Pandurang Vaman Kane's Death Anniversary

 

Pandurang Vaman Kane, who passed away on 18 April 1972, aged 91, was an Indian academic, historian, lawyer, Indologist, and Sanskrit scholar. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award in 1963.

Kane's academic career spanned for more than four decades, and included a tenure as the vice-chancellor of the University of Bombay, from 1947 to 1949. He is known for his magnum opus, History of Dharmaśāstra (1930-62), a five-volume treatise on law in ancient and medieval India. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, upper house of the Indian parliament from 1953 to 1964.

Kane initially studied and taught Sanskrit, but later obtained degrees in law and practiced before the Bombay High Court.  He taught Sanskrit at Wilson College and Elphinstone College and law at Government Law College. Kane was a member of the Bombay Asiatic Society.

World Amateur Radio Day

Every April 18, radio amateurs worldwide take to the airwaves in celebration of World Amateur Radio Day. It was on this day in 1925 that the International Amateur Radio Union was formed in Paris.

Amateur Radio experimenters were the first to discover that the short wave spectrum --- far from being a wasteland --- could support worldwide propagation. In the rush to use these shorter wavelengths, Amateur Radio was "in grave danger of being pushed aside," the IARU's history has noted. Amateur Radio pioneers met in Paris in 1925 and created the IARU to support Amateur Radio worldwide. 

Just two years later, at the International Radiotelegraph Conference, Amateur Radio gained the allocations still recognized today — 160, 80, 40, 20, and 10 meters.  Since its founding, the IARU has worked tirelessly to defend and expand the frequency allocations for Amateur Radio. Thanks to the support of enlightened administrations in every part of the globe, radio amateurs are now able to experiment and communicate in frequency bands strategically located throughout the radio spectrum.  From the 25 countries that formed the IARU in 1925, the IARU has grown to include 160 member-societies in three regions. IARU Region 1 includes Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Northern Asia. Region 2 covers the Americas, and Region 3 is comprised of Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific island nations, and most of Asia. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has recognized the IARU as representing the interests of Amateur Radio.

Today, Amateur Radio is more popular than ever, with more than 3,000,000 licensed operators!

World Amateur Radio Day is the day when IARU Member-Societies can show our capabilities to the public and enjoy global friendship with other Amateurs worldwide.