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Show 3 The other, which was a residence block, on two floors, could be renovated and modernized so as to provide twelve large single rooms for residence and four modern bathrooms. An additional^ building, used for a mess hall, was also available for modernization. The Architect of the Deccan College prepared plans for remodelling the two buildings and drew up preliminary estimates of the cost. These had been used in requesting funds from the Department of State, Further, a good residence bungalow was for sale across the road belonging to Dr. C. D. Deshmukh, formerly living in Poona, now Vice Chancellor of the University of Delhi, and tentative negotiations for its purchase were undertaken with him. The tentative arrangements with the Deccan College and Dr. Deshmukh were to be confirmed when the Institute got its contract. 5. The process of selecting Fellows was begun without waiting for the signing of the Institute's contract with the Department of State. The Executive Committee appointed a Selection Committee, which circulated announcements of the kinds of fellowships to be offered by the Institute, prepared application forms, invited and received applications, made tentative selections on a competitive basis, subject to confirmation when the contract should be signed, and notified the successful applicants of their tentative selection. Some of the candidates took other awards, since it was not then possible for the Institute to give absolute assurance that the awards could be confirmed, but most of them held on, preferring to rely upon the virtual assurance that confirmation would be forthcoming. The end result was the appointment of 3 Faculty Research Fellows, 4 Faculty Training Fellows, 5 Junior (predoctoral) Fellows, while travel grants with maintenance stipend were also awarded to 7 holders of predoctoral fellowships of the U. S. Office of Education under the provisions of the National Defense Education Act, Title VI. Commencement^ of Operations in India The first phase of starting operations in India was to get funds deposited for the Institute on its account at the Bombay branch of the First National City Bank (New York). The Government of India has strict rules governing the banking arrangements of foreign corporations in India, and to get the permission of the Reserve Bank of India for our account and then to get deposit of the first payment under our contract ($200,000, equivalent to Rs. 946,000) took until July 23, 1952. until this sum was available in bank and subject to withdrawal, the Institute could not buy travel for its fellows, since payment, which was in rupees, had to be made to the Bombay offices of the air carriers involved, whereupon those offices would notify their American offices to issue tickets. Nevertheless every fellow was able to leave the United States at his desired time, though this was possible only at the cost of considerable effort |
