Mars or morsel?
We will have to wait eleven more months to see whether
the Mars orbiter is indeed a success. The orbiter is expected to enter Mars’
orbit on 24th September 2014. Once there it will look for signs of
life and presence of methane. But India is not the first country to send an
interplanetary probe or to look for signs of life on Mars. We have ample
information on what the Martian surface looks like and we know there are no
sign of life and that human life is impossible in the present Martian
atmosphere. Why then is the Indian government spending millions of dollars on a
programme that is useless at best and fancy at worst? Why is the government not
spending that money on two thirds of its population living under USD 2 a day?
These are the arguments that the international
media picked up while reporting the launch on 5th November. They
reported the launch, termed it a success and then immediately threw in the
figures of aid money India receives and millions that live in poverty. This in
itself is not a bad thing. After all media is supposed to be neutral and
question the establishment. However, it is interesting to see whether linking the space programme to poverty by international media is fair or not.
In the financial year 2013-14 the government of
India is expected to spend USD 55 billion in food and fuel subsidies. Fifty
five times the yearly amount spent on the entire space programme. The recently
introduced Food Security Bill (though flawed) will inject another USD 20
billion a year. There are many other programmes introduced by both the central
and state governments to eradicate poverty. Add to this a few more millions in farm subsidies and we are looking at a figure close to USD 100 billion, spent on welfare schemes. The anti lobbies will argue that
despite all the money spent, little has been achieved. Indian Affair will
agree. But the argument of not spending on poverty elevation does not hold true
anymore. The real question is that of implementing these programmes
transparently and passing the benefits to the needy.
The view from the tinted glasses
 |
| The low cost space ship |
The debates on international media revolved
around the imagined space race between India and China and the need for a poor
country to embark upon a programme, which should ideally be carried out by the
first world. The Express News of the UK carried a headline, which
read, “India sends a spaceship to Mars after UK government gives GBP 280
million in aid” implying that India used the aid money to fund its space
programme. The German Sued Deutsche Zeitung (South German Newspaper) carried a
story titled “India sends probe to Mars”. It started off well but towards the
end it too succumbed to the temptation to highlighting “poverty” and “wasteful”
expenditure on an expensive project. The American CNN and the British BBC were
no exception. The media and public in west and especially the UK (if one reads
through the comments section of various British news sites) see the launch as a fancy
project.
Almost everybody in the mainstream media of
west acknowledged the fact that India carried out the mission at one tenth of
the cost of a similar venture, MAVEN, by NASA (scheduled to be launched on 18th
November). What no one discussed was the mind boggling cost reduction by the
Indian scientists. It is no mean feat to cut cost to a tenth for an
interplanetary probe. This should have been the topic of discussion on the
television debates. Curious minds should have called in astronauts and space
scientists to discuss the frugal engineering by Indian scientists and how rest
of the world can learn from them. They should have asked questions on future of
space exploration industry and India’s role in it. They should have discussed
the difficult scenario where India and China will dominate the high tech space
industry, leaving the conventional pioneers behind. But they chose to ignore it
and discussed poverty.
Not just a fancy toy
India’s space programme is anything but fancy.
Ever since India sent its first satellite in space in 1975, Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO) has conducted 72 launches from various launch
locations in India and abroad. Over the years ISRO has
helped India in telecommunication, broadcasting, weather forecasting, remote
sensing, etc. The billion dollars a year that India spends on its space
programme is paid at least a few times over by selling the services of its satellites
to various users in India and abroad. India has also mastered the technique of sending multiple
satellites into space from a single launch vehicle. The first successful launch
was carried out in 1999 on board Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The PSLV placed three satellites, the Indian Oceansat-I, the German DLR-Tubsat and
the Korean KITSAT-3 in their respective orbits. ISRO has carried out a dozen successful multiple launches
since then. The next step for ISRO will be to tap into the USD 340 billion
space exploration market.
Poverty reduction should obviously be on
India’s priority as a developing nation. It should take sincere steps to
eradicate poverty and pull its millions out of the misery they live in today.
And the problem is definitely not money. It all boils down to
honestly implementing such programmes. But that is a different debate. It is
surprising that the world media missed to discuss the obvious but chose to go
the extra mile to ridicule a brilliant scientific achievement. We will never
know whether it is a product of a prejudiced mind or fear of being left behind.
