country. In the north, in Delhi, there
is the Laser Technology Center, the
National Physical Laboratory and IIT
Delhi. At Chandigarh, major activities
in optical instrumentation are carried
out at the Central Scientific Instru-
ments Organization. A cluster of small-
scale industries at Ambala constitute a
hub that is referred to as India’s “Micro-
scope City.”
There are also three centers about
200 km northeast of Delhi at Dehra-
dun—Instruments Research and Devel-
opment Establishment, Ordnance Fac-
tory and Optoelectronics Factory under
the Ministry of Defense. The Aryabhatta
Research Institute of Observational Sci-
ences also runs an observatory.
In the east, at Kolkata, many institutes carry out optics research and
development, including the department
of applied optics and photonics at the
University of Calcutta, the Central
Glass and Ceramic Research Institute
and the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science. Optics research is
also conducted at the Bose Institute and
Satyendra Nath Bose National Centre
for Basic Sciences at Kolkata and at
Burdwan University.
In western India, the major optics
R&D centers are the Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research, the Bhaba Atomic Research Center and IIT Bombay—
all of which are located in Mumbai—as
well as the Physical Research Laboratory and the Space Application Center
in Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of
Tropical Meteorolgy at Pune.
The Inter-University Consortium for
Astronomy and Astrophysics at Pune
runs a radiotelescope. In central India,
the Raja Ramanna Center for Advanced
Technology at Indore is a major R&D
center for optics and lasers. The facility
houses two locally built synchrotrons,
INDUS - 1 (450 MeV), which has five
beamlines, and INDUS- 2 ( 2. 5 GeV),
with nine beamlines. At Hyderabad,
R&D works in optics and laser instrumentation are carried out at the
University of Hyderabad, and Electro
Optics Instruments Research Association, respectively.
Display hologram produced at Light Logics, Trivandrum. Courtesy of P. T. Ajithkumar, Trivandrum
The Optical Society of
India was founded in
1965. It is a nonprofit
professional society
of scientists and
technologists from
educational institutions,
R&D organizations
and industry.
In the south, major R&D centers
include the Indian Institute of Science,
the Raman Research Institute, the Lasers
and Electro Optical Systems and the
Indian Institute of Astrophysics (all in
Bangalore), IIT Madras at Chennai,
Vikram Sarabhai Space Center and
Kerala University (both at Trivandrum).
IITs at Kanpur, Kharagpur and
Guwahati have undertaken significant
optics-related research activities. Many
other state and central universities also
have major research programs in areas
related to optics and photonics.
Currently, the optics industry in
India is undergoing a metamorphosis.
In the wake of the global recession, a
few traditional optics companies have
gone out of business. Nevertheless, other
companies, including General Optics
at Pondicherry, Appaswamy Associates
at Chennai, Olympus India at Delhi,
Lensel Optics at Pune and Labotron at
Ambala, are adapting to the changes in
the marketplace. In addition, many new
start-up ventures are emerging in fiber
optics, laser systems and holography.
The author acknowledges the contributions
of T.K. Alex, B.P. Pal, P.K. Gupta, A.K.
Gupta, K. Bhattacharya and P. T. Ajithkumar. He is also grateful for the assistance of
S. Pal and U. Dutta.
Lakshminarayan Hazra (lakshminarayanhazra@
gmail.com) is a professor in the applied optics
and photonics department at the University of
Calcutta in Kolkata, India. He is currently the
General Secretary of the Optical Society of India.
