Relevance : GS Paper II (International Relations)
Why has this issue been raised now?
India, which stayed away from the launch of the China’s Belt and Road Forum in 2017 despite considerable pressure from Beijing, has announced that it will sit out again.
Pressure on India on regional connectivity due to China
- Although India has adopted the mantra of connectivity more than a decade ago, China’s BRI (Belt & Road Initiative) has pressed it to get its act together on regional connectivity.
- The scale of the challenge has also encouraged India to shed its traditional “lone-ranger” mentality and consider working with others, especially Japan, Australia and the United States, in promoting regional connectivity in the Indo-Pacific.
Change of India’s perception on BRI
- India is coming to terms with the fact that the BRI is more than two-dimensional.
- Under the BRI, the “belt” was about overland connectivity and the “road” referred to the maritime corridors spreading out from China’s eastern seaboard.
- The additional and inter-related dimensions of BRI are about connectivity in outer space and the digital domain.
The space and digital aspects of BRI
- At the heart of China’s space silk road is the BeiDou satellite navigation system that is expected to rival the American Global Positioning System (GPS), the Russian GLONASS and the European Galileo. BeiDou will consist of a number of satellites in the geostationary and intermediate earth orbits. Some analysts have called BeiDou the digital glue that holds the BRI together.
- China has also launched a Big Earth Data initiative that will develop the generation of massive remote-sensing data and commercial products based on it for use across the entire spectrum of sustainable development — from agriculture to disaster management.
- China is not only into providing space-based services, but is also in the business of exporting satellites to a large number of countries, seeding space-related infrastructure and training space personnel.
- While China presents these dramatic advances as part of its effort to promote space and digital connectivity through international cooperation, it has its geopolitical implications — especially in expanding Beijing’s global surveillance and intelligence capabilities, upgrading the PLA’s military effectiveness, and a big say in shaping the digital infrastructure of developing nations.
India’s space program vs China
- India’s space programme too has grown by focusing on modernising national telecommunication, application of remote sensing data for national development and more recently on developing assets for national security.
- India has a satellite navigation system of its own, the GAGAN. India’s remote sensing capability too is impressive.
- If India has missed a trick it is in the expansive scale that China has brought to its space programme. While the origin and development of both space programmes was led by state entities, China has more recently opened up room for the participation of non-state entities and encouraged private innovators.
Way forward for India
- India needs to reform it’s space sector to allow private corporations to play a larger role, promote space startups, and rejuvenate India’s international space collaboration, both civilian and military — with friends and allies.
- Unlike in the traditional Belt and Road projects, India has significant capabilities in the space and digital domains.
- With policies that will lend them the necessary political support, commercial ambition and organisational scale, India can surely shape the future of space and digital connectivity.
