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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

#31

Post by crosscompile »

jbert wrote: post #28
crosscompile wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly not.

Could you elaborate, please?

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 overstated.

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#32

Post by wheels »

gaius wrote: post #4
jyothi wrote: post #3

India becomes the 4th country after USSR, USA and Japan. It is a great moment for the developing nation.

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.

Having just gotten technology from half a century ago isn't a very good metric for labeling a country developed.

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#35

Post by subbu »

sanj wrote: post #33

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

To put it in perspective, this is less than what Microsoft paid for PowerSet ($100 million for a search engine), Farecast ($112 million for a airfare pricing comparision tool) or less than what Google paid for FeedBurner ($100 million for a RSS reader).

The satellite plans to do a detailed mapping of the entire lunar surface. If a web startup built an application in the lines of Google Maps using these mappings that would probably sell for more than $78 million, more than the whole cost of the Moon mission. Bit if an exaggeration but you get the point.

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#36

Post by jbert »

crosscompile wrote: post #31
jbert wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate, please?

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 countries? Which of them still has a significant manafacturing base?

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#37

Post by stcredzero »

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.

Space launch is just not as hard as we've been led to believe by those sucking at the government teat.

In 1980, a 2nd world country was getting ready to assemble a launch system that would've attained launch costs as low as $600 per kg. (This would've been limited to hardened or bulk cargoes due to high G forces, but that's still awesome and damn useful!) The price of this system was only $25 million (1980.) That's a game changing technology and it's still within the reach of a group of "Silicon Valley duders."

http://www.astronautix.com/country/iraq.htm

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#38

Post by codeview »

whacked_new wrote: post #29
mamama wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually the education system that is largely responsible for the "extremely corrupted political system", among other issues.

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 caste and religion. Except for IITs and some government run engineering colleges, its a very weak educational system in place.

The situation in government departments is not different. New college passouts prefer well paid private jobs than the ones in public sector.

Bad teachers and less talented engineers in public sector: A recipe for corruption.

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#39

Post by plinkplonk »

morbidkk wrote: post #13

still almost 100% techies in India never prefer or think about joining ISRO/DRDO which are world-class research organizations.

"still almost 100% techies in India never prefer or think about joining ISRO/DRDO which are world-class research organizations."

I've consulted for both the DRDO and the ISRO on some very technical projects.

You are partially right. Manpower is a problem in both organizations, with the best people going to the United States. That said "world-class research organizations" is a bit of a stretch. There are specific departments which do world class research, but by and large ISRO and DRDO are far from that ideal.

Plenty of "scientists" pushing paper and just wasting time in the office and waiting for 5 o clock in the evening so they can go home. Being part of the Indian government, the wastage of resources is appalling (to someone who's worked in the private sector / run his own business)

Re: India successfully launches first mission to the Moon

#40

Post by g__g »

jbert wrote: post #9
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.

But doesn't every developed country depend on a large pool of cheap labour (i.e. poor people, working for low wages)? You could look at is as Europe and the US just outsourcing their cheap labour, whereas India keeps it in-house?

What you are not getting is that while outsourcing does mean cheap labour for Europe and US, it is not necessarily cheap for India(you mentioned keeping in-house). What you think is cheap are standard wages in India. It is cost cutting for US companies but not for Indian companies.
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