Latest news with #NarasimhaRao
Hans India
21-07-2025
- Automotive
- Hans India
Devotee-cum-donor transforms temple & its ambience
Vijayawada: The Ramalingeswara temple in Yanamalakuduru, Vijayawada, situated on a hillock, is no longer a standalone pilgrim centre that attracts thousands of devotees during the Prabha Mahotsvam held as part of Sivaratri celebrations. Thanks to the steely resolve of an ardent devotee, Sanga Narasimha Rao, who is also a donor to the temple's enhancements, the shrine today has a multi-level parking complex that can accommodate 600 cars, 15,000 two-wheelers and capacious halls on the top floor for spiritual gatherings. It was built at a cost of Rs 50 crore. The temple now also has an an Annadanam complex, built at a cost of Rs 12 crore, in which 2,500 devotees can be served food at a time. Besides, 50 cottages are being built with expert guidance from engineers drawn from Mumbai, Madras and Kharagpur IITs. With the foregoing enhanced facilities and improved amenities, pilgrims can now afford to stay there comfortably and visit other prominent temples across Krishna district, particularly the Sri Kanaka Durga temple in Vijayawada, Subrahmanyeswara Swamy temple at Mopidevi, and Pandurangaswamy temple in Chilakalapudi near Machilipatnam. Narasimha Rao, the moving spirit behind these new facilities and improved amenities, when contacted by The Hans India, shared that the multi-level parking complex would meet the parking demands for the next five to six decades. He expressed his strong resolve to further enhance facilities for pilgrims, considering the increasing number of devotees visiting the temple. About infrastructure development around the temple, which bustles with activity during Maha Sivaratri celebrations, Narasimha Rao said developing temple infrastructure would be easy 'if individuals are given a free hand'. In the context, he pointed to the multi-level parking complex. The top floor of the complex, with its expansive 50,000 square yards of carpet area, which can be utilised for spiritual gatherings, with space for accommodating thousands of people coming for pravachanams. Narasimha Rao said that 50 cottages are being constructed near the temple to provide accommodation, which will greatly benefit thousands of devotees who visit Vijayawada daily. By staying in these cottages, visitors can conveniently explore all the important temples in the combined Krishna district. Regarding the widening of the narrow ghat road at certain points, Narasimha Rao highlighted that it was a specially designed project where engineers ingeniously used girders with remarkable engineering expertise. Narasimha Rao pitched for prioritising infrastructure improvement and proper upkeep of temples across the state.
The Hindu
16-07-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Andhra Pradesh CM Naidu defends Hindi in schools, says P.V. Narasimha Rao, a scholar in 17 languages, is an example
Amid the ongoing row over alleged imposition of Hindi in schools through the National Education Policy (NEP), Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has defended the Union government's proposal, saying that the former Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, has become a famed scholar by learning 17 languages. 'P.V. Narasimha Rao was a scholar, fluent in 17 language. Now, we are talking why should we learn Hindi. Narasimha Rao had become a great man as he not only learnt Hindi but other languages too,' Mr. Naidu said while delivering the sixth of the PMs' lecture series on the topic, 'The life and legacy of P.V. Narasimha Rao', at the Prime Ministers' Museum and Library, in New Delhi on Tuesday. Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan and HRD Minister N. Lokesh had already unequivocally supported promoting Hindi as a language. Mr. Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena Party and Mr. Naidu-led TDP are partners in the NDA from South India. Recalling Narasimha Rao's contribution in nation-building, Mr. Naidu, 'I had a very good equation with him and knew him very well. The Telugu community is proud of him. He was a true 'Telugu Bidda' who had reshaped the destiny of our great nation,' Mr. Naidu observed. Speaking about the pre-1991 economic scenario, Mr. Naidu outlined how the country had been shackled under the 'License Raj', with growth stagnating at 3-4%. By 1991, India was saddled in an unprecedented economic crisis, and foreign reserves dropped dangerously low, he said. Comparing Narasimha Rao's strategic courage to that of Deng Xiaoping of China, who initiated China's reforms in 1978, Mr. Naidu said the former Prime Minister had recognised crisis as an opportunity and launched the historic 1991 economic reforms, decisively transforming India's future. 'We are all here today enjoying the fruits of the reforms he initiated,' Mr. Naidu asserted. Praising the political acumen of Narasimha Rao, the Chief Minister said, despite leading a minority government, he had achieved the near-impossible by forging consensus among Socialists, Communists, and Capitalists alike. Narasimha Rao had played a key role in ending the License Raj and welcoming foreign investment, and setting the stage for India's IT revolution in the mid-1990s. 'Thanks to his reforms, India overcame its balance of payments crisis, opened up its economy, and set the stage for future growth,' Mr. Naidu said. He credited Narasimha Rao with the IT boom that was witnessed after the economic liberalisation. The Chief Minister also recalled his association with the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, recognising his vision in building India's infrastructure and telecom backbone. Further, Mr. Naidu described 2014 as a turning point, and credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi with ushering in a new era of bold, decisive leadership. 'Under Mr. Modi's stewardship, India rose from the 11th to the 4th largest economy, with a clear trajectory to become the 3rd largest by 2028,' Mr. Naidu emphasised. 'Mr. Modi is as a leader who instills national pride, global respect, and strong foreign relations,' he said. Drawing comparisons to other economies, he remarked that 'the goal is not just to grow fast, but to grow fairly, where every citizen, every region, and every sector shares fruits of progress, rightly called Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas.' He also noted that according to the World Bank, India was among the top four most income-equal countries, lifting over 17.1 crore Indians out of poverty in the last decade. 'Public policy must serve the people. For it to work effectively, we need stable governments and visionary leaders,' Mr. Naidu asserted. He highlighted India's global recognition in space, healthcare, entrepreneurship, and the rise of Indian billionaires as symbols of this transformation. Later, Mr. Naidu took questions from the audience during which he elaborated his vision for Andhra Pradesh, particularly in the technology sector. He said that the Quantum Valley initiative was in line with the National Quantum Mission, aiming to create India's answer to Silicon Valley. He highlighted curriculum reforms, youth leadership in his party, and a conscious effort to bring young, educated MLAs into governance. On agriculture, he said, 'We must handhold agriculture as our traditional occupations evolve.' On equitable wealth distribution, he emphasised the need to align the aspirations of farmers with broader policy reforms. Mr. Naidu added, 'I am 100% confident that by 2047, India will be the No. 1 country in the world. When we celebrate 100 years of Independence, Indians will lead the world.' The Chief Minister felicitated the former Prime Minister's son, P.V. Prabhakar Rao, and grandson N.V. Subhash on the occasion.
Mint
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Mint
When Bill Clinton praised India's cultural diversity
The mortal danger, of losing our democracy, was far from apparent in May 1994, when Prime Minister Narasimha Rao paid his first and only state visit to the United States of America. Although it came a bare seven years after Rajiv Gandhi's visit in 1987, it far surpassed the former in importance for it took place in a world transformed by the end of the Cold War and an India transformed by its new-found economic freedom. In the US, the Democrats had returned to power after being in the wilderness for twelve years. Victory in the Cold War had released US foreign policy from its straitjacket, and revived some of the expansive generosity it had shown towards Germany, and the developing countries, in the first decades after the end of the Second World War. The India that Narasimha Rao represented was also radically different from the one that had existed seven years earlier, for its economy was no longer hemmed in by import bans and sky-high tariffs. The integration of its large home market with that of the rest of the world was well under way, and was being watched avidly by American investors. At the White House press conference that followed Rao's one-on-one meeting with Bill Clinton on May 19, the President paid India a tribute that few of those who heard it have forgotten. He began his statement to the assembled media by listing the subjects he had discussed with Rao from a few slips of paper in his hands—clearly aides-memoire from his aides. Then, with the briefest of pauses, he added, 'Along with the US, India is one of the world's great experiments in multi-cultural democracy. His people have fought for more than four decades now to keep democracy alive under the most amazing challenges.' These remarks were not scripted for he did not look down at the notes that he had been consulting earlier even once. More than what he said, it was the tone in which he said it, and the slight emphasis he put on the word 'amazing', that revealed the depth of his admiration for India's achievement. Clinton's praise in 1994 was sincere. As a Rhodes scholar and student of philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University, he had perceived what few others had till then: that in sharp contrast to nation building in Europe and North America, India had succeeded in turning itself into a modern nation-state without taking recourse to war. After the end of the colonial era in the 1960s, 130 new countries had joined the United Nations. All but a few had started out as democracies. Only five had been able to sustain and stabilize it. India was by far the largest and most complex among them. So, as the leader of the world's richest and most powerful democracy, Clinton's praise for India's success was not therefore simply a diplomatic courtesy, but was born out of a genuine desire to understand how India had done it. What made the Indian experience unique was the starting point from which it had begun. The European nation-state had been born out of protracted conflict... most devastating of all, the Thirty Years' War in continental Europe from 1618 to 1648, which cost eight million lives through battle, disease and famine. The horrific destruction of that war led to the Treaty of Westphalia, which was Europe's first concerted effort to create the foundations of peace and proscribe war. This was easier said than done. In the three centuries that followed its signature, the nascent nation-states of Europe had to defend their borders from attack while simultaneously suppressing upsurges of sub-regional loyalties within them. By gradual degrees they learned to minimize external threats by creating well-marked and heavily defended 'hard' frontiers with their neighbours; the internal one, from sub-nationalism, was met by fostering the growth of a single, homogeneous cultural narrative. The rise of industrial capitalism reinforced both these tendencies by bringing a third element into this mix of motives: this was the competition to industrialize. This created the rationale for a further hardening of the boundaries between nation-states... . Thus, by degrees the nation-state became an instrument for the creation and preservation of economic autarchy. Economic autarchy further deepened cultural, political and economic divisions that nation building had already created between the people of neighbouring countries. The penultimate step in nation building was cultural homogenization. This was achieved by enforcing a common language and a single, sanitized version of history. In communities where this too did not work, nation-states played their last card. That was 'ethnic cleansing'.... By the early twentieth century, forced homogenization and ethnic cleansing had become the defining features of the European nation-state. Its bestiality reached its nadir in the Holocaust in which Hitler's Nazis starved, worked or gassed to death six million Jews shipped into Germany and Poland from all over Europe, and took human civilization to the lowest point in its 5,000-year history of unremitting violence.… In sharp contrast to European nation building, the Indian state is founded upon a ready acceptance of India's ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural diversity. India has more than 2,000 ethnic groups, and twenty-nine principal languages, of which thirteen are spoken by more than ten million people, and another sixteen that are spoken by more than a million. Twelve of the thirteen major languages belong to powerful ethno-linguistic groups that have lived in independent kingdoms for several centuries at a time over the past two millennia. Taken in its entirety, India has the most complex and at the same time most flexible system of devolution and power sharing that the world has ever known. The measure of its success is not that there has been no ethnic conflict in India, but that there has been so little, and that accommodation has been reached in all cases but one, with little violence. Excerpted with permission from Speaking Tiger Books. Also read: Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro: A laptop for Android loyalists who secretly desire Apple's ecosystem play
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Business Standard
28-06-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
Telangana CM pays tribute to PV Narasimha Rao on 104th birth anniversary
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, his cabinet colleagues and other leaders paid rich tributes to former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao on his 104th birth anniversary. Revanth Reddy paid floral tributes to the portrait of Narasimha Rao, who hailed from Telangana, an official release said. Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and other ministers visited 'PV Gyan Bhoomi', Narasimha Rao's memorial here, and paid tributes to the departed leader. Laxman, former BJP MLC N Ramchander Rao, Telangana BJP spokesperson and Narasimha Rao's grandson N V Subhash also offered tributes to the former Prime Minister. Accusing the Congress of "failing" to honour Narasimha Rao, Laxman said it was the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that recognised the former PM's stellar contributions by conferring Bharat Ratna award on him. Hailing Narasimha Rao as the architect of economic reforms in the country, BRS Working President K T Rama Rao said the former Prime Minister was a reformist, polyglot, poet and statesman. The previous BRS regime in Telangana honoured Narasimha Rao by naming the state's veterinary university and the popular Necklace Road in Hyderabad after him, he said in a post on X. Born on June 28, 1921 near Karimnagar in Telangana, Narasimha Rao served as Prime Minister of India from 1991 to 1996. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian Express
07-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
For a $5 trillion economy, India must embrace cutting-edge tech
The Indian economy is on the threshold of crossing another milestone and becoming the fourth-largest in the world. It is a commendable achievement for a country that began its journey as an independent nation in 1947 with a meagre $33-billion economy. Decades of British exploitation left it significantly weakened and poor. The Jawaharlal Nehru government's Soviet-style central planning, while promoting heavy industries and the public sector, led to low economic growth of 3-4 per cent, pejoratively described as the 'Hindu rate of growth'. In 40 years, it could only reach the $266 billion mark. The first major leap came in 1991 when the Narasimha Rao government introduced economic liberalisation and unleashed the potential of Indian entrepreneurs. The opportunity offered by the digital revolution with the introduction of the internet was quickly seized by some of India's brightest tech entrepreneurs. The Indian economy grew manifold in the next two decades on the strength of its services economy, which contributed 60 per cent of the nation's GDP. The economy crossed $2 trillion by the time the Narendra Modi government came to power. The last 10 years have seen the Modi government giving greater emphasis to faster economic growth through programmes like Stand-Up India, Start-Up India and Make in India. The results are there to see. IMF data from May has projected that the Indian economy will overtake Japan this year, reaching the $4.19 trillion mark. Japan was once a $5.8 trillion economy but has shrunk to $ 4.18 trillion due to stagnation and slow growth rates since the 1990s. As India demonstrated promising growth, naysayers rushed forward to raise the hollow bogey of per capita income. Per capita income is determined by factors like the size of the population. India is the world's most populous country. As a result, whatever may be the size of GDP, its per capita figures are bound to remain low. No country's growth can be measured on the criterion of per capita income alone. Although the US is the world's largest economy with a $28 trillion GDP, it ranks seventh in per capita. China, the second-largest economy with $18 trillion, ranks 69. The per capita argument is worthless because even if India becomes the world's largest economy with $30 trillion, it will still be ranked 55th in terms of per capita. The only merit of this argument is that the country should be able to provide better living standards to all its citizens. In democracies, the fruits of economic growth percolate to all sections of society. This is reflected in the consumption patterns. Surveys indicate that the monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) has increased in India by more than 2.5 times in the last 10 years. Interestingly, most of this expenditure was on travel, health and education, indicating healthy growth parameters. Tourism has seen remarkable growth in the last 10 years. China still occupies the first rank in the number of domestic and international travellers. India lagged in this sector for decades due to a lack of disposable income and tourism infrastructure. But today, with the incomes of the middle class growing substantially, Indians have started travelling more. Data indicates about 2.5 billion domestic tourist visits last year. Figures for 2024 indicate that almost 29 million Indians travelled abroad marking a 30 per cent growth. All this indicates healthy economic growth, which has led to the near eradication of baseline poverty and the creation of a strong middle class with disposable income. The Modi government aspires to take the economy to further heights with targets ranging from $ 5 trillion in 2027 to $10 trillion in 2035. The current impressive growth is a result of corrective measures taken by the government. It removed parallel economy, allowed proper distribution of wealth and encouraged greater consumption. But the path from here needs to be calibrated carefully. Economies grow on the strength not just of consumption but also trade and technology. Quality, quantity and speed are the main determining factors. India and China were leading economies until the middle of the 18th century. But when the industrial revolution occurred first in England and later in America, those two countries surged ahead and became leading economic powers by the dawn of the 20th century. When automation and digitisation progressed in the last decades of the last century, China moved ahead of the curve, emerging as the second-largest economy by 2008. We are now in the post-manufacturing and post-digital era. Growth in frontier technologies will determine a country's economic future. A country of India's size and capability cannot just think perpetually in terms of catching up with the developed West and the rest. It has to, instead, think in terms of moving ahead of the curve. We missed the first two industrial revolutions as we were a slave nation at that time. We benefitted partially from the third, digital revolution of the 1980s and '90s and became a leader in sectors like IT services. But the Fourth Industrial Revolution, led by Artificial Intelligence (AI), quantum technologies, robotics, space, defence, crypto and bio-engineering calls for new thinking and new priorities. The impressive growth of the Indian economy in the last decade was largely due to the unleashing of its basic potential. The trajectory from here should be more strategic, with greater emphasis on deep-tech R&D, an area in which we lag. It is important to create a climate of hassle-free access to investments in these areas. Only then can India aspire to achieve its goal of becoming a $10 trillion economy in the next 10 years. The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP
