I Went to the Moon, too !

Agreed, we have joined an elite club of countries that have the capability to launch an extra-terrestrial object in the lunar orbit and we are only one of the FOUR nations to have its national flag set foot on the moon. We have a strong neighbor who just had sent its own men to the space and we need to show strength. Never would I underestimate the hard work that has gone into make such a precision guided mission, a grand success. I do share the passion and delight of the scientists who have worked tirelessly towards this maiden venture, amidst the isolation imposed on us and the restrictions in transfer of technology across nations.

While skeptics question the justification of the millions that is spent in our space adventure, all I would like to question is the relevance of such mission and the application of its results to our citizens.

Thanks to the astute leadership, at least, I am glad that we are seeing some return on investment in a public sector organization, compared to that of the various other institutions that provide a zilch for the government allocations that they get to enjoy every year.

My concern is only on the returns - more than the information on water-bodies that might exist in the moon and mapping the lunar terrain, why not focus on what is more relevant to our country and its people. Decades together, the only weather map I get to see is the INSAT image, that appears in my daily newspaper and some useless statistics that I hear in the state-owned All India Radio, on, which parts of the country received how many millimeters of rainfall and a very generic weather forecast that even my grandma could predict looking up at the sky! Value-add is the key and what is the value addition in the knowledge of temperature numbers from major cities and a very vague prediction of the weather patterns that day.

The monotonous rants of our meteorological weather men who show up their face only on the days it rains hard and that too post facto. We have had numerous instances of the cities getting deluged and office goers and school kids getting stuck in the middle of a storm completely unaware.
Needless to mention the loss of thousands of crores to our economy in the form lost cultivated produce, with unseasonal rains. Better weather forecast and reach of this information to the masses is the key. These are the days of doppler radars, animated weather maps and ever pervasive information.

I have seen in the US, where the local weather man is treated with an iconic status and the time they spend in the schools educating the kids of the nuances of weather patterns.
What we need is change in the priorities of how we spend our money, according to the changing times and needs.

To quote the father of our space program, Dr. Sarabhai himself:
"There are some who question the relevance of space activities in a developing nation. To us, there is no ambiguity of purpose. We do not have the fantasy of competing with the economically advanced nations in the exploration of the moon or the planets or manned space-flight. But we are convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society. "