Q. How many historians have been granted the National Fellowship of the ICHR?
A. Since the fellowships are exclusively by invitation and were started around six years ago only very eminent historians like Irfan Habib, I. Mahadevan and R.S. Sharma have been awarded these.

Q. What is the amount and tenure of fellowship and has anyone completed and published the research work?
A. Each historian gets about Rs 25,000 per month for two years, at the end of which they have to submit their research work. There are generous allowances for travel and other expenses. Only Mahadevan has completed and submitted his report to date.

Q. The ICHR has been criticised for not publishing the Towards Freedom project papers?
A. The Towards Freedom project was originally planned by Mrs Indira Gandhi in 1972. It relates to documentation of the period between 1937-47 which saw India gain Independence. Some historians like Pannikar and Sumit Sarcar were given specific projects to edit and supervise. Then suddenly some volumes were published by Oxford University Press (OUP). The ICHR objected because we are the original copyright holders.

Q. Where does the project stand now?
A. The OUP wanted Rs 75 lakh as compensation even after having fraudulently published the volumes. Later they were fined Rs 10,000 by the Delhi High Court.

-Neeraj Mishra

TREMORS Gadgets and Technologies
	Mobile phones: The biggest winners, and likely to pick up more steam. Texting is now part of the lexicon everywhere.
	Radio: The hippest gadget of 50 years ago is back again, and regaining popularity.
	Computers: Faster processor speeds fail to impress buyers and analysts. However it could be temporary.
	Pager: A device that went the way of VCPs and VCRs after the advent of DVD players. Only radio shows use them now.