36th Annual Report (2023-24)

16 conducted by IUCAA. We are in the process of setting up various research theme-based working groups consisting of IUCAA faculty and associates to plan and carry out various activities, including the upgradation and effective utilisation of various IUCAA programmes and facilities. IUCAA has established about 24 IUCAA Centre for Astronomy Research and Development (ICARD). These were established to contribute to the development of up-to-date course structures and new kinds of experiment / data analysis sessions, which can be a part of a starting or existing Astronomy course in universities. The next call for proposals for establishing new ICARDs will be released soon and we hope to establish more ICARDs, in particular, covering the regions and states that are not well geographically represented at present. SARATHI, a powerful HPC facility at IUCAA, is dedicated to LIGO data analysis and is IUCAA's contribution to the International Gravitational Wave Observatory Network (IGWN). SARATHI accounts for about 15% of IGWN computing resources. PEGASUS HPC cluster is a dedicated facility made available to the general users of IUCAA and researchers from Indian universities. We are enhancing the computing power of PEGASUS by 25%. We have also established a usage policy document and set up a Time Allocation Committee and usage monitoring committee to maximise the efficient usage of HPC. Efforts are on to secure a much larger computing facility to accommodate every growing computing needs of IUCAA users. This year, two major events grabbed the attention of astronomers in the country. The first one is the formal approval of the LIGO-INDIA project from the Government of India. The LIGO-India project received cabinet approval in April 2023 and is expected to start operating in the year 2030. The project is being led by four lead institutions: Directorate of Construction Services and Estate Management (DCSEM), Mumbai, Institute of Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar, Inter- University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune and Raja Rama nna Ce n t r e f o r Ad v a n c e d Technology (RRCAT), Indore. IUCAA is the key science stakeholder in the project and leading the computing and data ma n a g eme n t , h uma n r e s o u r c e development, education and public outreach activities. IUCAA also has the responsibility to build a commissioning team and initiate a detail project proposal for the operations and maintenance (O&M) phase that will follow after the initial science runs of LIGO-India. IUCAA is planning various activities to bring gravitational wave science to teachers and students from universities, colleges, and schools as well as to the general public. The second important development is the ISRO's Launch of ADITYA-L1, our first space solar mission. IUCAA has played an important role in this mission by delivering the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT). We are happy to note that the telescope is performing very well and initial science verification and calibration observations are going on as per the plan. IUCAA is hosting the Payload Operations Centre (POC) for the SUIT instrument. This POCwill benefit fromthe vast experience we have gained in operating the Astrosat Science Support Cell (ASSC) and POC for the CZTI instrument onboard Astrosat. In this regard, it is gratifying to note that the number of papers published using Astrosat data and the number of individual users of Astrosat continue to increase this year, too. In particular, about 30% of these papers have emerged from authors from the university sector. We hope to achieve similar success for the data obtained using the SUIT instrument aswell. IUCAA continue to spread Astronomy & Astrophysics to different sections of the community. The Astronomy Centre for Educators (ACE) of IUCAA includes the Teaching Learning Centre (TLC), National Resource Centres (NRC) and the International Astronomical Union's Office of Astronomy for Education (IAU-OAE). Their activities focused on spreading Astronomy activities to students and teachers from colleges and schools. As a part of LIGO-India activities, IUCAA is involved in different Education and Public Outreach (EPO) programmes focusing on gravitational wave science. As usual, more than 8000 people have visited IUCAA during Science Day celebrations. We have welcomed students of varying age groups and fromdistant locations like Ghodegaon, Hingoli and Parbhani. This year, IUCAA focused on showcasing various in-house research activities. Models of various upcoming mega- science projects were displayed for the general public. All the exhibits and demonstrations were very well received. As usual, the centre of attraction was the "Ask the Scientist?” event, where Professor Narlikar and others enthusiastically answered interesting questions from the general public. I use this opportunity to thank all the volunteers from IUCAA, Ferguson College and other institutes in Pune for their contribution to making the event successful. Finally, I take this opportunity to thank my colleagues and seniors at IUCAA for their help in performing my duties as the Director of IUCAA. I would also like to express thanks to our mentors, our Governing Board with Hon'ble Dr K. Kasturirangan as Chair, and our Council, chaired by Hon'ble Dr M. Jagadesh Kumar, Chairman, University Grants Commission (UGC). I also acknowledge the help, advice and support from the UGC and its officers and staff, and from the Ministry of Education of the Government of India. R. SRIANAND Director, IUCAA