Opinion 40 years ago December 2, 1985: PM on tech import norms
This is the front page of The Indian Express published on December 2, 1985.
This is the front page of The Indian Express published on December 2, 1985. 
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi emphatically told Indian industries that they would not be allowed to sacrifice quality and the standards already set by inducting technology at one level. Earlier, Gandhi said in Osaka that the government was going to lay down “very strict norms” for private Indian industry to qualify for import of sophisticated technology. He made it absolutely clear that the government would not allow killing of the local market.
Stricter libel laws
Karnataka Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde called for stringent libel laws to ensure that the freedom of the press is not abused. The defamation laws completely lack teeth and involve a long-drawn-out battle in which both the victor and the vanquished suffer alike, if at all the case is ever decided, he declared, delivering the Seventh Bhimsen Sachar Memorial Lecture on “Freedom of Media” at Lajpat Bhawan in New Delhi.
Three killed in Punjab violence
Terrorists stepped up their activities in Punjab as they gunned down a Nihang and a shopkeeper while injuring three others, including a policeman, even as the police struck back and killed one of the assailants and nabbed another in two different incidents in the state during the last 24 hours.
Ex-CM arrested, released
Former Odisha chief minister Nandini Satpathy was released after day-long custody at the police headquarters in Bhubaneswar. She was physically lifted and thrown into a waiting police vehicle at the state secretariat, where she had gone with a group of 200 Opposition workers to protest against a bus fare hike. Opposition leaders, including Loknath Chaudhary of the CPI, who could not find out where she had been taken, sent a telegram to the Prime Minister alleging foul play behind her disappearance. The police had arrested 148 Opposition workers.
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