Fair enough. You have a valid point. Do consider then, that the projected cost of this space mission IS far lesser than what India spends on lot of the basic i

Fair enough. You have a valid point. Do consider then, that the projected cost of this space mission IS far lesser than what India spends on lot of the basic infrastructural needs that you point out are missing. They are missing, yes, but if you only look at present day snapshot it won't give you the entire story. However marginal it might seem, especially to a first-world citizen (I mean no sarcasm when I say this) education is getting better every year, employment is on an average getting better. Agricultural outputs are worrying but we have had massive monsoon shortages of late. Almost everywhere the situation is made worse by corruption at every level. But we can't stop trying to fix things. As someone else points out on this thread, in the grand scheme of things this is an insignificant cost. FWIW some really intelligent high-school students might just decide their future based on news of such missions.