<P> Years are counted in the Saka era, which starts its year 0 in the year 78 of the Common Era . To determine leap years, add 78 to the Saka year--if the result is a leap year in the Gregorian calendar, then the Saka year is a leap year as well . Its structure is just like the Persian calendar . </P> <P> Senior Indian Astrophysicist Meghnad Saha was the head of the Calendar Reform Committee under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research . Other members of the Committee were: A.C. Banerjee, K.K. Daftari, J.S. Karandikar, Gorakh Prasad, R.V. Vaidya and N.C. Lahiri . It was Saha's effort, which led to the formation of the Committee . The task before the Committee was to prepare an accurate calendar based on scientific study, which could be adopted uniformly throughout India . It was a mammoth task . The Committee had to undertake a detailed study of different calendars prevalent in different parts of the country . There were thirty different calendars . The task was further complicated by the fact that religion and local sentiments were integral to those calendars . India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, in his preface to the Report of the Committee, published in 1955, wrote: "They (different calendars) represent past political divisions in the country...Now that we have attained Independence, it is obviously desirable that there should be a certain uniformity in the calendar for our civic, social, and other purposes, and this should be done on a scientific approach to this problem ." </P> <P> Usage started officially at 1 Chaitra 1879, Saka Era, or 22 March 1957 . However, government officials seem to largely ignore the New Year's Day of this calendar in favour of the religious calendar . </P>

When is new year celebrated according to the indian national calendar