How ISRO slapped the BBC in the face for its negative coverage of India's space program | WA Files

joins us now from Delhi hey Newton  good to have you with us I was going to ask you how much it cost what I  just read so 145 million bucks what is what does India hope to get out of  this country that has extreme poverty I think more than 700 million Indians  don't have access to a toilet a toilet [Music] s not a Pax Americana ISRO has always been more concerned with helping  India's space program and other state goals than competing with other space organizations around  the world it has made

a lot of progress in space technology and research by focusing on its skills  and top goals that matter this has helped it become a key player in the field of space however  some parts of the foreign media especially in the west often said that India spent too much  money on space and not enough on its people take a look at this short clip India space agency  will launch a spacecraft designed to boldly go where no Asian no Asian nation has gone thank you  for being on the program there is a huge

debate about a country like India investing so much in  space well I think as as recognized by India the the space technology is a very powerful one and  a very important one if a country is going to progress and I think they've recognized this and  they make the investment they've been very clever about their investment because they used to buy  their satellites they used to buy their equipment but gradually they have transferred that over to  manufacturing it themselves it is commendable that

the guest had such an informed perspective on the  subject that he was able to speak rationally about India's space endeavor on the other hand the  news broadcaster did not appear to grasp the substantial advantages that come with having a  space organization in a country such as India she continued by questioning whether there  is evidence to support the notion that space programs have a substantial effect on the general  economic growth and development of a country but what evidence is there

to show that  countries that have really pushed forward in terms of their space programs have seen you  know an economic benefit well I can offer the news reporter a long list of examples in which  ISRO has benefited India telemedicine it's a system that links Rural and outlying regions of  India to experts in the country's major cities patience in outlying regions have gained access to  Medical Specialists they might not have had before disaster management India was able to Monitor and  respond

to natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes thanks to Indian space research  organization agriculture better agricultural practices can have multiple advantages for a  nation including boosting the livelihoods of its own citizens and generating foreign currency  through exports crop forecasting isro's satellites provide data on land and crop patterns which  are used to forecast crop yields and provide early warnings about potential crop failures  due to weather events such as drought or

floods Precision farming isro's satellite imagery is used  to identify specific areas of land that require irrigational fertilizers helping Farmers to  optimize their resource usage and maximize their crop yields soil mapping isro's satellite data is  used to map soil types and their nutrient content which helps Farmers make informed decisions about  crop selection and fertilizer application weather monitoring isro's weather satellites provide  real-time data on weather patterns which is used t

o predict and respond to weather events that can  impact crops such as heavy rainfall or heat waves education the Indian space research organization  has helped Indian children in education in several ways like tele-education mobile science  exhibitions and its various satellites like GSAT 11 it has played a significant role  in providing internet connectivity in India especially in remote and rural areas defense  who can forget the denial of GPS data by the U.S government during the Kargil War

when Pakistani  military disguised as terrorists infiltrated India this was actually a driving force behind the  development of India's navic as Satellite Systems controlled by Foreign governments  are not guaranteed in hostile situations ISRO and drdo have contributed to India's  defense by advancing its missile systems and providing numerous Technologies moreover it  is possible that the news reporter could develop seizures after discovering that India's lunar  Mission has found water on the m

oon's surface the United States had spent a substantial  amount of money on moon missions including manned missions satellite missions and lunar rover  missions Etc however it was not until October 2008 that India's chandrayaan-1 Mission which cost less  than 50 million dollars discovered water on the moon with the help of an instrument on board  the chandrian spacecraft called minisar which was developed by NASA in fact India's chandrian  project paved the way for additional scientific explorat

ion and experimentation to be conducted by  NASA on the moon the lunar reconnaissance Orbiter which has a price tag of over 500 million dollars  and the lunar crater observation and sensing satellite which has a price tag of 80 million  dollars are two of the most notable examples apart from legit scientific contributions to the  space Community ISRO has challenged the idea that only rich countries can afford to participate in  space research by showing that exploring space does not have to be a

costly endeavor isro's Mars  Orbiter Mission also called mangalion was also a technology demonstration mission India was the  only country to reach Mars on its first try even before the Chinese whose first attempt in 2011  was failed and took nine more years to reach Mars ISRO reached this milestone for less than 73  million dollars which is a lot less than it costs to make a Hollywood movie for example the  Martian cost more than 108 million dollars to make scientists also learned more about t

he  surface of Mars because of the mission ISRO has put out several  high-definition pictures of Mars which in my opinion looks stunning during  the Mars conjunction in May and June 2015 Indian scientists used data from the Mars  Orbiter mission to study the solar Corona when the Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of  the Sun the sun's Corona can be seen as a bright ring around the moon during a solar eclipse  scientists were able to study the solar Corona and places where the temperature chan

ges quickly  because of this rare event scientists use the data they got from this event to study the temperature  density and magnetic field of the solar Corona this helped them learn more about how the  Sun works and how it affects space weather India has also given its neighbors like  Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan the Maldives Nepal Pakistan and Sri Lanka access to a specialized  satellite the satellite is also known as the sarc satellite and it can be used for a wide variety  of purposes Bey

ond Simple satellite Communications these include weather and disaster warning and  management navigation education and e-governance Agriculture and more as of March 26 2023 India had  launched 422 satellites for 34 different countries India has also become known as a trustworthy and  affordable place to launch satellites which has brought business from all over the world in the  past few years the country has sent satellites into space for countries like the US Canada UK  France Israel Italy Ja

pan Australia Brazil Etc now India's space agency has reached a point where it  is actively contributing in astrophysics research India's astro-sat Space Telescope scientific  achievements are too many to enumerate in August 2020 astrosat detected extreme ultraviolet light  from a Galaxy 9.3 billion light years away from Earth it has also witnessed the emergence of black  holes astrosat has discovered rare ultraviolet bright burning stars in the Milky Way astrosat  detected a gamma ray emission

on January 5th 2017. it was unclear whether this incident was related  to the gravitational wave signal detected by ligo on January 4 2017 from the black hole merger event  astrosat helped in differentiating the two events India is also developing new technologies  for more cost-effective space missions such as small satellite launch vehicle which is  designed to provide a cost-effective option for launching microsatellites weighing  up to 500 kilograms into low earth orbit I can point out more

accomplishments of ISRO such  as the India's reusable launch vehicle which has successfully performed its autonomous Landing  however listening to isro's accomplishments may cause the BBC's brain to whirl and cause it to  collapse into the ground where India is about to launch its astronauts into space while the UK is  struggling to send a satellite into Earth orbit instead of criticizing India for why it  is spending money on Space BBC should have asked whether India could help its  country in

the field of space technology I am certain that India would never back down  in terms of assisting other countries in space technology just as it did for the United  Arab Emirates to reach Mars which made the UAE the first Arab country to do so however if  you're good at something never do it for free I I I think it is aha