This is one calendar that religiously denoted controversy. But 10 years after Canada-based scholar Pal Singh Purewal mooted a Sikh calendar, the community will finally adopt the Nanakshahi almanac in place of the traditional Hindu Bikrami Samvat calendar. Two days after the Sikh clergy adopted it in Amritsar on March 28, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) announced its implementation from Baisakhi (April 14), perhaps to ward off further controversy. Its 1999 attempt had been floored by protests.

CLASS PROTEST: Parents outside the cardinal's home

Breaking away from the lunar Bikrami Samvat, the Nanakshahi follows solar configurations and begins from 1469, the birth year of Guru Nanak. It fixes dates for all Sikh festivals in consonance with the Common Era (or Christian) calendar. "The idea is to rationalise the calendar in tune with sound astronomical principles," says Purewal.

But the rationalisation process has its own pitfalls. The new calendar is a watered down version of the original which had sought to segregate festivals common to the Hindus and the Sikhs. This evoked strong opposition in the moderate Sikh clergy and the RSS. The new calendar follows the Bikram Samvat to decide Diwali, Holi and Guru Nanak's birthday. There's another aspect on which the moderates finally prevailed. The hardliners' demand to include the death anniversaries of Indira Gandhi and General A.S. Vaidya as public occasions finds no place in the Nanakshahi calendar. Only Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale's death is listed on June 6 as "Martyrdom Day".

— Ramesh Vinayak

DELHI: The most sought after city for doing business scores for with great telecom network-the best in the country-and good hotel infrastructure-India's second best. Its poor transport and relatively few professional educational institutes, however, are among the capital's handicaps.

GREATER MUMBAI: India's business capital ranks second, with the best private finance network and hotel infrastructure. But these pluses cannot absorb the shock of its Achilles' heel: its poor road transport. Mumbai has India's second-worst urban road network, according to the CII survey.

CHANDIGARH: This one is a real surprise. The country's best planned city with the second best private finance network and great telecom infrastructure ranks third in the survey. But its poor professional education and hotel infrastructure have let it down.

WHIMSICAL AMMA: Students protest Jaya's decision

It is a lesson on the cause and effect of the whims of state governments. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, whose whims are the stuff of legend, sprang another one on the state Assembly by announcing that Chennai's Queen Mary's College (QMC) for Women would be demolished to set up a new secretariat. After protests by the students, the high court acting on a petition restrained the Government from demolishing the college. Jayalalithaa's decision was conveyed via a suo motu statement in the Assembly which allows no discussion. However, the statement said that "the Government has decided to shift the secretariat from its present complex since it was unfit for human habitation" and that the QMC buildings were in a "dilapidated condition" and would have to be torn down sooner or later. Jayalalithaa said that the new secretariat complex planned on the 30-acre QMC estate would have plush modern offices for the governor, chief minister and ministers, plus a helipad and a guesthouse. No such frills and fancies for the poor students. QMC, started in 1914, has 4,500 students.