PM Modi’s US visit: Will the NASA-ISRO satellite pass the Trump test?

Space scientists in India and America are on tenterhooks as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald J Trump meet for the first bilateral in Washington on Monday.

At stake is the world’s most expensive earth-imaging satellite till date being jointly made by the NASA and the ISRO.

Climate change seems to be a red rag for the current American administration.

If there is one thing that divides India and America big-time today, it is climate change. In all likelihood climate change would be a point that would figure in the Trump-Modi discussions.

Trump had called climate change a hoax created by China and said that “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive”.

On the other hand, Modi has penned a pictorial book -- “Convenient Action: Continuity for Change” -- that compiles his actions and beliefs on climate change.

The US walked out of the Paris Climate Change Treaty earlier this year while India continues to honour its commitments.

Trump said, “India makes its participation contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid from developed countries”, while Modi said failing to act on climate change would be “a morally criminal act”.