I have a personal reason for writing this blog.Way back in 1958 I had passed out of school and was in Mysore spending my summer holidays with my parents.My next  younger brother who is no more now and myself and one of my younger sisters had to be away from our parents studying in our native town.

I was in sixth form and had written my secondary school leaving examination.My daddy had already told me that he might not be able to afford sending me for higher studies at the university but I did not worry much about it.One fine morning a post card arrived from the headmaster of my school, Sri. K. N. Ranga swami Iyer, who had also taught my father at school.He had asked my father not to discontinue my studies because just then a new scheme of national merit scholarships had been announced by the prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.As I had come out first in several districts at the school final exam. I was sure to be selected for the award of a scholarship and so my father had nothing to worry about finding the funds for my higher education.

This was the turning point of my life as I could now look forward to a university education of my choice.To this day I remember with gratitude the far sighted decision of Nehru in instituting the national merit scholarship scheme which made it possible for me to embark on life with the advantage of a bright academic career.With the scholarship money not only myself but also my younger brother could afford to study in the university after school as we had frugal habits and husbanded our resources carefully.

I could go upto my postgraduation in Physics with the scholarship from Government of India.

If I had not antagonised my interviewer at BARC I could have gone on to a career in the Dept.of Atomic Energy by joining the training school in 1964.The Atomic Energy program of India is yet another significant achievement which was accomplished by Homi Bhabha and his dedicated team of scientists and engineers whom Nehru supported unstintingly.A classmate of mine did get into BARC training school.

I was destined to enter the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore,known to all as Tata Institute.Here again I had a good time as a research scholar because in independent India the scholarship had been hiked up from Rs.75 to Rs.250 per month.For the next 5 years I could lead a carefree life in the pursuit of knowledge in Physics and a Ph.D. degree with this princely sum.I could even send money home regularly!

A year after I got my Ph.D. I won a prestigious scholarship to go to Oxford for postdoctoral research at the Clarendon laboratory.Nehru was no more but a colleague of mine at Oxford had come there with a scholarship instituted by the government of independent India in his memory.After several years abroad when I returned to India I was again interviewed and selected for a job at the department of atomic energy but to work at the proposed research reactor in Kalpakkam.I preferred to take up a faculty position at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, another institution of excellence set up by the Nehru government with  technical and financial assistance from Germany.

As I look back I realise that my entire academic and professional career from school days onwards has been taken care of by the government of independent India.I regard the creation and sustenance of trained scientific and technical manpower as one of the most outstanding achievements of independent India.This has led to our emergence as a proud and competent partner to other developed countries in several spheres in the international arena.