C.N.R.

Rao ( Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao ) was born in Bangalore to

Hanumantha Nagesa Rao and Nagamma Nagesa Rao. He was an only child, and his learned
parents made an academic environment. He was well versed in Hindu literature from his mother
and in English from his father at an early age. He did not attend elementary school but was
home-tutored by his mother, who was particularly skilled in arethmetic and Hindu
literature. He entered middle school in 1940, at age six. Although he was the youngest in
his class, he used to tutor his classmates in mathematics and English. He passed lower
secondary examination (class VII) in first class in 1944. He was ten years old, and his
father rewarded him with four annas (twenty-five paisa).

He attended Acharya Patashala high school in Basavanagudi, which made a lasting

influence on his interest in chemistry. His father enrolled him to a Kannada-medium course
to encourage his mother tongue, but at home used English for all cenversation. He
completed secondary school leaving certificate in first class in 1947. He studied BSc at
Central College, Bangalore. Here he developed his communication skills in English and
also learnt Sanskrit. He obtained his bachelor's degree from Mysore University in 1951, in
first class, and only at the age of seventeen.

He initially thought of joining Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for a diploma or a

postgraduate degree in chemical engineering, but a teacher peasuaded him to attend
Banaras Hindu University. He obtained a master's in chemistry from BHU two years later.
In 1953 he was granted a scholarship for PhD in IIT Kharagpur. But four foreign
universities, MIT, Penn State, Columbia and Purdue also offered him financial support. He
chose Purdue. His first research paper was published in the Agra University Journal of
Research in 1954. He completed PhD in 1958, only after two years and nine months, at age
twenty-four.Rao is one of the world's foremost solid state and materials chemists.

He has contributed to the development of the field over five decades. His work on
transition metal oxides has led to basic understanding of novel phenomena and the
relationship between materials properties and the structural chemistry of these materials.
Born and raised in a Hindu merchant caste family in coastal Gujarat, wastern India, and
trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil
disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's
struggle for civil rights.

After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban
labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of
the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for various social
causes and for achieving Swaraj or self-rule. Gandhi famously led Indians in challenging
the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later
in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, upon
many occasions, in both South Africa and India.