[6] Kasturirangan was born on 24 October 1940, at Ernakulam in the erstwhile Kingdom of Cochin, to C. M. Krishnaswamy Iyer and Visalakshi.

Kasturirangan's maternal grandfather Sri Ananthanarayana Iyer completed his school and college education and became a sanitary inspector in Ernakulam.

Kasturirangan and his brother Ravi spent their early childhood in Ernakulam in the care of their maternal grandparents after the death of their mother.

[10] He received his Doctorate Degree in experimental high energy astronomy in 1971, working at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad.

He also led the initiative for India to enter the planetary exploration era by extensive studies leading to the definition of Chandrayaan-1.

These efforts have put India as a pre-eminent space-faring nation among the handful of six countries that have major space programmes.

Defining India's most ambitious space based high-energy astronomy observatory and initiating related activities was also an important milestone under his leadership.

This committee, having been given a tenure of 3 years, will be the guiding document for the development of textbooks, syllabi and teaching practices of schools across the country.