India And Covid - Foreign Aid

[Apc2604]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-56881083

https://www.thehindu.com/business/budget/budget-2020-spending-on-space-goes-up-by-8/article30715438.ece

I find this totally abhorrent. I am not suggesting we don't help, but surely this is complete madness.

[anneasquith]

It is complete madness. But there are humans in another country desperate for assistance, there lives ATM are unimaginable. We must give some assistance .

[Apc2604]

Khandro. You don't have to go to India to understand everything you have written (which I do, and agree with you). But to me it is a Government failure. A failure to plough money into a space programme when millions people are living in absolute poverty and squalor, regardless of Covid.

[youngmafbog]

Like I said earlier, spending the spacevprogram money would be like peeing in th ocean.

I suspect they see having the program will make them look in the forefront of tech, which is big business for them. Its impossible to know for certain but there is a good chance they would not have the investment into the country the do have without it,

//there lives ATM are unimaginable//

At the moment their death rate is much lower than ours. Its the sheer number of people in the country 1.4 Bn that makes it seem worse.

[ToraToraTora]

where as I accept that the money spent on the space program is a drop in the ocean, it is an obscenity when you see that there are millions of properly poor people. I've been to Mumbai and there are thousands that just live on the pavement, the better off ones may have a tarp to shield them from the daily afternoon downpour, fortunately it's warm. We don't know what poor is in this country. Khandro you don't need your own space program to put satellites up there.

[Apc2604]

Ymf, is their death rate lower or are they just not being declared? I have had my doubts since the first lockdown. I think there are thousands of deaths they just don't know about.

[Khandro]

TTT //Khandro you don't need your own space program to put satellites up there.//

Whose do you use, China's ? don't make me laugh.

[Apc2604]

TTT. Unofficial, but second best answer, or perhaps a tie for first best. ;O)

[ToraToraTora]

Khandro "Whose do you use, China's ? don't make me laugh." - NASA, Russia, ESA, SpaceX.....

[DTCwordfan]

There's a huge disparity in wealth in the country - there's enough wealthy folk given their top hotels (such as the Taj in Mumbai or Agra..and wonderful to stay there). However, walk bite outside and you immediately see and smell the other side of life and it's no wonder Covid is running rampant. We should give oxygen and equipment - after all, this could bite us in the rear if we end up with an Indian variant - and why, oh why, didn't the UK government impose its red status immediately - all those Indian Brits flying back into Bradford and environs to beat the closure - it's asking for an outbreak here!

And what about China - they must have it too.....but are keeping things/stats and information well-bottled up as they are want to do.

[burlyshirley]

I totally agree with BA.

[Khandro]

TTT: A country cannot simply 'plug in' to anyone else's system. The UK, through Brexit, can no longer use (despite paying for it & it using UK technology>) the EUs systems:

'Areas where UK involvement has come to an end.

The UK: does not use Galileo (including the future Public Regulated Service (PRS)) for defence or critical national infrastructure
does not have access to the encrypted Galileo Public Regulated Service
cannot play any part in the development of Galileo
cannot play any part in the development of EGNOS
from 25 June 2021 UK users will not be able to use the EGNOS SoL service and the EGNOS Working Agreements (EWAs), which will no longer be recognised by the EU
This also means that UK-based businesses, academics and researchers cannot bid for future EU GNSS contracts and may face difficulty carrying out and completing existing contracts.'


source, Gov.UK

[david small]

I stayed in a five star hotel in New Delhi. Fifty feet from the entrance was a canvas hovel with a large family cooking dinner over an open fire. Such disparity is quite common in India. We should help where we can in this situation.

[tamborine]

There are millions of indian tax payers in UK who probably have extended families in India. For their sakes we are bound to give aid.

[ToraToraTora]

khandro: "TTT: A country cannot simply 'plug in' to anyone else's system. The UK, through Brexit, can no longer use (despite paying for it & it using UK technology>) the EUs systems:" - who said they could, we are talking about getting hardware into space, you build it put it on a truck and send it to one of the several launch outfits. You don't need your own space agency for that. How do you think UK gets it's kit into orbit? We don't have a space program.

[naomi24]

Yes, we should help, but since so much of what we give funds the wrong things, I think it’s time to stop giving regular aid to any country and set up instead an emergency fund to be used when and where it really will benefit needy people.

[Souldarkness]

Global problem, needs global cooperation, just remember if Bangalore goes under that's where a lot of the tech helpline/call centres are. It will be very personal when you can't get someone to help when your tablet packs up!!!

[gulliver1]

India needs help big time . The U/K Should help them .
They helped the UK during WW2. Its pay back time.

[tamborine]

Whatever we can spare is worth all the takeaway curries weve had or want ;)

[emmie]

we have been helping India in a big way with money, aid over years, and i suspect with little to show for it. The poor are just as poor as can be, whilst the billionares of which there are many seem to be hot footing it out of there, yes we should give them oxygen, and PPE if that is what's needed. I think the figures for deaths are far higher than what we have been led to believe, the fact remains this could have been foretold, 1.4 billion, living cheek by jowel, those dying aren't just the old either, going on the news bulletins.

[Apc2604]

13.09. //and why, oh why, didn't the UK government impose its red status immediately - all those Indian Brits flying back into Bradford and environs to beat the closure - it's asking for an outbreak here!//