Comments by "Scott Charney" (@scottcharney1091) on "What Did India’s Mars Orbiter Mission See On Mars? | MOM Mangalyaan ISRO" video.

  1. India has come a long way, but you're exaggerating. Other commenters are placing blame on the British Empire, which is correct, but of course a lot of the blame can also go to India's early governments, for things like the "License Raj," which helped to cause the "Hindu Rate of Growth" for decades. Nehru and company were understandably suspicious of the outside world, but they ended up hamstringing India's growth with so much red tape and paperwork, part of a naive quest for self-sufficiency, it was next to impossible to get anything done. They didn't even build a socialist state, either- a decentralized India, inspired by Yugoslavia's impressive "market socialism," could have achieved great things much sooner. Let's not forget other factors, like the illegal but persistent caste system, fierce patriarchy, etc. Most of India's different ethnic and religious groups get along pretty well; there's very little violence per capita, and that should be a lesson for a lot of other countries! Of course, when clashes do occur, it's really, really bad- see the 2002 riots. With all of that said, there have also been serious problems from opening up the economy; a lot of farmers can't make ends meet; some of the companies that have invested in India have done horrible things (think of the beverage companies taking all the water), etc. India has not had a famine since the 50s, and has grown a food surplus for a long time, but hunger is still ubiquitous (of course, we have hunger here in the US!). Poverty has dropped by a huge amount, but there are still slums, shantytowns, open sewers, and dirt-poor villages all over the place. India's once-huge total fertility rate (births-per-woman) has dropped like a brick, but the pressures of a huge population won't go away tomorrow or next year. So yeah, this video is very impressive, among many other achievements, but I think that everyone should keep the right perspective. You know, a healthy relationship with Pakistan would lower poverty rates in both countries by a lot...
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  2. Yeah, Olympus Mons is amazing. Just read the Wikipedia article; you'll learn some fascinating facts.
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  3. Why the scare quotes?
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  4. Huh huh huh.
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  5. Yeah, but there's a filter/hurdle to get over, so you get a certain set of people coming to be students in Canada.
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