Editorial | Over the moon with India

It mightn’t have been the kind of event that attracted major public interest in Jamaica, but this week’s landing by India of a lunar module on the south pole of the Moon is a kind of development to which we should pay attention and is another reason for Kingston to deepen its relationship with New Delhi.

The achievement is a signal of India’s advance in science and technology (an area in which Jamaica is significantly deficient and in which it needs to catch up if it hopes to develop an economy fit for the 21st century) and its growing confidence on the global stage. In that regard, Jamaica’s institutions, especially the University of Technology (UTech) and the Mona campus of the regional University of the West Indies (UWI) should seek out partnerships with counterparts in India, including the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

To place what happened last week in context, India became only the fourth country, after the former Soviet Union (Russia), the United States and China, to make a successful moon landing. But, spectacularly, it is the first to do so on the planet’s notoriously tricky south pole. Indeed, only days before the Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander touched down and its tiny Pragyan rover subsequently rolled out to conduct experiments on the moon’s surface, a Russian vehicle preparing to land in the south pole apparently spun out of control and crashed onto the surface.

Any information unearthed by Pragyan, especially about the possible presence of water on the planet, will be hugely important to science and the future of space exploration, especially for the possibility of human beings being able to live on planets other than Earth.

But, as is the case with technological development, India’s lunar landing wasn’t a clear, straightforward process without setbacks or disappointments. Indeed, its previous attempt, in 2019, to land a module on the planet failed. Yet, India has been conducting space experiments since the 1960s, has sent many satellites into orbit, and it was an Indian vehicle, albeit with NASA-built instruments onboard, that, in 2009, identified the possibility of water on the Moon’s surface.

SHOESTRING BUDGET

Relative to some other nations involved in space exploration, India’s space programme has been conducted on a shoestring budget. The larger point is that development is often driven by ambition – and how a country sees itself. Since its independence, India has perceived itself in a global context, especially as a partner of countries with shared experiences in colonialism, particularly under Britain. In recent decades, as it has advanced economically and technologically and has grown in confidence, it has expanded its horizons as a global player. Indeed, with over 1.4 billion people, it has the world’s largest population, while its GDP of US$3.7 trillion makes it the fifth-largest economy, behind the United States, China, Japan and Germany.

The disparities in size of power, notwithstanding, the possibilities for scientific and technological cooperation between Jamaica and India, especially when placed in the context of solidarity between the countries of the Global South. In fact, that is the spirit in which we interpret India’s participation in the Commonwealth as well as the BRICS, to whose expansion it was party at their summit this week.

In fact, it was from that summit that Prime Minister Narendra Modi monitored Chandrayaan-3’s lunar landing.

While hailing the development as a critical milestone in India’s development, Mr Modi also said, “I am confident that all countries in the world, including those from the Global South, are capable of achieving such feats. We can all aspire for the Moon and beyond.”

Jamaica’s immediate ambition need not be moon exploration, but there are other areas in science in which India can help us to advance. We have an opportunity to hold Mr Modi to his word.