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Comment by metatronscube | Hacker News Reader

So building a launch system capable of landing a rover on Mars is the answer then? Its hard to confuse the point im attempting to make. I will make it clear. They should concentrate on their own populating, Government and infrastructure before they even consider attempting something like this, because in the end, who is actually going to benefit from it?

A Government with these problems should be considered criminal when they cant actually provide their population with the basics.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/business/global/a-failed-...

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I don't think there is any confusion in point you are making. The fact is the money that has been earmarked for this venture (even you account for any cost overruns) is a meager amount to what India already earmarks to spend (spends) on infrastructure, education, health etc. For example the budgetary allocation in current year for Rural Infrastructure is ~ 13 billion USD, Education is ~ 6 billion USD [1].

The sad fact is that even though India spends large sums to address the social problems, due to endemic corruption the results are far less spectacular. Spending money on ventures like space exploration doesn't really come in the way of addressing the social problems we have.

1. http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2012-13/bh/bh1.pdf

My opinion on this general debate is neither here not there but I must call you up on your assertion that India is spending a lot on its population:

> For example the budgetary allocation in current year for Rural Infrastructure is ~ 13 billion USD, Education is ~ 6 billion USD [1].

That's really not a lot! The UK spends about 150 billion USD on education each year, which is about 2300USD per capita. Dividing 6bn by the population of india at 1.2bn, that's 5USD per capita.

That is to say, the UK spends 460x as much per person on education as India. And people would say the UK can't afford a Mars mission at the moment!

I didn't meant to say that India spends a lot on education, Infra etc. My point was compared to what is being spent on these initiatives the money being earmarked to Mars mission is not huge.

I can't argue with that number much, nor provide any real defense in India's favor, but do consider that the cost of living and labor in India is far far lesser than in the UK.

Returning to my earlier argument, this isn't about any sacrificial costs. There is enough budget for everything including infrastructure development and a space mission as far as the Indian budget is concerned. The problems at the grassroot are not due to lack of spending power but corruption and broken implementation practices.

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