It doesn't seem misguided to me - what is this space program even meant to achieve? It seems to me that it's doing little more than reinventing the wheel.
140M may be small in the grand scheme of things, but that helps demonstrate the scale of the problem. And let's not forget the money India receives in foreign aid.
Now, the country can't of course give up everything until poverty is "solved"; it's far from that simple, and of course the nation must work for the rest of the populace. But a trip to the moon seems like the ultimate political vanity project.
140M may be small in the grand scheme of things, but that helps demonstrate the scale of the problem. And let's not forget the money India receives in foreign aid.
Now, the country can't of course give up everything until poverty is "solved"; it's far from that simple, and of course the nation must work for the rest of the populace. But a trip to the moon seems like the ultimate political vanity project.