India Is Now A Space Power
Hurling the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle into orbit from Sriharikota marks the maturing of India's space faring capabilities. Besides saving on the costs of launching its own satellites, the country has entered the billion-dollar space launch market.

Moment Of Reckoning
The polls are likely to be milestones for the political parties. In Tamil Nadu, Karunanidhi is poised to hand over the mantle of the DMK to his son Stalin. And in West Bengal, Mamata may find it takes more than aggression to win a mandate.

Breaking Trust
UTI's dealing in Ketan Parekh's favourite shares has been under a cloud and SEBI's report on the stock-rigging scandal reaffirms suspicions. Bogged down with chunks of worthless shares, UTI's credibility has taken a nose dive.

Cold-Blooded Gamble
Sudden, violent skirmishes along the India-Bangladesh border leaves many dead and raises worrisome questions about peace and security in the North-east as a "friendly" neighbour's problems spill over.

Blue Sari Mystery
A dead polo player, a beautiful woman, an unclaimed garment. The Rajasthan High Court orders the police to look into the case.

FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF

India is a country straddling many centuries simultaneously. Nothing brings this home more than the sight of Indian scientists successfully shooting rockets into space while much of the country battles illiteracy and disease. In the past 30 years, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has designed increasingly advanced weather and communication satellites and built rockets to carry them to their precise stations in space. Alongside, it has boosted the country's strike capability with a series of missiles. This has been widely respected-and sometimes, feared-but despite sophisticated rocketry, India has always been at the fringe of the Big Boy's Club.

Last week's successful launch of an experimental satellite atop GSLV, or Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, puts India in a select group that includes the US, Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and China. It also has other significant implications. Technically, it means after a 10-year effort India has mastered an art of immense complexity, so fine-tuned that a tiny speck of lead inside a fuel line led to a fire which aborted GSLV's first flight on March 28. Strategically, it means India is theoretically capable of launching inter-continental ballistic missiles. Commercially, it means India is now a more important player in the business of launching satellites worth $10 billion a year. And in human terms, it means that scientists paid as little as junior executives came together with dedication and brilliance for this outstanding achievement.

We sent our space veteran, Deputy Editor Raj Chengappa, for the launch and write this week's definitive cover story about India's future in space. He was allowed exclusive access to the control room at ISRO's Sriharikota launch facility through countdown and lift-off. Says Chengappa: "For a moment the scientists' childlike glee hid the fact that they had rewritten space power equations."

We have a theory in the office that Chengappa tracks the space beat because he can collect scale models of Indian rockets. He picked up an impressive brass GSLV model as well. May his collection grow.

(Aroon Purie)

MetroScape

Operation Opera
If he can pull it off, it might well be the highpoint in India's cultural and tourism calendar for 2002. After restoring heritage properties and turning them into highly successful resorts, Francis Wacziarg is now turning to producing a full scale opera in Delhi.
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