A new feather has been added to India’s hat as a growing Space power. The nation took an admirable step forward by shooting down one of its own satellites up in the sky in an experimental hit at a range of 300km from base Earth, off Balasore in Odisha Wednesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the success of Mission Shakti and said India matched the success of three nations in this field. Surely, this is a matter of great pride.
Notably, while India is going slow on many fronts on the ground, it has several success stories to cite in matters of Space attempts. While the US started its research on a similar technology by the middle of the last century, its success was reported about 13 years ago, followed by China’s success in 2007 and Russia’s four years ago. The Defence Research and Development Organistaion (DRDO), which developed and launched the Anti Satellite Weapon (ASAT), deserves special praise for this feat. ASAT weapons will be useful prominently in decimating enemy satellites for military and strategic purposes. In these times of highly strained ties with Pakistan, this feat has added significance.
India’s successes in Space-related technology are thanks to many factors, including the vision exhibited by first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who set up the Indian Space Research Organisation and shaped it well within his life-time. India has a high global ranking in satellite technology and it is currently exploring its global commercial potential too. Now, in a step forward, satellite killers too have emerged out of our hands.
Notably, China was nowhere in matters of Space technology up until the turn of the century. Its growth and achievements in this field are fast-paced as with other areas. For India, a success here and there by itself should not occasion a thumbs-up beyond reasonable levels. As the adage goes, in a world moving at a frenetic pace, one has to run even faster to remain where he or she stands. India’s R&D spend is among the lowest. With big promises coming for new pension schemes and Minimum Income offers in the social welfare sector, a fear is that growth in other sectors such as defence might suffer due to paucity of funds.
More effective efforts at economic growth and funds mobilization as China did, and a fair balancing of funds-spend without hitting the nation’s long-term goals vis-a-vis growth and development are of prime concern.