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India successfully launches first mission to the Moon
- aagnihot 18y agoI have read Dr. Vikram Sarabhai's biography(http://www.geocities.com/hari_ghk/vikram.htm http://www.geocities.com/hari_ghk/vikram.htm) and in my opinion, his hard work has paid off. Also, most of top 20-30 Indian companies might be paying taxes more than $78 million each year, so we can easily say that the program is not a burden for most of us... As a geek, as an Indian, as an techno-historian, I am aware of how much of sacrifice people made to make this happen(eg: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2002/11/18/stories/2002111801050200.htm http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2002/11/18/stories/200...). Great work!!
- bradgessler 18y agoKudos to India... I said this before when China shot a man around the Earth, and I'm going to say it again; I hope they spur another healthy space race.
- Prrometheus 18y agoThe next space race will be spurred on by applications that are not purely symbolic or scientific in nature. We are seeing this today with the rise of the private commercial space industry, and I fear that the military will be close behind.
- tom_rath 18y agoClose behind?!?! Read a bit more space program history and you'll find the military is actually far ahead as far as applications (and budget!) are concerned.
- jyothi 18y agoIndia becomes the 4th country after USSR, USA and Japan. It is a great moment for the developing nation.
- gaius 18y agoIndia has nuclear power (and weapons) and aircraft carriers. To all intents and purposes, it's a developed nation. Underestimating India on the assumption that it is "developing" or "poor" is a mistake that will bite competitor nations on the arse if they're not careful.
- jacobolus 18y agoYours is really a poor definition for “developed nation.” A more standard definition of development is based the amount of available capital in an economy. Compared to W. Europe, Japan, N. America, etc., India has a pitifully low amount of capital, per capita (also a poor population: 25% is still below the official poverty line, etc.). Interestingly, one of the chief factors slowing Indian economic growth may be that it has avoided specializing in products requiring cheap unskilled labor (e.g. textiles), as China, etc., have, instead wielding protectionist policies which supported local capital but ultimately weakened its ability to compete on the world market, and other regulation, like draconian labor laws, which have discouraged direct foreign investment. See <http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/01/why-does-india.html> http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/01/why...;
- known 18y ago"Poverty is still there, 80% of the population live on 20 rupees (25p) a day, according to a survey, but a large well off group has also emerged. Some 250 million are reckoned to be very well off, many of them very rich." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6946800.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6946800.stm
- g__g 18y agoWhile India is booming in many ways, it still cannot be called developed. There is still a huge divide between the rich and poor and poverty is still a major roadblock.
- gaius 18y agoSo it's a developed nation with a huge underclass.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- markessien 18y agoNo. Poverty gets reduced as a side effect of technological advancement. It has always been that way.
- jyothi 18y agoTotally. More for a country like India there is no other way out than to get more and more people educated and build an awareness. India needs yet another revolution like the Freedom Movement in the 1900's to take the next leap.
- bluishgreen 18y agoTrying to work on reducing poverty is like trying to fight a war on terror.You will get no where with such an abstract and undefined cause. Rather Indians have chosen to concentrate and improve on concrete goals which I am sure will lead to elimination of poverty in time. Flying to the moon has tremendous symbolic value which will energise the raising economy. And hey it was done for just 80 million dollars, so its not exactly a huge indulgence if you think about it.
- aagnihot 18y agobingo!!! you said it :)
- vijayshankar 18y agoYes, India can't stop technological advancement because of the reason that a portion of its population lives below poverty line. All aspects (technology, standard of living and all other things) have to improve in parallel.
- morbidkk 18y agostill almost 100% techies in India never prefer or think about joining ISRO/DRDO which are world-class research organizations.
- seshagiric 18y agoNot entirely right. Before the software industry's success in India, most engineers would either aim for ISRO/DRDO or other niche government organizations. The software industry simply offers better prospects - better pay and faster career growth.
- arjungmenon 18y agoPartially true; because even before the software boom, most techies aimed at working in a foreign country (like the US) where they would be much more well-payed.
- jyothi 18y agoI wonder the same. I myself would so much love to be at ISRO/DRDO. They have tons of other facilities to match the high pay at software companies. I wish they had better ways of recruiting people with merit and passion. They are full of either Brahmins or SC/ST and people who are recruited through references.
- sundeep 18y ago> full of either Brahmins or SC/ST thank you for bringing your prejudices here. do you have any numbers to back that up? > people who are recruited through references this need not be a bad thing ,which is why most companies have a internal referral program.
- jyothi 18y agoI thought I shall mail you instead but couldn't find a contact or any useful information on your profile page. Please walk into IISc and you shall know. It is not merely about the number it is about the people who would control the system. I agree the divide based on caste is gradually lowering however we are still not there yet. It is a fact that all of these research institutes are concentrated in the south - IISc, ISRO, DRDO (and the rest in CV RamanNagar, Bangalore) and casteism has always been the problem here. NASA has a large number of Indians. I am sure Indian Research would be in a lot better state if they evangelize and hire more youngsters. We definitely have a smart bunch of people in pure sciences than in business. Why do you think we cannot retain them here in India ?
- Mayank_kp 18y agoIndia is actually 6th to launch mission to the moon. And ISRO/DRDO are not thought to be good career choices by young Indians by far!!! Also, I think that we will see this turn into a prestige issue with competing neighbours like Pakistan and China taking note and perhaps speeding up their mission too!!!
- mamama 18y agoYeah, but we really ought to stop using extraneous punctuation.
- Mayank_kp 18y agoIndia is actually 6th to launch mission to the moon. And ISRO/DRDO are not thought to be good career choices by young Indians by far!!! Also, I think that we will see this turn into a prestige issue with competing neighbours like Pakistan and China taking note and perhaps speeding up their space missions/research too!!!
- xiaoma 18y agoIts first LUNAR PROBE would be a clearer headline. India is far from a manned mission.
- profgubler 18y agoI think this is a great step for India. It is great to watch India develop. Maybe this will create greater competition, and enhance every nations space efforts.
- sanj 18y ago"The mission is expected to cost 3.8bn rupees (£45m; $78m)." Wow. That's amazingly cheap!
- rit 18y agoIf I recall correctly, part of the way that NASA is setup is to be deliberately spread out across many congressional districts - making it hard to cut it's legs out from under it because it will effect jobs in too many congressman's districts. The downside to this is that it's also a great way of bringing lots of bullshit jobs into a district, and makes things VERY expensive. Not surprising that India can do this cheaply - hopefully some of our private sector space companies will learn from what they're doing and improve on it.
- eru 18y agoIt is still somewhat surprising that India can do this cheaply. After all they government is even more inefficient in general.
- jessewmc 18y agoKeep in mind how much of the cost is people-hours, which would be on the order of 10-20 times more in the United States.
- helveticaman 18y agoThat's within the budget of many Silicon Valley duders. I would suspect that figure belies some costs they aren't taking into account.
- chollida1 18y ago> Silicon Valley duders What is a "duder"? Is that equivalent to "Silicon Valley dudes"?
- DanielBMarkham 18y agoA "duder" would be a person that made dudes.