Calcutta, Jan. 28 :     'The single biggest influence on me has been India,' Dr John Edward Mitchiner told The Telegraph, after addressing his first press conference since assuming office as the new British deputy high commissioner to Eastern India. He was not just being politically correct. Having spent more than three years of his academic life at Santiniketan, Calcutta and Varanasi working on Indian history, Sanskrit and Hinduism, and five years of his diplomatic career in Delhi, the Indian experience does run like a river through his life. Coming to Calcutta after stints in London, Istanbul, New Delhi, Berne and Armenia, the 49-year-old academician-turned-diplomat unveiled the objectives of his three-year stay. 'I am committed to the furtherance of Indo-British collaboration and cooperation in general, and to the building of closer commercial, educational, cultural and developmental links between Eastern India and the UK, in particular,' he said. Announcing a host of programmes like the Business Link Sussex Trade Mission to India, the Calcutta Waterfront Workshop, the British Environment Road Show, the Global Enterprise Initiative, Mitchiner declared that the UK's grants to India would rise from £100 million to £130 million in the next three years. In West Bengal, the £14.7-million district primary education project will include five more districts at an additional cost of £37 million. A £25-million aid package for Orissa hasalso been cleared. Both West Bengal and Orissa have been targeted as `partner states' by UK's department of international development. While acknowledging West Bengal's 'enormous potential' in helping India become a 'regional and world leader', Mitchiner, however, warned that the state administration must ensure 'rapid decision-making and infrastructure development in order to make the environment attractive for foreign investment'. Aware that his tenure could well witness 'political transition' in the state, Mitchiner said he hoped that any change would be 'peaceful and fully democratic'. Personally, education remains 'top priority' for him. Initiating exchange programmes between Visva Bharati, Calcutta University and universities in the UK remains a dream. .'While my enduring memory of Santiniketan is of a peaceful ashram steeped in Tagore's tradition, Calcutta in the late '70s represented a very attractive chaos,' recalls Mitchiner. From the young man in kurta- pyjama, `Santiniketani' bag slung over his shoulder, travelling by tram or bus from the International Students House in Park Circus to College Street, and enjoying adda at Coffee House, to the suave diplomat at the British office, Dr John Edward Mitchiner does seem to be a deputy high commissioner with a difference.