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IG Patel dead
New Delhi: IG Patel, noted economist, technocrat and a former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, died of renal failure in New York on Sunday. He had been ailing from pneumonia and lung congestion for the last one month.

Patel had served as the Governor of RBI from December 1977 to September 1982. He had joined the central bank after working with UNDP for a period of five years (1972-77).

"His tenure witnessed the demonetisation of high denomination notes as well as the 'gold auctions' conducted by the Bank on behalf of Government of India.

During his tenure six private sector banks were nationalised, targets for priority sector lending introduced, and the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporations were merged, and a Departmental re-organisation was undertaken in the Bank.

He played an active role in availing of the IMF's Extended Fund Facility in 1981 due to balance of payments difficulties. This represented the largest arrangement in IMF's history at the time,' the RBI website says of his innings.

Patel was succeeded as RBI governor by Manmohan Singh. When PV Narasimha Rao came to power in 1991, it was rumoured that Patel was his first choice as the country's finance minister. Eventually, it was Singh who got the coveted job.

After studying economics in the United Kingdom and the United States, Patel returned to India in the early-1950s and worked with various govrnments on key economic policies.

He had also written critically acclaimed books like Glimpses of Indian Economic Policy, An Insider's View and An Encounter With Higher Education: My Years at LSE.
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Sir Edward Heath passes away
London: Sir Edward Heath, who died yesterday aged 89, achieved his great ambition of taking Britain into the European Economic Community, but proved unable to solve the many economic and labour problems, which afflicted his administration between 1970 and 1974.

The first Conservative Prime Minister to be born the son of a manual worker, Heath pursued his European vision against every discouragement. But in the face of almost continuous crisis he was unable to maintain policy at home.

Determined to reform industrial relations, he made matters worse through ill-considered legislation. In consequence, "the Grocer" was pilloried as a heartless automaton, contemptuous of the poor and unemployed.

Heath also differed from most prime ministers in his interests. A keen sailor, he had won the Sydney-Hobart race in his yacht Morning Cloud in 1969; and in 1971, as Prime Minister, he captained the British team which won the Admiral's Cup. That same year he conducted Elgar's Cockaigne overture at the Royal Festival Hall.

Edward Richard George Heath was born on July 9 1916 at Broadstairs, Kent, the elder son of a carpenter. During the summer of 1938 he went on a student delegation to Franco's Spain. In the Oxford by-election, just after Chamberlain's deal with Hitler in Munich at the end of September, Heath campaigned for AD Lindsay, the Master of Balliol, who stood as an anti-appeasement candidate against the official Conservative, Quintin Hogg.
Later that autumn he was elected President of the Oxford Union. Called up in July 1940, for Army service, he was assigned in March 1941 as Second-Lieutenant to the 107th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, and posted to Liverpool to help defend the Mersey docks.

Heath proved an efficient officer, and in September 1945 was posted as second-in-command of 86 (HAC) HAA - the Honourable Royal Artillery Company, the oldest and one of the most socially exclusive regiments in the British Army. He was demobilised in August 1946 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel; in the same year he was appointed MBE. He had also been mentioned in dispatches.

In 1946 he took the Civil Service exam and passed out joint top. For two years he worked in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, resigning when he was adopted for the Labour-held seat of Bexley. Afterwards he was also a merchant banker with Brown Shipley. At the General Election of 1950 Heath squeaked home with a majority of 133 in Bexley, then a marginal seat, which he held until he stepped down in 2001.

In 1960 Macmillan brought Heath into the Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal, responsible for negotiating Britain's attempt to join the EEC. Although de Gaulle's intransigence meant that Heath's efforts ended three years later in failure, he won respect for his grasp of detail. When Sir Alec Douglas-Home succeeded Macmillan, Heath was made President of the Board of Trade. His principal achievement was the abolition of resale price maintenance, a bold and progressive move, carried out in the teeth of opposition from small shopkeepers.

In opposition Heath became chairman of the party's Policy Committee. The battle for the succession after Sir Alec Douglas-Home's resignation in 1965 was the first time that the Conservative Party had ever elected a leader. Heath emerged triumphant from a three-cornered fight with Reginald Maudling and Enoch Powell. But hopes that the party would win back voters were disappointed. In March 1966, Harold Wilson gained an absolute majority of 96 seats.

In 1968, the Conservative leadership came under fierce criticism from the Right, led by Enoch Powell, for its vacillating stance on Wilson's Race Relations Bill. When Powell over-reached himself that April with his "Rivers of Blood" speech Heath unceremoniously sacked him. However, senior party figures - notably Sir Keith Joseph - were in sympathy with Powell's economic thinking. A meeting of the Shadow Cabinet at the Selsdon Park Hotel in Surrey adopted tax cuts, trade union reform, emphasis on law and order, and immigration control. "Selsdon Man" had begun his brief existence.

On June 18 of that year, the Tories were returned with an overall majority of 30. At the victorious party conference that autumn Heath promised "a quiet revolution" which would foster individual effort and take government out of the market place. But, disastrously, Heath's first priority was to take Britain into the European Community (though his very first act as PM was to ban smoking in Cabinet). Britain became a member of the EEC on January 1 1973.

By then, however, the government had run into serious economic difficulties. Strikes by the dockers and the power workers forced the administration to introduce two states of emergency within its first six months; and the need to ration heating and lighting in December 1970 led to a rush on candles.

Even before that, though, Heath's troubles with the unions had multiplied. Matters reached a crisis at the beginning of 1972, when the unemployed figures went over the million mark and miners began a strike. Thereafter Heath completely caved in, changing the economic direction of his government. Tony Benn exulted at this "spadework for socialism". Norman Tebbit reflected that "perhaps Selsdon Man was always a Civil Servant at heart".

A host of issues, such as Mrs Thatcher's ending of school milk, Peter Walker's abysmal and philistine reform of local government, and Heath's obsession with imposing museum charges - kept the government unpopular. In spite of all this, Heath was obsessed by large-scale vanity projects. His support of Concorde, and his plans for a Channel Tunnel and the development of a third airport (together with deep-water seaport) at Maplin, all continued until he lost power.

In the election of October 1974, the Conservatives did rather better than had been predicted, registering only 3.4 per cent (or 42 seats) less than Labour. Wilson's overall majority was only three. But two election defeats in a year were bound to produce a challenge to Heath's leadership. In November Mrs Thatcher told Heath that she was going to stand against him. On the first ballot Mrs Thatcher scored 130 votes to Heath's 119.

Outside politics Heath led a busy and varied life, travelling widely and conducting whenever possible, especially with the European Community Youth Orchestra. He dictated a series of books - Sailing: A Course of My Life (1975), Music: A Joy for Life (1976), Travels: People and Places in My Life (1977) and Carols: The Joy of Christmas (1977) - and promoted them assiduously. His first three books netted him some £300,000.

In 1977 Heath became member of the North-South Commission headed by Willy Brandt, which aimed to find means of closing the gap between the rich nations of the North and the poor ones of the South.

Heath was also attacking the "ruinous" and "catastrophic" effects of Mrs. Thatcher's monetary policies on manufacturing industry, and issuing dire warnings about unemployment figures, which were soon soaring over the three million mark. But the Falklands War - Heath advocated a negotiated settlement - and economic revival enabled Mrs Thatcher to triumph in the election of 1983. Heath attacked privatisation, condemning the government on unemployment benefit and tax cuts.

Mrs Thatcher's third term of office brought more grist to his mill, and he opposed the poll tax and education reforms. The Spectator made him Parliamentarian of the Year. The collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe left Heath supporting a united Germany, while Mrs Thatcher strove to keep the two parts separate. The Tiananmen Square massacre seemed rather to puzzle than to outrage him. He also gave an emollient reaction to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, stressing the need for a negotiated settlement. In October he led a mission to Baghdad, which succeeded in securing the release of 33 hostages.

In November 1990 Heath at last enjoyed the gratification of Mrs Thatcher's resignation. When he heard the news of her departure he told his office (in echo of the fallen Prime Minister) to "Rejoice! Rejoice!" and bought his staff Champagne. Returned once more for Bexley, he relished his position as "Father of the House".

He took great pleasure in being awarded the Garter in 1992. In 1998, he finally brought out his autobiography, The Course of My Life, which had involved dozens of researchers and writers (some of whom he never paid) over many years.
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