Why ISRO Is Not India’s NASA: Development Has Been Its Agenda, Not Geopolitical Rivalry
India’s foray into space started with sounding rockets supplied by NASA in the 1960sIndia’s space program was not born out of Cold War rivalry but an obligation to serve the more immediate needs of a developing countryby Priyadarshi DuttaOn 21 November 1963, the sun set one minute before 6 pm at Trivandrum in Kerala. At 6:25 pm India’s first sounding rocket, of Nike-Apache variety, supplied by