N. Ram, Director, The Hindu Group Publishing Private Limited, on September 28 said he cannot think of any Indian who was more decorated internationally in modern times than the agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan, who passed away in Chennai earlier in the day.
Addressing media after paying his respects to the mortal remains of Mr. Swaminathan, Mr. Ram also said he did not know of any Indian who had made a greater contribution to the national life, primarily because of the increase in food production he brought about, which he added was a real revolution.
He said Swaminathan worked with eminent agronomist Normal Borlaug and also political leaders like C. Subramaniam. He said Swaminathan’s contribution continued lifelong, even after his full-time professional scientific career.
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He recalled how the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation was set up in Tamil Nadu, where the late scientist was born, despite an offer from Karnataka Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde [in late 1980s] to set up such an institution in Bengaluru. Mr. Hegde had made an attractive offer with land and a huge sum of money, he said.
Mr. Ram said Swaminathan, as an agriculture scientist and a geneticist, had a very practical approach and applied his knowledge in a practical way. He said this was reflected in the functioning of MSSRF with its focus on collecting various native varieties of plants and foregrounding the role of women in agriculture. He paid minute attention to details and visited the foundation every day until recent times when he was not doing well, Mr. Ram said, adding that anyone could meet him at the institution.
He said, in a sense, Swaminathan did not belong to any family but belonged to the people. He said Swaminathan made pioneering contributions in the area of climate change and agriculture through the papers he wrote very early, anticipating what came later.
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He said, another trait he loved about Swaminathan was how he donated all the money he got from various awards to the foundation. Though there were contributions from certain other organisations, the seed money with which the foundation’s corpus was build came from Swaminathan. “I think he also persuaded his family to donate a large plot of land in Kerala in Wayanad to the foundation,” he added.
Mr. Ram said Swaminathan can be a real task master while at the same time being very friendly and gentle.
