Organised by Maharaja Sayajirao University's Oriental Institute, the three-day conference will be inaugurated by Gujarat Governor Anshuman Singh and attended by former Jabalpur University Vice-Chancellor P D Agnihotri and University of Pennsylvania linguistics professor George Cardona.

The institute is organising the conference after a gap of 65 years as part of Maharaja Sayajirao University's golden jubilee celebrations.

Local secretary R I Nanavati said about 800 research papers were expected to be presented at the conference on subjects ranging from the Vedas, classical Sanskrit, Islamic studies, history, archaeology, philosophy and religion, modern Sanskrit and Gujarati language and literature.

Minister of State for Cultural Affairs Mahendra Trivedi will inaugurate a festival of cultural programmes on Tuesday evening, which will feature a dance ballet by Mrinalini Sarabhai and the Darpana troupe, a Kudiattam dance presentation and a cultural programme presented by Gujarat Government. A book exhibition has been also organised at the D N Hall.

Nanavati said Raman Khosla of Vipasyana Institute, Igatpur, would deliver a talk on `Buddha Revisited', while Bangalore-based scholar P Ramanujan will deliver a talk on `Computers and Sanskrit'.

Power Conference: A wide-ranging issues concerning non-conventional ENERGY sources, power transmission lines, distribution systems, energy measurement, voltage stability and insulation and grounding will be discussed at the 10th National Power Systems Conference beginning here on October 14.

Organised by MSU's Department of Electrical Engineering with the assistance of the Gujarat Electricity Board, the conference is a part of the MSU's golden jubilee celebrations.

Organising secretary S G Shah said the conferences were held in alternate year at academic or research institutions to provide a common platform to researchers, electricity board members and manufacturers of electronics on power-related issues.

Nearly 100 research papers are expected to be presented in 28 sessions in which 250 delegates from different parts of the country -- particularly from electricity boards, industries, IITs and engineering colleges -- will take part. Shah said a majority of the participants would be engineers from electricity boards from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

GEB Member (Technical) K K Vaghela said plans were afoot to add another 6000 MW power in the 9th Five Year Plan. When questioned, conference co-ordinator S K Joshi said the distribution network of electricity boards should be privatised first. However, he agreed that this was a policy decision.

Member (Planning) of the Central Electricity Authority K N Sinha will be chief guest of the inauguration, to be attended by MSU Vice-Chancellor Anil Kane and Pro-Vice Chancellor Dipak Kumar De. Member GEB N R Waghmare will be the key-note speaker, while Jyoti Limited chairman Nanubhai Amin and former GEB chairman J C Shah will be felicitated on the occasion.

On October 15, a popular talk on the Kalpasar Project, in which Kane played a major role, will be held.