Islamabad: While ‘Chandrayaan-3’ — India’s moon mission is paving its way through the space towards Moon, neighbouring country Pakistan is still struggling with a dwindling economy, the huge pile of debt and religious extremism-fuelled politics.

Qaisar Rashid in his piece in the Daily Times said that while India ticked one after the other boxes right from ISRO, focusing on IT to opting for a modern education system, Pakistan kept on struggling with its internal conflicts and orthodox education system.

On July 14, the Chandrayaan-3 spaceship lifted off from the launchpad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The moon mission is expected to reach the Moon’s South Pole for a soft landing with a lander and rover on the lunar surface (where water is expected) by August 23-24. By doing so, India would join the group of elite nations (United States, Russia and China) that had achieved the feat.

According to the author, this moon mission means that India remained unfaltering in trying again and again to taste success. It also means that India relied on its scientists working in the space program to justify high expenditures in carrying out space research against all odds.

Taking forward the initiative of first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who founded the Indian National Committee for Space Research in 1962, India founded the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on August 15, 1969.

The main objective of the ISRO was to develop space technology and apply it to study space and its phenomena to meet various national needs such as developing satellite launching vehicles, throwing unipurpose or multi-purpose satellites into required orbits, and sending space missions for exploration of extra-terrestrial life. Currently, ISRO happens to be the world’s sixth-largest space agency, Daily Times reported.

As per the author, India also benefitted a lot by focusing on Information Technology. It helped ISRO in satellite communication, satellite tracking and navigation, remote sensing, spacecraft monitoring and control, ground station operations, and data analytics and processing.

Even in the Chandrayaan-3 space mission, IT would help it to explore the Moon through a lander and a rover. These machines would not only communicate with each other the gathered data through sensors but they would also communicate with the ISRO ground station through relay centers and satellites to transmit the data.

India’s IT industry was born in 1967 in Mumbai, with the help of Tata Industries. The first software export zone called Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ) was developed in 1973 also in Mumbai. The SEEPZ is the precursor to the modern-day IT park. Rajiv Gandhi is greeted as the Father of Information Technology and the Telecom Revolution of India because, in August 1984, he established the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), which made possible the concept of Digital India, Daily Times reported.

Notably, it was the time of the Cold War, and the Soviet Union also helped India in developing its space program. After the end of the Cold War in 1991, India laid more emphasis on the IT sector, especially on software development.

Subsequent governments continued uninterrupted and the Prime Ministers kept on strengthening the IT sector.

The Indian education system with a focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) offered a large pool of highly skilled and educated IT professionals. By formulating and implementing various policies (such as offering tax incentives, subsidies and other benefits) to grow the IT sector, the Indian government hastened the entry of the Indian IT workforce into the export sector, Daily Times reported.

Today, the share of the IT sector is about nine per cent of India’s GDP. Further, the IT sector is budding at a nine per cent growth rate per year. India’s IT market stands at 180 billion USD and it is projected to grow to 350 billion USD by 2025. It has reached a level, where the Indian IT experts are asking the world to outsource IT-related work to them.

Now, against this background, a genuine question that arises is while India’s mission is en route to the moon, where is Pakistan’s Chandrayaan?

Though, under the guidance of a physicist and Nobel Laureate Dr Abdus Salam, Pakistan established its Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission in 1961. But, despite Chinese help, Pakistan’s Chandrayaan is not in sight and its IT sector is still rudimentary, Daily Times reported.

According to the author, Pakistan squandered the decade of the 1990s in internal bickering and strife. Although dictator General Zia ul Haq had gone, people kept on intervening behind closed doors to construct a favourable system. Lured by prospects of power, politicians became willing guinea pigs, the experimental rodents. On top of it, Pakistan’s overreliance on aid in dollars ended up dumping the initiatives for self-reliance.

Another issue concerning Pakistan is that Islamabad is not sure what kind of education system must be permitted to continue.

Just a year ago, Pakistan was experimenting with the introduction of one syllabus to serve all. Courts are in action to discourage the use of English in the country. More and more Pakistanis are learning to write English in Urdu such as ‘Aur Aap Ka Kiya Haal Hai?’ (instead of writing, how are you?), while communicating with each other. Not pure sciences but social sciences are still preferred subjects, and then come strikes to demand employment in the government sector. Pakistan has failed to make its population understand that the government sector is no longer a platform for offering employment, Daily Times reported.

Today, Pakistan has to service a debt of around 2 billion USD a month for the next three years (including this fiscal year) to fund its external payment obligations. Pakistan is falling back upon the agriculture sector for economic revival, and the army would now watch Pakistan’s agricultural interests.

Moreover, not the industrial sector, but real estate is the main cradle of the circulation of money, besides becoming a door for permitting black money to enter the mainstream economy. Instead of becoming an exporter of goods, Pakistan has become an importer – the trend which depletes foreign currency reserves offering a crisis in the balance of payment.

The propping of religious sentiments for weakening political governments translated into demonstrations and rallies has not only weakened the resolve of the political governments but such tactics have also empowered religious zealots to question frequently the country’s trajectory. Anything carrying a semblance of the West is derided as unIslamic.

“Pakistan’s Chandrayaan has been lost in short-sightedness, internal strife and lack of understanding of the world’s needs,” Qaisar Rashid further said in his piece.