150th Birth Anniversary of Pingali Venkayya

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The Prime Minister of India paid tributes to Pingali Venkayya on his 150th birth anniversary on 2nd August. He is celebrated across the nation as the designer of India's National Flag (Tiranga).

He was born on 2nd August 1876 in the Krishna District of Andhra Pradesh. At the age of 19, he joined the British Army and fought in the Second Boer War (1899 - 1902) in South Africa, where he met Mahatma Gandhi for the first time.

During the 1921 Indian National Congress (INC) session in Vijayawada, he presented his draft Swaraj Flag made of Khadi directly to Mahatma Gandhi.
His initial design contained two horizontal bands of red and green to represent Hindu and Muslim communities. Mahatma Gandhi suggested adding a white band for peace and a spinning wheel (Charkha) to symbolize self-reliance.
The Indian National Congress officially adopted this design in 1931, making it the foundation for the modern Tricolour.
In 1947, an ad hoc committee of the Constituent Assembly recommended keeping the 1931 tricolour pattern while replacing the Charkha with the Ashoka Chakra.
The Constituent Assembly officially adopted the present design on 22nd July 1947, and it became the official National Flag on 15th August 1947.

He actively participated in the Indian freedom struggle between 1906 and 1922. During this era, he actively joined major national efforts such as the Vande Mataram movement and the Home Rule movement.

People called him 'Japan Venkayya' because he was a skilled linguist who delivered an entire speech in Japanese at Bapatla in 1913.
He earned the title 'Patti (Cotton) Venkayya' due to his deep research on Cambodia Cotton varieties.
As a geology graduate, he conducted diamond mining in Andhra Pradesh and published a book named 'The Mother of Diamonds' in 1955, which earned him the name 'Diamond Venkayya'. He later served as an advisor to the Mineral Research Department.

He served as a plague inspector in Madras and Bellary and founded an educational institution in Machilipatnam.
The government released a commemorative postage stamp in his honor in 2009, and All India Radio Vijayawada was renamed after him in 2015.