Dr. M.S Swaminathan

Why is in news? PM condoles the demise of Dr. MS Swaminathan

Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (7 August 1925 – 28 September 2023) was an Indian agronomist, agricultural scientist, plant geneticist, administrator, and humanitarian.

Swaminathan was born in Kumbakonam, Madras Presidency, on 7 August 1925.

He was the second son of general surgeon M. K. Sambasivan and Parvati Thangammal Sambasivan, who hailed from Alappuzha district in Kerala.

His works:

Swaminathan was a global leader of the green revolution.

He has been called the main architect of the green revolution in India for his leadership and role in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice.

Swaminathan's collaborative scientific efforts with Norman Borlaug, spearheading a mass movement with farmers and other scientists and backed by public policies, saved India and Pakistan from certain famine-like conditions in the 1960s.

Swaminathan contributed basic research related to potato, wheat, and rice, in areas such as cytogenetics, ionizing radiation, and radiosensitivity.

He was a president of the Pugwash Conferences and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Swaminathan chaired the National Commission on Farmers in 2004, which recommended far-reaching ways to improve India's farming system.

He was the founder of an eponymous research foundation.

He coined the term 'Evergreen Revolution' in 1990 to describe his vision of "productivity in perpetuity without associated ecological harm".

He was nominated to the Parliament of India for one term between 2007 and 2013.During his tenure he put forward a bill for the recognition of women farmers in India.

He founded the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, an NGO that develops and promotes economic growth strategies, especially for rural women.

Awards and honours:

His leadership as director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines was instrumental in his being awarded the first World Food Prize in 1987, recognized as one of the highest honours in the field of agriculture.

The United Nations Environment Programme has called him "the Father of Economic Ecology".

In 1999, he was one of three Indians, along with Gandhi and Tagore, on Time's list of the 20 most influential Asian people of the 20th century.

Swaminathan received numerous awards and honours, including the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, the Ramon Magsaysay Award, and the Albert Einstein World Science Award.

Others:

M. S. Swaminathan was married to Mina Swaminathan, they lived in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Their three daughters are Soumya Swaminathan (a paediatrician), Madhura Swaminathan (an economist), and Nitya Swaminathan (gender and rural development).

Gandhi and Ramana Maharshi influenced his life. Of the 2000 acres owned by their family, they donated one-third to Vinoba Bhave's cause.

In an interview in 2011, he said that when he was young, he followed Swami Vivekananda.

M. S. Swaminathan died at his home in Chennai on 28 September 2023, at the age of 98.