that they are far removed from the concerns of the majority.

Neutrino Observatory (INO) Project:

• The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) Project is a multi-institutional effort aimed at building a world-class underground laboratory with a rock cover of approx. 1200 m for non-accelerator based high energy and nuclear physics research in India. 
• The project is jointly funded by Dept. of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Dept. of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India.
• The initial goal of INO is to study neutrinos. Neutrinos are fundamental particles belonging to the lepton family.
• According to standard model of particle physics, they are mass less, however recent experiments indicate that these charge-neutral fundamental particles, have finite but small mass which is unknown. 
• The project includes: construction of an underground laboratory and associated surface facilities at Pottipuram in Bodi West hills of Theni District of Tamil Nadu, construction of a Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) detector for studying neutrinos 
• And setting up of an Inter Institutional Centre for High Energy Physics (IICHEP) at Madurai, for the operation and maintenance of the underground laboratory, human resource development and detector R&D along with its applications.

Conclusion:

• The LIGO-India build a facility that contributes to the communities from which it requires sustenance and knowledge, engage in good faith on concerns about access to land and other resources, and conduct public outreach on a par with the international LIGO Scientific Collaboration.