A collection of M.S. Swaminathan’s thoughts on food security and agricultural science that appeared in the Opinion columns of The Hindu between 2009 and 2012
M.S. Swaminathan. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
M.S. Swaminathan, an eminent agricultural scientist and a key architect of India’s ‘Green Revolution’ breathed his last in Chennai on September 28, 2023. He was 98.
He was born in Kumbakonam on August 7, 1925 to M.K. Sambasivan, a surgeon, and Parvati Thangammal. His keen interest in agricultural science coupled with his father’s participation in the freedom movement and Mahatma Gandhi’s influence inspired him to pursue higher studies in agriculture.
Dr. Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, or M.S. Swaminathan, is known as the “Father of the Green Revolution in India”, for his leadership and success in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice in India.
In this 1965 photo Norman Borlaug (third from left) selects strains of high-yielding wheat, along with S.P. Kohli, M.S. Swaminathan (second from left) and V.S. Mathur, in New Delhi in 1965. The Green Revolution strategy kept famines at bay and partly made up for the absence of land reforms by encouraging direct cultivation by large landholders.
Then Union Agriculture Minister Rao Birender Singh, then Prime MInister Indira Gandhi, Chairman of the National Organising Committee Dr. M.S. Swaminathan and President of the World Genetics Congress are seen during the 10th World Genetics Congress at New Delhi on December 12, 1983.
M.S. Swaminathan at the Wheat Breeding Research Station of IARI in Wellington, on December 31, 2013. Dr. Swaminathan was an alumnus of The Indian Agricultural Research Institute.
President R. Venkataraman presents the Padma Bhushan award to Dr. M.S. at an investiture ceremony in the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi in 1989.
Dr. Swaminathan presents a garland of rice grains to the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh at the International Rice Congress at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on October 9, 2006.
Dr. Swaminathan arrives with his wife Mina Swaminathan in the Parliament. He was a Rajya Sabha member from 2007 to 2013.
The then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee presents the Millennium Award to Dr. Swaminathan at the 88th Session of the Indian Science Congress in New Delhi.
M.S. Swaminathan, when he took over as Director General, ICAR, on January 14, 1972.
Dr. Swaminathan receives World Agriculture Prize from Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu at the 11th Global Agriculture Leadership Summit in New Delhi.
M.S. Swaminathan addressing a FICCI meet on 'Agriculture policy in the first 10 years of the next millennium' in New Delhi on November 12, 1999.
The Hindu Group Publishing Private Ltd. Director N. Ram pays his respects before the mortal remains of Swaminathan, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu on September 28, 2023.
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Dr. Swaminathan worked closely with two Union Agriculture Ministers, C. Subramaniam (1964-67) and Jagjivan Ram (1967-70 & 1974-77) for the success of the ‘Green Revolution,’ a programme that paved the way for quantum jump in production of wheat and rice through adaptation of chemical-biological technology.
He was a recipient of Padma Shri in 1967, the Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership in 1971. He was also awarded ‘Padma Bhushan’.
This folder presents a collection of M.S. Swaminathan’s thoughts on food security and agricultural science, that appeared in the Opinion columns of The Hindu between 2009 and 2012.
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