India digs deep to bury neutrino-hunting chamber India is joining the world of exotic particle research, announcing US$235 million worth of funding for a neutrino observatory in the country's south. Approval for the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), proposed in 2013, means construction of the underground complex can now begin. The 1,300 metre deep cavern under the …
The QI klaxon is for falsehoods that are widely believed to be true. But aid to India (£200m pa) is real, although it is planned to stop this year. Here is an article from that hotbed of right-wing propaganda, The Guardian, explaining.
Fair enough you're technically correct but is it really 'aid' when the country in question doesn't want it. More like a forced gift to make the gift giver feel good about themselves.
India had said for about 4 or 5 years now that they don't want the cash as they don't need it. It's a matter of pride. My sister brought over a hamper of food a few years ago when I was out of work. The 'aid' although well intentioned wasn't wanted and made me feel inadequate. I politely declined it.
Indias annual military budget is 38.35 billion USD (FY 2014, nominal). Its (100% military) Defence Research and Development Organisation has a budget of 1600 million USD and India is estimated to have an arsenal of 90-110 nuclear weapons (SIPRI 2014).
Let them research the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein mechanism on a shoestring. Neutrinos are harmless, they zap the earth core unhindered.
What's shocking is how short a memory people in the west have about history. Think Britain looted India to the tune of $73 trillian by today's standards and ravaged its resources. So, $235m is small potatoes.
http://www.quora.com/How-much-wealth-was-looted-from-India-by-Britain
Also why do some countries have so much more money to give than others? The days of empire are hopefully over, but unfortunately it has been replaced by more insidious methods of ensuring an uneven playing field. Free trade, World Bank & IMF anyone?
What's sad is when profiteers do not acknowledge their responsibilities. I suppose on the plus side Britain brought railways and some measure of non-altruistic development to India. Beats creating massive opium addiction amoungst the population anyway..
Seems like the AID is foisted on India anyway:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/9061844/India-tells-Britain-We-dont-want-your-aid.html
"“We do not require the aid,” he said, according to the official transcript of the session.
“It is a peanut in our total development exercises [expenditure].” He said the Indian government wanted to “voluntarily” give it up.
According to a leaked memo, the foreign minister, Nirumpama Rao, proposed “not to avail [of] any further DFID [British] assistance with effect from 1st April 2011,” because of the “negative publicity of Indian poverty promoted by DFID”.
But officials at DFID, Britain’s Department for International Development, told the Indians that cancelling the programme would cause “grave political embarrassment” to Britain, according to sources in Delhi.
DFID has sent more than £1 billion of UK taxpayers’ money to India in the last five years and is planning to spend a further £600 million on Indian aid by 2015.
“They said that British ministers had spent political capital justifying the aid to their electorate,” one source told The Sunday Telegraph.
“They said it would be highly embarrassing if the Centre [the government of India] then pulled the plug.”"
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/nov/09/india-tears-end-uk-aid
"That aid to India is a political tool and supports Britain's strategic interests is undeniable, even if it is frequently denied by some official spokespersons. But here a lot of other factors come into play, including attitudes to the aid on both sides. Public opinion in India was appalled recently, when India's decision to buy fighter jets from France rather than the UK (after a global tendering process) was decried in the British media as "ingratitude" given the UK's aid to India."
Political arguments concerning redistribution of funds aside (I am not qualified to judge), while the difference was less significant than that between the various Mars missions, this price tag is still less than comparable efforts elsewhere in the world.
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While Kerala doesn't have quite the high background as Ramsar (sp?) in northern Iran, this village appears to be on the edge of Kerala. There are no monazite placer deposits, or thorium ores in the vicinity of that village? Or are they counting on that being nearby for some reason?
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