Maybe some of you folks have heard this but it’s new to me. India has already successfully test fired ballistic missiles from under the sea. Brief story here.. Launch video here. (see the bottom video on the page.)
And the are about to, or perhaps have already begun sea trials of the Arihant-class nuclear sub, designed to fire ballistic missiles. There are a bunch of news stories dated from Dec-Feb that trials were about to begin. Here is a Wiki description of the sub. FYI, India already has an operational nuclear attack sub, an Akula class that they’ve leased from Russia. The Arihant and sister ships are being domestically built.
Right now the missiles purportedly have a range of only about 500 miles, but the next generation is supposedly going to up that to about 3,000.
I’m just curious about your thoughts on this. I can’t say I really begrudge India another nuclear card in the game when both Pakistan and China are sitting across the table. I do find it interesting that I’ve never heard so much as a peep about this from Washington, which is a pretty good indicator that the government is more or less ok with it. The Wiki page suggests that the US funded all or part of the development of the reactor that powers the subs.
Its a stablising influence in that part of the world. No matter how the other two legs of the triad fare in a conflict, a boomer at sea will garantee that an agressor is going to get kissed.
Frankly, a nation with such poverty as India has a big problem building nuclear submarines. Who are they defending against? Yes, I know “the poor will always be with you”-but would it not be better to have the poor of India getting an adequate diet , rather than these overpriced toys?
I seem to recall that they aren’t exactly friends with Pakistan (I agree that their poor should be fed first, but I am not an Indian general or politician).
They are defending against China & Pakistan, both of whom have fought wars with India in the past, both of whom have atomic weapons, & both of whom are increasingly “pushy” on the international scene.
“Whaddya going to do?! Feed the world a short stack of floppy disks?”
India’s 2013 budget is about 17 billion rupees, or a little over $300 billion. Wiki is unclear on exactly how much the subs are costing India, but it does say they are part of a “US$2.9 billion Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project to design and build nuclear-powered submarines.” It presumably takes more than a year to design and build a nuclear sub from scratch, so this cost is probably spread out over a few years at least. Let’s say they end up spending on the order of $3-5 billion over the course of 3-5 years. That’s a billion a year out of a budget of over 300 billion, and that buys them not just the subs and the attendant national security advantages they convey, but also the fringe benefits of the technology and industrial capability necessary to do so. In addition, it gets them access to a pretty elite club - only 5 other countries have nuclear ballistic missile subs. I suspect that in the long run these benefits will serve India as a whole better than the equivalent of buying each person in India $1 worth of food per year.
Building a middle-class for a world class economy will not put a dent in the poor population of India. They are facing a population bubble. And when it pops, it’s going to be ugly.
Right. It is related to Literacy rates, Cable TV usage and Internet penetration. It is already showing trends of slowing down especially in South Indian states, similar results have to be emulated in some Northern states as well:
National average fertility Rate in 2011 - 2.5
South Indian States:
Tamilnadu- 1.7
Andhra Pradesh, Kerala - 1.8
Karnataka - 2
India already spends $60 billion a year in various types of subsidies for the poor. Much of it gets stolen in between n so, it doesn’t reach the needy. India started a program called “Aadhar” which gives digital identity(using biometric identification through fingerprints and iris recognition) to each of the 1.2 billion residents. This is help in disbursal of subsidies directly to the needy. This is one of the many uses of Aadhar. About 340 million people have already been enrolled in *Aadhar *in an year, projected 600 million by end 2014. Watch this(from 13 mins onwards) video for knowing more about it. Thisis its website and hereit shows the data.
If only there was some sort of long-term, high-tech project that would require the skills of, and hence employ, a whole bunch of middle-class scientists, engineers, artisans and technicians. But all India has is this submarine project staffed by robots…
But if you ask me, India should hand over something like $20 per poor person per month for over 15 years old people through the aadhar system which I described in the earlier post. This will mean around $80-$100 per family per month, enough to pay for food, water, education, digital tv connection, electricity bills, maintaining a cell phone etc if they live in a village or a small town. Currently , India has around 350 million poor many of whom work as unorganized labor, without job security, susceptible to exploitation and often get exploited. Even if 400 million people avail this cash benefit scheme that I propose, it will come to $96 billion a year which will ensure that people have at least the minimal financial security, escape the exploitation and live somewhat fulfilling life.
You are forgetting about a piece of geography called the Indian Ocean.
Who is going to rule the waves of the Indian Ocean? If I were a Bharatia,
I would not want it to be the U.S. or China or even Australia.
Fair point - between that and a space program a country can get herself some “tech driver” industrial activity. Besides it’s not an absolute either-or proposition,*** if properly managed*** you can have some defense/tech build up AND some investment in social development, within your means in both cases of course, that part’s a political decision.