LOVE

RESEARCH, REFERENCE AND TRAINING DIVISION
(Ministry of Information and Broadcasting)

The Diary

Vol. XLIV

1 - 15 January, 2001

(Pausa 11-26, 1922)

No.19

NATIONAL EVENT

January 2 Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd slashes internet access rate.

January 4 Indigenously built Light Combat Aircraft makes its maiden flight.

January 5 Pilotless aircraft 'Lakshya' is successfully inducted.

                                                   January 8 Film Ffnancier Bharat Shah is arrested in Mumbai.

                                                January 10 Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee arrives in Jakarta.

        January 11 Hurriyat announces its five-member team for Pak visit.

        January 12 MTNL slashes its cellphone prices.

INTERNATIONAL

January 6 US closes its Rome Embassy to public following specific threats.

January 7 World's Highest hotel to open in Mount Everest.

                                                January 13 Legendary US engineer William Hewlett passes away .

This fortnightly service brings to focus the major national and international events for record and reference by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and its media units.

January 1

Indian doctor Dr. N.K. Srivastava is appointed as the Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services for terminally ill patients.
India and Pakistan exchange documents listing their nuclear installations and facilities under an agreement signed in 1988.

January 2

Government gives its nod to uniform sales tax on air turbine fuel (ATF) for turbo-prop aircraft, sponge iron at 4 per cent by amending the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956.
Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. Slashes its dial-up Internet access rates by 50 per cent.

January 3

Reserve Bank of India revises norms for new private banks including conversion of Non-Banking Finance Companies into banking ventures.

January 4

India's indigenously built Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) undertakes its landmark first flight in Bangalore.
According to Forbes billionaire list 2000, India's Azim Premji and Dhirubhai Ambani are among the 50 richest in the world.
Union Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar resigns following differences in the Samata Party.

January 5

The pilotless target aircraft 'Lakshya' is successfully inducted into the IAF.
Central Government clears 15 proposals for mineral exploration.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. reduces short distance call rates upto 200 kilometers in all telecom circles from January 26.

January 6

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee rejects the resignation of Union Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar from the Cabinet.
Writer Khushwant Singh, former cricketer Bishen Singh Bedi, pop star Dahler Mehndi, Gen. J.S. Arora, Chief Election Commissioner Dr. M.S. Gill and Union Minister S.S. Dhindsa are among those honoured with Millennium Sikh awards.

January 7

Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Babri Masjid Action Committee reject the 'mutual talk' formula on the Babri Masjid issue.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee arrives in Hanoi on a state visit.

January 8

Film Financier Bharat Shah is arrested for his alleged nexus with the underworld.

January 9

Fire reduces the historic Meghalaya Legislative Assembly building to ashes.
Seventh Partnership Summit opens in Hyderabad.
India to invest $10 million in Vietnam pharmaceutical manufacturing unit in Ho chi Minh city.

January 10

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee arrives on a four-day State visit to Jakarta.
Government decides to further cut levy sugar quota to 15 per cent.

January 11

All-Party Hurriyat Conference(APHC) announces its five-member team for Pakistan visit. The APHC Chairman Prof. Abdul Gani Bhat and JKLF Chief Mohammad Yaseen Malik are not part of the team.
India and Indonesia sign five agreements including the formation of a Joint Commission and Defence Cooperation in Jakarta.
President gives his assent to Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2000 and this Act is notified in the gazette.
Canada Court rejects the bail pleas of two Sikhs charged with the 1985 bombing of an Air India Boeing killing 329 people on board.

January 12

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. slashes its cellphone prices.
Justice M. Jagannadha Rao is appointed as Vice Chairman of the 16^th Law Commission.
Government removes the prohibition on 'ku' bank television broadcast signals directly from satellites with immediate effect.
Twenty-seven MPs are nominated as members of the India-China Parliamentary Friendship Group.
India and Botswana sign a trade agreement to strengthen commercial relations on the basis of granting the 'most favoured nation' status to each other.

January 13

Australia to restore military ties with India after two-and-half years.

January 14

Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah survives an attempt on his life when militants lobbed grenades at a function in Srinagar.

January 15

Indian High Commissioner, Vijay Nambiar meets Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

INTERNATIONAL

January 2

Canada opens first 'ice hotel'. The hotel built from 4,500 tonnes of snow and 250 tonnes of ice, opens for three months outside Quebec City near St. Lawrence river and the Montmorency Falls.

January 6

United States closes its Rome Embassy to the public, citing ' a very specific threat.'

January 7

Outgoing US First Lady Hillary Clinton is to be paid more than 800,000 pounds by a British publisher for her memoirs.
Planning permission is granted for world's highest hotel on Mount Everest. The hotel is to be built by a New Zealand-born climber, Russell Brice.
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga assures the National Security Council that there would be no ceasefire prior to commencement of peace talks with the LTTE.

January 12

Elaine R Chao is chosen for the Labour portfolio in the President-elect George W. Bush Cabinet.

January 13

William Hewlett, legendary American engineer, passes away.

January 14

One hundred thirty eight people are killed and hundreds missing in El Salador and Guatemala earthquake.