India, Feb. 7 -- A silent struggle is unfolding in the skies above us. Satellites, built with dreams of national autonomy and technological prowess, orbit the Earth as part of a grand project named NavIC, India's navigation satellite system. On paper, it was meant to be India's answer to America's GPS-a regional powerhouse capable of guiding ships, planes, and troops, without relying on foreign systems.

This was described effusively in this column back in October 2023. But the narrative has changed since then.

NavIC finds itself limping, battered by failures of atomic clocks, propulsion glitches, and a tangled web of challenges back on Earth. The question is: why did something with so much promise run into so many hurdles? And perhaps m...