Nambi Narayanan

Nambi Narayanan
Narayanan in 2017
Born (1941-12-12) 12 December 1941 (age 82)
Nagercoil, Kingdom of Travancore, British India
(present day Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, India)[1]
Alma mater
OccupationAerospace engineer
SpouseMeena Narayanan
Children2
RelativesSubbiah Arunan (son-in-law)
AwardsPadma Bhushan (2019)[3]

Nambi Narayanan (born 12 December 1941)[4] is an Indian aerospace scientist who worked for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). As a senior official at the ISRO, he was briefly in charge of the cryogenics division.[5] He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award, in March 2019.[6]

In 1994, he was arrested on trumped up charges of espionage.[7] The charges against him were found to be baseless by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in April 1996.[8] As a result, the Supreme Court of India dismissed all charges against him and prohibited the Government of Kerala from continuing its investigation.[9] In 2018, a Supreme Court bench headed by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, awarded Narayanan compensation of ₹50 lakh (equivalent to ₹67 lakh or US$80,000 in 2023). Additionally, the Government of Kerala then awarded him further compensation to the tune of ₹1.3 crore (equivalent to ₹1.7 crore or US$210,000 in 2023) in 2019.[10][11] The film Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, based on his life, starring and directed by R. Madhavan, was released in July 2022.

  1. ^ "Nambi Narayanan : R Madhavan's 'Rocketry: The Nambi Effect' will explore the untold story of scientist Nambi Narayanan. Here's what you need to know". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 27 June 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference TH was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference GoI was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Narayanan, Nambi; Ram, Arun (2018). Ready To Fire: How India and I Survived the ISRO Spy Case. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9789386826275. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  5. ^ "Nambi Narayanan sees U.S. hand in ISRO spy case". The Hindu. 6 August 2021. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  6. ^ President Kovind presents Padma Bhushan to Shri S. Nambi Narayanan. Government of India. 16 March 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  7. ^ Scroll Staff (31 October 2018). "'Rocketry – The Nambi Effect' teaser: Madhavan presents scientist Nambi Narayanan's story". Scroll.in.
  8. ^ Aravind, Indulekha (17 June 2018). "Isro spy case: The scientist who came in from the cold". The Economic Times. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nileena-Caravan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ "Isro scientist Nambi Narayanan implicated in fake spy case to get Rs 1.3 crore from Kerala govt". India Today. Press Trust of India. 27 December 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  11. ^ "Former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan to get ₹1.3 crore". The Hindu. 26 December 2019. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 27 December 2019.