The book "Touching Lives" wins IAA Award
The book titled "Touching Lives" by Mr S K Das, IAS, Former Member (Finance) of Department of Space had been selected for the prestigious Luigi Napolitano Book Award of International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), Paris for the year 2008. The Award was presented on September 28, 2008 during Academy Day Function at Glasgow, Scotland, UK organised on the occasion of International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2008. The Award consists of a citation by the Board of Trustees of IAA.
IAA is an Independent Organisation founded in 1960 to bring together the world's foremost experts in the disciplines of Astronautics, to recognise their accomplishments and to explore and discuss cutting-edge issues in space research and technologies. IAA provides direction and guidance in the non-military uses of space and exploration of outer space. It has a total individual membership of 1200 experts from 70 countries and from various branches of Astronautics and Space. IAA recognises talented individuals for their works considered internationally significant, through various awards. The Luigi Napolitano Book Award was instituted in 1992, and is given annually to recognise excellence in recent publications for any non-member of the Academy in any field related to Space.
Mr S K Das retired from the Indian Administrative Service as Secretary to the Government of India. He completed his education from the University of Delhi and the University of Hawaii, and has been a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Civil Service Reform (1998), Public Office, Private Interest (2001) and Rethinking Public Accounting (2006), all published by Oxford University Press.
Touching Lives journeys to the far corners of India meeting people whose lives have been transformed by space technology. It is the account of people who have forged a different destiny for themselves, breaking the cycle of poverty and helplessness, with a little help from ISRO. Throwing light on some of the million tiny revolutions sweeping the country, the book takes us from Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh to interior Karnataka, from the Sundarbans to Chamoli in Garhwal. We learn of celebrity cardiac surgeons treating poor patients for free from thousands of kilometres away through telemedicine, overhear what the fishermen of Lakshadweep who are fishing smarter and better with ISRO maps and what students studying in rural areas and dreaming big with lectures that are beamed to them through ISRO's EDUSAT, have to say.
The book was chosen for this prestigious award by the Board of Trustees of IAA in March 2008 on the recommendation of IAA's Awards Selection Committee.