The Indian Space Research organization has a yearly budget under 2billion. To claim that such advances in space technology are for ego is incredibly short sighted. A lot of the "common tech" we use nowadays are side effects from the space programs...everything from miniaturized electronics, to materials sciences.
Given the relatively small budget of the ISRO, they have accomplished some pretty amazing stuff.
1 India has the world's largest constellation of earth observation satellites
Indian Remote Sensing satellites (IRS) are a series of earth observation satellites, built, launched and maintained by ISRO. The IRS series provides remote sensing services to the country. The Indian Remote Sensing Satellite system is the largest constellation of remote sensing satellites for civilian use in operation today in the world. All the satellites are placed in polar sun-synchronous orbit and provide data in a variety of spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions to enable several programs to be undertaken relevant to national development. The initial versions are composed of the 1 (A,B,C,D) nomenclature. The later versions are named based on their area of application including OceanSat, CartoSat, ResourceSat.
These satellites are not there for "fun' or for boosting someone's ego...they provide invaluable and real-time information which allows Indian farmers to plan better crops and crop rotations, they also let Indian fishermen go to regions of sea with the most fish..and last but not the least, they also save Billions of $ worth of potential damage by forewarning the subcontinental(and also neighboring regions) of impending natural disasters like hurricanes. This alone repaid the cost of the space program many times over.
2 It was an Indian Lunar exploration mission which found water on the Moon
Chandrayaan-1 is India's first mission to the moon. The unmanned lunar exploration mission includes a lunar orbiter and an impactor called the Moon Impact Probe. India launched the spacecraft using a modified version of the PSLV is C11 on 22 October 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The vehicle was successfully inserted into lunar orbit on 8 November 2008. It carries high-resolution remote sensing equipment for visible, near infrared, and soft and hard X-ray frequencies. Over its two-year operational period, it is intended to survey the lunar surface to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and 3-dimensional topography. The polar regions are of special interest, as they might contain ice. The lunar mission carries five ISRO payloads and six payloads from other international space agencies including NASA, ESA, and the Bulgarian Aerospace Agency, which were carried free of cost. The Chandrayaan-1 became the first lunar mission to discover existence of water on the moon.[24]
3 Indian satellites help connect otherwise inaccessible remote villages . They not only provide telecommunication but also advanced services like Medicine. Some Afghan hospitals also benefit from this.
4 The ISRO's commercial ventures enable it to earn a good amount of money by launching the satellites of various nations. It also holds the world record for successfully launching 10 satellites from one launcher. Their customers include nations like Israel, America, France and many others.
Apart from these tangible benefits, ISRO also serves as a role model for aspiring scientists in the subcontinent. ISRO scientists are highly respected, and one of them was even the president of India. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Poverty cannot be eradicated by doling out microscopic amounts of money saved by cancelling the ISRO program.
ISRO Budget = 1.5-2 B
Indian population 1 B
In other words, even if India were to entirely scrap the ISRO, they will save 2$ per person for a year!. This is absolutely ridiculous and would make no diff whatsoever.
India realized that the best way to reduce poverty & overpopulation is by educating people, NOT by enacting stupid laws like one child policy. The results are already apparent. The fertility rate for the four southern Indian states(the heart of the Indian IT trade and the most educated states) is now at population replacement levels! (2 kids per couple). I would also point at the affordable tablet initiative already underway which would benefit hundreds of millions of students.The states with lesser literary rates have more poor people/fertility rate. Cancelling its space program could be akin to shooting its own foot, for India.
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