Waiting for some good news

Will the landing of Chandrayaan-2 lift the slowdown gloom?

The moon and stars have for long inspired poets, but these are different times. So when number-studded stimulus packages cannot lift the overwhelming gloom, perhaps the moon can. This Saturday, Chandrayaan-2 is set to create history by landing on the moon, and that may be the only piece of good news Indians have heard in a while. Exactly 50 years after the Apollo 11 achievement, Indian lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 is going to moon’s south polar region. 

It will ‘’boldly go where no country has ever gone before’’, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) proudly splashes on its website. It explains that the aim is to improve the understanding of the moon and to make discoveries that will benefit India and humanity as a whole. Besides all the far-reaching scientific feat that Chandrayaan-2 is capable of, there’s something else that it can deliver, but neither Isro nor any scientist manning the project may talk about it. 

Chandrayaan-2 landing on September 7 is likely to give confidence to the people of this country like nothing else has been able to do. Not the rollback of tax surcharge on foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), not the bunch of measures announced to ease stress in non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) or micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), not the Cabinet decisions to relax foreign investment conditions, not the steps to soothe the sentiments of a battered automobile industry, and not any bureaucratic reshuffle in a bid to reverse the downturn. The government has promised at least two more rounds of sops, including for the stressed real estate sector, but the markets are in no mood to cheer. 

While a successful lunar mission may not exactly translate into a bull market or stop the job losses cutting across companies and sectors, it’s likely to give us a reason to celebrate and possibly look for heroes as well as inspiration in a discipline where India has hardly been at the forefront. The last famous brush was in 1984, when Rakesh Sharma as a squadron leader in Air Force had flown aboard Soyuz T-11 to become the first Indian in space. Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had asked Rakesh Sharma how India looked from outer space, to which he had replied, “Saare Jahan Se Achcha”, making that line go viral in a non-Twitter age. 

Chandrayaan-2 is an unmanned mission and therefore no astronaut will be able to say how India looks from Moon or repeat Neil Armstrong’s historic words — “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind’’. The mission, led by two women scientists Muthayya Vanitha and Ritu Karidhal, may not wipe out the slowdown blues or the pains of what some call a quasi recession, but it can turn out to be an inspiration for generations. 

The build-up around the occasion has been somewhat subdued so far, perhaps because the government has been busy trying to set the economy right and roll back some of the proposals made in the Union Budget in July. Among few celebratory steps, a space quiz was organised to select school children who would watch the landmark event live with Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Isro’s Bengaluru centre on Saturday. 

If the withdrawal of special status in Jammu & Kashmir, through abrogation of Article 370, had cheered many Indians, Chandrayaan-2 landing on the Moon should make us truly proud. If the so-called lipstick index is a measure for economic slowdown, the success of the Indian lunar mission may set another kind of benchmark on how to contain all-round pessimism.

In that context, it may be worthwhile to remember what Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins had said in various interviews and statements after their flight to Moon 50 years ago. On looking down on earth, Collins had famously said, “I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of, let’s say 100,000 miles, their outlook would be fundamentally changed. The all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument suddenly silenced.” Besides Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind’’ line, his other memorable words included, “there are great ideas undiscovered, breakthroughs available to those who can remove one of truth’s protective layers. There are places to go beyond belief”. And, Aldrin helped the world achieve the next impossible dream, by saying “No dream is too high’’.