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Comment by machbio | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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...

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