Earlier, Shri Vajpayee was Prime Minister of India from May 16-31, 1996 and a second time from March 19, 1998 till date. With his swearing-in today as Prime Minister, he becomes the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to occupy the office of the Prime Minister of India through three successive mandates. Shri Vajpayee is also the first Prime Minister since Smt. Indira Gandhi to lead his party to victory in successive elections.

    Born on December 25, 1924 at Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh to Shri Krishna Bihari Vajpayee and Smt. Krishna Devi, Shri Vajpayee brings with him a long parliamentary experience spanning over four decades. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1957. He was elected to the 5^th, 6^th and 7^th Lok Sabha and again to the 10^th, 11^th and 12^th Lok Sabha and to Rajya Sabha in 1962 and 1986. He has again been elected to Parliament from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh for the fourth time consecutively. He is the only parliamentarian elected from four different States at different times namely - UP, Gujarat, MP and Delhi.

    Elected leader of the National Democratic Alliance, which is a pre-election coming together of political parties from different regions of the country and which enjoys a comfortable backing and support of the elected Members of the 13^th Lok Sabha, Shri Vajpayee was earlier elected leader of his own Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentary party which has also again emerged as the single largest party in the 13^th Lok Sabha as was the case in the 12^th Lok Sabha.

    Educated at Victoria (now Laxmi Bai) College, Gwalior and DAV College, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Shri Vajpayee holds an M.A (Political Science) degree and has many literary, artistic and scientific accomplishments to his credit. He edited Rashtradharma (a Hindi monthly), Panchjanya (a Hindi weekly) and the dailies Swadesh and Veer Arjun. His published works include "Meri Sansadiya Yatra" (in four volumes), "Meri Ikkyavan Kavitayen", "Sankalp Kaal", "Shakti-se-Shanti", "Four Decades in Parliament" (speeches in three volumes), 1957-95, "Lok Sabha mein Atalji" (a collection of speeches); Mrityu Ya Hatya", "Amar Balidan", "Kaidi Kaviraj Ki Kundalian" (a collection of poems written in jail during Emergency); "New Dimensions of India's Foreign Policy" (a collection of speeches delivered as External Affairs Minister during 1977-79); "Jan Sangh Aur Mussalman"; "Sansad Mein Teen Dashak" (Hindi) (speeches in Parliament - 1957-1992 - three volumes; and "Amar Aag Hai" (a collection of poems) 1994.

    Shri Vajpayee has participated in various social and cultural activities. He has been a Member of the National Integration Council since 1961. Some of his other associations include - (i) President, All India Station Masters and Assistant Station Masters Association (1965-70); (ii) Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Smarak Samiti (1968-84); (iii) Deen Dayal Dham, Farah, Mathura, U.P; and (iv) Janmabhomi Smarak Samiti, 1969 onwards.

    Founder-member of the erstwhile Jana Sangh (1951), President, Bharatiya Jana Sangh (1968-1973), leader of the Jana Sangh parliamentary party (1955-1977) and a founder-member of the Janata Party (1977-1980), Shri Vajpayee was President, BJP (1980-1986) and the leader of BJP parliamentary party during 1980-1984, 1986 and 1993-1996. He was Leader of the Opposition throughout the term of the 11^th Lok Sabha. Earlier, he was India's External Affairs Minister in the Morarji Desai Government from March 24, 1977 to July 28, 1979.

    Widely respected within the country and abroad as a statesman of the genre of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Shri Vajpayee's 1998-99 stint as Prime Minister has been characterised as 'one year of courage of conviction'. It was during this period that India entered a select group of nations following a series of successful nuclear tests at Pokharan in May 1998. The bus journey to Pakistan in February 1999 was widely acclaimed for starting a new era of negotiations to resolve the outstanding problems of the sub-continent. India's honesty made an impact on the world community. Later, when this gesture of friendship turned out to be a betrayal of faith in Kargil, Shri Vajpayee was also hailed for his successful handling of the situation in repulsing back the intruders from the Indian soil. It was during Shri Vajpayee's 1998-99 tenure that despite a global recession, India achieved 5.8 per cent GDP growth, which was higher than the previous year. Higher agricultural production and increase in foreign exchange reserves during this period were indicative of a forward-looking economy responding to the needs of the people. "We must grow faster. We simply have no other alternative" has been Shri Vajpayee's slogan focussing particularly on economic empowerment of the rural poor. The bold decisions taken by his Government for strengthening rural economy, building a strong infrastructure and revitalising the human development programmes, fully demonstrated his Government's commitment to a strong and self-reliant nation to meet the challenges of the next millennium to make India an economic power in the 21^st century. Speaking from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the occasion of 52^nd Independence Day, he had said, "I have a vision of India : an India free of hunger and fear, an India free of illiteracy and want."

    Shri Vajpayee has served on a number of important Committees of Parliament. He was Chairman, Committee on Government Assurances (1966-67); Chairman, Public Accounts Committee (1967-70); Member, General Purposes Committee (1986); Member, House Committee and Member, Business Advisory Committee, Rajya Sabha (1988-90); Chairman, Committee on Petitions, Rajya Sabha (1990-91); Chairman, Public Accounts Committee, Lok Sabha (1991-93); Chairman, Standing Committee on External Affairs (1993-96).

    Shri Vajpayee participated in the freedom struggle and went to jail in 1942. He was detained during Emergency in 1975-77.

    Widely travelled, Shri Vajpayee has been taking a keen interest in international affairs, upliftment of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, women and child welfare. Some of his travels abroad include visits such as - Member, Parliamentary Goodwill Mission to East Africa, 1965; Parliamentary Delegation to Australia, 1967; European Parliament, 1983; Canada, 1987; Indian delegation to Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meetings held in Canada, 1966 and 1994, Zambia, 1980, Isle of Man 1984, Indian delegation to Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference, Japan, 1974; Sri Lanka, 1975; Switzerland, 1984; Indian Delegation to the UN General Assembly, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994; Leader, Indian Delegation to the Human Rights Commission Conference, Geneva, 1993.

    Shri Vajpayee was conferred Padma Vibhushan in 1992 in recognition of his services to the nation. He was also conferred the Lokmanya Tilak Puruskar and the Bharat Ratna Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant Award for the Best Parliamentarian, both in 1994. Earlier, the Kanpur University honoured him with an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy in 1993.

    Well known and respected for his love for poetry and as an eloquent speaker, Shri Vajpayee is known to be a voracious reader. He is fond of Indian music and dance.
 
 

    The inputs for electronic components to be placed in zero percent basic customs duty include Aluminium Clad entry foil, High Resolution Photoplates, Photo Polymer film, Polyamide Pre-Pregs and Etchants etc. for end-use in printed circuit boards; Nitric Acid, Fused Quartz Ware, Phosphoric Acid, Hydrogen Peroxide, Aluminium Wire with Silicon or Magnesium impurity, Plastic film, Graphite, Aluminium Silicon Discs, Dicing blades and wheels, Tungsten Filament, Ceramic/Alumina Substrate etc. for the production of Semiconductor devices; Springs, Bonding wire etc. for LED displays; Red, Blue and Green Phosphor, External Coating Graphite, Surface Coating Chemicals, Silicon Gum etc. for Cathode Ray Tubes; Sodium Antimonate, Rubber Sleeve, Titanium dioxide etc. for Glass Shell/Parts for TV picture tube; Film for multilayer laminates for printed circuit boards; Hydroxy Propyl Methyl Cellulose, Barium Titanate or Lead Titanate, Screen Mesh of Stainless Steel/ Polyester/ metallised nylon etc. for ceramic capacitors; Poly Urethane / Urethane Elastoner for magnetic tape and a number of other items for end-use in Deflection components, ressistors, electrolytic capacitors and tuners/modulators.

    The electronics production and exports amounted to 41,100 crore rupees during 1998-99, registering an increase of 28% over the previous year. The exports alone accounted for Rs. 12,800 crore, an increase of 35%. Out of this, software exports amounted to Rs. 11,000 crore, an increase of 70%, while hardware totalled Rs. 1,800 crore during the period compared to Rs.2520 crore the previous year.
 
 

Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Shri Lal Krishna Advani

Shri Ananth Kumar

Shri T.R. Balu

Ms. Mamata Banerjee

Shri George Fernandes

Shri Jagmohan

Dr. Satyanarain Jatiya

Shri Ram Jethmalani

Shri Manohar Joshi

Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi

Shri Rangarajan Kumaramangalam

Shri Pramod Mahajan

Shri Murasoli Maran

Shri Ram Naik

Shri Nitish Kumar

Shri Jual Oram

Shri Ram Vilas Paswan

Shri Naveen Patnaik

Shri Sunder Lal Patwa

Shri Suresh Prabhu

Shri Kashiram Rana

Shri Shanta Kumar

Shri Jaswant Singh

Shri Yashwant Sinha

Shri Sharad Yadav

Smt. Maneka Gandhi

Shri Arun Jaitley

Shri M. Kannappan

Shri Dilip Ray

Smt. Vasundhara Raje

Shri N.T. Shanmugham

Sushri Uma Bharti

Shri Ramesh Bais

Smt. Bijoya Chakravarty

Shri Shriram Chauhan

Shri Bandaru Dattatraya

Shri Jaysingrao Gaikwad-Patil

Shri Santosh Gangwar

Shri Chaman Lal Gupta

Dr. Vallabhai Katheria

Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste

Shri V. Dhananjay Kumar

Shri Bangaru Laxman

Smt. Sumitra Mahajan

Shri Subhash Maheria

Shri Babu Lal Marandi

Smt. Jayawantibehn Mehta

Shri Muni Lall

Shri Omar Farooq

Shri Ajit Panja

Shri Harin Pathak

Dr. Debendra Pradhan

Shri E. Ponnuswamy

Shri A. Raja

Shri O. Rajagopal

Dr. Raman

Shri Gingee Ramachandran

Shri Vidya Sagar Rao

Shri S.B.P.B.K. Satyanarayan Rao

Shri Bachi Singh Rawat

Shri Syed Shahnawaz Hussain

Shri Tapan Sikdar

Shri Digvijay Singh

Shri Th. Chaoba Singh

Shri V. Sreeniwas Prasad

Shri I.D. Swami

Dr. (Smt.) Rita Verma

Shri Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil

Shri Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav
 

    In order to give thrust to Research and Development in the frontier areas of power generation and transmission technology the Central Electricity Authority has tied up with Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi . An MOU for establishing two CEA chairs at IIT Delhi has been signed. Focus will be on area requiring immediate attention viz. Clean Coal Combustion Technology, optimisation of advance power cycle, identification of new fuels for power generation, new technologies for combating erosion in Hydro power projects, problems associated with HVDC and 765 KV AC transmission system etc.

    IIT shall carry out computer simulation studies, pilotisation, laboratory research and provide academic inputs to solve these problems and help develop indigenous technologies suitable for Indian conditions and resources. The chair at Centre of Energy Studies would be multidisciplinary for Thermal and Hydro Power Generation technology whereas the second chair at Electrical Engineering Department would be for Electric-Power System and Electrical Engineering Discipline. The collaboration is expected to sharpen the technical capabilities of CEA engineers through M. Tech. And Ph.D programmes. This would also help them assimilate state of art technologies in power generation, transmission and distribution as well as prepare them to channelise the application of new technologies for achieving sustainable growth of the power sector and the country. CEA shall make an endowment of a lumpsum amount of Rs. 60 lakhs in two installments to IIT, out of which a cheque of first installment of Rs. 30 lakhs was handed over.