A Difficult Year
The country's economy took a beating after the 1971 war with Pakistan. With crop failure, a serious fall in food production and declining industrial growth, inflation skyrocketed and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was forced to admit that it was "a very difficult year". India had to resort to loans from Japan, Britain, Canada and the World Bank even as it strove to increase the volume of bilateral trade with Russia. Diplomatic ties in the neighbourhood did not seem to be heading anywhere, with the prime minister rejecting Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's invitation to visit Pakistan.
Unsettling ResistanceThe Shanti Bahini guerrillas, his home in France. members of the Chakma tribe, took up arms after Bangladesh rejected their demands for autonomy over a 5,500-sq mile region bordering India and Burma. They demanded the ouster of over three lakh people settled in their original homeland. There have been many armed clashes between the Shanti Bahini and the Bangladeshi military.
Tank Top
The largest ship in the Indian merchant fleet, the supertanker Jawaharlal Nehru, with a dead weight tonnage of 88,000, was launched on February 4.
Prized Prince- Karan SinghThrough agreements between the Centre and the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the title and power of the Sadar-i-Riyasat, Karan Singh, had been abolished. In exchange, Singh became a Central Cabinet minister in 1973, in charge of Tourism and Aviation. Because of the special status of J&K and his lineage, Singh became a prominent member of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's cabinet and was soon elevated to the better Ministry of Health and Family Planning. In 1974, he made headlines when he said at the first-ever World Population Conference, "Development is the best contraceptive.
Reaping Reward The Food
and Agriculture Organisation of the UN presented Indira Gandhi with the
Ceres medal in recognition of the advances made in the Green Revolution. |
