Photo Essay
The making of modern India
On Jawaharlal Nehru’s contribution to shaping India into a modern industrial power.

March 1952: At the Sindri Fertilizer factory in Dhanbad, then in Bihar (now in Jharkhand). It was the first fertilizer company set up in the public sector and marked the beginning of a major initiative for fertilizer production.
Photo: Photographs: Courtesy “Jawaharlal Nehru: An Illustrated Biography”

1955: Nehru’s fortnight-long visit to the Soviet Union, his second, cleared the path for Soviet assistance in the construction of the Bhilai and Bokaro steel plants. Here, at the Stalingrad water and electricity centres that were under construction.
Photo: Photographs: Courtesy “Jawaharlal Nehru: An Illustrated Biography”

May 21, 1959: The Director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi explaining the model of the institute. The AIIMS was a product of Nehru’s vision of India as a pioneer in the field of medical science and related research.
Photo: Photographs: Courtesy “Jawaharlal Nehru: An Illustrated Biography”

January 20, 1957: At the inauguration of the atomic reactor Apsara in Trombay, Bombay, Homi J. Bhabha is pointing something out to Nehru with Y.B. Chavan, Chief Minister of Bombay, looking on. Sri Prakasa (with umbrella), Governor of Bombay, is also in the picture.
Photo: Photographs: Courtesy “Jawaharlal Nehru: An Illustrated Biography”
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Slideshow

Living on the edge
They are river people, whose lives ebb and flow with the waters of the Brahmaputra in a timeless rhythm. But now, hydroelectric projects and homogenis