101–110 of 162 posts
Forget Mars, for India the problems are too great at home.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Generally, I would have simply agreed with what you said. (and what you said is true) But! Stop complaining at this one moment. And take a look at the achievements of this country's people. They don't have world's best food, world-class infrastructure and not enough money to hire world class talent either. Probably they have world-class corruption in the country. How many countries achieve this after having these man…
Its not exactly that Western nations don't have problems they ignore or are not called out on. Its just easier for people to take cheap shots at India, stereotypes and such being what they are. I don't think their political corruption is much worse than what the US has, we just have laws that permit too much of it. Fortunately the scientist of most countries want to succeed because of their interest in the unknown, i…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the bigger questions is international aid. "Since 2007 India has been the world's largest recipient of recorded remittances from abroad. In 2010 these inflows were worth $54bn (£35bn). UK foreign direct investment in India is considerable, reaching £1.8bn in the same year." You can't really on the one hand claim your country is terribly poor, and needs handouts from other nations, and on the other play at bein…
I need to start making a note of the assholes on HN so I can avoid them in future.
Those people claiming ISRO does it at a shoe string budget, because they reuse yes they do. But we are talking of a factor of more 10 here. Let me put facts on ground. Go and visit any ISRO campus in India. See the kind of offices they work in, they kind of food canteens they eat lunch at, they kind of buses they travel in and take a look at how much they are paid. I assure you will be shocked. In fact shocked will b…
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/pslv/c25/131105launch/#.UnkG4O...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the bigger questions is international aid. "Since 2007 India has been the world's largest recipient of recorded remittances from abroad. In 2010 these inflows were worth $54bn (£35bn). UK foreign direct investment in India is considerable, reaching £1.8bn in the same year." You can't really on the one hand claim your country is terribly poor, and needs handouts from other nations, and on the other play at bein…
I don't know anything about UK investment in India but remittances are not international aid, that is money earned by foreign workers.
The point stands though. Whether it's billions or millions, it's still a ton of money which we shouldn't be giving them in aid.
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"Thankfully the UK will stop sending foreign aid to India in 2015". You seem to have a problem with this simple wish but perhaps you can explain what it is? Do you think aid should continue (in spite of India's request) or that the UK should stop. BTW we can read negatives without capitalization. Many countries including Britain seem to me to get their priorities wrong. India certainly does when one sees the wretched…
> You seem to have a problem with this simple wish but perhaps you can explain what it is? My problem is with the assumption that this miniscule amount of "aid" is somehow significant. Do realize that when countries give "aid", it is often more for domestic reasons. This "aid" comes with all sorts of strings attached, and benefits the donor country more than the recipient. Case in point: US military aid to Israel com…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I need to start making a note of the assholes on HN so I can avoid them in future.
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The UK does certainly see sending millions of pounds overseas in foreign aid, as a bad idea.
And sorry again for my original copy&paste gone wrong. I copied the wrong part of the article which mentioned remittances rather than foreign aid.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the bigger questions is international aid. "Since 2007 India has been the world's largest recipient of recorded remittances from abroad. In 2010 these inflows were worth $54bn (£35bn). UK foreign direct investment in India is considerable, reaching £1.8bn in the same year." You can't really on the one hand claim your country is terribly poor, and needs handouts from other nations, and on the other play at bein…
Remittances are money that Indians working abroad sent back to India. Is that aid??? And the quote again talks about "foreign direct investments". FDI. Does that read aid? Where are you quoting that from? It is not good form to give a quote without a link. And you make a quote and come to a conclusion about aid. Btw, the UK aid to India is £280m. Edit - Probably this one - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/18…
Those people claiming ISRO does it at a shoe string budget, because they reuse yes they do. But we are talking of a factor of more 10 here. Let me put facts on ground. Go and visit any ISRO campus in India. See the kind of offices they work in, they kind of food canteens they eat lunch at, they kind of buses they travel in and take a look at how much they are paid. I assure you will be shocked. In fact shocked will b…
My dad worked at ISRO for 30+ years and is now retired - so what I'm saying has some merit. I don't know where you are getting the impression that ISRO engineers aren't paid well. Sure, they are not paid Google salaries but they are no way paid peanuts. A fresh engineering graduate will stand to get around 40K INR per month. Please not that if you are not landing up a software job, in India, it's a pretty shitty mark…
Few thoughts:
- There is a common myth, one about how Indians used bullock carts to test the antennas on a satellite. This, for example, wasn't because they couldn't anechoic chambers, but simply because bullock carts have few metallic parts to interfere with the actual measurements. Image here: https://lh3.ggpht.com/_1UepX3L4zzs/S6Fd5jUwoJI/AAAAAAAAAjU/i...
- Regarding the budget, the predominant political philosophy in India is what Americans would call 'tax-and-spend'. ISRO has essentially a limitless budget to spend on their projects. My father used to travel first class on international trips to meet suppliers in the 1980s and early 1990s.
The reason for low-brow tables and ceiling fans is more to do with cultural aspects. In fact, there are many top universities, and old corporations (based on anecdata) in the US where working conditions are 'ghetto' by Apple-Google-Facebook standards. The reason simply is that renovating workplace infrastructure is a pretty significant expense.
I can also tell you that there are absolutely no problems with technology infrastructure (including internet speeds) in ISRO. Some of their offices were wired for internet as early as early as 1992.
The one downside of working at ISRO, as with any government establishment is the bureaucracy that one has to deal with, and the general reverence for seniority (vs. reverence for pure merit, etc.)
