New Delhi, Feb. 18 -- India opened its space sector to private players at a time of covid paralysis. Since then, some progress has indeed been made. Poised for a breathtaking leap into space, however, might be China.

In the last week of December, Beijing notified the UN's International Telecom Union of its plan to put over 200,000 satellites in orbit within a decade. Its game, it seems, is to saturate the whole planet with satcom coverage and make US-based SpaceX's Starlink constellation of almost 10,000 low-earth orbiters look skeletal. Clearly, artificial intelligence (AI) is not the only tech race China is in a hurry to win.

From the viewpoint of global geo-rivalry, satcom and AI are twin frontiers. Over in the US, AI startup Anthrop...