'Atal Bihari Vajpayee' was born on December 25, 1924 at Shinde Cantt in Madhya Pradesh. His father's name was Krishna Bihari Vajpayee.His grandfather Pandit Shyam Lal Vajpayee was an eminent Sanskrit scholar.
Atalji's early education took place in the local school. Later he graduated from Victoria College in Gwalior. Thereafter he passed the masters degree in political science in the first class from D.A.V. College, Kanpur. Thereafter, he admitted to the universaty for studies of Law.
While Atalji was just a student, he aligned himself to the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (R.S.S.) and later become its “Pracharak”. He is the founder member of the ‘Jansangh” then political party founded by R.S.S. After entering the politics of the country, he climbed up step by step and now he is the spotless meticulous statesman of the Indian politics.
He also took part in 'Quit India' movement and went to jail for 24 days. He specialized in the field of journalism and gained fame. Atalji wrote several books. Atalji is a skilled speaker. His manner of speaking is very infrequent. On April 6, 1980 he gained the position of national president of B.J.P. On May 16, 1996 Atalji was sworn in as the country's 10th Prime Minister. But this time he has to resign due to less numbers. On March 19, 1998 he was re-sworn in as Prime Minister of the country. On October 13, 1999 Atalji was sworn in as Prime Minister for the third time.
Atalji is not only a politician but also a recognized writer and person. His open nature makes him great. He is the first Prime Minister of India who is regard as non-controversial heart-throb of the country. Today Atalji has reached at the highest place of politics, where the person does not need any political party sticker. But his proximity is a matter of pride for any party or person.
BOOKS WRITTEN BY ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE:-
1. Meri Sansadiya Yatra ( four volumes) Meri Sansadiya Yatran is a compilation of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee's speeches delivered at the Indian Parliament over a span of more than 40 years; the book is published in four volumes.
2. Meri Ekyavan Kavitayen (poetry) This is a compilation of moving and wise poems written by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The book was first published in the year 1995.
3. Sankalp Kaal Published by Prabhat Prakashan, Sankalp Kaal was released in 2004.
4. Shakti-se-Shanti (book) The book was published by Kitabghar Prakashan in the year 2016.
5. Four Decades in Parliament Atal Bihari Vajpayee was active in Indian Politics for a long time. This book is a compilation of his speeches during the years 1957-95, published in three volumes.
6. Lok Sabha Mein Atalji Atal Bihari Vajpayee spent several decades attending the Lok Sabha meetings and his oratory skill are remembered in this book, which is a compilation of his speeches addressed at the Lok Sabha.
7. Mrityu Ya HatyaMrityu Ya Hatya is a compilation of Vajpayee's speeches, articles and slogans. It is one of his prominent works.
8. Amar Balidan Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born when the country was still under British colonial rule and his patriotism shows in his work.
9. Kaidi Kaviraj Ki Kundalian This book is a collection of Vajpayee's poems which he wrote in jail during the Emergency period.
10. New Dimensions of India's Foreign Policy This non-fiction book is a collection of Vajpayee's speeches. He had delivered these speeches as External Affairs Minister of India during the years 1977-79.
11. Jan Sangh Aur MussalmanThe book highlights Vajpayee's opinions during his long political career.
12. Sansad Mein Teen Dashak As the title suggests, the book is a compilation of Vajpayee's speeches in Parliament during the year s 1957-1992. The book is published in three volumes.
13. Amar Aag Hai Amar Aag Hai is a collection of Vajpayee's poems. It was published in 1994.
14. Kya Khoya Kya Paya: Atal Bihari Vajapeyi, Vyaktitva Aur Kavitaem This poetry book was published in the year 1999.
15. Kuchh Lekh Kuchh Bhaashan This book was published in 1996 by Kitabghar Prakashan.
16. Vichaar-Bindu Vichaar-Bindu was published in 2017 by Kitabghar Prakashan.
17. Bindu-Bindu Vichar Bindu-Bindu Vichar was published in 2014 by Kitabghar Prakashan.
18. Gathbandhan Ki Rajneeti
A respected politician and leader, Vajpayee was vital to forming our country’s post-Independence domestic and foreign policies. This book illustrates some of his beliefs.
19. Nayi Chunouti : Naya Avasar
Nayi Chunouti : Naya Avasar was published by Kitabghar Prakashan in 2017.
20. Na Dainyam Na Palaynam
Na Dainyam Na Palaynam was published by Kitabghar Prakashan in 2016.
Today's 'Google Doodle' marks the 45th anniversary of the forest conservation initiative called the Chipko Movement.
Who doesn't know about the famous tree-hugging movement? Chipko movement found momentum in 1970s and derived its name from the way people embraced trees symbolising protection of forest from being cut.
The word 'Chipko' is Hindi for 'to stick to' and the way people expressed solidarity with the movement was by surrounding trees and linking their hands together around it, to physically prevent them from being chopped down. The original Chipko Movement dates back to the 18th century. A large group of people from the Bishnoi community in Rajasthanresisted felling of trees by hugging them.
In modern India, Chipko Movement started in April 1973 in Uttar Pradesh's Mandal village in the upper Alakananda valley. Soon it spread to other Himalayan districts of the state. The Chipko Movement was triggered by a government decision to allot forest land to a sports goods company. Angered by the move, villagers formed circles around the trees to prevent them from being cut. The Chipko Movement, leaded by local women, was spearheaded by Chand Chandi Prasad Bhatt and his NGO Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh. Inspired by the success in Uttar Pradesh, the Chipko Movement spread to other parts of the country. Some of the key figures that were part of the Chipko Movement were Dhoom Singh Negi, Bachni Devi, Gaura Devi and Sudesha Devi.
Even as voices on privatisation and consolidation of public sector banks (PSBs) grow louder, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has ruled out any such plans in the next one year.
Since the Rs 13,000 crore-plus Nirav Modi-related fraud unearthed last month at India’s second largest government-owned lender Punjab National Bank, multiple frauds have surfaced at various other PSBs as well. Experts, including Reserve Bank of India’s Governor Urjit Patel, have raised concerns on ownership and structure of the banks.
“The Finance Minister has categorically stated that no public sector banks will be merged or privatised in the next one year. He said they want to improve the banks but there is no plan to privatise them for now, for one year at least,” a bank union official who attended a meeting with the FM and nine union heads, said.
Former NITI Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya in an interview with PTI had made a strong case for privatisation of public sector banks, saying, “I firmly believe that privatisation of all PSBs except perhaps the State Bank of India (SBI) should be on the election manifestos of all parties who wish to present themselves as serious candidates to form the government in 2019
Even as voices on privatisation and consolidation of public sector banks (PSBs) grow louder, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has ruled out any such plans in the next one year.
Since the Rs 13,000 crore-plus Nirav Modi-related fraud unearthed last month at India’s second largest government-owned lender Punjab National Bank, multiple frauds have surfaced at various other PSBs as well. Experts, including Reserve Bank of India’s Governor Urjit Patel, have raised concerns on ownership and structure of the banks.
“The Finance Minister has categorically stated that no public sector banks will be merged or privatised in the next one year. He said they want to improve the banks but there is no plan to privatise them for now, for one year at least,” a bank union official who attended a meeting with the FM and nine union heads, said.
Former NITI Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya in an interview with PTI had made a strong case for privatisation of public sector banks, saying, “I firmly believe that privatisation of all PSBs except perhaps the State Bank of India (SBI) should be on the election manifestos of all parties who wish to present themselves as serious candidates to form the government in 2019.
The FM said ‘we are not hurrying up to proceed with the merger because the banks are not in a good condition and hence there is no point in merging weaker banks’… Many banks are weak and there is no point in getting two weaker banks to get married to create an even bigger weak bank.”
CH Venkatachalam, General Secretary of All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA), leading the delegation at FM's meet, said, “We met the Finance Minister to address our concerns on the PNB fraud and bringing back Nirav Modi (the alleged perpetrator of the fraud). He assured the investigations are going on…We have to await more action from the government.”
According to Venkatachalam, the FM also said that we cannot attribute the frauds limited to public sector banks only and that frauds can take place anywhere and ownership is not a factor.
While questions have been raised on auditors of the bank as well as the supervisory team of the RBI, Patel has pointed out that RBI’s legal powers to supervise and regulate PSBs are constrained and they cannot remove PSB directors or management, who are appointed by the government of India, nor can it force a merger or trigger the liquidation of a PSB.
Aadhaar-based UIDAI project architect Nandan Nilekani (also Infosys chairman) last week said that the "original rationale" for bank nationalisation has ceased to exist and that privatisation is the way forward for PSBs, which will also be in the taxpayers' interest to get them some value citing decline market share of PSBs.
Last year, many public sector bank chiefs were asked to submit memorandum of understanding (MoUs) to elaborate their strengths and weaknesses and also their possible outlook on merger options.
Mails sent to the finance ministry on the privatisation and consolidation plans remained unanswered.
Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on Friday, “Syndicate Bank, Canara Bank, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank have apprised that they have not made presentations about their merger or consolidation to the Ministry of Finance."
While Jaitley has been vocal about consolidation of PSBs, he has maintained that they need to be strengthened first.
Last year, SBI's five associates and the Bharatiya Mahila Bank were merged with SBI, catapulting the country's largest lender to among the top 50 banks in the world
British cosmologist Stephen William Hawking was born in England on Jan. 8, 1942 — 300 years to the day after the death of the astronomer Galileo Galilei. He attended University College, Oxford, where he studied physics, despite his father's urging to focus on medicine. Hawking went on to Cambridge to research cosmology, the study of the universe as a whole.
In early 1963, just shy of his 21st birthday, Hawking was diagnosed with motor neuron disease, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was not expected to live more than two years. Completing his doctorate did not appear likely. Yet, Hawking defied the odds, not only attaining his Ph.D. but also forging new roads into the understanding of the universe in the decades since.
As the disease spread, Hawking became less mobile and began using a wheelchair. Talking grew more challenging and, in 1985, an emergency tracheotomy caused his total loss of speech. A speech-generating device constructed at Cambridge, combined with a software program, served as his electronic voice, allowing Hawking to select his words by moving the muscles in his cheek.
Just before his diagnosis, Hawking met Jane Wilde, and the two were married in 1965. The couple had three children before separating. Hawking remarried in 1995 but divorced in 2006.
A brilliant mind
Hawking continued at Cambridge after his graduation, serving as a research fellow and later as a professional fellow. In 1974, he was inducted into the Royal Society, a worldwide fellowship of scientists. In 1979, he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, the most famous academic chair in the world (the second holder was Sir Isaac Newton, also a member of the Royal Society.
Over the course of his career, Hawking studied the basic laws governing the universe. He proposed that, since the universe boasts a beginning — the Big Bang— it likely will have an ending. Working with fellow cosmologist Roger Penrose, he demonstrated that Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity suggests that space and time began at the birth of the universe and ends within black holes, which implies that Einstein's theory and quantum theory must be united.
Using the two theories together, Hawking also determined that black holes are not totally silent but instead emit radiation. He predicted that, following the Big Bang, black holes as tiny as protons were created, governed by both general relativity and quantum mechanics. [PHOTOS: Black Holes of the Universe]
Professor Stephen Hawking experiences the freedom of weightlessness during a zero gravity flight.
Credit: ZERO-G
In 2014, Hawking revised his theory, even writing that " there are no black holes" — at least, in the way that cosmologists traditionally understand them. His theory removed the existence of an "event horizon," the point where nothing can escape. Instead, he proposed that there would be an "apparent horizon" that would alter according to quantum changes within the black hole. But the theory remains controversial. [Portrait of Genius: Stephen Hawking Exhibit Photos]
Hawking also proposed that the universe itself has no boundary, much like the Earth. Although the planet is finite, one can travel around it (and through the universe) infinitely, never encountering a wall that would be described as the "end."
Hawking's books
Hawking was a popular writer. His first book, "A Brief History of Time" (10th anniversary edition: Bantam, 1998) was first published in 1988 and became an international best seller. In it, Hawking aimed to communicate questions about the birth and death of the universe to the layperson.
He and his daughter, Lucy Hawking, also created a fictional series of books for middle school children on the creation of the universe, including "George and the Big Bang" (Simon & Schuster, 2012).
Hawking made several television appearances, including a playing hologram of himself on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and a cameo on the television show "Big Bang Theory." PBS presented an educational miniseries titled "Stephen Hawking's Universe," which probes the theories of the cosmologist.
In 2014, a movie based on Hawking's life was released. Called "The Theory of Everything," the film drew praise from Hawking, who said it made him reflect on his own life. "Although I'm severely disabled, I have been successful in my scientific work," Hawking wrote on Facebook in November 2014. "I travel widely and have been to Antarctica and Easter Island, down in a submarine and up on a zero-gravity flight. One day, I hope to go into space."
Stephen Hawking quotes
Hawking's quotes range from notable to poetic to controversial. Among them:
"Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing? "
"All of my life, I have been fascinated by the big questions that face us, and have tried to find scientific answers to them. If, like me, you have looked at the stars, and tried to make sense of what you see, you too have started to wonder what makes the universe exist."
"Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in."
"The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired. "
"We should seek the greatest value of our action."
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."
"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change."
"It is not clear that intelligence has any long-term survival value. "
"One cannot really argue with a mathematical theorem."
"It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven't done badly. People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining."
"I relish the rare opportunity I've been given to live the life of the mind. But I know I need my body and that it will not last forever."
A list of Hawking quotes would be incomplete without mentioning some of his more controversial statements.
"It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million...Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward-looking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space." — August 2010
"[W]e must … continue to go into space for the future of humanity…I don't think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping beyond our fragile planet." — November 2016
"We are running out of space and the only places to go to are other worlds. It is time to explore other solar systems. Spreading out may be the only thing that saves us from ourselves. I am convinced that humans need to leave Earth." — June 2017
"Time travel used to be thought of as just science fiction, but Einstein's general theory of relativity allows for the possibility that we could warp space-time so much that you could go off in a rocket and return before you set out. I was one of the first to write about the conditions under which this would be possible. I showed it would require matter with negative energy density, which may not be available. Other scientists took courage from my paper and wrote further papers on the subject," he told Parade in 2010.
"Science is not only a disciple of reason, but, also, one of romance and passion."
The theoretical physicist was also concerned that robots could not only have an impact on the economy but also mean doom for humanity.
"The automation of factories has already decimated jobs in traditional manufacturing, and the rise of artificial intelligence is likely to extend this job destruction deep into the middle classes, with only the most caring, creative or supervisory roles remaining," he wrote in a 2016 column in The Guardian.
"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race," he told the BBC in 2014. Hawking added, however, that AI developed to date has been helpful. It's more the self-replication potential that worries him. "It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded."
"The genie is out of the bottle. I fear that AI may replace humans altogether," Hawking told WIRED in November 2017.
"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going." — The Grand Design, by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow
"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail…There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark." — 2011 interview with The Guardian
"Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation. What I meant by 'we would know the mind of God' is, we would know everything that God would know, if there were a God, which there isn't. I'm an atheist." — 2014 interview in El Mundo
