Slashdot Mirror
India Launches World's First Education Satellite
samfisher writes "New Scientist is reporting that India has launched EDUSAT, the world's first satellite exclusively dedicated to distance learning. EDUSAT will use the virtual classroom concept to offer education to children in remote villages, quality higher education to students in areas without access to good technical institutes, adult literacy programmes and training modules for teachers. The educational programmes can be viewed on any television set through a simple low-cost receiver costing about $65."
Sure, the set top reciever is cheap( to us), but then you need to HAVE a TV and the electricity to run all the gear. So if the intention is to level to playing field, you have created another division around the power issue.
Bacardi + slashdot = negative karma.
If a simple low-cost receiver costing about $65, I think that's alot cheaper than U.S public education. I really don't know how edumacation money is spent in the U.S. Teachers are low paid, principal might be better, but all resources don't remotely add up to our tax dollars. Though all in all that's still better than colleges. Which now charges $65,000 easily in two years.
65 USD may be low-cost for someone in the USA or Europe or so, but is it really for someone who doesn't have proper access to education yet? And of course, you need a TV set, too, which further adds to the costs attached to this... Don't get me wrong, I think that this is a good idea, but I don't see how it would help those who'd need help the most.
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
there have been local projects in rural india where small pilot projects have been hugely successful. weather forecast for fishermen in quite a few places. the indian fishermen have small boats & cant afford GPS. hence they benefitted enormously from the satellite + MET office. farmers in villages have taken to drought predictions/ rain forecast in many arid zones. the sub continent is really unique with different weather conditions, different levels of affluence, religions, languages. etc. also complicating the problem is the presence of close to a million villages (there are 700,000 of them). in this regard, satellite is truly a tool that could be used. there are pilot projects running in IIT for low cost VSATs, and cheap telecom tools for tech to enter into villages. already, the government run telecom giant has penetrated the villages with mobile that gets access at a pittance. just wanted to point out the complexities involved, most of /. wouldnt know the ground realities in india.
"The educational programmes can be viewed on any television set through a simple low-cost receiver costing about $65."
In India average urban household income is estimated at US$2,847, while also having an average household size estimated around 5.07 people.
Thats like you feeding a family of five on $7.50 a day.
My point being, $65 is not "low-cost" for this part of the world, whether it be schools or familys purchasing this technology.
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Source
Now India can educate its populace too, relatively-cheaply. Surely the anti-outsourcing crowd isn't opposed to people being educated -- right?
(except, that is, for those who don't mind publicly stating that their having a monopoly on being educated is a good thing b/c it raises their wages. Some of us like to think that having everybody educated beyond caveman levels has been good for the world; we also believe that further education is likewise, logically, a good thing. But some people don't agree, I know...)
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
Looks like any post about anything happening in India seems to attract all the trolls like moths to a burning candle. The problem is not India - they are doing what needs to improve their lives; even if that means taking jobs for cheap from Americans. Capitalism and global economny are American ideas - we cannot ignore them because they are starting to hurt us now.
Instead of sitting on our fat behinds (yes, 60% of our country is overweight - that is a whole different problem), it's about time we figure out how to get the house in order before blaming others. Schools suck, college costs have sky-rocketed - have the stupid politicians fix this first.
All the jobs that were outsourced are history - manufacturing jobs in the last two decades to China, and now some of the tech jobs to India and elsewhere. And any amount of crying aren't going to get those back. Figure out what is relevant in today's economy and work towards using that to your advantage.
It's not a "source", it's a quick overview of topics done in a (for scientists) sensationalized format.
Realistically, no scientific journal is much better--every scientist tries to present their data in a sensationalized format, and the vast majority of published papers are irrelevant nonsense. In journals like Nature or Science, people just hide it a little better.
Oh for God's sake. let go of that pride somewhat, and instead of viewing India as a competitor, why not think of it as a gift to have a country that is halfway across the world from you, with 1 billion people, who doesn't hate your fucking guts and isn't trying to blow up your citizens with its nukes, and happens to be a democracy - a system which is comprehensible to Americans? Why not push for some sort of partnership, technological, business or other which ay fuel more jobs for all of us. India is in desperate need of infrastructure, and political will. Try and find ways to help India get that, and make some money in the process. I remember somebody beforehand who said that India's market is closed to American goods. That's bullshit. American companies don't consider India a market lucrative enough for their products. I used to be a former employee of Amazon.com, and I got the opportunity to ask Jeff Bezos (circa 2000) when he was gonna start up Amazon India, and his response was to look at me quizzically like India was about as close to America as the distant star Vega and say "It's not on our top 10 list of things to do at this point". Then sometime early this year, eBay (whom Amazon considers a competitor) went and bought Baazee, and has thus stolen a lead on Amazon. Instead of saying trade is one way between India and America to India's ultimate benefit, why not try and develop the Indian market so that you can sell your products there? India WAS a closed market, but that was way back in 1991. If American companies aren't going to India now, it's because they don't want to go and do the hard work. They'd rather find a new way to sell chewing-gum flavoured toothpaste to a bunch of Europeans. Unilever, a dutch company involved in the sale of Household goods (like P & G) wanted to sell Shampoo in India. But of course being a low income country, they couldn't figure out how to do it. Then one of their marketing suits realized that instead of selling the shampoo in large bottles, it should be repackaged into small single-use plastic satchets. The reason was that most of the Indians never had large amounts of money on them but they could afford the small and cheap satchets. End result, they ended up selling a shitload more shampoo than they ever imagined. Find a way to sell something to a 1 billion people, and you won't be bothered about losing a few thousand jobs to them. Heck all of you have degrees, you can read and write. How hard can it be?
My Favourite Meme
Your view seems to be, western culture is good, eastern culture is bad. We Indians were doing just fine, till the western world came to zindia in mid 15th century. The current problems that India deals with have a lot to do with the 250 years + of slavery under the British rule rather than its culture. India has always been on the radar of the world conquerors, dating back to alexander in the BC era, to the moughal and turks in and around 1000 A.D to all kinds of europeans from 17th to 19th century.
And yet the Indian culture has survived and thrived . It has gracefully accepted all other cultures and yet maintained its own Identity.
Industrialization and world domination may be your idea of progress , but not every ones. Maybe family values and education take priorities in other cultures.Did you know, that the first book written on Classical Music in India dates back 3000 years. We had universities where not only locals but students from as fas as china and other oriental places used to study.
There is a old adage in Sanskrit, one of the oldest languages and mother of most modern day indian languages. May be it will sum up the importance of Knowledge in Indian Culture
A King is respected in his Kingdom, But a learned one is respect everywhere.
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
The west is better at taking care of it's people after getting fat on looting coutries like India and China. I am sure India will take much better care of its people that the west once we rebuild all the wealth that was stolen from us.
That's why you need to compare India and west in the years before the looting.
There have been 1 or maybe 2 sati deaths in the past 10 years and even in the past they were very rare. Are you telling me that there have been fewer suicides or murders of women after their spouses have died in the west?