Senior Sponsorship Archives - understand-culture

The Prime Minister in Anand

In 1964 Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri visited Anand, in Gujarat, where farmers owned the Amul dairy cooperative. He spent a night in a village in Kaira district as a farmer’s guest. Afterward he wrote to the Chief Ministers: “We envisage a large programme of co-operative dairies during the Fourth Plan.”

In 1965 the government created the National Dairy Development Board. Shastri asked Verghese Kurien of Amul to lead it. Kurien later recalled that Shastri wanted to “transplant the spirit of Anand in many other places.”

This Guy Has Ideas

In early 1984 the engineer Sam Pitroda presented his plan for Indian telecommunications to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Her son Rajiv was in the room. In Pitroda’s account, published in Open magazine, Rajiv said: “Mom, listen to this. This guy has ideas.” She gave Pitroda an hour.

Later that year Pitroda founded the Centre for Development of Telematics, C-DOT, with Rajiv Gandhi’s backing. According to Pitroda’s website, it began in five rooms of a run-down government hotel.

Seeds from Mexico

In August 1964 the agriculture minister, C. Subramaniam, approved M.S. Swaminathan’s national demonstration program for Mexican semi-dwarf wheat. He overruled objections from skeptical officials. For the winter crop of 1966-67, India planted about 18,000 tonnes of imported seed. The Royal Asiatic Society of Bombay gives 18,200 tonnes.

Subramaniam also won over Prime Minister Shastri. ThePrint reports that in 1966 he had the garden of his house in Delhi dug up to plant the new wheat.

Pather Panchali

Satyajit Ray began shooting his first film, Pather Panchali, with a producer who later went bankrupt. Ray pawned his wife’s jewelry and sold rare books and records, and the money was still not enough. He then approached Bidhan Chandra Roy, the Chief Minister of West Bengal.

The state government part financed the film. LatestLY reports that it was “part financed by the West Bengal Roads Department.” Swarajya reports that Roy asked for a happier ending, and that Ray refused.

The Script Aamir Khan Refused

When Ashutosh Gowariker first told Aamir Khan the idea for Lagaan, Khan turned it down within five minutes as “a strange story.” Gowariker came back three months later with a full script. Khan loved it, but he said: “I am scared to say yes. I can’t do it.”

Gowariker then told the story to Khan’s parents. “They were crying throughout,” Khan recalled. “Mother said you should do this and it gave me confidence.” Lagaan was released in 2001.

A School of Physics

In 1944 the physicist Homi Bhabha wrote to the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. He asked for funds to create “a school of physics comparable to the best anywhere in the world.” J.R.D. Tata had suggested that he write to the trust’s chairman, and Tata backed the proposal. The funds were sanctioned at once.

The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research began work on June 1, 1945.

The First Music Director

“Ghulam Haider was the first music director who showed complete faith in my talent,” Lata Mangeshkar said. “He introduced me to many producers including S. Mukerji, a big name in film production, but when he too rejected me, Ghulam Haider was very furious.”

Ghulam Haider then convinced Bombay Talkies, “a banner bigger than S. Mukerji.” Lata sang his song Dil Mera Toda in the film Majboor (1948).

The Broom

On October 2, 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Clean India campaign, Swachh Bharat, by taking up a broom himself. He swept a small area of Valmiki Colony in New Delhi “with party colleagues and residents,” Business Standard reported. He then named nine people to carry the campaign forward, among them Sachin Tendulkar and Priyanka Chopra.

The First Dose

On January 16, 2021, India began vaccinating against Covid-19. Randeep Guleria, the director of AIIMS in New Delhi, received a dose that day, shown on live television. Two days later he said: “I have no side-effects. I am feeling perfectly alright.”

On March 1, 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took his first dose of Covaxin at AIIMS. Guleria said: “It will go a long way in getting over vaccine hesitancy.”

He Took the Blame

In 1979 the first flight of India’s satellite launch vehicle, SLV-3, failed. Satish Dhawan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, faced the press himself. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the project director, later recalled: “He took the whole blame on himself despite criticisms.” Dhawan told the press that “next year we would succeed because his team was a very good one.”