On  13th  November '  2012  ,  we  will  celebrate  Deepavali  .  Deepavali  or  Diwali  is  the  festival  of  lights  .
It  is  a  Hindu  festival .   People  celebrate  this  day   to  mark  the  occasion  of  the  home - coming  of  Lord
Rama  after  He  had  defeated  demon  king  Ravana .  On  this  day  ,  prayers  for success  and  prosperity  are
offered  to  Laxmi  ,  the  Goddess  of  wealth  . Deepavali  is  the  combination  of  Dhanteras  ,  Choti  Diwali  and
Badi  Diwali  or  Laxmi  Puja  .  Ganesha  ,  the  Lord  of  new  beginning  , is  also  worshiped  with  Goddess  
Laxmi .   On  the   auspicious  day  ,  buying  of  gold  is  regarded  as  a  holy  act  .   We  also  remember  and  
worship  our  fore-fathers  on  this  day  .   This  day  symbolizes  the  win  of   light  over  darkness  .  
   We  lit  and  decorate  our  home  with  colored  electric  bulbs  and  earthen  lamps  .  We   light  up  various
types  of  crackers  in  the  evening  . Whether  it  is  true  or  false  ,  many  people  attach  scientific  value  to  this
occasion  .  They  say  so  many  harmful  worms  are  destroyed  in  the  burning  of  lamps  .
   So  many  mishaps  are  also  occurred  on  this  day  .  We   appeal  everybody  to  celebrate  the  day  with  care.
 We   should  be  more  careful  for  young  children  while  observing  the  festival  ,  so that  such  a  holy  day
would  not  become  a  sad  day  .     

While  the most  developed  nation  , USA  ,  is  busy  in  cutting  down  all  of  it's  space  research  programs  expenditures  ,  India  is stepping  forward  with  it's  huge  scientific  budgets . On  3rd  August '  2012  ,  the
Government  of  India  has  approved  the  Mars  voyage  of  ISRO   in  the  cabinet  meeting .
            On  July '  2011  ,  NASA  has postponed  the  space  shuttle  ' Atlantis '  program  .  On  this  issue  ,  the  famous  magazine  , ' The  Economist '  published  a  cover story  article  mentioning  that  there  was  a  temporary  full stop  to  America's  outer  space  research  program . 
                 As  a  comment  to   the  headline  ' The  End  Of  Space  Era '  ,  the  science  fiction  writer  ,  
Bruce  Sterling  , wrote  that  in  the  coming days  astronauts  from  India  and  China  would  be  able  to  hoist
their  national  flags  on  Moon .  The  Head  of  Rosetta  Lander  Mission  of  European  Space  Agency  ,  Jean  Pierre  Bibringh  ,  says  that  the  thinking  of  the  Chinese  and  Indian  scientists  are  very  clear  and  bright  ,
in  this  regard .  Such  type  of  interest  has  not  been  noticed  by  American  space  mission .  But  they  request
for  symbiotic  collaboration  in stead  of  mindless  competition  ,  in  this  context  .
            Just  after  one  year  from  this  event  ,  India  declared  the  proposal  to  send  a  manned  space  ship  to  Mars .  Some  critics  pointed  this  move  as  India's   Space  Audacity. This  manned  space  program  to  Mars
will  take  place  from  Sriharikota   (  Andhra  Pradesh  )  , towards   November' 2013  .
            Mars  revolves  in  an  elliptical  path  round  the  Sun  .  It  has  55 million  Km.  at  it's  nearest  and  401 million  Km. at  the  farthest  point  from  Earth  .  So  it  is  not  possible  to  reach  Mars  any  time  starting  from
here .  The  oppertunity  for  us  to  reach  Mars  happens  in  the  interval  of  26  months  .  The  next  opportunity  will  be  towards  the  end  of  2013  .  While  the  time  taken  for  the  journey  to  Moon  is  less  than  one  week   ,  this  will  be  nearly  300  days  for  reaching  Mars  .  The  budget  for  the  Mars  voyage   would  be  around   Rs.480  crores  .

It  is  well  mentioning  here  that  personalities  like  Elon  Musk  of  USA   and  Richard  Branson  of  UK   are  planning   space  vacations   already  .

     On  26th  May  '2012  , Shouryya  Ray  ,  a  16  year  old  India-born  student  from  Germany ,  has  solved  two fundamental  particle  dynamics  theories  which  physicists  have  previously  been  able  to  calculate  only  by  using  sophisticated  computers .
                       Those  solutions  will  help  scientists  to  calculate  the  flight  path  of  a  thrown  ball  and  then  to  predict  how  it  will hit  and  bounce  off  a  wall.  
                       Shouryya  had  come  across  the  problems  during   a  school  trip  to  Dresden  University , 
Germany .  
                     He  started  solving  very  complicated  equations  as  a  six  year  old .  He  is  now  living  in  Germany  and  conducting   an  internship   at  Technische  Universitat  ,  Dresden  .  He  has  won  a  research  award  for  solving  the  problem  ,  that  was  posed  by  Isaac  Newton   more  than  three  centuries  ago  .  He   submitted  that   paper  to  the  annual  German  Youth  Science   Contest  ,   jugend  forscht  and   was  placed  2nd  in  the  national  finals   for  the  category  :  Mathematics  and  Computer  Science  .   

Indian  scientist   Prof.  Ashoke  Sen  was  honored  with  the  Inaugural  Fundamental  Physics  Prize  ( FPP )   2012    on   31  July '12  along with  eight  other  physicists  from   all  over  the  world .  
Ashoke  gets  the  cash  prize  of   $3000000  ( three  million  dollars )   which   is  more  than  double  the   cash  
prize  of   Nobel  Prize  .   Ashoke  is   56  years  old   and   is   the   only  Indian  to  receive  the  prize.
He   was    the   Professor  of  Physics  in   Harish  Chandra  Research  Institute  ,  Allahabad .  He  joined  Tata  Institute  of  Fundamental  Research  in  Mumbai  , in  1988 .     Prof.  Sen  received   Padma Shri  award  and   the
Indian  National   Science  Academy  Award   in  the  year  2001  and  1995   respectively .   He  also  received  CSIR ' s    Shanti  Swarup  Bhatnagar  Prize  in  the  year  1994  .   He  was  elected   as  the  fellow  of  the   Royal  Society  of  London  in  the  year  1998  .  He   completed  his  graduation   from  Presidency  College  of  Kolkata .
He   got  his  masters   from   Indian  Institute  of  Technology  , Kanpur   in  the  year  1976   and   completed  his  PhD  from   State  University  of  New York  .  He   worked  with  Fermi  Lab  and  Stanford   before  coming  to   India  .  

About   the  Prize   :     The   Prize  was  started   by  the  Billionaire  of   Russia  ,  Yuri  Milner  .   He  was  a  student  of  Physics  and  a   college  drop -out  and  later  earned   billions  through  investing  in   stocks  etc .  He  was  the  researcher  in  Lebedev  Physical  Institute .    The  Prize  was  given  to  the  physicists  for  their  remarkable   contribution  to  the  field  of  fundamental  physics .  
  The  winners  of  Fundamental  Physics  Prize   were  selected  by  Yuri  Milner   .  


Source    :    
http://www.iitkalumni.org/Ashok%20Sen.pdf