'Students must focus on space research'

Speaking at the Chandrashekhar centenary conference here on Tuesday, Dr Kasturirangan said although India has adequate facilities to conduct research in astronomy, the number of scientists engaging in international collaboration is very few. 

"We are lacking in building space systems and telescopes. There are very few scientists who can visualise the way Chandrashekhar did in the field of Astrophysics.  We need to take physics forward in both theoretical and practical methods," he said. 

Even in building the Thirty Metre Telescope  which is expected to be out in 2020 at the cost of one billion dollars, India has the scope in contributing to construct the telescope in a cost effective way.