We are reliably informed that India's successful Chandrayaan-3 mission to the south pole of the moon was achieved with a relatively low budget - somewhere in the region of $85,000,000 US. This is far less than the cost of making a major big budget film.
India has proven itself to be a big player in advancing modern technologies, producing thousands of talented people who have contributed enormously to innovation and development around the world. No wonder that Indian media outlets are currently bursting with national pride in relation to Chandrayaan-3.
Landing on the moon and undertaking several experiments there is a real feather in the cap of the Indian state - soon to become the most populous country in the world.
However, was it worth it? No doubt the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission will lead to increasing costs as further space projects are conceived in its wake.
There are some pertinent truths about India that should probably be reflected upon in the present excitement. Firstly, a fifth of the population still live in dire poverty - unable to access sufficient food, clean water or proper healthcare.
Britain gave an estimated £2.3 billion to India in aid between 2016 and 2021. even though India is home to almost 800,000 dollar millionaires. It is very much a land of haves and have-nots with the poorest of the poor still living in abysmal conditions.
Some might say that this presents a moral dilemma for India. How can so many millions be spent on space projects with the related application of enormous ingenuity and energy when poverty remains rife?
Ask a poor Indian family what they would prefer - food on the table, clean water and a safe place to live or news of a rocket landing on the moon. Any future benefits of the mission have not been spelt out.
Wild pigs run through muddy gullies in the quilted countryside of rural India.
ReplyDeleteThe rat-infested shanty town in which those children live is not fit for pigs.
Yet India pursues a doubtful fantasy of lunar conquest.
Conspiracists say Stanley Kubrick filmed the Apollo 11 Mission in a secret
studio a year before the summer of 1969.
The Atlantic (online) explodes this myth and Kubrick always denied it.
The Moon has much to tell us about Earth's formation.
But the welfare of those children comes first.
Your last line is of course one with which I heartily agree sir,
DeleteIt is a bit of a difficult one. Even the poorest folk will feel pride in their country's achievement between hunger pangs. I wonder how much of the £2.3 billion reached those who are most in need. Siphoning, corruption, nepotism.
ReplyDeleteI am sure there'd be some "creative accounting" in relation to the aid money but the point is why should we be giving aid to a country that can afford to develop a space programme?
DeleteSomebody is probably cranking out a lot of propaganda on this issue.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt. Trump has proved how lies can easily be turned into truth and truth can easily be made to seem like falsehood.
DeleteIt's hard to justify the expense of a lunar expedition when you have so many hungry and starving. And not just India, we have our own issues with poverty and the unhoused and such, but one wonders if this kind of exploration might bring some good back to the planet that may make life better for us all.
ReplyDeleteAnd will we ever know it.
We might wonder that because that point is often made rather spuriously to justify space expenditure.
DeleteI'll always say that human welfare is the priority.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about it before but there must have been a lot of very poor people in the US at the time of the first landing and all subsequent missions
That same thought crossed my mind as I was writing this blogpost Kylie.
DeleteAndrew has said it well. Was the aid for a specific purpose or just given to a corrupt government to spend as they wish?
ReplyDeleteNo. Recent British aid was not given like that. Lessons have been learnt from the past.
DeleteTrouble is, even if India did NOT engage in a lunar mission, the money "saved" would not go to those poorest of the poor.
ReplyDeleteBut WITH the lunar mission, jobs were created and the interest in education increased.
As far as I know, India's system of chaste has long been abolished officially, but remains very firmly in place in people's minds, and is still a reality.
As long as people see other people not as their equals, but as their inferiors, this will go on - all over the world, and even though countries as England or Germany don't have the same horrible level of poverty as India, they still spend money on stuff that seems unnecessary when there are so many more worthy causes.
It's true but India's space programme seems at odds with the poverty even though it is not quite as bad as it once was.
DeleteI used to get excited about space travel, but far less so now thta I know the $ costs involved and how many familes and children are still in dire need of clean water and decent food supplies. I did do a little "squee" happy jump when I heard the news last night about the rocket landing safely though.
ReplyDeleteWhat benefits will it bring? They have not spelled that out.
DeleteCost = about 6 cents per head of population. The technological skills and knowledge will create economic opportunities. Research and development are feats of imagination. How India shares out the wealth it generates is their choice.
ReplyDeleteAre you a public relations officer for the Indian space programme?
DeleteIt has been a long time since Man visited the moon,
ReplyDeleteHe discovered that it was not really worth visiting.
DeleteSo many things have been developed by NASA's space dreams from memory foam, camera phones, to solar cells and LED lights, etc. Yet we still have homeless and hungry in our country too. We even give India over $65 billion dollars annually in financial aid. At some point, we have to just find a balance point and realize that while you can keep every one fed and sheltered in a small group, it is impossible to do so world wide.
ReplyDeleteYes, impossible I know but we could try harder, much harder in my opinion Ed.
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