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India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

news.bbc.co.uk

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Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#41

Post by g__g »

pramodsub wrote: post #30
g__g wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While 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.

True. There's a long way to go before India can be called developed. However, the good thing about the moon mission is that it is a testament to the quality of the engineering talent at ISRO. Given that ISRO is significantly behind other options as a career for Indian engineers, the fact these engineers themselves are so competent is good news for the engineering ecosystem in India.

I am well aware of the situation in India, while it is true that there are competent engineers at ISRO, it is also saddening that the govt. is not allocating sufficent money for research. Most of the brightest talent is absorbed by private companies as it is a much better choice compared on monetary basis.

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#42

Post by mamama »

codeview wrote: post #38
whacked_new wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate on this? How does the education system largely account for corruption? Is it not cultural? I remember a when discussion of corruption in China, education was not the largest factor. It was a more historical, societal attitude. Does the schooling method promote corrupt behavior?

Most teachers in Indian Engineering colleges are not practitioners. The profession has extremely low pay compared to other options and hence one of the least preferred one among professionals. Most universities do not go after high performing engineers to join the faculty , but just mass recruit new college passouts who later climb the job ladder to reach senior positions.Add to this all the reservations based on cas…

A big cultural problem also amplifies this: a majority of the middle and upper class families want their children to become engineers.

Our country does not need any more corporate drones, we need better politicians.

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#43

Post by mamama »

Mayank_kp wrote: post #18

India 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!!!

Yeah, but we really ought to stop using extraneous punctuation.

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#44

Post by crosscompile »

jbert wrote: post #36
crosscompile wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are countries where all of the largest expenditures (except oil) are for products produced domestically by the non-poor classes. Even here in the US. The only significant things that I, personally, spend money on that are significantly made overseas are my car, oil, and computer. Even if the price of those all doubled, it would still be only a small part of my budget. The outsourcing epidemic is somewhat overst…

I don't live in the US, but I was under the impression that the vast majority of consumer goods for sale were fabricated in China (or perhaps assembled from parts fabricated in China). Is that not your perception? I may be wrong, but also, your purchasing habits may not be in line with the majority. Or maybe you aren't talking about the US? I think the same is true of the UK - are you talking about other European cou…

The vast majority of my spending is not on consumer goods. I accept your point that I don't know the actual numbers for typical people.

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#45

Post by chollida1 »

helveticaman wrote: post #34
sanj wrote: post #33

"The mission is expected to cost 3.8bn rupees (£45m; $78m)." Wow. That's amazingly cheap!

That's within the budget of many Silicon Valley duders. I would suspect that figure belies some costs they aren't taking into account.

> Silicon Valley duders

What is a "duder"? Is that equivalent to "Silicon Valley dudes"?

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#46

Post by DanielBMarkham »

chollida1 wrote: post #45
helveticaman wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's within the budget of many Silicon Valley duders. I would suspect that figure belies some costs they aren't taking into account.

> Silicon Valley duders What is a "duder"? Is that equivalent to "Silicon Valley dudes"?

A "duder" would be a person that made dudes.

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#47

Post by rit »

sanj wrote: post #33

"The mission is expected to cost 3.8bn rupees (£45m; $78m)." Wow. That's amazingly cheap!

If 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.

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#48

Post by aagnihot »

I have read Dr. Vikram Sarabhai's biography(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/200...). Great work!!

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#49

Post by aagnihot »

bluishgreen wrote: post #14
[deleted] wrote: post #10

[deleted]

Trying 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 n…

bingo!!! you said it :)

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#50

Post by aagnihot »

jyothi wrote: post #12
gaius wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India 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.

You will have to see it to believe it. Nuclear power or Space research are just one off achievements but the general GDP per capita speaks volumes. Once our director visited India, where I live, considering expansion of the insurance business. He went back shocked that India needs at least 20 more years to be even considered for a systematic underwriting. Such is the state of development, government and people. Its u…

Being in India is like being in Mexico and being in California..Depends on which part of India you visit...
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