Editorial
India aims for the moon
A technological feat by developing country scientists
We take this opportunity to congratulate the people and government of India on the launch of the Chandrayaan 1 mission to the moon. One hardly needs any telling that, for a developing country like India and indeed for the region, the venture is cause for justifiable pride. That sense of pride as well as belonging is enhanced by the fact that India is an important component of SAARC. As a fellow member of the South Asian regional organisation, we feel that the stride Delhi has taken in space will have a positive impact on scientific development for Indians in particular and for their neighbours and for developing countries in general. The launch of the lunar mission is, briefly, one very powerful sign of the advances in technology that India has been making in recent years. It is at the same time a broad hint that where the exploration of space is concerned, the Indians have finally come of age.
The achievement is but the latest step where progress in space related matters by Asian nations is concerned. China and Japan have already become part of what is now an expanding global space programme. Insofar as the Japanese are concerned, their status as a global economic giant has already catapulted them into a pretty advanced stage of space research. Against such a backdrop, although India has achieved a remarkable feat, as a developing country it has yet to go quite some way before it can climb on to the perch that other nations have attained as members of the space club. For all that, though, the step it has just taken promises to bring dividends specifically because of the role science has been playing in a modernisation of life. There is little question that its new-found status will now play a determining role in helping India shape more focused and broad poverty alleviation programmes.
It is our expectation as well as that of people in the bigger South Asian region that India's foray into space will yield social benefits common to all through a sharing of knowledge about space and a utilisation of such knowledge here on earth. Chandrayaan 1 will map the surface of the moon. What new facts about the lunar body such an exercise might throw up can only be imagined.
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