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Comment by bogomipz | Hacker News Reader

I am curious if someone from the India can comment on what the coverage for this has been in the local media. I know its been a bit controversial.

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What controversy ? If your referring to the cost of the ISRO program - we are very proud of the Space Program in India, both media and People.There is no doubts about the cost effectiveness of the Space Program. It is just the western media, who highlight the short commings of other areas of India and compare it to our Space Program.

Adding to this. The funny thing about the western MSM is that they only noticed the Mars and Moon missions. What they didn't pay attention to was the payback in terms of human lives improved just by ISRO's satellites helping with remote sensing, weather forecasting, agriculture planning, forest management etc.. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Remote_Sensing)

I would even argue that ISRO's primary mission is focused on solving "today's Humanity" problems rather than "Star Trek" style explorations. Just because they sent up a couple of spacecraft like Chandrayaan or Mangalayaan doesn't take away from that primary mission but doesn't stop the MSM from finding reason to complain. Weird.

And for all those highlighting the short comings of other areas of India compared to its space program, do you recall what other aspects of life in the US were like at the initiation and heights of its space program?

Just as in the US, benefits of India's space efforts will soon begin to show up in the life of the average Joe/Jane, if it hasn't already.

In 1999, a devastating cyclone hit the Indian state of Odisha killing 10000 people.[1] In 2013, Odisha was again hit by a cyclone of similar magnitude[2]. However due to advance warnings by weather satellites[3] 550,000 people were evacuated and only 45 people died this time. What is the worth of 10,000 human lives?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Odisha_cyclone

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Phailin#Odisha

[3] http://www.skymetweather.com/content/weather-news-and-analys...

there is no 'controversy' in India because man on the street is just amazed that Govt can achieve something at all sucessfully, let alone something of this magnitude. They don't care about 'money can be spent on toilets' dilemma because they know that money will go straight into politicians pockets if it was reallocated to 'toilets'. So its not 'toilets vs space' its 'corruption vs space'.

Thank you for the insight.

"I know its been a bit controversial." Curious, what do you know? Did you mean controversial in western media? In that case, yes, I agree.

The local media (and people) see this as something to be proud of, there is not much debate about the money being useful elsewhere.

Yes in the Western media that's exactly how its been reported which is why I asked what the local coverage has been. I don't get local Indian coverage where I live and this is a place to discuss things no?

Why is asking a question and being interested in the subject offensive?

It's not offensive to me. I didn't downvote you.

As an Indian, I can see why some others could've found it offensive. Anytime ISRO does a newsworthy launch, some Western newspaper writes that the money could be used to build toilets. Sometimes, the newspaper is a rag, but Indian media prefers to cover that (sometimes more than the launch itself). So it's a touchy point. If I had not had my coffee, I'd probably be offended too. I think you were unlucky (vs having said something offensive).

They are just jealous of us. And scared that we are getting better day by day, threatening their supremacy. Hence the suggestion of building toilets from space money ...

I disagree, but thanks for playing.

You can find Indian by going to Google News and selecting India edition. There are many newspapers with websites.

You can find a lot of Indian media online e.g.

[1] thehindu.com

[2] swarajyamag.com

[3] firstpost.com

...

What controversy? The govt. of India needs income, and by selling space launch services that are actually profitable while furthering the nation's science and engineering capabilities is the best use of tax money it can make.

Not to speak about remote sensing for land management / agriculture, something that is quite vital for a country so overcrowded and with such a volatile weather.

I'm from India, I can say local media mentioned it as major success launch & especially placing satellites in two different orbits. I think it includes playload from foreign countries like US.

Btw, why you think its controversial?

I'm not even in India, and there's no controversy even in western media (reading the other comments), there's nothing at all in this wsj article either.

What are you talking about? I'm genuinely curious?

Indian media is a TRP hungry machine and it optimizes news for TRP. There are other competing new issues which are driving that currently.

Also its sort of given that ISRO does all these awesome things often so its not a like a surprise anymore.

More like more new news to solidify our pride in ISRO.

Something like the next solar mission Aditya(planned to launch 2019), Moon mission Chandrayaan 2(planned to launch 2018), Mars mission Mangalyaan 2(planned to launch 2020) would be interesting.

You mean that racist cartoon from NY Times? [1]

[1] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-29502062

The coverage in Indian media has all been in praise of the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). You can check these links to get a flavour (please use adblock):

- http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/pslv-launches-eight-sa...

- http://www.firstpost.com/india/isro-successfully-launches-ps...

- http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/web-edits/pslv-c35-...

Now I'm curious, what western media has presented it as controversial? All I've seen here in Germany around this launch has been fairly factual or quite positive, but most of it were just short "this has happened" notices.

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