Need reviews about SDRO

[Chetan Crasta]

There is a company called SDRO ( http://sdro.in ) that is going to conduct an astronomy workshop in my daughter's school.
After looking at their website and Facebook page, the company seems to be fraudulent. There is no info about the founders and their claim of teaching 1 lakh students is not backed by any evidence.

Anyone here heard about SDRO?

[anuj hissaria]

This is a strange and interesting thread. Anyway, 

A search on Indian trademark database shows it is a registered trademark. (Attached image). Trademarking requires lot of legal documents, so the company must have everything in place. 

Plus the website says they were featured on NDTV and indoatoday (I'm not saying this is true, but it is easily verifiable and hence they would not put that on the website if it weren't). 

As for question on 1L students, well it says tie up with 800 school, so it's not difficult to reach 1 L students. Nothing very suspicious there as well. 

Also, I would say since the workshop is being conducted in the school, the school would have already done their homework on the credibility of the organisation, don't worry. If anything is wrong,  the school can always be held accountable. 

If anything, seems like a positive thing that someone is trying to teach our kids about  this very interesting area of astronomy! Let them enjoy.  

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[Karthik Subramanian]

Well, it is always good to be cautious and not rely on circumstantial

evidence alone. The site seems to be remarkably free of specifics

when it comes to astronomy. 

The picture at the bottom of this page seems to imply that someone has 

an MS degree from NASA: http://sdro.in/about/ . I wonder if NASA awards

postgraduate degrees?

I also find it suspicious that they'd advertise 5" and 6" reflectors as "Top 5 Beginner's Telescopes".

K.

On Thursday, 26 October 2017 15:14:59 UTC+5:30, anuj hissaria wrote:

This is a strange and interesting thread. Anyway, 

A search on Indian trademark database shows it is a registered trademark. (Attached image). Trademarking requires lot of legal documents, so the company must have everything in place. 

Plus the website says they were featured on NDTV and indoatoday (I'm not saying this is true, but it is easily verifiable and hence they would not put that on the website if it weren't). 

As for question on 1L students, well it says tie up with 800 school, so it's not difficult to reach 1 L students. Nothing very suspicious there as well. 

Also, I would say since the workshop is being conducted in the school, the school would have already done their homework on the credibility of the organisation, don't worry. If anything is wrong,  the school can always be held accountable. 

If anything, seems like a positive thing that someone is trying to teach our kids about  this very interesting area of astronomy! Let them enjoy.  

[Karthik Subramanian]

Chetan,

At first glance, I would think that your assessment is correct, for the reasons that you have outlined.

In addition, I find it highly suspicious that: 

(a) Someone who seems to be associated with the company suggests *indirectly* on the website

     that they have earned an MS from NASA. As far as I know, NASA does not award degrees.

     By extension, the suggestion of their having earned a Ph.D in Astrophysics also seems to not

     hold water.

(b) The website contains very little *specific* information about what their workshops entail.

(c)  The website contains very little *specific* information about Astronomy as a subject.

That said, none of this is hard evidence towards anything. I also have no firsthand information

about this organization.

Good luck.

K.

[Karthik Subramanian]

On Fri, Oct 27, 2017 at 6:08 AM, Karthik Subramanian <karthi...@gmail.com> wrote:

At first glance, I would think that your assessment is correct, for the reasons that you have outlined.

In addition, I find it highly suspicious that: 

(a) Someone who seems to be associated with the company suggests *indirectly* on the website

     that they have earned an MS from NASA. As far as I know, NASA does not award degrees.

     By extension, the suggestion of their having earned a Ph.D in Astrophysics also seems to not

     hold water.

(b) The website contains very little *specific* information about what their workshops entail.

(c)  The website contains very little *specific* information about Astronomy as a subject.

I stand corrected. NASA indeed has the Goddard Institute of Space Studies (https://www.giss.nasa.gov/)

which does award degrees.

My biggest objection is thus gone; (b) and (c) could simply be bad website design.

Chetan, this *might* be legitimate after all.

Hat tip to Aditya R for correcting my lack of knowledge.

K.