The Emergence of Radio Astronomy in Asia: Opening a New Window on the Universe

Some countries in the greater Asian area, namely Australia, China, India, Japan and New Zealand, played important roles in the early development of radio astronomy from the 1940s through into the 1960s. In this paper—which is based on the Public Lecture that we presented in Pune during the ICOA-9 conference—we trace these early developments. We then finish this review paper by briefly surveying the exciting new radio astronomical developments that are currently occurring throughout the greater Asian region