Hacker News Reader

I really don't think it is a good point of discussion in this context. The scientists who are working on these rocket launch missions are not in charge of administration of the towns and villages where the toilets need to be built.

View on HN

Of course they are not. But the merits of India's space program are a debate worth having in my opinion. All the other space programs (except for NK) were started when their nations were doing okay socially at least. Sure, the profits may be redirected to fixing those social issues but lives are being lost the longer they delay that.

Indians spend several times more money on Bollywood and Cricket than the space programs. Space programs are not what needs to be targeted for budgets.

I'm not sure you can compare cricket with government spending, unless the government massively donates to sport and movies?

The Indian Goverment has a budget of Rs. 1541 Crores (£155,000,000~) for the Sports Department

http://www.hindustantimes.com/union-budget/sports-ministry-g...

And the space program has a budget of Rs. 7,927 crore (£799,871,700) according to wikipedia.

So to address your point, yeah India spends quite a bit on Sports, but no way near as much as their Space Program.

And the Government would spend Rs 221,246 crore on roads and railways alone.

http://www.livemint.com/Politics/zdmiM68OZXnq2Kg5sMJESI/Budg...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com