China has once again demonstrated its relentless surge in the high technology domain. Barely four years after becoming the third nation to put a man into space, and a few months after it successfully tested an anti-satellite weapon, China has shot off its first lunar probe on Wednesday. Named after a Chinese goddess, who flew to the moon, Chang’e 1 satellite is designed to circle round the moon for nearly a year. It is the first step in Beijing’s ambitious plans to land a Chinese taikonaut on the moon in 2020. On the face of it, repeating a feat that was performed by the United States more than four decades ago is no big deal. But China’s space programme is not about advancing the scientific knowledge of man. Instead, it signals China’s resolve to build “comprehensive national power” and a determination to contest the US dominance of outer space.

China’s launch of Chang’e 1 has been greeted by the talk of an Asian space race. This is misleading. While Tokyo has joined in earnest the Asian race to land on the moon, India seems an unwilling competitor. In September, Japan had launched a lunar orbiter and India hopes to do the same next year. Relative to the national energies — political, financial and scientific — that are being invested by China and Japan, India’s space effort looks, frankly, pitiful.

The problem is not at all the lack of scientific talent in India. It is the diminution of political will and the absence of a higher direction for India’s advanced technology programmes. Take the UPA. Despite the repeated flaunting of China’s space ambitions in the last few years, the government has not taken a single credible measure to boost the nation’s civilian and military space programmes. ISRO is a state organisation that has world class human resources. But parameters of ambition have to be set by politicians. Then scientists work with and around it. Surely that’s not asking for the moon from the government?