Wednesday, February 28

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Ashok Mitra's memoirs is a book full of people, full of little stories about them, and full of emotion that only caring deeply about people can bring.

The love song of Ashok Mitra

JAYATI GHOSH


COLUMN

S. THANTHONI

Ashok Mitra, addressing a meeting. A file picture.

IT is difficult to write about those whom you love. Curiously enough, the difficulty is not only because of the fear of excessive partiality: it is also because love brings with it the freedom to be exasperated. And intimacy creates very complex and textured perceptions, often too nuanced to be easily captured in mere words.


That is why, when Ashok Mitra's book of memoirs, A prattler's tale: Bengal, Marxism, Governance, (Samya, Kolkata, 2007), came into my hands, I was at first reluctant to write about it. But the author was and is so much more than the recipient of my private affection: he is one of the more remarkable personalities of independent India, who has been involved and even deeply enmeshed in some of the most significant events and socio-economic processes of the past six decades and more, and whose acquaintance spans a fascinating cross-section of our societal mosaic.


Ashok Mitra may be in the public eye as one of the more eminent Left economists of India who has written several valuable books in the subject, served in important positions in the Central government, and was Finance Minister of West Bengal as well as a member of the Rajya Sabha.


But many others will know of him through his prolific columns on current affairs in several journals (notably Economic and Political Weekly) and newspapers, in a journalistic parallel career that has spanned more than half a century and showed his passionate commitment to progressive causes. And still others might have read his more approachable literary pieces, in both English and Bengali, and discovered at least in part a kindred spirit.


Contradictions are inherent in all of us. Even so, the life and personality of Ashok Mitra has over the years distilled the very essence of the term: at once vociferously public and intensely private; devastatingly cynical and endearingly romantic; angry and affectionate; stubborn and sensitive; puritanical yet generous to a fault; belligerent with his friends but also fiercely loyal to them; strongly political while remaining at heart a sentimentalist lover of poetry; worshipping idealistic principles but enjoying above all a good gossip; railing against the times but very much a part of them.


All these attributes, combined with his indisputable literary flair and prodigious memory, are what make this book so absorbing and so much fun to read. The Bengali original of this book, Apila Chapila (Ananda Publishers, Kolkata, 2004), generated much enthusiasm and also much controversy when it was first published, in a way that has been typical of the author's life. The English version captures most of the flavour of the original, even if it is sometimes more circumspect.


It is an utterly charming book as well. From the start, a dizzying array of personalities fills the pages. There are countless anecdotes, some humorous and some poignant, and all quite fascinating. There are quirky and effective pen portraits of the abundant profusion of his friends, acquaintances and colleagues.


Of course, there are times when the cast seems perhaps too lengthy and the kaleidoscope of characters too intricate for the reader to retain. Many of the people flitting across the pages are not only well known in different ways but also part of the elite of India, in different spheres ranging from the literary and artistic to the academic and scholarly to the political and ruling groups.


Yet there are also some notable silences. For example, there is scarcely any mention of his wife Gouri - even though her graceful dignity, quiet efficiency and unswerving loyalty must have made her presence the central stabilising factor of his life. Like the quintessential Bengali gentleman that he has often declared he detests, Ashok Mitra steers clear of the truly intimate, perhaps assuming that those who are deeply close are not to be trafficked in words.


The opening chapters are wonderfully evocative of childhood and youth in Dhaka in the 1930s and early 1940s, and the sheer exhilaration of student life in Kolkata in the period just before Independence is also effectively captured, along with whiffs of the momentous times in which these were experienced. Indeed, the entire book is suffused with the vibrancy and excitement of particular moments.


And since Ashok Mitra was so closely involved with so many events of national significance, these memoirs also offer a panoramic glimpse into some of these broader processes and events.


The heady days of Central planning with Mahalanobis in Delhi; the creation of Economic and Political Weekly; the social and political atmosphere of Indira Gandhi's "left-leaning" phase in the early 1970s; the bloody emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation; the violent attempt at destroying the Left in West Bengal over the same period; the grim days of the Emergency; the extraordinary political transformation as the Congress lost the national elections and paved the way for the era of coalition politics; the electoral victory of the Left Front in West Bengal in the late 1970s; the battle over Centre-State fiscal relations; the rising hegemony of neoliberal economic policy from the early 1990s - all these form more than just a backdrop as they are inextricably intertwined with the dramatis personae of this account.


Some of Mitra's ruminations about the difficulties of progressive change in only one State within a federal system and the systemic threats emerging even within disciplined Marxist parties that are pushed by varying forces when in power, deserve more attention. Even where one disagrees, there is no contesting that he raises critical and thought-provoking questions and that his reflections are informed by continuing commitment.


It is true that the final sections of the book do carry perhaps too much of the perception that everything - even progressive politics and literature - was better in the past. In this sense, some of Mitra's later reflections do indeed fit in with the stereotypical attitudes of those who have been around for longer, who tend to assume that the newer trends and changes are generally adverse. Nostalgia can certainly colour one's attitudes to the present, but it should not lead to privileging a past that was probably as complicated and contradictory as the present.


The disarming thing is that the author would probably be the first to admit this, as he would be to agree with anyone who brands him as difficult. Yet the impression on reading this book is not one of a difficult man, rather of an incurable romantic. It is a book full of people, full of little stories about them, and full of the emotion that only caring deeply about people can bring. So this idiosyncratic memoir is in some ways a love poem to many of the people he has known. This may then be the longest and most successful poem of the would-be poet.

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Online edition of India's National Newspaper


I.T. AND INDIA [1]

Amartya Sen

1

Some admirations come from near, others from very far. My respect and reverence for the IT industry in general and the extraordinarily dynamic and triumphant Indian IT industry in particular have come, by necessity, from some distance, since I am a dabbler in things far away from IT services and software. When the invitation came to attend this year's NASSCOM meeting and the leadership forum, I thought that this either indicated some mixing up of my identity ("wake up, wake up," I wanted to say, "I teach non-IT subjects at a university!"), or alternatively, it reflected generous interest of NASSCOM leaders to reach out (or as my students say, "hang out") beyond their principality.

Of the two possibilities, identity confusion is the more exciting. My late friend Isaiah Berlin, the philosopher, recounted to me his exciting experiences when he was invited to a musical gathering under the mistaken impression that he was Irving Berlin, the musical composer, rather than Isaiah Berlin, the political philosopher. Apparently, the assembled gathering was somewhat disappointed by Isaiah Berlin's inability to respond to repeated requests to provide some insights into the melodies from Annie Get Your Gun or Call Me Madam. And, of course, Sen is a more common name than Berlin , offering more opportunity of identity confounding. Indeed, I was once asked in a gathering of very energetic and very globally minded Ugandan students - this happened at the Makerere College in Kampala - whether I, Amartya Sen, was any relation of Sun Yat Sen. I had to tell my interlocutor, "No, but we are trying hard."

It is, however, the second possibility - not identity confusion - on which I want to speak this afternoon, that is about the possibility of the IT industry to reach out beyond its principality. I want to talk not, of course, about my being here at this NASSCOM meeting, but about the case for the IT industry to bring its influences somewhat beyond what can be seen as its traditional domain.

Of course, the idea of what counts as "traditional" is hard to articulate in the case of a field of enterprise as new as information technology. Indeed, a little over a century ago, in 1885, when the Indian National Congress had its first meeting in Bombay, which was attended by among others Jamsetji Tata (he would establish his new "Swadeshi mills" next year), Jamsetji would have been, I imagine, a little puzzled if he were told that the enterprise he was pioneering would soon include a huge operation in software and IT - indeed the largest in the country (my friend Ramadorai, who heads it, is here). The importance of information has, of course, been acknowledged over many millennia, but the ideas of IT technology and software are quintessential contributions of contemporary modernity - not something with any ageless recognition. Indeed, the entire idea of a National Association of Software and Service Companies (that is, NASSCOM) would have appeared quite mysterious to the pioneering industrial leader of India. As it happens, the domain of IT is still evolving, and I would like to argue for taking an even broader view than has already got established.

My point is not that the IT industry should do something for the country at large, for that it does anyway. It already makes enormous contributions: it generates significant incomes for a great many Indians; it has encouraged attention to technical excellence as a general requirement across the board; it has established exacting standards of economic success in the country; it has encouraged many bright students to go technical rather than merely contemplative; and it has inspired Indian industrialists to face the world economy as a potentially big participant, not a tiny little bit-player. My point, rather, is that it can do even more, indeed in some ways, much more. This is partly because the reach of information is so wide and all-inclusive, but also because the prosperity and commanding stature of the IT leaders and activists give them voice, power and ability to help the direction of Indian economic and social development.

2

Let me begin by asking a question that no one here will, I think, ask (because everyone I meet here seems so polite and well-behaved): why should the Indian IT industry have any sense of obligation to do things - more things - for India, more than what happens automatically from its normal operations (as a by-product of business success, rather than as a deliberated goal to be advanced, among other demands and necessities)? Why assume there is any obligation at all for IT to do anything other than minding its own business?

I think part of the answer lies in reciprocity. The country has made huge contributions, even though they are not often clearly recognised, to help the development and flowering of the IT industry in India, and it is not silly to ask what in return the IT might do for India .

But how has the country helped? Perhaps most immediately, the IT sector has benefitted from the visionary move, originally championed by Jawaharlal Nehru, to develop centres of excellent technical education in India, such as the IITs, to be followed by the Institutes of Management and other initiatives, aimed at enhancing the quality and reach of Indian professional and specialized education. Despite Nehru's moving rhetoric in favour of literacy for all (which was plentifully present even in his celebrated speech on the eve of independence on 14th August 1947 - the speech on India 's "tryst with destiny"), he in fact did shockingly little for literacy. I would suggest that Jawaharlal Nehru did not really think through how to ensure the practical realization of his goal of literacy for all, in which he did believe with sincerity and conviction, but not with any sense of practicality. It was, however, entirely different as far as technical education is concerned - here Nehru's sense of ways and means nicely supplemented his fervent passion. India was not only the first poor country in the world to choose a robustly democratic from of governance, it also was the first country with grinding poverty to give priority to the development of technical skill and the state-of-art education in technology. And from this the IT sector has benefited a lot, since the entire industry is so dependent on the availability, quality and reach of technical education.

However, IT's links with India 's past goes back much further than that. The nature of Indian society and traditions have tended to support the pursuit of specialized excellence in general and the development of IT in particular. There has been a historic respect for distinctive skills, seeing it even as a social contribution in itself. Indeed, even the nasty caste system, which has so afflicted the possibility of social equity in India, has tended greatly to rely on - and exploit - the traditional reverence for specialized skill, which, in its regimented form, has been used to add to the barriers of societal stratification. There is a tradition here that can be taken in many different directions, and it is a matter of much satisfaction that the IT industry's use of the same respect is remarkably positive and potentially open and inclusive. I will come back to that question of inclusiveness later on (it is an important subject on which there is a case for more deliberation and action), but before that let me comment on a few other connections, since they are often missed, between the success of IT in India and some particular features of India's past.

Going well beyond respect for specialized skill, there is also a general attitude of openness in India to influences from far and near - of admiring excellence no matter where it is produced. This is particularly important since the IT success of India did draw initially, as indeed was inevitable, on what was going on with much accomplishment abroad. The experiences of the Silicon valley, in particular, was very important for the yearning of skilled and discerning Indians to learn from others - and then to make good use of it. While many Indians have a deep preference for what we can see as total local immersion and even succumb to evidently strong temptations to denigrate things happening abroad (and this attitude rears its ugly head from time to time in contemporary Indian politics as well), there has also been for thousand of years a very robust tradition here of admiring, using and learning from excellence anywhere in the world.

The IT technical experts may not readily perceive that there is a remarkable similarity between (1) their own valuational commitment to learn what they can from anywhere which has good ideas to offer, and (2) the open and welcoming attitude to departures originating elsewhere which Rabindranath Tagore articulated with compelling clarity in a letter to a friend (in a letter to Charlie Andrews in fact) in the 1920s, at the height of our struggle of for national independence:

Whatever we understand and enjoy in human products instantly becomes ours, wherever they might have their origin. I am proud of my humanity when I can acknowledge the poets and artists of other countries as my own. Let me feel with unalloyed gladness that the all the great glories of man are mine. Therefore it hurts me deeply when the cry of rejection rings loud against the West in my country with the clamour that Western education can only injure us.

It is, of course, to the credit of Western centres of excellence in education and practice that they were so welcoming to learners from abroad (I think America and Europe do not always get enough recognition for its liberal priorities in this field, despite their narrow-minded national and local priorities in other areas), but it is also important to see that the interest and initiative of bright Indians to learn from abroad for domestic use was strongly founded on an open-minded willingness to comprehend, as Tagore put it, that "whatever we understand and enjoy in human products instantly becomes ours, wherever they might have their origin."

I want to point to one further connection between the development and achievements of Indian IT and the Indian intellectual traditions on which Indian IT draws. I don't refer here only to the love of mathematics that has inspired so many young Indians throughout history, and which is important in many different ways, for the efficacy IT operations. The general maths-friendliness of Indian intellectuals is relevant here: according to some accounts, the mathematician Bhaskara even tried to convince his daughter Lilavati that if she came to master mathematical puzzles then she would be highly popular when she went to parties, which seems to me be, to say the least, a little doubtful. But aside from being fascinated by maths, Indian intellectuals have also typically been very excited about arguments in general: it is a subject on which I have even indulged in writing a book (incidentally, in my last trip to Mumbai I was very impressed to be offered a cut-price pirated edition of my book, The Argumentative Indian, by a street vendor near the airport, who also had the exquisite taste of explaining to me that this book was "quite good" - and from him, also "very cheap").

IT is a hugely interactive operation and in many ways Indian IT has depended on what we can call TI, that is, "talkative Indians." It is not hard to see how a tradition of being thrilled by intellectual altercations tend to do a lot to prepare someone to the challenges of IT interactions.

3

Given what the country has done for Indian IT, it is not silly to ask: what specially can the IT industry do for India (other than what happens automatically without any deliberate pursuit of non-business ends)? This seems to me to be right, but I would also like to emphasize that historical reciprocity is not the only - perhaps not even the most important - reason for being interested in the social obligations of the IT industry. Many considerations arise there.

There is, of course, the elementary issue of the obligation of those who "make it" vis-a-vis those who do not manage quite so well, which is a very basic ethical demand that, it can be argued, society places upon us. This raises immediately the question what any prosperous group may owe to others not so well placed. This is not only a reflective demand for social deliberation - part of what Immanuel Kant called a "categorical imperative" - but it is also a part of enlightened business operation. There is, as it happens, a very well established tradition in a part of Indian business to do just that, particularly well exemplified by the Tatas for example, through various socially valuable activities such as building hospitals, research centres and other social institutions of high distinction. I am impressed to see that many of the major IT leaders seem to be very seized of this challenge.

If that possible role is obvious enough, there is some need to understand better other roles in which the IT industry can make a very big difference in India. As it happens the key to the success of IT, namely accessability, systematization and use of information is also very central to social evaluation and societal change. There is, in fact, a very foundational connection between information and social obligation, since the moral - and of course the political - need to pay attention to others depends greatly on our knowledge and information about them.

Indeed, already in the 1770s (more than two hundred years ago), that remarkable Scottish philosopher, David Hume, had noted the importance of increased intercourse in expanding the reach of our sense of justice. He had put the issue thus (in his chapter "Of Justice," in An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals):

....again suppose that several distinct societies maintain a kind of intercourse for mutual convenience and advantage, the boundaries of justice still grow larger, in proportion to the largeness of men's views, and the force of their mutual connexions. History, experience, reason sufficiently instruct us in this natural progress of human sentiments, and in the gradual enlargement of our regards to justice, in proportion as we become acquainted with the extensive utility of that virtue.

Negligence of suffering of others is sustainable, given human interest in justice and equity, only when we know little about that suffering. More information in itself goes a long way to breaking that chain of apathy and indifference.

This foundational connection also gives the information industry a huge opportunity to help India by trying to make its contribution to the systematization, digestion and dissemination of diverse clusters of information in India about the lives of the underdogs of society - those who do not have realistic opportunity of getting basic schooling, essential health care, elementary nutritional entitlements, and rudimentary equality across the barriers of class and gender. This can also be said about problems of underdeveloped physical infrastructure (water, electricity, roads, etc.), as well as social infrastructure, that restrain the broad mass of Indians from moving ahead. There are particular causal connections also here: an enterprise that hugely depends on the excellence of education for its success - as the IT sector clearly does - has good reason to consider its broad responsibility to Indian education in general.

I do not know enough about the IT operations to see whether all this can be turned into a business proposition as well. But my point is that even if it cannot be so transformed, it is something that the IT sector has good reason to consider doing. Can there be a group initiative in any of these fields? Can NASSCOM itself play a catalytic role here? Informational issues are thoroughly rampant in morality and politics, and in many direct and indirect ways, the preoccupation of the IT enterprise links closely with the foundations of political and moral assessment and adjudication.

Even though in this presentation I am mainly concentrating on domestic issues, I should mention in passing that the role of information and informed understanding can also be very large in the pursuit of global peace and in defeating ill-reasoned violence. When we consider how many of the brutalities in the world today are linked with ignorant hostility to cultures and practices abroad, we can appreciate the contribution of informational limitation, among other causal factors, in cross-border belligerence. I could have talked about that too, in developing some ideas presented in my last book (Identity and Violence), but given my time limits I will resist that temptation.

4

I return now to the domestic scene. In emphasizing the role of the moral domain for the IT sector to feel some responsibility towards making India a more equitable country, I do not want to give the impression that there is not also a prudential case for going in that direction. One of the huge obstacles to the domestic development of the IT sector is the size of the local market, which is still quite small, despite all the recent expansions. Indian IT has done very well in making excellent use of the global market, but competition there is likely to be increasingly fierce. Other countries are trying to learn from the experience not only of America and Europe but also from India , and while India has some peculiar advantages in the IT field (which I have already discussed), the barriers may well be gradually removed in many countries - indeed even in many poor countries - in the world. China, which has a much larger domestic market already and will continue to expand that market very fast, is not as vulnerable as we may be, in this particular respect.

As it happens, one of the reasons for the larger domestic reach of IT in China is its much wider base of good basic schooling. So, what is an issue of equity, on one side, is also a matter of central importance for prudential reasoning about domestic economic expansion, on the other. The same goes for a much wider base of elementary health care in China, though this, as it happens, has been going through some turmoil since the Chinese economic reforms of 1979 which effectively abolished free health care for all, through insisting on privately purchased health insurance. It is a subject on which I have written elsewhere, so I will not go further into it here, other than noting that the Chinese authorities are quite receptive now of critical scrutiny of the present system of health care that China has ended up having. This, in fact, is in sharp contrast with the past when we had made similar criticisms earlier, and I do know that very serious critical scrutiny is currently going on in Beijing on this, in a very constructive way. I expect major changes to happen in China in a more inclusive direction before long.

Excessive reliance on private health care in India for the most elementary problems of ill-health and disease (resulting mostly from the limited size, reach and operational efficiency of public health facilities) is similarly a barrier to the availability and entitlement to health care for all Indians, and this obstacle urgently needs removing. These are all subjects on which the IT sector is well placed to provide considerable enlightenment and guidance. As it happens, the IT sector itself will indirectly benefit (for reasons I have already outlined) from playing a constructive and deliberated role in widening the base of social and physical infrastructure. But the more immediate - and also the more foundational - reason relates, I think, to demands from the moral domain to which the IT sector has reasons to respond. This is so, I have argued, for a variety of reasons, varying from Indian IT's unequal current success and its debt to India's traditions and priorities, on one side, to - and this is often unrecognised but happens to be extremely important - the central role of information in moral reasoning, on the other. There is indeed, I would argue, something of a socially connected obligation here, the recognition of which could make a huge difference to the future of India.



[1] Keynote Address at the NASSCOM 2007 India Leadership Forum in Mumbai on 7 February 2007 .

The Hindu
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Tuesday, February 27

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Events 2006 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Events in December 2006

Dec. 1 The Punjab and Haryana High Court convicts BJP MP and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu of causing the death of Gurnam Singh on Dec 27,1988 over a parking row in Patiala. He submits resignation letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker. Full Story
Dec. 2 At least 37 persons are killed as a road overbridge collapses on the Howrah-Jamalpur Express near Bhagalpur station in Bihar. Full Story
Dec. 3 Chinese Director Hasi Chaolu's The Old Barber wins the Best Film Award and Golden Peacock at the 37th IFFI in Goa. A Short Life bags the Silver Peacock and Bangladesh director Abu Sayeed's Nirontor gets the Special Jurry Award. Full Story
Dec. 4 One hundred of the 123 accused in the 1993 Mumbai polls are convicted on various counts and the Judge P.D. Kode concludes delivery of verdict begun on September 12. Full Story
The West Bengal Assembly passes the Calcutta Hackney Carriage (Amendment) Bill, 2006 abolishing the hand-pulled rickshaw. Full Story
Byelections to 11 Assembly seats and two Lok Sabha constituencies are held. Full Story
Dec. 5 A Delhi court awards life imprisonment to former Union Minister, Shibu Soren for the 1994 murder of his private secretary Shashinath Jha. Full Story
The Assembly passes the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006. Full Story
The Supreme Court holds unconstitutional the controversial Foreigners (Tribunals for Assam) order, 2006. Full Story
The Lok Sabha passes Bill renaming Uttaranchal as Uttarakhand. Full Story
The Sensex crosses the 14000-mark. Full Story
Dec. 6 No prior sanction needed for prosecuting a public servant in corruption cases, rules the Supreme Court. Full Story
A Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court awards a three year jail term for Navjot Singh Sidhu. Full Story
The Tamil Nadu Government abolishes Common Entrance Test for admission to professional colleges. Full Story
Dec. 7 The Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K. Chandra Sekhar Rao wins the Karimnagar Lok Sabha byelection by over 2 lakh votes. The Congress bags five Assembly seats and the Bobbili Lok Sabha constituency. Full Story
Decks are cleared for renaming Uttaranchal as Uttarakhand with the Rajya Sabha passing a Bill. Full Story
Dec. 11 The hunger strike by the Trinamool Congress Chief against the alleged forcible acquisition of farmland for an automobile project in Singur of West Bengal's Hooghly district enters the eighth day. Full Story
Dec. 12 Parliament nod for Bill to accord central university status to the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad. Full Story
Dec. 13 Family members of security personnel killed in the December 13, 2001 attack on Parliament return medals to the President demanding execution of the death penalty to Mohammed Afzal. Full Story
Dec. 14 The strike called by the Left backed trade unions against the Government's "anti-people" policies throws life out of gear in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. Full Story
The Lok Sabha passes bill to extend 27 per cent quota for OBCs in Central higher educational institutions. Full Story
The Rajya Sabha passes the Prevention of Child Marriage Bill, 2004. Full Story
Dec. 15 The Lok Sabha passes the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest (Dwellers) (Recognition of Forest rights) Bill, 2005. Full Story
The Assam Assembly passes resolution to effect a change in the name of the State to Asom. Full Story
Dec. 18 The Special CBI Court in Patna acquits Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad and his wife and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi in the disproportionate assets case, an offshoot of the fodder scam. Full Story
Parliament nod for Quota Bill, Forest Bill. Full Story
Dec. 20 The Delhi High Court sentences Siddharth Vashishtha alias Manu Sharma to life in the Jessica Lal murder case. Full Story
Dec. 21 The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs clears the Government's proposal to exit from Maruti Udyog Limited. Full Story
The indefinite hunger strike by the Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee enters its 18th day. Full Story
Dec. 22 The President clears the appointment of K.G. Balakrishnan as the 37th Chief Justice of India with effect from January 14, 2007. Full Story
The RBI allows FDI and Foreign Institutional Investment (FII) in stock exchanges and depositories upto 49 per cent. Full Story
Dec. 23 The BJP president Rajnath Singh begins a three-year tenure at the party's national council session in Lucknow. Full Story
Dec. 24 Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee continues fast for the 21st day turning down a written request from the Prime Minister to call it off. Full Story
Lt. Gen. Deepak Kapoor is appointed next Vice Chief of Army Staff. Full Story
Dec. 25 The Janata Dal (Secular) national executive revokes the suspension of the Karnataka Chief Minister, H. D. Kumaraswamy and 39 other MLAs from primary membership. Full Story
Dec. 27 The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh orders medicare for the fasting Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee. Full Story
Baljeet Singh Lalli is selected Prasar Bharati CEO. Full Story
Dec. 28 The Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee calls off her hunger strike. Full Story
Dec. 29 Skeletons of children are recovered from a dry gutter in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Full Story


Events 2006 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec



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Events 2006 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Events in November 2006

Nov. 1 Air Marshal Bhushan Nilkanth Gokhale takes over as the Vice-Chief of the Air Staff. Full Story
Nov. 3 The Supreme Court reserves verdict on Ninth Schedule ambit after hearing marathon arguments spread over five days. Full Story
Nov. 6 The Supreme Court refuses to stay sealing operations in Delhi. Full Story
Gandhian S.N. Subba Rao, social activist Rani Abhay Bang, environmental scientist Anil Prakash Joshi and former World Bank vice-president Ismail Serageldin are presented with the Jamnalal Bajaj Awards. Full Story
Nov. 8 The Delhi Corporation resumes sealing of shops operating from residential property. Full Story
Nov. 9 The Union Cabinet approves proposal to repeal the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act. Full Story
Nov. 12 The 17-month-old K. Karunakaran-led Democratic Indira Congress (K) merges with the Nationalist Congress Party at a `convention' in Kochi. Full Story
Nov. 15 India and Pakistan set up an anti-terrorism mechanism following talks between Foreign Secretaries Shivshankar Menon and Riaz Mohammad Khan in New Delhi. Full Story
Nov. 19 The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai is presented with the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2005 in New Delhi. Full Story
Nov. 20 The Chinese President, Hu Jintao, arrives in New Delhi on a four-day state visit, when the two nations are celebrating the Year of Friendship." Full Story
Nov. 21 "China and India are not rivals or competitors but are partners for mutual benefit", says the joint declaration issued after Hu Jintao Manmohan Singh talks in New Delhi. Full Story
Nov. 23 The Supreme Court gives relief to 18,500 traders and professionals in Delhi allowing them to operate in residential areas. Full Story
The 37th International Film Festival of India begins in the Goa Capital Panaji. Full Story
Nov. 26 The All India Muslim Shia Personal Law Board approves a model marriage contract that gives women equal rights as men for divorce. Full Story
Rajnath Singh is re-elected BJP president for a full term until 2008, in New Delhi. Full Story
The Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, inaugurates the three-day first Asian Mayors' meet in Dehra Dun. Full Story
Nov. 28 The Union Coal Minister, Shibu Soren quits after being convicted of the murder of his former private secretary Shashinath Jha in 1994. Full Story
The designated TADA court in Mumbai convicts actor Sanjay Dutt under the Indian Arms Act in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case but acquits him of conspiracy, terrorism charges. Full Story
Nov. 30 The Rajinder Sachar Committee report on the social, economic and educational status of Muslims is tabled in Parliament. Full Story
The Trinamool Congress members go on a rampage in the West Bengal Assembly and indulge in large-scale vandalism. Full Story


Events 2006 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec



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Events 2006 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Events in October 2006

Oct. 1 Pondicherry becomes Puducherry with the provisions of the Pondicherry (Alteration of Name) Act, 2006 coming into effect. Full Story
Oct. 3 Irom Sharmila Chanu on an indefinite fast for the past six years seeking repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Manipur arrives in New Delhi.
Oct. 5 Security personnel kill the two Al Mansooreen militants involved in the attack on the CRPF headquarters ending a 20-hour battle. Seven policemen lose their lives. Full Story
The nation-wide dengue toll touches 39. Full Story
Oct. 6 The Delhi police arrest human rights activist Irom Sharmila Chanu. Full Story
Oct. 7 The Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee recommends repeal of Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. Full Story
Oct. 10 The ban on employment of children below 14 as domestic help comes into effect. Full Story
The CBI files case against the former Defence Minister George Fernandes for `irregularities' in the Rs.1,125 crore Barak Missile procurement deal. Full Story
Oct. 13 The Gujarat High Court holds as unconstitutional the setting up of the U.C. Bannerjee Committee by the Railway Ministry to probe the Godhra train carnage on February 27, 2002. Full Story
E-filing of tax returns for corporates made mandatory. Full Story
Oct. 15 The dengue toll crosses 100 and New Delhi accounts for 34 deaths. Full Story
Oct. 17 The Delhi High Court convicts Santosh Kumar Singh for the rape and murder of Priyadarshini Mattoo on January 23, 1996 at her residence in Vasant Kunj. Full Story
The DMK wins the Madurai Central Assembly byelections with the highest victory margin since 1957. Full Story
Top naxal operative Srinivas Reddy mastermind behind fabrication of rocket launchers surrenders to the police in Warangal district, Andhra Pradesh. Full Story
Oct. 19 The "creamy layer" among the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes must be excluded from the purview of reservation in employment and promotions, rules the Supreme Court. Full Story
A U.P. local court jails Ali Mohammed for raping his daughter-in-law Imrana on June 6, 2005. Full Story
Oct. 24 Pranab Mukherjee becomes External Affairs Minister and A.K.Antony gets Defence portfolio in the Cabinet reshuffle. Oscar Fernandes is Minister of State for Labour and M.H. Ambareesh is given Information and Broadcasting. Full Story
Oct. 26 The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2006 comes into effect. Full Story
Oct. 27 The Centre decides to restore cargo shipping services with Pakistan after 35 years. Full Story
Banking operations nationwide come to a standstill after 10 lakh staff go on strike to protest against the proposed outsourcing and the freeze on recruitments. Full Story
Oct. 28 The ISRO testfires Cryogenic Upper Stage, a landmark in the nation's rocket system, at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli district. Full Story
Oct. 30 The Delhi High Court sentences to death Santosh Kumar Singh main accused in the Priyadarshini Mattoo rape and murder case. Full Story
The Sensex crosses the 13000 point milestone for the first time. Full Story
Delhi traders begin a three-day bandh against resumption of the sealing drive. Full Story
Oct. 31 The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, presents the 21st Indira Gandhi Prize for National Integration to lyricist Javed Akhtar. Full Story
Admiral Sureesh Mehta takes over as the 19th Chief of the Naval Staff from Admiral Arun Prakash. Full Story


Events 2006 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec



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Events 2006 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Events in September 2006

Sep. 1 Vice-Admiral Sureesh Mehta is appointed the next Chief of Naval Staff. Full Story
Vice-Admiral Rustom Faramroze Contractor takes office as the new Director General of Coast Guard. Full Story
The Life Insurance Corporation of India completes 50 years. Full Story
Sep. 2 The former Secretary (Personnel), Pratyush Sinha is named the new Chief Vigilance Commissioner. Full Story
The Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister, Muzaffer Hussain Beigh resigns. Full Story
Sep. 3 Kerala's Public Works Minister, P.J. Joseph, resigns following allegation that he misbehaved with a woman co-passenger while flying from Chennai to Kochi on August 3. Full Story
Sep. 4 The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, presents the Tholkappiyar Award to Tamil Chief Minister, Karunanidhi at a function in Chennai. Full Story
The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, launches the year-long celebrations on the 150th Foundation Day of Madras University. Full Story
Sep. 5 The Congress expels Jagat Singh from the party primary membership. Full Story
Gulbarga MP Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi is appointed the Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee to suggest a definition of 'office of profit.' Full Story
The Arjun Munda Government in Jharkhand is reduced to a minority after four Ministers quit Cabinet. Full Story
Actor Shabana Azmi is chosen for the Gandhi International Peace Prize 2006. Full Story
Sep. 7 Pratyush Sinha assumes office as the Chief Vigilance Commissioner. Full Story
The Union Cabinet gives its nod for autonomy to JIPMER. Full Story
Sep. 8 Thirtyone people are killed after two bomb blasts in Malegaon in Maharashtra's Nashik district. Full Story
In a major arms haul, the Andhra Pradesh police recover 42 rocket launchers, 1,000 empty rocket shells in Mahabubnagar and Prakasam districts. Full Story
Sep. 11 The World Peace Gong is inaugurated at the Gandhi Smriti Centre in New Delhi to commemorate the centenary of Gandhiji's first Satyagraha. Full Story
Sep. 12 A special court holds four members of the Memon family, Yakub, Yusuf, Essa, all brothers of Tiger Memon and Rubeena sister-in-law, guilty in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. The blasts on March 12, 1993 left 257 people dead and over 700 injured. Full Story
Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K. Chandrasekhar Rao resigns his Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat. Full Story
Yes Bank and Intel launch their wi-fi banking branch network, the first such in the world. Full Story
Sep. 14 The 18-month-old Arjun Munda Government in Jharkhand falls. An Independent MLA Madhu Koda is selected CM-designate. Full Story
Sep. 15 Seven persons are arrested in the Andhra Pradesh weapons seizure case. Full Story
Sep. 18 Madhu Koda is sworn in Jharkhand Chief Minister. Full Story
Sep. 20 The Madhu Koda Government in Jharkhand wins trust vote. Full Story
Four persons are killed in police firing in Seelampur as the Delhi traders' bandh against the civic body's drive to seal unauthorised shops turns violent. Full Story
Sep. 21 Leelaben Patel (71), wife of the former Gujarat Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel is found dead in a makeshift gym at their home in Gandhinagar. Full Story
The Union Cabinet gives its nod for a Rs. 5,742-crore massive e-governance scheme. Full Story
Sep. 22 Kolkata city receives a record 218.4 mm rainfall. Full Story
Sep. 23 The Telangana Rashtra Samithi withdraws support to the UPA Government. Full Story
Sep. 24 The Centre calls off ceasefire with the ULFA. Full Story
Sep. 25 India and Germany launch major S & T initiative.
Sep. 26 The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, presents the CSIR's Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prizes for 2006 to 13 scientists. CLRI gets CSIR Award for S & T Innovations for Rural Development. Full Story
Mohammad Afzal, the mastermind behind the December 13, 2001 Parliament attack is ordered to be executed on October 20. Full Story
Sep. 27 The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, lays foundation stone for the Dedicated Freight Corridor (Eastern) Project, the largest single railway project since Independence, in Ludhiana. Full Story
Sep. 29 The Union Cabinet approves a Rs. 16,978.69-crore package for farmers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra. Full Story
Former actor Monica Bedi gets five year jail term in the fake passport case. Full Story
Four Dalits are killed by fellow villagers in Khairlanji in Maharashtra's Bhandara district.
Sep. 30 Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence behind the July 11 serial blasts on seven trains in Mumbai, say the police. Pressure cookers used as vehicle. Full Story
G.K. Pillai takes office as the Commerce Secretary. Full Story
The Centre sanctions the amalgamation of United Western Bank with the IDBI. Full Story


Events 2006 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec



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Events 2006 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Events in August 2006

Aug. 1 The Government orders a ban on child labour in restaurants and households effective October 10. Full Story
Aug. 2 Parliament approves Bill seeking to consolidate laws relating to food. Full Story
Lok Sabha passes Actuaries Bill, 2005. Full Story
Aug. 3 The Justice R. S. Pathak Inquiry Authority raps Natwar Singh and his son Jagat Singh for misusing positions in getting Iraq oil contracts. Full Story
The Rajya Sabha passes the Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill. Full Story
Aug. 7 The R. S. Pathak Inquiry Authority report is tabled in Parliament. Full Story
The "leakage" of the R. S. Pathak Inquiry Authority report holds up proceedings. Full Story
Major dams in Gujarat overflow swamping many towns. The toll in Maharashtra goes up to 52. Full Story
The havoc in Andhra Pradesh leaves 100 dead even as the Godavari and its tributaries flood many villages and island habitations. Full Story
Aug. 8 The Congress suspends the former External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh from party primary membership. Full Story
Over 2.5 lakh people are evacuated as the flood situation worsens in Gujarat. Surat city under 10 feet water. Full Story
Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh lies submerged as the Godavari flows above danger level. Full Story
Parliament passes the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill, 2006. Full Story
Aug. 10 The President, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, confers the 39th Jnanpith Award on Marathi writer Vinda Karandikar. Full Story
Aug. 11 The toll in Maharashtra rains touches 255. Full Story
The Centre announces Rs. 400 crore flood relief for Gujarat. Full Story
Aug. 13 The Centre suspends operations against the ULFA. Full Story
Aug. 17 "There is no question of our strategic nuclear autonomy being compromised," says the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, in the Rajya Sabha replying to a day-long marathon discussion on the Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear deal. Full Story
The Lok Sabha adopts a motion to set up a 15-member Joint Parliamentary Committee to define "office of profit." Full Story
Aug. 18 The President, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, gives his assent to the amended Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959, popularly known as the office of profit bill. Full Story
Aug. 19 The Thar Express chugs off from Munabao, Rajasthan on a historic journey six months after resumption of the Munabao-Khokhrapar route between India and Pakistan. Full Story
The Government decides not to bring in amendments to the Right to Information Act for now. Full Story
Aug. 21 Shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan (90), passes away in Varanasi. The U.P. Government institutes a Sangeet Ratna award in his memory. Full Story
A Bill to rename the Union Territory of Pondicherry as Puducherry is passed by the Rajya Sabha. Full Story
The Union Cabinet gives its nod for bill to provide for quota for the Other Backward Classes in Central educational institutions. Full Story
Aug. 22 Domicile requirement not needed to get elected to the Rajya Sabha, rules the apex court. Upholds open ballot for RS polls. Full Story
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K. Chandrasekhara Rao and party leader A. Narendra quit the Union Cabinet and the United Progressive Alliance. Full Story
Aug. 24 The Lok Sabha approves Bill to rename Pondicherry as Puducherry. Full Story
The Union Cabinet concedes Uttaranchal Government plea to rename the State Uttarakhand. Full Story
The Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill is passed by the Lok Sabha. Full Story
Aug. 25 The Bill to provide 27 per cent quota for OBCs is introduced in Lok Sabha. Full Story
Aug. 28 The toll in Rajasthan floods goes up to 138 with Barmer district bearing the brunt. Full Story
Aug. 31 The Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Shivshankar Menon is appointed new Foreign Secretary. Full Story
The Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister, Muzzafar Hussain Beigh loses post as People's Democratic Party Legislature Party leader. Full Story


Events 2006 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec



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