No blinkered view of India’s Mars mission

India’s mission to launch a spacecraft to Mars must not be viewed in a narrow-minded context. There have been debates in the country’s political and social circles that the price tag of $73 million (Dh268.49 million) is perhaps too steep for the exchequer to pick given that two-thirds of the nation’s 1.2 billion population live on less than $2 a day. These are merely emotive issues. To subscribe to such arguments, however, is to completely miss the woods for the trees. A nation’s state of development is not only gauged by how many mouths it manages to feed, but also by the expansion of its technological prowess. No country that holds its own in the upper echelons of the global community of nations, in multiple platforms, can afford to waste an opportunity in realising its scientific potential. Historically, India has punched well above its weight in this field.

In such a context, India’s mission to Mars, which took off successfully from Shriharikota yesterday, can be recognised as one of the cheapest missions ever undertaken. It is uniquely Indian in character and showcases its home-grown technology. It also fits perfectly with the country’s ambitions of keeping pace in the ‘race for space’ with rivals such as China and Japan in the region. The space programme is not alien to Indian scientists. It has met with mixed results, but the crowning glory is the fact that Indian satellites form one of the largest communication systems in the world. This mission, however, has the potential of be a game changer and give India space to sit in an elite group.