NEW DELHI: India’s aviation industry and its quest towards building a nuclear bomb has been documented many times. But Professor Murali Murti, academic and author, unearths some fascinating names and events that have not been given their due in history. In his book Supersonic, a thriller, Professor Murti puts across events, issues, and sharp opinions that the realm of non-fiction would not allow. From focussing on Germany’s influence in India’s aviation history; to the American paranoia around India nuclear activities in the 1950s and 1960s; to the functioning of defence middlemen – the book provides a wonderful guide as to how India’s defence industry took shape. Coming to the present, Professor Murti who has studied Indian and Chinese practices in technological innovation warns that China’s advance in strategic technology should leave India seriously concerned. On India, he believes that while wonderful work is being done in this area, it has not yet produced the results that one would like to see.
