India’s giant leap

India has become the fourth country to land on the moon and the first South Asian country to do so. Not only that, India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is also the first to successfully land near the south pole of the moon, where it is very difficult to make a landing due to the uneven surface and large number of craters and boulders. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called the landing “a victory cry of a new India”. If things stay on track, it is expected that India’s Pragyaan rover will be able to roam the moon’s surface for two weeks. This latest success takes the story of India’s rise to the next level. In the past three decades, our eastern neighbour has risen to become the world’s fifth largest economy and its higher education system, spearheaded by the IITs, has produced CEOs for some of the world’s largest companies, including Google and Microsoft. And now, India seems all set to conquer the final frontier.

So what does all this mean for us? First off, this is an historic achievement and as such everyone in the region must acknowledge that, regardless of bilateral ties. Second, it is perhaps finally time for us to rethink our policies. Our once-celebrated Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) has not achieved anything significant in decades. Pakistani engineers also routinely complain about lack of opportunities in the country and are forced to join workplaces that are not relevant to their field of study. No incentives for researchers and a political environment that rarely encourages critical thinking in society have pushed Pakistan decades back. In 2019, when India had a failed moon mission, the then science and technology minister for Pakistan was more interested in giving comical statements – he claimed that the Hubble telescope (the greatest of all time) was sent by Suparco (not Nasa) to space. Such comments (even if made to ridicule a rival country) show the country’s lack of seriousness.

That Pakistan has talent is no secret. Around a month back, some 20 students went to Nasa after they participated in a science exhibition. In 2015, a Pakistani student also won a prize for his design for Nasa. There’s no lack of talent; the country, however, must set up appropriate programmes to provide guidance to its students. The institutions set up for STEAM education should be run by experienced professionals if Pakistan is interested in space exploration. The same goes for the institutions that focus on health and the economy. It must also be noted that unlike us India’s scientific progress has been steady and largely immune to political changes or upheavals. Pakistan too needs its science and technology institutions run by experts in the relevant fields, people resilient to changes in who’s in charge politically, and not those who are handed over these positions for institutional loyalty or political favour.