India, Aug. 28 -- When God said, 'Let there be light', little did the baby world know that some 4.5 Bn years later, a young, 300,000-year-old species would some day go beyond the day and night as God had marked, and use it for something entirely different - communications.

Ancient Greece, the cradle of modern-day human civilisation, was the first to use light for communications. That's where the seeds of advanced optical communication germinated. From heliographs in ancient Greece to photophones in the eighteenth century to modern-day laser technology - the use of light in communications evolved over the ages.

Advanced scientific research and wider applications have revolutionised terrestrial and satellite telecommunications, creating r...