India launches world's first education satellite

Millions of illiterate people in remote, rural India could soon have access to an education, as a satellite devoted exclusively to long distance learning was launched on Monday. It is the world's first dedicated educational satellite, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

At least someone is caring for education

Once EDUSAT is commissioned in two months' time it will initially provide one satellite link per beam, with each link catering for up to 200 classrooms. When fully operational, 25 to 30 satellite links will broadcast to about 5000 remote terminals.

Surf

EDIT: Changed Url text.

[edit on 9/22/2004 by surfup]

Wow, impressive. Sounds like a great idea for a country with limited educational resources...and the population they have.

Thanks surfup for the news.

I am really happy to hear this. Virtual classrooms will be of great help, especially to the children in rural areas. I hope it will not be very expensive so that the poor people can also get some benefits considering most of the population is poor.
I hope it turns out a success.

It is also GSLV�s first operational flight. India will no longer depend on Europe's Ariane rockets to launch satellites of up to 2 tonnes, though it will continue to use them for heavier spacecraft.

Now, that is progress!

Originally posted by jp1111
Thanks surfup for the news.

I hope it will not be very expensive so that the poor people can also get some benefits considering most of the population is poor.

No Problem.

I think the article says the cost is 65 Rupees, which is nothing compared to U.S. currency (Less than 2 dollars). In cities (the one where I lived), that money is almost of no value, but maybe in those rural areas where education can find its way, it is probably more than their daily wage, which is kind of bummer, because food comes before education.

What I am worried about is how the project is going to be implemented? Let us hope the new admin does a better job of ending corruption and implementing these projects soon.

I might be moving folks.

If they offer sat service for what you say it is, the heck with broadband!

Originally posted by surfup

I think the article says the cost is 65 Rupees, which is nothing compared to U.S. currency (Less than 2 dollars). In cities (the one where I lived), that money is almost of no value, but maybe in those rural areas where education can find its way, it is probably more than their daily wage, which is kind of bummer, because food comes before education.

It is 65 dollars (~3000 Rupees), unless the article states it wrong.
"The educational programmes can be viewed on any television set through a simple low-cost receiver costing about $65, Nair says."

First of all, I don't think the small schools will be able to buy a receiver that costly for every single classroom. We hardly had a few computers in my high school's library when I was in India. They might just buy a few of these receivers and make them available in the library or in the computer lab.

Originally posted by surfup
What I am worried about is how the project is going to be implemented? Let us hope the new admin does a better job of ending corruption and implementing these projects soon.

If you don't know, the corruption has gone too far down that it is so not possible to end it completely. Since you said you lived there, you may know that corruption exists in every single institution there; education, law, medicine...and almost all government ones. My dad had a government job. He quit because he was forced to take money under the table, most of which would go to his boss. So, if everybody, directly or indirectly are corrupted, who's going to stop it? Sorry, this may be is offtopic.

I too hope that this project will be taken seriously for the better.

Talking about new admin, it does not matter who the PM or the leader is. They cannot do much since the roots of corruption are right under them.

Originally posted by jp1111
It is 65 dollars (~3000 Rupees), unless the article states it wrong.
"The educational programmes can be viewed on any television set through a simple low-cost receiver costing about $65, Nair says.

First of all, I don't think the small schools will be able to buy a receiver that costly for every single classroom. We hardly had a few computers in my high school's library when I was in India. They might just buy a few of these receivers and make them available in the library or in the computer lab.

Yeah, you are right, it is 65$, which is really bad. The worse part is that he says that it is very cheap, which shows that he isn't really in touch with the village people.

[i[Originally posted by jp111
If you don't know, the corruption has gone too far down that it is so not possible to end it completely. Since you said you lived there, you may know that corruption exists in every single institution there; education, law, medicine...and almost all government ones. My dad had a government job. He quit because he was forced to take money under the table, most of which would go to his boss. So, if everybody, directly or indirectly are corrupted, who's going to stop it? Sorry, this may be is offtopic.

I too hope that this project will be taken seriously for the better.

Talking about new admin, it does not matter who the PM or the leader is. They cannot do much since the roots of corruption are right under them.

Didn't know you lived there. Which part?

Yeah, almost everyone is corrupted down there. Almost everyone living in India would know this by now. But there are some good uncorrupted guys there and another good thing is that the media is catching up and exposing all the corruption (For example the George Fernadoes, the recent Police troubles in Tamil Nadu etc.)

Maybe if we get a strong one like 'Iron Man', the corruption could end. Too bad he is long dead and no one cares about politics, at least no one without a profit motive.

Originally posted by surfup
Didn't know you lived there. Which part?
Yeah, almost everyone is corrupted down there. Almost everyone living in India would know this by now. But there are some good uncorrupted guys there and another good thing is that the media is catching up and exposing all the corruption (For example the George Fernadoes, the recent Police troubles in Tamil Nadu etc.)
Maybe if we get a strong one like 'Iron Man', the corruption could end. Too bad he is long dead and no one cares about politics, at least no one without a profit motive.

Yes, there are a few uncorrupted, but you see the thing is that they can't do much. If someone tries to speak up, he/she is brought down by the majority. That is kind of what happened with Abhas Mitra who tried to prove Hawking wrong about the black-hole theory and thus was fired by his own institution.

That is true about the profit motive. Everybody is becoming greedy and corrupt. You can trace all that back to poverty. People are underpaid/unemployed which cause them to cheat in all kinds of ways in order to get the money needed to support their families.

Btw, I used to live in Gujarat. Its been 3 years in US now.

Originally posted by jp1111

That is kind of what happened with Abhas Mitra who tried to prove Hawking wrong about the black-hole theory and thus was fired by his own institution.

Well, guess he is right about the black hole theory, it is wrong. Hawking accepted it himself.

Originally posted by jp111That is true about the profit motive. Everybody is becoming greedy and corrupt. You can trace all that back to poverty. People are underpaid/unemployed which cause them to cheat in all kinds of ways in order to get the money needed to support their families.

Btw, I used to live in Gujarat. Its been 3 years in US now.

Maybe that is the case in poor families officials, but what about the politicians? They probably have the state budget in their pockets, yet they want more and more.