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It’s the birth anniversary of the first Prime Minister of Independent India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. After Independence, there was chaos and poverty in the country but Pandit Nehru with his visionary ideas changed the dynamics of the nation.
Born in 1889, Nehru remains the longest-serving prime minister of India. He was prime minister between August 1947 and May 1964. He passed away on May 27, 1964.
During his tenure as a Prime Minister, he laid the foundation of modern India, hence also popularly known as the architect of modern India.
At the time of Independence, India’s GDP was a paltry 3% of the world GDP. Our share in the total world income was as low as 3.8%. Dr. Manmohan Singh best illustrates our position— “the brightest jewel in the British Crown was the poorest country in the world in terms of per capita income at the beginning of the 20th century.
But in spite of everything Nehru unveiled India’s First Five Year Plan which had huge public outlay for agriculture and the primary sector. The Plan provided for 3 major public-sector hydroelectric dams– the Bhakra Nangal, the Hirakud, and the Nagarjuna Sagar.
Today these dams irrigate millions of agricultural lands thus creating India’s hydroelectric power production.
Pandit Nehru assessed that what distinguished the prosperity of the Western economy from the poverty of the Indian economy, was the deployment of science and technology.
Hence, he created a blueprint that was about the creation of a world-class institution in India and with his courage of conviction, the power of persuasion, and most importantly, a shoulder broad enough to include the greatest scientific names of the times into nation-building.
Vikram Sarabhai (Indian Space Research Programme), Sir C.V. Raman (Indian Institute of Science), Homi J. Bhabha (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre), Satish Dhawan (Indian Space Research Organization), S. S. Bhatnagar (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) and many others were running the premier institutes of scientific learning and research during that time.
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