15 August 1872 Thursday: Sri Aurobindo’s Birthday; 21 February 1878 Thursday: The Mother’s Birthday; 4 April 1910 Monday: Sri Aurobindo’s Arrival at Pondicherry; 29 March 1914 Sunday: The First Meeting of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo …   more »

Bhabha was elected president of the First United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in 1955. There he predicted the unavoidable result of the spread of nuclear technology when many nations acquire the capability to make nuclear weapons. He warned the advanced nations to restrain themselves at that stage to prevent nuclear weapon proliferation. Due to the Cold War these words fell on deaf ears, and a discriminatory Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) came into being…

Often in my career, when problems arose, I would ask myself what Bhabha would have done under the circumstances. One of the toughest was in 1990, when Prime Minister VP Singh decided to implement the Mandal Commission recommendations. The DAE had enjoyed exemption from reservation in its recruitment and promotion policies, to support merit and excellence and to make sure that the personnel would have the highest standards. However, the government order directed that all departments implement the recommendations of the Mandal Commission. I took up the matter with the Prime Minister. I started off by saying that I was asking for a waiver to which he may have strong reservations. I explained that in the interests of what we have built-up at BARC, and to preserve standards, it is necessary to get a waiver. After 20 minutes of discussion, he agreed, and signed the file exempting the Department. If I had not drawn moral strength from the principles of Bhabha, I would not have attempted to do this. …    more »