Issued by India

Issued on Dec 24, 2010

Issued for : India Post is happy to issue a set of commemorative postage stamps on National Council Education and Dr. Triguna Sen.

Credits :
Stamp/FDC/Cancellation : Alka Sharma

Type : Se–tenant set of 2 Stamps, Mint condition

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 500 Paise each

Stamps Printed : 0.3 Million each

Printing Process : Wet Offset

Printer : ISP, Nasik Road

About : 

• Dr Triguna Sen was born on 24 December 1905 at Sylhet (now part of Bangladesh) to Shri Golak Chandra Sen and Smt. Sushila Sundari Devi. He completed his high school studies at Govt High School, Silchar (Dist. Cachar, Assam). He then joined Bengal Technical Institute (BTI) and obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He went to Germany for higher studies and obtained a Doctorate in Engineering.
• On return to India he actively participated in the Non Co-operation movement and was jailed. On release from jail, he took up a job with Dibrugarh Electric Supply Co. (Assam) and served there for 9 years.
• His passion for imparting quality education was fathomless. Dr. Sen throughout his life was closely associated with a range of institutional endeavours towards promotion of education and related issues. Because of his sustained efforts, Jadavpur University was established in 1955 & he further contributed immensely to its growth. He later became the Rector and the first Vice-Chancellor of this University. His interests were diverse. In 1958-59 he was elected to the post of the Mayor of Calcutta (Kolkata) Corporation and in the same year he was nominated to the post of Director, State Bank of India. He was elected President, Alumni Association, National Council of Education, Bengal, Jadavpur University. He also held briefly the Vice-Chancellorship of Benaras Hindu University. In 1962 he was elected President of the Institution of Engineers (India).
• The prestigious national honour of ‘Padma Bhushan‘ was conferred on him in 1965. In 1967 he was inducted into the Union Cabinet as the Minister for Education. It was during his tenure in 1968 as Education Minister, the National Education Policy was formulated. The National Council of Education, Bengal, is the parent body of the Jadavpur University. He was later elected as a member of the ‘Rajya Sabha‘. In 1969 he was made Union Minister for Petroleum, and Chemicals & Minerals. During his tenure as the Petroleum Minister, the stringent drug prices control order was issued. He also accelerated the pace of oil exploration process so as to reduce the deficit in crude oil in the country.
• Dr Triguna Sen was an eminent educationist, ardent freedom fighter, able administrator and a good parliamentarian. He passed away on 11^th January 1998.
• Text : Based on materials provided by the proponent.
  

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Issued by India

Issued on Jun 12, 2008

Issued for : The Department of Posts is proud to release a commemorative postage stamp on Henning Holck–Larsen.

Credits :
Stamp & FDC : Sankha Samanta
Cancellation : Alka Sharma

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Colour : Multi Colour

Denomination : 500 Paise

Stamps Printed : 2.4 Million

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printer : India Security Press, Nasik

Name : Henning Holck–Larsen

Born on Jul 4, 1907 at Frederiksberg, Denmark

Died on Jul 27, 2003 at Mumbai, India

About : 

• Henning Holck–Larsen, founding partner of L & T Ltd. was born on July 4, 1907 at Copenhagen in Denmark. He attended Jesuit primary and secondary schools and in 1922 entered the Metropolitanskolen (high school) of Copenhagen from which he graduated in 1925. From the University of Copenhagen, he took a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering in 1930 and joined FLSmidth and Company, Denmark – a leader in cement technology. In 1935 he was deputed to India to assess the various cement manufacturing groups which later formed the Associated Cement Companies.
• The year 1938 was an eventful year in the life of Henning Holck-Larsen. He and his former schoolmate, Soren Kristian Toubro, set up the partnership firm Larsen and Toubro that was soon to establish itself as one of the country’s front-ranking industrial organisations. In May the following year, he married Karen Speyer, also of Danish nationality at Mumbai. Under his vision, Larsen and Toubro became a private limited company in 1946 and a public limited company in 1950. The firm started as an importer of machinery and under the two founders progressed to an organization doing business in heavy machinery, construction, food processing etc., strengthened by a strong R&D base. Holck-Larsen‘s vision of aligning the company’s activities to the needs of India’s growth sector made the firm a partner to national endeavours in space research, nuclear power programme and defence as much as in the green and white revolutions.
• The life of Henning Holck-Larsen was not limited to business alone. Widely read and a lover and promoter of art and music, his appreciation of beauty extended to an appreciation of the beauty of the environment. The factories at Powai are in a garden like setting. He was also active in the field of international relations. For his exemplary achievements as businessman, he was felicitated by the National Association of Danish Enterprise in 1968. In recognition of his contribution in promoting relations between India and Denmark in 1972, the Danish Government appointed him Consul General for Denmark in Mumbai. In 1976, his efforts on the world stage earned him the Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding. He was conferred a knighthood and Order of The Knight Commander of Danneburg by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in 1977. In 1980 he was given Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Industrial Peace. In 1999 Larsen was felicitated by the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry and by the CII next year. He also won the Chemical Industry Stalwart Award instituted by the Chemtech Foundation in the same year, and in 2002, the Government of India conferred the Padma Bhushan on Henning Holck-Larsen. His contribution to the field of art was recognized by the National Gallery of Modern Art.
• Henning Holck-Larsen, one of the Pioneers of the engineering industry in India, passed away on 27^th July, 2003.

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Issued by India

Issued on Oct 9, 1999

Issued for : The Indian nationalist movement had asserted the right of the Indian people to shape their own destiny. The Constitution which came in force on 26^th January 1950, was designed to be an instrument of India’s social and economic transformation. A nascent nation embarked on its march towards progress and socio-economic development. Leaders with foresight and a desire to improve the lot of the common people played crucial roles in different regions in the country’s achievements. The Department of Posts issues a set of four stamps in tribute to four visionaries of modern India, namely Dr. T.M.A. Pai, A.D. Shroff, A.B. Walawalkar and Chhaganlal K. Parekh, who have in their various ways contributed to India’s march towards progress and development.

Credits :
Stamp : Anil Keshav Mithbavkar
FDC : Sculpture at Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi
Cancellation : Alka Sharma

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Multi Colour

Denomination : 300 Paise

Overall size : 3.91 x 2.90 cms.

Printing size : 3.55 x 2.54 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Paper : Imported unwatermarked Adhesive Gravure Coated Stamp Paper in Sheets 50.8 x 53.5 cms.

Stamps Printed : 0.4 Million

Number per issue sheet : 35

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printer : India Security Press, Nashik

Name : Arjun Balwant Walawalkar

Born on Dec 27, 1897 at Walawal, Kudal, Sindhudurg district, Maharashtra, India

Died on Dec 23, 1970

About : 

• A. B. Walawalkar (1897-1970) was a visionary who made original contribution to the development of Rail Transportation in India. Hailing from a humble background from the Sindhudurg District of Maharashtra, he started his career in the Drawing Department of the Railways in Mumbai. During his thirty two years of service in the Railways, he undertook many significant projects to widen the railway network of Mumbai as well as to develop this network as the lifeline of cosmopolitan Mumbai. However, his crowning glory was the “Konkan Railway Project” which was conceived and propagated as a concept by him. His dream project was to connect Mumbai with its vast hinterland south of Pune which would serve the economic development of the entire west coast. Walawalkar’s dream has now become a reality and he is fondly remembered as the “Father of Konkan Railway”.
  
• Text : Based on material furnished by the sponsors.

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Issued by India

Issued on Nov 8, 1995

Issued for : The Department of Post today issues a stamp in honour of Roentgen to commemorate the 100^th years of his discovery. The FDC shows the world’s first – “official” X-Ray taken by Roentgen.

Courtesy : V.C. Nadkarni‘s report on the Indian Radiological & Imaging Association‘s Annual Congress at Bombay, published in the Sunday Review 29.1.95; Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay.
Stamp Design : Suresh Kumar
Cancellation : Alka Sharma

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Colour : Multi Colour

Denomination : 600 Paise

Overall size : 3.91 x 2.90 cms.

Printing size : 3.55 x 2.54 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Paper : Imported un w/m Adhesive Gravure Coated Stamp Paper in sheets of size 53.5 x 50.8 cms.

Number of stamps Printed : 0.6 Million

Number per issue sheet : 35

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printer : India Security Press, Nasik

Name : Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

Born on Mar 27, 1845 at Lennep, Rhine Province, German Confederation

Died on Feb 10, 1923 at Munich, Bavaria, Germany

About : 

• Wilhelm Conrad Von Roentgen was born on March 27, 1845, at Lennep, a village in Rhine district in Germany. The story of his life is an interesting study. A man who became a celebrity as a physicist, a prolific mathematics research scholar and a teacher of eminence was dismissed from the High School for a foolish prank and was refused permission to the University of Utrecht. He had to migrate to Switzerland for completing his university studies from Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich.
• He made the momentous discovery of “X-rays“ of Roentgen rays in November 1895, publishing his observations in an obscure local journal of Warzburg in January 1896. Thomas Alva Edison confirmed his findings shortly after the announcement adding prophetically :“Professor Roentgen probably does not draw one dollar profit from his discovery. He belongs to those pure scientists who study for pleasure and love to delve into the secrets of nature. After they have discovered something wonderful, someone else must come to look at it from the commercial point of view. This will also be the case with Roentgen’s discovery.“
• Radiology began with the static radiograph or X-ray discovered by Roentgen. It went on to derive knowledge from space exploration and war defence technology. It moved from vacuum tubes to transistors, printed circuits on silicon chips. Miniaturisation, telecommunication & fine detail television screens assisted its development.
• Today the field has opened up remarkably. Computerised tomography or CT-Scans have been developed independently by Nobel prize winning South African physicist Allan M. Cormack and British engineer, Sir George Hounsfield. Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Ultrasound and magnetic resonance imagery (MRI) have added startling facets to radiology.
• What Roentgen discovered a hundred years ago has gone from strength to strength. Following the first paper “On a new kind of Rays (Preliminary Communication)“, he published two more papers on the subject. In April 1900 Roentgen was appointed Professor of Physics and Director of the Physical Institute at the Ludwigo Maximilians University in Munich. In 1901 he received the first Nobel prize in Physics. He retired in 1920, and soon thereafter he breathed his last on February 10, 1921.

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Issued by India

Issued on Sep 4, 1977

Issued for : The Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department feels privileged to bring out a commemorative postage stamp in honour of this great son of India.

Description of Design : The design of the stamp is horizontal and depicts a portrait of the personality with a view of Ganga Ram Hospital building in New Delhi.

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Colour : Maroon 

Denomination : 25 Paise

Overall size : 4.06 X 2.28 cms.

Printing size : 3.75 X 1.98 cms.

Perforation : 14 x 14½

Watermark : Printed on unwatermarked adhesive stamp paper

Number printed : 30,00,000

Number per issue sheet : 50

Printing process : Photogravure

Designed and printed at : India Security Press

Name : Ganga Ram Agrawal 

Born on Apr 13, 1851 at Mangtanwala, Nankana Sahib, Punjab province, British India [now in Pakistan]

Died on Jul 10, 1927 at London, England

About : 

• Ganga Ram was born on April 13, 1851 at Mangtanwala now in Pakistan. After a brilliant academic career Ganga Ram entered service as an Assistant Engineer in the Public Works Department, Punjab.
• The planning and processes introduced by him for the construction of municipal services, structure and institutions were the first of its kind in India and became a model for generations to come. 
• The most significant contribution of Ganga Ram was in the field of agriculture. To him, agriculture was the foundation of the development of all planning and prosperity in India. His efforts, inspiration and engineering skill largely contributed to make dry tracts of Punjab smile and become green which has made that state the granary of India with the highest per capita income. 
• Ganga Ram was a great social reformer much ahead of his times. He was against dowry and child marriage and advocated widow re-marriage. He established institutions for vocational education and education of the adults. Almost his entire earnings were put in a charitable trust named after him and were utilised to achieve a welfare society. 
• To perpetuate his memory the Ganga Ram Trust, despite having been deprived of almost its entire reserve of funds and property due to partition of the country, is running an up-to-date hospital in New Delhi.
• Ganga Ram passed away on July 10, 1927 in England while functioning as an active member of the Royal Commission on Agriculture.

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Issued by India

Issued on Mar 10, 1976

Issued for : The Indian P&T Department deems it a great privilege to bring out a commemorative stamp in honour of this great man whose epoch-making invention has revolutionised the world of communications.

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Black and Yellow

Denomination : 25 Paise

Overall size : 3.91 X 2.90 cms.

Printing size : 3.56 X 2.54 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Watermark : Unwatermarked Paper

Number printed : 30,00,000

Number per issue sheet : 35

Printing process : Photogravure

Designed and printed at : India Security Press

Name : Alexander Graham Bell

Born on Mar 3, 1847 at Edinburgh, Scotland

Died on Aug 2, 1922 at Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia, Canada

About : 

• Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the Telephone, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 3, 1847. He was educated at Edinburgh and London Universities. Son and grandson of teachers of speech, Graham Bell was from his childhood fascinated by experiments in speech conducted by his grandfather and the lessons which his father gave. Because of ill health, he moved with his father to Canada in 1870. In 1872 Graham Bell opened a School in Boston for training teachers of the deaf and also gave instructions in the mechanics of speech. The following year he became Professor of Vocal Physiology in Boston University.
• While working to devise a Multiple Telegraph, the thought of reproducing speech over distances constantly stirred his mind. On June 2, 1875, while working in Boston on Multiple Telegraph apparatus, Bell heard over an electric wire a sound corresponding to the twang of a steel spring at the other end. Recognising this as a manifestation of the undulatory current principle, he gave his assistant Thomas A. Watson, instructions for embodying it in a model of a telephone. This apparatus transmitted speech sounds the next day, June 3. Further experiments produced an instrument which on March 10, 1876, transmitted the first complete sentence: “Mr. Watson, come here; I want you“. This was the beginning of the telephone, the day of its invention.
• The telephone was first shown publicly at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. There the telephone attracted attention amidst its formidable rivals such as the first electric light and the first printed telegraph. Bell went to England and further perfected the two-piece device into a single instrument containing the transmitter and the receiver. Incredibly, the London Times described it as an American humbug. All the same, the first telephone exchange in England was established in London in September, 1876.
• Bell and Watson lived to inaugurate the first transcontinental telephone between Washington and San Francisco in 1915. Bell was the founder of the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf and of the Volta Bureau for increasing knowledge relating to deafness. He was for a time President of the National Geographic Society and was appointed a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution in 1898.
• The great pioneer and inventor died on August 2, 1922 at his summer home near Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada. A fitting tribute was paid to him when all the telephone stations on the Bell Telephone network in U.S.A. and Canada remained silent for one minute on the day of the funeral.

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Issued by India

Issued on Jun 28, 1975

Issued for : The Posts & Telegraphs Department feels privileged to honour this great artist by issuing a commemorative stamp during 1975 when his 500^th birth anniversary is being observed.

Description of Design : The quadruple stamp shows two paintings done by Michelangelo on the ceiling of Sistine Chapel in Vatican. The picture in the upper half depicts the theme “The Creation of the Sun and Moon and the Plants” and the one in the lower half shows “The Creation of Man“.

Type : Se-tenant Quadruple Stamp,  Block of 4 forming two composite designs in horizontal pairs, Mint Condition

Colour : Multicolour

Denomination : 50 Paise each

Overall Size : 7.25 X 6.70 cms. [Quadruple stamp]

Printing Size : 7.25 X 6.70 cms. [Quadruple stamp]

Perforation : 14 x 14

Watermark : Printed on unwatermarked adhesive coated stamp paper

Number Printed : 30,00,000

Number of stamps per issue Sheet : 72 (18 Blocks)

Printing Process : Photogravure

Designed and Printed at : India Security Press

Colour separation by : M/s Metal Printers Co., Bombay

Name : Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

Born on Mar 6, 1475 at Caprese Michelangelo, Italy

Died on Feb 18, 1564 at Rome, Italy

About : 

• Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian sculptor, painter, architect, engineer and poet, born in Florence in 1475, was one of the greatest artists of all times. Though he started as a sculptor, he excelled equally in the arts of painting and architecture with magnificent skill and prodigious originality. His masterpieces in painting and sculpture, inspired by theology and philosophy, are superb, aesthetic expressions through the medium of the human body. A striking attribute which distinguishes him from his great contemporaries, such as Raphael, was that, while they executed their commissions with the help of disciples and pupils, Michelangelo worked alone and unaided. Even the tremendous undertaking of the painting of the frescoes of entire ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome was accomplished by him single-handed. These intensely moving and awe-inspiring frescoes, as well as the final gigantic fresco of the Last Judgement undertaken by him when in his sixties, again single-handed, had unsurpassed and incalculable influence on the art of his contemporaries and successors over many centuries. Every later artist attempting heroic expression through the human body has been inspired by Michelangelo’s frescoes, such as the Pieta, David, Moses and the groups of statuary in the mausoleum of Lorenzo de Medici.
• During the last lonely years of his life, the long-pent emotions of fervour and tenderness in the heart of this solitary and stern man, found expression in beautiful poetry that calls to mind the sonnets of Shakespeare. 
• Michelangelo had an unconquerable heroic spirit for which he will ever command the admiration and respect of mankind. The total dedication of this supremely great artist to his work brings him close to the spiritual values held dear by thinkers of India and to the ideals of her ancient civilization.

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Issued by India

Issued on Dec 12, 1974

Issued for : The Indian P & T Department deems it a great privilege to bring out a commemorative stamp in honour of this great Italian scientist whose epoch-making invention has revolutionised the world of communications.

Description of Design : The design of the stamp is vertical and depicts the portrait of Marconi.

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Colour : Grey

Denomination : Rs.2

Overall Size : 3.91 X 2.90 cms.

Printing Size : 3.56 X 2.54 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Watermark : Unwatermarked paper

Number Printed : 20,00,000

Number per issue sheet : 35

Printing Process : Photogravure

Designed and Printed at : India Security Press

Name : Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi

Born on Apr 25, 1874 at Palazzo Marescalchi, Bologna, Italy

Died on Jul 20, 1937 at Rome, Italy

About : 

• Guglielmo Marconi was born in the Italian town of Bologna on April 25, 1874. He had his early schooling in Bologna and Florence. Later he went to the technical school of Leghorn, where he studied Physics under Vincenzo Rosa and had the opportunity of investigating electromagnetic (or Hertzian) waves, following the earlier mathematical work of Maxwell and the experimental work of Hertz, Lodge and others.
• After conceiving the idea of using electro-magnetic waves for telegraphy, he carried out various experiments and finally in 1895 succeeded in transmitting signals over a distance of a few metres. Later, he was able to transmit Morse signals over distances of more than three kilo-metres. The following year he went to England to file his first patent in Wireless Telegraphy. A letter of introduction to William Preece, Engineer-in-Chief of the General Post Office, led to a series of demonstrations culminating in 1897 in a record transmission across 14 Kms. of the Bristol Channel.
• By the end of the century wireless communication had been adopted by the British and Italian Navies. Its value as a life saver was also quickly recognised by the merchant navy. Thanks to wireless, a number of lives were saved during the “Titanic” disaster in 1912.
• The year 1901 was a landmark in Marconi‘s life. Apart from the establishment of a wireless school (today’s Marconi College) and communicating over a distance of 319 Kms. between Isle of Wight and Lizard, he succeeded in his famous trans-Atlantic experiments conducted with the assistance of such noted persons as Dr. Fleming (inventor of the radio valve), George Kemp, P.W. Paget and others. He was able to receive signals sent from Poldhu Cornwall, across the Atlantic Ocean at St. John’s, New Foundland.
• Wireless soon became popular and was adapted to aeroplanes during the First World War. A further stride in wireless communications was made in 1919, when a Marconi engineer made the first east to west transatlantic telephony transmission, and the concept of broadcasting took shape at Marconi‘s Works in Chelmsford. In 1922, the British Broadcasting Company (which later became the British Broadcasting Corporation) was formed by Marconi‘s Works and five other manufacturers. In 1924, the British Government awarded a contract to Marconi for the formation of a wireless telecommunication network connecting countries in the British Empire, using shortwave directional transmission developed by him.
• In 1929, Marconi returned to Italy because of ill-health, but continued his work, as a result of which he installed the first microwave telephone link in 1932 and also demonstrated the principles of Radar in 1935. The Marconi EMI Ltd., in England had, in the meantime, introduced the world’s first high definition television service.
• The Nobel Prize for Physics awarded to Marconi in 1909 was one of the many honours he received during his life time. After the First World War during which he served in the Italian Army, he did intensive diplomatic work as a plenipotentiary delegate to the Paris Peace Conference. The great pioneer and inventor died in Rome on July 20, 1937. A fitting tribute was paid to him when wireless transmission all over the world was stopped for two minutes.

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Issued by Nepal

Issued on Apr 13, 1972 [1^st Baishak 2029]

Issued by :
His Majesty’s Government,
Postal Services Dept.,
Nepal Philatelic Bureau,
Kathmandu

Designer : K. Karmacharya

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Denomination : 15 Paisa

Colour : Gr. Turquoise blue & Raw Sienna

Size : Pictorial 2.90 cms x 3.91 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Paper : Unwatermarked adhesive stamp paper

Quantity : 1000000

Sheet : 35

Process : Photogravure

Printer : India Security Press

Name : Araniko

Born on 1245 at Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Died on Mar 11, 1306 at China

About : 

• Arniko, born in 1244 A.D., was the most famous Nepalese architect of our glorious history. In spite of his young age, he led 80 artisans to Lhasa and erected a golden stupa with success. In China also he showed his qualities of bronze caster, painter and architect in one person. So Arniko was appointed by Emperor Kublai Khan as a controller of imperial architectural studies. He died in China on 11^th March 1306. He was granted the posthumous name of ‘Minghoi‘ and decorated with the title of ‘Duke of Liang‘.
• The white Dagoba in Peking, designed by Arniko, stands to this day as a monument to the contribution of the Nepalese art and architecture.

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Issued by India

Issued on May 27, 1969

Issued for : The P. & T. Department deems it an honour to bring out a commemorative stamp in memory of this great son of India, pioneer and innovator, Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia.

Description of Design : The design of the stamp is horizontal and depicts a portrait of Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia along with sailing ships with which late Cursetjee Wadia was associated.

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Colour : Turquoise Blue

Denomination : 20 Paise

Overall Size : 4.06 X 2.28 cms.

Printing Size : 3.80 X 2.00 cms.

Perforation : 14 x 14½

Watermark : Printed on unwatermarked paper

Number Printed : 30,00,000

Number per issue Sheet : 50

Printing Process : Photogravure

Designed and Printed at : India Security Press

Name : Ardaseer Cursetjee

Born on Oct 6, 1808 at Bombay, India

Died on Nov 16, 1877 at Richmond, United Kingdom

About : 

• Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia had the unique honour of being the first in many fields during the Victorian era. He was the first Indian who had the honour to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; he was the first to introduce lighting by gas in Bombay. The picture on the First Day Cover issued by the P. & T. Department depicts the gas lamps installed by him in one of the streets in Bombay. He was the first to build an ocean-going steam vessel in India.
• Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia belongs to the well-known family of Lowjee Wadia who had distinguished themselves as the noted ship-builders of Bombay. He was born on 6^th October, 1808. His father Cursetjee Rustomjee was a master builder in the dockyard at Bombay. After receiving his early education, he joined the dockyard in 1822 at the very young age of 14. He was very much interested in marine engineering and especially in the working of steam engine. While in England, he constructed a steam engine which he sent to India for being fitted in a boat of his own building. This was the ‘INDUS‘ launched in 1833.
• His flair for the steam engine and mechanical gadgets was such that he was the first to instal steam pumps on the island of Bombay which provided sufficient water to a small fountain thereby demonstrating to his countrymen the great advantages which may be derived from the introduction of steam as a means of power which could be used successfully for irrigation.
• The great interest Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia took in the engineering line led him to introduce gas-lighting in Bombay. On 10^th March, 1834, he lighted his bungalow and his gardens at Mazagoan with gas, when the Governor of Bombay and people from all parts of the town gathered to see this novel experiment. The Governor of Bombay was so impressed that before departing, he presented him with a Dress of Honour.
• Ardaseer was for some time a professor in the Elphinstone Institution in Bombay teaching the mechanical and chemical sciences. In 1839, he went to England on his own to make further studies in the branch of mechanical sciences. During his stay in England, he had the privilege of being introduced to the Marquis of Northampton, the then President of the Royal Society and other distinguished members of the Society. His knowledge of the steam engine as applied to navigation and the efforts he made for promotion of sciences and the useful arts in his country, were recognised by the Royal Society on 27^th May, 1841 when he was elected a Fellow. He was thus the first Indian to be elected a fellow of this august Society.
• Ardaseer was one of the dignitaries from India who attended the wedding of Queen Victoria. On return from England, he was appointed as Chief Engineer and Inspector of Machinery at the Steam Factory at Bombay by the Court of Directors of the East India Company in preference to several English candidates. This was very unusual at that time as Ardaseer had to supervise the work of English employees at the docks. He occupied this post with great dignity till 1^st August, 1857 when he retired from service. In 1837, he was elected a non-resident member of the Royal Asiatic Society of England. In 1855, he was elected a Justice of the Peace.
• His hobby was to introduce novelties in the city of his birth and thus he was the first to introduce the sewing machine, photography and electro-plating in Bombay. After a distinguished career and useful life, Ardaseer settled down at Richmond, England and passed the remaining years of his life there. He died on 16^th November, 1877.

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