[db1234]

Why India should continue to invest in space technology?

Odisha cyclone in 1999: 10,000 dead. Odisha cyclone of similar intensity in 2019: < 50 dead because ISRO was better equipped to track the cyclone path giving enough time for Govt to evacuate people to safety.

Ignore the ignorant including "liberal", "progressive" publications like NYT which publish racist cartoons on Indian space program.

[galuggus]

Could you link an example of this kind of cartoon?

edit: here's a link https://archive.is/g0msl Shocking that the NYT published something like this

[sumedh]

What is shocking/offensive about that?

[unmole]

In response to a successful mission to Mars, the cartoonist decided to reach for a lazy stereotype of a farmer dragging his cow along.

[ergonaught]

The entire cartoon uses exaggerated stereotypes to make a point. If you think the depiction of the snobbish elite is okay, you're just falling into the "it's only racism if I don't like it" nonsense.

[unmole]

I don't think the cartoon is racist or offensive. I was trying to explain why some people found it distasteful. And stereotyping someone as elite is surely not the same thing as stereotyping someone as poor?

[delta_p_delta_x]

To add some nuance, I think the cartoon goes both ways, but unintentionally managed to offend Indian sensibilities by portraying them that way.

I think one way to look at it is... The underdog Indians managing to rub shoulders with the likes of NASA and ESA at a fraction of the latter's budget, which isn't wrong. ISRO's missions are typically about two orders of magnitude cheaper than NASA's, while still being very productive.

Somehow threads about India just devolve into ridiculous mudslinging like no other. White people clinging to tired old stereotypes. Indians are half to blame too, being over-sensitive and oddly conservative.

[philonoist]

[flagged]

[sumedh]

> Where else is it coming from, if not from the place of disdain onto this other nation?

Maybe instead of accusing someone of racism, try to appreciate the history behind the joke.

Cows were used for initial testing of satellite, so the NYT guys have done their homework.

https://www.livemint.com/news/india/the-rocket-science-behin...

[rhaway84773]

It’s a lazy and bad cartoon using lazy and tired stereotypes.

It’s not racist or any of the rest of the stuff.

Not all cartoons will be good.

[sumedh]

You are mistaken it's not a lazy stereotype, the cartoonist has done his/her research. India has literally used cows for testing its initial satellites.

https://www.livemint.com/news/india/the-rocket-science-behin...

[shreyshnaccount]

they are not mutually exclusive

[shreyshnaccount]

the bias. if nasa managed such a mission, it would be glorious and efficient and smart and clever. when India does it, it's somehow "budget".

[sumedh]

I think you missed the humor.

[pellucide]

If you have to ask...

[sumedh]

... then you did not understand the humour.

[elkos]

And ISRO has a very very competitive polar low earth orbit commercial ride-sharing program.

[angelgonzales]

I’m sure that India used its own observation satellites to predict weather patterns and storms but western weather observation satellites monitor the whole Earth and share the information. Not every country should (or can) have its own national weather satellite installation.

https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/current-satellite-missions/curre...

[fooker]

If a country becomes dependent on information (or anything really) like that, it becomes a bargaining tool for geopolitics.

The US, in particular is notorious about weaponizing sanctions.

[rhaway84773]

I’m not sure how you can “weaponize sanctions” considering sanctions are universally considered economic weapons by themselves.

[anaganisk]

Us govt cut access to GPS during Indo Pak war.

[kumarvvr]

Building a capability to predict weather patterns, implies, development of a slew of technologies, building an infrastructure to produce engineers and scientists, leasing out of those technologies to startups and other engineering enterprises to make better use of them.

Its not about just using the data.

[programmer_dude]

The predictions made by your (US) meteorological department were wrong. Many would have died if we relied on you. Our meteorological department does better when it comes to local weather.

[geodel]

So instead of anything useful to say about technology being developed by ISRO. You come up with this random rant.

I guess I just ignore the ignorant, including "deeply insecure" and raging about minor criticism.

[celticninja]

So you think they possibly saved 9950 lives, yet a vastly greater number live in poverty and a huge proportion of them are children with no access to healthcare and education, many of them begging in the streets. But yes let's give India a round of applause for finding a minor benefit to their $2bn spending on space exploration (also ignoring the fact that they are not really achieving new science that is not or could not be done by more developed nations).

[paper2d]

What? There are literally hundreds of other uses of our space program which if we hadn't developed independently, we would be paying exorbitant prices to other nations for the same. Launching rockets costs us literally 10x lower cost than other nations. This thing doesn't benefit Indians only but other nations as well.

[no-reply]

[flagged]