WSN Service
NEW DELHI: Ram Nath Goenka, founder of Indian Express chain of newspapers, died at Bombay on Saturday. He was 87 Ram Nath Goenka’s chain stood up against Indira Gandh’s emergency regime of 1975- 77 but supported Indian govt’s military campaigns against Sikhs. Muslims and
Assamese as well as laws framed to give immunity to security forces against action on illegal acts.
Goenka played a significant role in the freedom movement and was a follower of Mohandas Gandhi but his establishment slowly moved close to the R.S.S. positions in Indian politics. The Nehru dynasty and the Reliance group of industries were special targets of the newspaper chain in recent years. The chains contribution to exposing the Bofors gun deal of Rajiv Gandhi will be long remembered.
All said and done, Goenka was a colorful personality who stood by his ideals in the face of persecution by the Indian govt authorities on several occasions, Goenka would often say that he had come to Bombay with a few rupees and an earthen pitcher and that he would return to his native Rajasthan with those articles leaving the multi-crore empire but would not com- promise on his principles.
Goenka, who had been in and out of hospital after suffering two strokes in April 1989 at Madras and on January 26 his year in Bombay, had recovered and moved back to his residence on July 22.
He had developed congestion in the chest two days ago and was under treatment. He had difficulty in breathing Friday evening, but this was eased with medication. He woke up again around midnight with the same difficulty and passed away shortly thereafter.
He is survived by Vivek Goenka, his grandson whom he adopted as a son a few months ago, his daughter Radhabai Sonthalia, daughter-in-law Saroj Goenka, two other grandsons Manoj and Anil Sonthalia and three granddaughters.
Goenka was a director of the Press Trust of India (PTI), in the setting up and development of which he played a leading role. He was chairman of PTI twice, first in early 1950s and again in the middle 80s.
Allaying fears in India on the enforcement of IPRS, Hills said prices of drugs in Countries which had enforced patent protection had actually come down and an early 95% of the drugs used to control disease and infection were not covered by patents at all.
NEW DELHI; Stagflation the dreaded jargon for describing stagnant growth with high inflation, is no longer a treat, but has become a reality for India. With a price rise of over 9% in terms of wholesale price index (WPI) in just 51/2 months (April mid- September) the economy is clearly heading for a 19% rate of inflation in 1991-92.
Industrial production, on the other hand shows a decline of 0.3 %during April –May this year as against a rise 13% in the corresponding period of 1990. Since production does not pick up during the mon-soon moths .It actually falls a substantially high production has to be achieved during five remaining moths to register a positive growth rate for the current financial year.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 11, 1991
