They have problems with people trying to get INTO India? I thought everyone wanted to get out!
Illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Nepal
Terrorists from Pakistan
Refugees from Sri Lanka (and to a tiny extent, Burma)
You need to get out of your little well once in a while.
(bear in mind that the U.S. has much tougher safety and emissions standards than India).
Untrue. Did you pull that claim out of a hat? India has poorer safety standards than the US, but stricter emission standards than the US. Indian emission standards are modeled after the Euro emission standards, which are a lot stricter (PDF, see page 26) than the US emission standards.
ISRO generates Rs.1.5 to the economy for every Rs.1 that it uses in funding. This is the immediate return alone. The sustained returns (improvement in education and agriculture through remote sensing), and commercial application of its inventions are not included in this figure. The goal of ISRO is to promote space research to benefit as much of the population as possible.
ISRO is also selling commercial launch and remote sensing and imagery services through it's commercial division - Antirix corp which is making a profit.
More references:
http://www.isro.org/citizencharter.htm
http://www.isro.org/international.htm
http://www.isro.org/commercial.htm
http://www.isro.org/rrssc/img_ser.htm
http://www.isro.org/training_facilities.htm
What is research but a blind date with knowledge? -- Will Harvey
