All 151 bronze sculptures of this exhibition have been selected to highlight and present the most outstanding bronzes from the National Museum. This exhibition comprises of unique and rare works of art reflecting metal casting in India between the 5^th century A.D. and the 19^th Century A.D. as also the Contemporary Tribal Bronzes.

    The displayed metal images envisages artistic creations that were fostered by all the three ancient religions of India viz. Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism and have been grouped according to these religious traditions. They have been drawn from the chaityas, stupas, temples and domestic shrines where they were worshipped. They belong to Gupta-Vakataka (4^th-6^th Century A.D.) Rashtrakuta (7^th-9^th centurey A.D.) Pandya Gurjara-Pratihara (8^th-10^th century A.D.), Pala-Sena (8^th-12^th Vijayanagar (14^th-16^th century A.D.) and Nayak (17^th century A.D.) schools of arts. There are also some excellent examples from Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, Orissa and Nepal.

    Of particular interest are four Buddha images from Phophnar in Madhya Pradesh of the Gupta-Vakataka period which was a stage of Classicism in Indian art and display perfect refinement of form. The Eastern Indian bronzes mostly belong to the Pala period from such well-known Monasteries and University site of Nalanda in Bihar. These are characterised by tall, slender, profusely ornamented, gilded images with oval aureoles such as the Tara and Avalokiteshvara and images with stepped pedestals such as uma-maheswar figure. The Western Indian bronze tradition was patronized by affluent community of Jains which are represented by images from the famous Akota hoard near Vadodara. The bronzes from the Himalayan region-Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh are represented by the famous Vishnu Chaturanana and Bhairavi images. The virility and strength of the male figures and the sensuous female figures are seen in the Nataraja figures and from those of the later periods of Vijayanagar and Nayak.

    The National Museum has been organising thematic exhibitions from its reserve collections from time to time. In this exhibition, an attempt has been made to present the bronze images in the context of their origin and religious traditions. It de-mystifies the bronzes for the viewers, through a multi-sensory portrayal.

    The exposition will remain open to the public till September 15, 1999 daily from 10 A.M. to 5P.M. except Mondays.
 
 

    The polling for 103 Parliamentary Constituencies will be held on September 11,1999. The Parliamentary Constituencies are 15 in Andhra Praesh, followed by 2 in Jammu & Kashmir, 13 in Karnataka, 14 in Madhya Pradesh, 24 in Maharashtra, 15 in Rajasthan and 20 in Tamil Nadu.

    With today’s Presidential Notification, the process of General Elections to 103 Parliamentary Constituencies has commenced.
 
 

    Keeping this in view, it has been decided not to initiate new undertakings of major projects or schemes specially acquisition/leasing of aircraft. As a measure of abundant caution, it has been decided to freeze the following processes:

• Technical evaluation of any acquisition programme (any technical evaluation already conducted is open for further consideration when the new Government is formed).
• Calling for commercial bids.
• Financial evaluation of bids received.

    Presenting the merit certificates to the employees of IIMC, the Minister pointed out that in the 21^st century the very definition of literacy will change. Illiterates will be those who cannot operate computers. Computer literacy is must to enable India to be a powerful nation in this information age. Speaking on the occasion IIMC Chairman Shri Balbir Punj drew the attention of the Minister towards the necessities for providing pension and housing to the employees of Institute. The Minister assured the Institute that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will take a final decision on the issues by the end of this year.

    Addressing the gathering Shri R.C. Mishra Director IIMC said that Institute has decided to constitute a number of strategic groups to guide it in qualitative improvements in its various activities. This will enable the Institute to regain its lost glory. He further informed that the Institute has reorganised the training for Indian Information Service officials to make them effective media managers in future. Shri T.V.R. Shenoy delivered the key note address on the occasion.
 
 

    The Chairman also stressed on system improvement and complete track maintenance. As the year 1999 has been declared as the "Passenger Year" he asked the DRMs to be vigilant on ensuring punctuality and provision of drinking water and catering facilities in trains. Shri Agarwal also stressed on manpower development and training.

    The Conference also discussed the subjects like information technology and computerisation, monitoring of trains, public grievances machinery and consumer court cases, standardisation of the working time tables, passenger earnings and ticket checking.

    The Members of the Railway Board also addressed the DRMs and replied to their queries.
 
 

    The department has advised all the offices to plan out such programmes which should increase the use of Hindi in offices and the annual goals set up for its use are achieved. Besides, Hindi should be projected as a powerful medium of national unity and integration. This would, it is hoped, bring the people and the administration more closer. It has also been suggested that the participation of the authors, scholars, members of the parliamentary official language Committee, members of the Hindi Consultative Committee and renowned Hindi scholars from the non-Hindi areas, be ensured.

    All the Indian embassies abroad have also been asked to organise special programmes on this occasion. As a follow-up action, many Ministries/departments have already prepared special programmes for the occasion and the rest are on the way.

    Over the last five decades, the importance and capability of the Hindi language has greatly enhanced. Now-a-days, it is widely used in the different faculties of medicine, science and technology, agriculture, computer and human management. The increasing use of the official language would bring transparency, purity and speed in the administration thereby paving the way for people’s satisfaction.

    On the occasion of the golden jubilee of the official language, an inaugural ceremony has been organised at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi by the Department of Official language on 14 September, 1999. All the eminent Hindi scholars, writers, journalists, publishers and representative4s of the Non-governmental oranisations will be invited to attend it.
 
 
 

    The all-India Consumer Price Index for urban Non-Manual Employees CPI(UNME), with base 1984-85=100, for the month of July, 1999 has been released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), Department of Statistics & Programme Implementation; together with the Centre-wise indices for 59 selected urban centres in India. The all-India CPI(UNME) for July, 1999, is 350 which is 4 points more than the index for the month of June 1999. With the corresponding all-India index for July 1998 being 336, the index for the month of July 1999 has shown a rise of 4.2 per cent over a year.

    The average index for the period April, 1999 to July 1999 works out to 345, which is higher by 6.2 per cent over the average index of 325 for the corresponding period of the previous year. The CPI (UNME) for July 1999 in respect of four metropolitan cities of India, together with the corresponding indices for the previous month and for July 1998 are given below:
 

    It may be noted that the rise in index for various centres ranges from -1.9 to 28.7 per cent; with the largest increase being in the case of Siliguri, and the least in the case of Rajkot. The increases are between -1.9 to 0.0 per cent for 2 Centres, 0.1 to 3.0 per cent for 17 Centres, 3.1 to 6.0 per cent for 22 centres, 6.1 to 9.0 per cent for 11 centres, 9.1 to 12.0 per cent for 5 centres, 12.1 to 15.0 per cent for 1 centre, and more than 15.1 per cent for 1 centre. As many as 31 Centres have lower annual percentage increase as compared to that of the all-India figure of 4.2 percent and 28 Centres have higher percentage increase as compared to the all-India figure.