| Getting way off-topic, but... > And speaking of Pokhran, it was not a short sighted decision. Pokhran very certainly was a short-sighted decision. It benefited absolutely nobody except the government by buying it some temporary popularity while actively retarding the country's economics for years afterwards. > India has Pakistan, an irresponsible nuclear capable neighbor, with whom India has been in state of war since 1947. Pointing to Pakistan is not an excuse: the whole world knew India had nuclear weapons capability. It had nothing to gain by proving the world what it already knew. Consider Israel: it's geopolitical situation is even worse, being a tiny country surrounded on all sides by many, much larger nations that would see it destroyed. Israel also is known to have nuclear weapons capability. Did they have to go perform a demonstration so the world? And despite Pokhran, Pakistan has not wavered. Pokhran did nothing to slow Pakistan's regular shelling across the borders. Pokhran did not prevent 26/11. Pokhran did not reduce the number of subsequent terrorist attacks and infiltration attempts. It has done nothing at all to improve the Pakistan situation, and very likely made it worse. > Effects of Pokhran economic sanctions were not severe, because foreign trade of India constituted to 4% of it's GDP, while USA participation was only 10%. After Pokhran, under then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India achieved record breaking 6-7 % growth rate in GDP. I don't think anyone knows the true extent of the economic effects, but they are much worse than you suspect. It was not just the US that imposed sanctions. Many countries and companies imposed official and unofficial sanctions that directly impacted business relations and international collaborations. It was not only foreign trade. Companies that were going to set up local manufacturing plants and partner with Indian companies pulled out. That was a direct loss to the local economy. I personally know of business deals with private companies in Germany and Japan that abruptly fell through because of this. Nobody has measured the real impact. The 6 - 7% GDP growth may well have been much higher, but we will never know. Funny you should mention ISRO because they were also directly impacted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6552947 It's a credit to ISRO that they delivered despite the governments actions. ISRO could have dedicated resources towards newer and more interesting projects rather than re-inventing technology that became unavailable purely due to political posturing. The opportunity cost is unmeasurable. The only thing Pokhran bought was national pride that was short-lived and had ultimately no practical value, economic or otherwise. I have seen nothing positive come out of it, only a large amount of negative impact. I cannot see how it was anything but a terrible decision. |