India Needs to Launch Its Space Diplomacy

If India has not already done she needs to concentrate on high precision spy satellites and even war satellites that can pinpoint a Pakistani salvo opening and take it off before the nuclear payload reaches its trajectory point, which would be in seconds.
India also needs satellites that can disable others in order to win a war. The Chinese have both spy and war satellites that would be used in a Indo/Pakistani war or an Indo/Chinese war.
The days of a military commanding land, ocean and air are no longer sufficient, especially for India where a nuclear missile could reach its target within minutes.
Lastly India needs a powerful anti ballistic shield to survive a nuclear war with either or both Pakistan and China

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Don’t jump on a band wagon regarding Space developments when we cannot build fighter planes to our own domestic design and hardware and have to rely on others countries for fighter planes.We need to be self sufficient in building our own arnaments and have nuclear sumarines and Aircraft carriers.
When a small number of Terrorist can infiltrate our shores, we laughing stock to the WORLD.

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With due respect, this seems to be one of those numerous fantastic meditations over the importance and punching weight class of India in these matters. The western press might raise the customary brouhaha over every satellite launched from anywhere but that should not lead to delusions of grandeur on our part. The author cites several statistics (qualitatively) but how come such information is not made public? It might very well be that ISRO has a humongous budget but is its commercial arm doing that well as he claimed? Financial figures and accounting are tricky matters, and tall claims in two sentences ask for incredible levels of credulity.
Science and Technology must be single-mindedly pursued in the interests of the nation. However, we seem to be doing it just to make a point rather than to look at long term impact on the economic well-being of the nation or the probability of ushering in new technologies that will benefit people and give the nation an edge on the more material ground. This is no different from the cold war era space race and arms race, a mentality in which we seem to be the only ones stuck.
If the Chinese are putting out “star war” beams, super computers or bullet trains, they do that not only to make a point but also with a calculus for the net effect.
What is more important is if ISRO has developed internal capabilities or is on the road to successful cultivation of such technological and organizational capabilities (no simple claims please; concrete evidence speak louder than) to sustain some initial successes. From the reported events, it seems not.
So this thing about Obama nodding his head to some cooperation and all those events should be treated for what they are: mere diplomatic nods and small talk of no significance. It will be much better if the author first makes the case for ISRO by laying bare its true strong points and its true progress with concrete evidence, and then make the case for the loftier (and more pompous) issues of space diplomacy.

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@Pramit,
We need to understand if the Antrix corporation is performing as well as expected.
The problem probably lies in scaling- because of the low cost engineering talent – India has the opportunity in space (as in other high tech sectors) to emerge as a cost leader in providing services which are fast getting commoditized among the members of the space club. But, this talent is not limitless and there is a strong perception anyway that most engineering talent emerging out of technical institutes in India are not great- quality can not substitute for quantity.
If you have and can share some financial data about the progress of Antrix over the last many years, it would be great.

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I would like to say great job done so far but India got to do things in style invest in image make over and make their presence felt first make people aware of their program even indians get to know about the rocket launch by isro after its done or on the day it is suppose to happen or a small news column in newspaper wont get peoples attention u got to make people feel proud and confident about the organisation………why people talk about nasa not about any other space agency its the way they have formed the image even though the russians was the first ones to launch a space station but still who knows about it thats where russians lagging behind as well india should do its home work and then no looking back cash on the goodwill created in the market…………………..

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Some quick points:
1. All the figures cited are publicly available in Antrix’s and ISRO’s annual reports, the government of India’s budget documents and, if you want it all bundled together, Deloitte’s report on India’s space sector.
2. ISRO’s capabilities have been privately seconded by US, Israeli and European space analysts and bureaucrats whose agencies have worked with the Indian space agency. Same bunch are derogatory about DRDO and similar national technological bodies. ISRO’s success in rocket launches are well recorded as are the satellites they have built for India and sold to third countries.
3. India’s military space programme is a topic for another day. But basically that is being bought from Israel in large part and the US in small part. It is not a global strategy it is in effect a theatre missile defence with the capacity to be broadened at some later date.

Pramit

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Author is wrong in some aspects. It was not jointly developed with GM. Due to a failed strategy (partnership with GM), a deal was made between FIAT and GM to get access for only 1.3 MJ of FIAT to GM. GM has no access to any other multijet variants like 1.9 or 1.6 or 1.3MJ2. This was considered to be one of the blunders (made by FIAT) ever made in automotive history. According to the agreement, GM still has no rights to make MJD outside Europe and import to Europe which FIAT can do. Author says engines are noisy in TATA cars hasnt exploited the capabilities of engine but true that even maruti coudnt (even though people buys it with a perception that maurti is cheaper in case of maintanance) Maruti is no longer cheaper to maintain (new generation cars). Its the most expensive to maintain out of all MJD cars if not to own.There is reason for it.
For each engine which maruti plonks, royalty has to be paid to Fiat Powertrains (FPT) and now for the new 100K engines they have to pay to FIAT India. For ECU, its a FIAT company again, Magneti Marelli which was setup in 2006-7 who makes ECU for all MJD and VW in India (this is an information to people who says maruti can tune ECU better ‘Its not true so’. Also Magneti Marelli and Bosch supplies the parts for MJD which again is a benefit to FIAT and Bosch. Hence maruti cannot be cheaper else like their older generation cars, they have to promote duplicate parts in the market which FIAT may not allow.
I will come back to the point of usage in maruti. Maruti Swift platform is not made to marry with high end engines unlike FIAT. Maruti still uses its own transmission and mineral oil (people say the gear ratios are better) which forces it to service at a 10K interval. Breakes are extremely poor for such a capable engine. The schedule of steel body is again poor for a maruti as higher vibrations of the diesel engine makes it a rattle box after few 1000KMs. Its all purely my observations and no offense to anyone.
Another thing, FORD will agree to FIAT for the technology as the new FORD KA you could see in europe is fitted with 1.3MJ, not their TDCI

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इस लेखक ने अपना नाम नहीं दिया कहीं पर। ये बंदा ग़लत कह रहा है। भारत के लोगों में अब इच्छाशक्ति जाग उठी है बदलाव लाने की क्योंकि उनको अब ये पता चल गया है (thanks to Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party and Baba Ramdev’s active campaigning across the country) कि दोनो भाजपा और काॉग्रेस भ्रष्ट हैं। ये क़तर और भारत की तुलना अापस में क्यों कर रहा है? भला क़तर को आंदोलन की क्या ज़रूरत?

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Irrelevant comparison, wasted 5 mins. by reading this…

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Writer is not clear about what he wants us to say. What kejri has to do with Qatar?

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it sounds like the assignments given in school, write an article about “Arvind Kejriwal if he were in Qatar”. THE BEAUTY OF INDIAN SYSTEM AND INDIAN GOVERNANCE.. HE CALLS THE PROTEST AGAINST SONIA AND ROBERT OUTRAGEOUS, GUESS THAT’S ALL WHO MATTERED TO HIM.

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Please give me a chance to vote with negative star rating.
The beauty of the Indian system is that the corrupt people are allowed to roam freely, allow people like this blogger to make funny comparisons against people like kejriwal. These kind of bloggers are earning their daily bread by commenting on Kejriwal. Lookout, how important is Kejriwal.

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क्या लिख रहे हो यार， निरङ्कुशता सिर्फ एक तरफि होता है क्या ? ये बात क्योँ नहि समझते कि अगर केजरीवाल बादशाह होता तो जनता सुखि होते और आप， सोनिया ， गडकरी और मोदि जेल मे होते ।

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A school boy writing an article on a topic given to him by his teacher.

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Javid pakistan se comparison karta hai. Media wale qatar se .inko uk. Usa . Canada nhi dekhi nhi deta. In ke jija ji ko arvind ne kata hai. Aab in ke baap ko v kata hai. Media walo ki majboori hai.

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Qatar hahaaaa

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It appears that this Qatari writer of this essay was born of ilg wedlock of qartai maa so he is remembering his glorious past iin the haram of sheikh bin tuglak shahi shabur, Goodlubck kanzi khan

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what a stupid comparison….javed shab telling in aaj tak to arvind kejriwal that if u go to **** for 5 days …and when u will return u will kiss the land of india…what he was trying to say that time…what is happening in india is good or better in comparision to ****…i dont knw what journos what to tell…i want to ask all the journos of india,,,whom they gonna vote in 2014(if they ever vote)… BJP, CONGRESS or AAP or some other party…

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you dumass..Qatar is a monarchy..India is a democracy..What the fish are you comparing..Yet there would be neglegible corruption in Qatar..Long live AK ..Hail o AAP

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stupidity at its best!one

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Look at the way india handles protest in Kashmir, worse than Qatar!

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i think HT shud compare itself with US, UK & other countries where media dont work like a government stoog……………..i think i these countris HT would be already suspended

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HT are you threatening Mr. Kejriwal…..
it seems like you do, so for your kind information I like to tell you that he is not alone and this is not Qatar, this is India where even a newspaper like yours is allowed to publish the most rubbish articles. This is India where Bhagat Singh was born, who took the most powerful britishers head-on, so think twice before threatening anyone because it is the common men because of whom your business is there you fools…… and this common man is with Mr.Kejriwal, just and watch.
I have never expected HT to lead a fight against corruption but this threatening is way over the limit, you will face the same fate as the other corrupts when the common man will raise to the power.

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Ye to vahi baat ho gyi ki hindustan times ko BBC/NY TIMES se compare karo…hahahahahha…….ARVIND KEJRIWAL KI JAI….AAM AADMI ZINDABAD….INDIAN PAID MEDIA MURDABAD !!!

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And you Journos (like zee news) would have been BEHIND THE BARS TODING SOOKHI ROTI had INDIA been USA/CANADA/RUSSIA…….thank god you journos are in INDIA !! shame on indian media !! thoo

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Is this article meant for praising Kejriwal or criticize Approach of Quatar towards demonstrations? Had Indian leaders been in qatar, they would have been hanged in public for corrupt practices.

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