India's space rocket

[Etretat]

Today the BBC report that India's space rocket has sucessfully launched, judging by the flames it isn''t powered by electricity, so there will be some environmental impact perhaps?
Also today BBc report on the deadly Asian floods inclusing India where almost 100 people have died.
Am I alone in thinking that the monet spent on the space rocket would be better spent on other things?

[Biggy Stardust]

Etretat said:

Am I alone in thinking that the monet spent on the space rocket would be better spent on other things?

Hard to boast about "we didn't have a flood".

[rigga]

Don't we give India millions every year ?

Don't seem like they need it.

[MitchT]

Etretat said:

Am I alone in thinking that the monet spent on the space rocket would be better spent on other things?

In the UK we simultaneously have billionaires and homeless people. We're hardly a paradigm of virtue ourselves.

[Simbu]

Etretat said:

Am I alone in thinking that the monet spent on the space rocket would be better spent on other things?

Not an argument that is unique to India, or any other country with scientific ambitions.

For example the US has plenty enough social injustice / environmental issues that are killing people.

The question is a global one - should these programmes be publicly funded when we have homelessness, drug addiction, crime, poisoned water supplies, [any other social inequity of choice].

[PositronicRay]

I see space travel as wasteful and self-indulgent. Satellites and unmanned craft serve a purpose.

Whether we like it or not climate change and extreme events will happen, mans interference will have an effect undoubtedly.


But ultimately we're all doomed.

Edited by PositronicRay on Friday 14th July 12:18

[55palfers]

British aid should cease immediately.

Imagine how many hygienic toilets for India's millions of street dwellers that money could have paid for.

Love this where on the same page it tells of over 230 million people in poverty along with a photo of the rocket launch

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news

[super7]

MitchT said:

Etretat said:

Am I alone in thinking that the monet spent on the space rocket would be better spent on other things?

In the UK we simultaneously have billionaires and homeless people. We're hardly a paradigm of virtue ourselves.

Between 2016 & 2020 we supposedly gave India 2.3bn in AID.... That probably paid for the space program!!!

Whilst the majority of your population is living in poverty (not UK poverty levels) investing in a space program is just indefensible in my opinion.

Sort your country out, get them earning and contributing to the country, stop accepting aid, then you can invest in glamour projects.

[Ice_blue_tvr]

On the flip side, it builds a image and reputation on the world stage that India is a place for investment and innovation. Which in turn could help accelerate getting people out of poverty in a self sustainable way.

It's essentially a marketing cost.

[StevieBee]

55palfers said:

British aid should cease immediately.

We don't send aid to India and haven't done for some time.

The idea that we send money to India in the same way me might a starving African nation is entirely wrong and hasn't been the case for decades.

Along with most other developed nations, we make core contributions to the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and others. They use the pot of money this creates to invest in development projects around the developing world, including India. These are almost always 'investment' based projects in that the intention is that the money gets paid back, plus interest via soft loan arrangements or other economic instruments.

[Ice_blue_tvr]

The way things are going it won't be long before India are sending us aid

[Scabutz]

Apparently they spent less on the rocket than Bollywood did on making films.

I read that in the not too distant future India will overtake the US as the one of the worlds biggest economies. Still a place where life is cheap and the disparity between the poor and wealthy is huge, Billion pound houses in Mumbais Billionaires Row overlooking slum

[StevieBee]

CheesecakeRunner said:

Although I am well aware that the prime purpose of foreign aid is not to actually help the recipient country, it’s to attract business from the recipient country to the donor country.

No it's not. Trading opportunities may emerge but that's not the primary purpose.

In any case, little foreign aid given by any individual country goes direct to a beneficiary nation. Most of it is gets channeled through the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, EBRD and the like. Even where there is direct aid provided, it is administered via one of these institutions. I recently worked on a project in Bosnia that was funded entirely by the Swedish government but my client was the World Bank.

Foreign Aid is not a singular thing. It's a broad church but the overarching objective is to move global society towards a more harmonious and sustainable existence. This preserves supply chains, creates new trading partners which boosts economies which makes people happier who then less likely to start wars and seek a better life in the west. It's clearly a work in progress.

Most of this type of aid is investment, not gifted. And no actual money is sent - just expertise and support.

It's possible to pick holes in the detail and I can provide an exceptionally long list of stupid and non-effective examples but on the whole, it's a good thing with sound and appropriate intent. It works, but the pace of change is glacial.

[55palfers]

I wonder how much "commission and fees" all these banks take?

[StevieBee]

CheesecakeRunner said:

The Telegraph and Guardian both disagree with that premise

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/14/uk...
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/202...

Can't access the Telegraph story but the Guardian one refers to development loans. The context of these fall under the broad banner of Foreign Aid but are not benevolent handouts that many seem to assume. They are made on the basis of assisting business sectors in developing nations that do not have access to affordable loans via traditional routes. They are made with caveats that governments (local and national) implement governance reforms and improvements to public services. The theory is that the loans stimulate improvement to the local economy which reduces poverty. Local tax revenue increases which is better administered by a more stable and professional government who are then able to maintain the improved social trajectory that that the loan has helped to ignite. And there's a better chance that the money is repaid with the interest.

What the article is suggesting is that the UK government is using these loans more as a means to develop trading partners; acting more like a normal bank, and failing to enforce the obligations around governance reform so that individual businesses are benefiting in India but society as a whole isn't - or by as much.

I don't know for sure, but that sounds about right. Sadly.

[poo at Paul's]

Avoiding the obviously potentially "glib" comments that one could make, there is some merit in a program like this. As part of the developing world, and playing an increasing part in the supply chains to the west in higher tech production, things like this do help to improve quality standards and accountability, and reinforce a slightly different work and management culture in the region that can only be of benefit to all.

[2xChevrons]

Etretat said:

Also today BBc report on the deadly Asian floods inclusing India where almost 100 people have died.
Am I alone in thinking that the monet spent on the space rocket would be better spent on other things?

Although this specific launch (to the south pole of the Moon) is more about capability development and national prestige, one of the main practical purposes of India's space programme - and one which is served by far more of ISRO's launches - is the establishment of satellite monitoring and warning systems for cyclones and other ways of predicting and mitigating floods.

"India should be solving its flood problem rather than launching stuff into space" is a bit tone deaf.

[Eric Mc]

Indeed. Indian weather satellites have already saved thousands, if not millions, of Indian lives.