India inches space program forward with launch of X-ray polarimetry satellite India kicked off the new year with the launch of an X-ray polarimetry space observatory to research cosmic radiation. The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) XPoSat launched aboard its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, this time known as PSLV-C58, on New Year's Day. Its lifespan is slated for a minimum of five years. " …
It is great that India is achieving success in space.
However, this is a supposedly poor country that still gets foreign aid from the UK. The UK provided around £2.3 billion in aid between 2016 and 2021 (last figures available). Clearly they do not need it now.
Those aren't latest figures. Latest figures are for 2022 (easily turned up by a search) show only £46m to India. Arguably they shouldn't get a penny from us if they're running a space programme or similar programmes, but in the wider scheme of £12.8bn of UK foreign aid it's a rounding error.
A more pressing concern should be an Indian domestic one, that the country is spending on a space programme when inequality, gender-based violence, corruption, and the limited reach of proper sanitation are all major problems that hold back the country socially and economically. Even then, in the grand Indian scheme it's a modest space programme - $1.6bn in 2022 out of a federal government budget around $355bn (so doesn't include the states). For comparison the UK space industry, noting that we don't even have a space programme is worth around $18bn a year.
"that the country is spending on a space programme when inequality, gender-based violence, corruption, and the limited reach of proper sanitation are all major problems"
May I point you to the 1960s song "Whitey on the moon". At least the Indians don't have a person complicit in mass murder running the show.
You guys are so far back in time!
You survived with the equivalent of USD 456 Tn stolen from our ancestors.
And every time India proves its far better than the violent colonial English, you of course, take it as an affront.
Those days are gone: your businesses are now being bought by Indian businesspeople. So, stop this abuse. You give absolutely nothing, you have to return trillions.
In the meantime, its very satisfying to see you go ballistic and bleat in protest.
Is 2.3 billion supposed to sound impressive somehow ?
India holds a HUNDRED times that - 230 billion dollars of US treasuries - https://ticdata.treasury.gov/Publish/mfh.txt
And another 60-70 billion of BoE debt, part of the worlds 4th largest foreign exchange reserves behind China, Japan and Switzerland : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_foreign-exchange_reserves
In other words, the US and UK have current outstanding liabilities to India far exceeding all combined aid they’ve ever sent it .
This ‘aid to India’ trope has been faithfully indoctrinated to two generations of online Brits now, who remain unaware how much the world has changed in that time.
India is aid donor NOT recipient dímwit
Your country has never buuld a rocket let alone have ability to pay for others
India is also #2 fdi source for uk
You're a 50iq cl0wn if you think uk funds space missions, what next uk funds NASA lol
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1060959/foreign-aid-outflow-india-by-recipient-country/
That 46mn fake figure, you can't even buy embassy building for that lmfao
Your figures aren't real like your critical thinking abilities
https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/uk-aid-spending-statistics-and-recent-developments/
Every time India does one better, the English whose forefathers stole $ 45 Tn from just my land and possible many more times from the rest of the world: take any progress as a personal affront. And they express that hate right here and in every English "news" paper.
To you all we say: Take a walk and carry a tube of burnol. What's burnol? An ointment you can buy in India which soothes burnt or inflamed or irritated skin and inflamed under-sides. Very effective.
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