I don't mean to be a killjoy. But do we really need all these hype on sending an unmanned space craft to moon when the first unmanned spacecraft had landed on moon 50 years ago and man had set foot on the moon 40 years ago? What are we trying to achieve by this mission? Taking photographs of moon and earth? Search for water on moon? Hoisting the tri-color on moon? Do all these gonna transform India into a super power?
The answer is a big NO.
The Indian govt. is not even worried about the average Joe and all their priorities are wrong. Here are a few examples
1) The opposition was yelling bloody murder on nuclear deal when the country's inflation was skyrocketing
2) The Tamil Nadu govt. was worried about Srilakan Tamils when thousands were thrown out of work everyday by the rising power crises in the state.
3) The west Bengal govt. was making all hungama on Tata Nano factory when unemployment was ruining the state.
4) The central govt. was sending million and millions of aid to Afghanistan when poverty is rampant across our country
5) The central minister was changing shirts 3 times a day and posing for photographs when terrorists were blowing up city after city.
Don't even argue that China and Japan are in the space race and we shouldn't be left behind. Their economies are giants compared to ours and we've a long way to go to equal them.
Check out the Human Development Index for India on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index to understand where we stand among the world's nations.
As the moon mission doesn't make any sense to the poor farmer living in a moon lit remote village with no electricity, it’s a waste of Indian tax payers money. God bless India and its priorities. Amen.
Agree! I watched BBC and CBC news story on this, and trust me on this. An average joe in India doesn't care about 'Chandrayan' stuff at all. Please ask your friends, relatives, and family members if at all they do care about it.
I would be immensely happy , if instead of spending on Chandrayan, govt. actually had opened more schools for poor kids, guaranteed QUALITY education in govt. schools, provided some relief from the ever growing inflation for the poor peasants and farmers, spent on the rural infrastructure, and above all else spent to clean the judiciary, political system, policing, and beaurocracy of the state.
But may be that's only me. Enough said.
I am cutting + pasting a comment by bjork from another thread here...
In terms of value for investment, Indian space program is now considered the best in the world. Agriculture, irrigation, environment, metereology, telecommunications, defence, education, fisheries, infrastructure development and even archeology has benefitted from this program. Well done, India!
Lets not mix politics with science and business. All the issues mentioned by Goldfinger relate to political backwardness of the country, while this is related to developments in science and technology having business benefits. For all those you understand the progress of India, know very well that this is the fascinating fact about India where on one hand you have object flying and landing on moon, best IT brains, very matured industrial climate and on the other hand poverty, hunger, illetracy and absence of power. Even if 50% of the population is below poverty line, that should not stop the scientists and the engineers from doing thier job, justifying thier education.
Though late, it should be applauded that India is only the 4th country to achieve the feat - lets all applaud the achievement where its due.
Ironically, last night the news channel beamed news about NASA's Mars programme being a total failure. Wont be surprised if ISRO beats NASA to some achievements in the future..
Hiren
Location: Somewhere in dreamland
Posted on: 14-11-08 16:57:00
GoldFinger & Febpreet - You are missing the bigger picture. When India started spending money on launching satellites, people like you said the same.
Investment into space technologies often results in cost savings else where.
For example weather satellites provided better weather forecasting reduced the loss of property and lives due to cyclones
Also remote sensing satellites help India detect changes to vegetation , help find mineral deposits etc
Also reduced cost of renting international satellites for TV transmissions.
Some of the new technologies developed by ISRO for chandrayaan can be comercialized for the betterment of Indian public.
Also ISRO is very competitive in offering space programs (launching satellites) for other countries at a fraction of the cost of western countries
India is one of world's largest economies (4th largest by purchasing power). So I think India can afford the space programs. There are several long term benefits with space programs.
Theoritically nobody in India should watch movies till everyone is above poverty line because watching movie is not an essential expense.
But in reality it will never happen.
Similarly if India waits for evryone to be above the poverty line then god knows when it will start spending on science and technology. Maybe never .
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You know you are a desi when ........ You spew forth the virtues of India, but don't want to live there...............You've never had a tanning salon membership
Please don't form such hard opinions without knowing the facts. ISRO makes $2 for every $1 it invests. India has 1/3rd of World's remote sensing market captured...
This BBC report might help understand some aspects http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7374714.stm
Location: God's own country
Posted on: 14-11-08 18:35:09
Quote:
Originally posted by viggy
This BBC report might help understand some aspects http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7374714.stm
Viggy and Hiren,
I disagree with you both.
Viggy :
your article is dated April 2008 and it says that ISRO (supposedly-which I still disgaree) was making money before the Chandrayan-1 (The present rocket). So the article is irrelevant to the current OP's post. It goes on to say that ISRO is putting the satellites of 2 countries Free of Charge which is a big scam by itself. How can you put things for free and yet make a 100 % profit? Also did you know that Chandrayyan-1 was uninsured, meaning that if it went up im smoke, the govt lost all the money that it spent and they might be facing law suits from the nations that wanted to put a satellite through Chandraiyan-1.
My take :
We should do more of things that we are comfortable with (like making satellites and using other nations rockets to put them in Orbit). When America and Russia have invested so much in space technology, we should be looking at leasing that technology rather than starting from scratch. I completely condemn this mission.
India is in a precarious location with threat from China and Pakisthan and so this money might have gone for weapons / subs from Russia / USA.
There are so many people begging for food in India. It could have gone to them. Or to improve infrastructure, power supply, drinking water etc.. for the poor people. Leaving that , they have wasted their money one something which is not needed. We all know how the govt. / ISRO works? They each work only 10-20% of what an American would work and so I am sure that tons of money would have been wasted on this white elephant.
To conclude, it reminds me of what people with girl children used to do in Tamil Nadu when they are born. Both the parents and the child would starting eating Curd rice and save every penny of their money as possible and then spend lakhs and crores on their one day marriage while the daughter would be suffering from malnutrition got by eating curd rice from a very young age.
Let us concentrate on priorities.... As some one said in Rediffmail : we should have put all the politicans on the probe which crashed (landed) into the moon.
Peace by TK
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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.
