Asia's Space Race

India approves 1.7bn plan to launch astronauts as Asian space race hots up, Times Online
“ISRO has also been lobbying for years to secure government funding for its plans to send an astronaut into space by 2014 – eleven years after China – and to the Moon by 2020, four years ahead of China’s target date. Critics say ISRO’s plans are a waste of money in a country where the 76 per cent of the population of 1.1 billion live on less than $2 a day, and child malnutrition levels are on a par with sub-Saharan Africa. But ISRO argues that India makes money from commercial satellite launches, and scientific research from the space programme has helped to develop its information technology industry. Indian officials, especially in the military, are also concerned that India lags far behind China, which shot down a satellite in 2007 and completed its first space walk last year.”