back to article India boosts space program budget by 46 percent

India has decided to boost the budget of its space program by 46 percent. Union Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space Dr. Jitendra Singh yesterday told India’s Parliament that the budget for 2021-22 was increased to ₹13,949 Crore (US$1.9bn) up from the previous ₹9500. Singh said the increased funding “shall be …

  1. tip pc Silver badge

    UK aid budget should go to other nations

    Looks like India can stand on its own feet and doesn't need foreign aid anymore.

    Assistance should still be offered where needed.

    India is firmly in the big league, Nuclear super power & a burgeoning space capability.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: UK aid budget should go to other nations

      It's been many years since the Indian government received any FCDO (was DFID) development assistance. That doesn't mean there isn't any UK ODA to Indians - but given that there a lot of problems the £19 million in technical cooperation spend (of which I would guess at least 40/50% went to UK consultants) and 20 million in infrastructure investment (repayable) (2019/20 figures) doesn't seem much.

      India has expressed officially its desire to be a contributor of ODA rather than a recipient. Maybe if they bunged us a second hand test and trace system as part of their Aid program we could save a few billion quid and then we could actually keep our promises - oh sorry, i forgot....Boris.

      Still, I knew as soon as I saw someone had commented on this story that it would be someone blowing a dog-whistle about aid spending.

    2. Raj

      Re: UK aid budget should go to other nations

      I first saw this ‘UK aid to India’ meme in the 1990s. Pretty much any time India does something significant, there’s a kerfluffle “how dare they do that with OUR money ?” The consistency of this Pavlovian response is very interesting.

      India’s current foreign exchange reserves are around $580-590 billion, after China, Japan, Switzerland and regularly trading the #4 spot with Russia. $225 billion is in US treasuries as their own data shows. About $50 billion in BOE debt.

      In other words India currently lends the US and UK more than all the ‘aid’ ever received by India... ever.

      This whining is so out of touch with reality, but hey if someone’s going to hand me money and then complain like clockwork that they just handed me money, I’m not going to care.

      1. tip pc Silver badge

        Re: UK aid budget should go to other nations

        Do a quick google shows the UK has since the 90’s given aid money to India.

        https://news.sky.com/story/fury-over-uks-unjustifiable-98m-foreign-aid-injection-for-india-11489332

        https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/nov/16/uk-government-led-public-to-believe-aid-india-ended-watchdog-says-department-international-development-dfid

  2. charlieboywoof

    Hey India

    Fund your own stuff, thanks

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hey India

      Maybe we will fund our own space industry. It's not as if we need to put any money into your steel industry or car building - you seem to be doing fine with those on your own.....

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is India, a country that still has vast numbers of people with inadequate nutrition who cannot access things such as clean water or basic healthcare. Yet it spunks billions on a pointless space program or immense statues. We really are a f*cked up species.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Cross out India and replace it with 90% of other countries. Or why not look in the mirror? Who amongst us isn't guilty of wasting money on shiny toys that we could have instead decided to give to making the world a better place? But it's much easier to criticise India spending about 1.5 $ per capita per annum on it's space programme (and spending it locally, so actually funding engineers to make things, so engineers families can go out and by stuff that other people can sell them, so maybe actually improving lives). than it is to forgo that carbon fibre seat post for your bike, or the new graphics card, or spending a couple of quid extra on a 'decent' bottle of plonk. Then you can sit in your armchair and watch some millionaires kick a ball round a pitch, when they could all have been out curing cancer or rescuing kittens from wells.

      and don't even get me started on criticising space programmes before you have got rid of irrational arms spending....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Cross out India and replace it with 90% of other countries. Or why not look in the mirror?"

        That's why I declared our entire species f*cked up. The Indian space program is just a particularly egregious case.

  4. Spherical Cow Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Bring it on!

    Having seen their amazing achievements in space so far, I can't wait to see what they do next!

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