Slashdot Mirror
An Indian On the Moon By 2020
turgid writes, "The Hindustan Times reports that the Indian Space Research Organization plans to land an Indian on the Moon by 2020. First, experiments will be conducted to launch, orbit, and recover a capsule. Plans are to launch an Indian into space in 2014. Manned orbital missions will be launched, initially for a day, but eventually lasting a week or more. Expeditions to the Moon are expected to last 15 days to a month." The article doesn't estimate the cost of such a program. The US Apollo program cost about $135 billion (in 2006 dollars), according to Wikipedia.
The class system mention is an understatement, the current caste system as it exists in India is coming under greater and greater strain.
Take for example the Dalits who're essentially a slave caste in all but name.
This is why a lot of Indians are in poverty, not because they won't help themselves or don't want help but because of extreme prejudice against them. There is a growing growing Christian and Buddhist movement in the country, of people who're throwing away the shackles of the caste Hindu Dalit system and converting. Read this BBC story for an example.