Space research ,for every nation

In his speech after the success of putting Mangalyan into Martian orbit, the PM said that we may now be the envy of others.Outer space is too vast and mysterious for mankind to fritter away its composite knowledge and acumen in either mutual envy or a national ego. There have been incremental contributions by men transcending time and geography. The success or failure of missions by one, is that of the global scientific collective .Excessive hold- back of cutting edge technologies in space exploration from one another may be of transient help in spurring self sufficiency of a fellow  nation .The story of a two decade delay in developing our indigenous cryogenic engines,is a case in point . But the human collective then loses precious time in reinventing the wheel, perhaps  much too frequently and an otherwise intelligent planet Earth  lets slip opportunities ,so hard to come by in  the highly complex and challenging quest to conquer the infinite space around us..

Pub Business Standard Sept 18