A special convocation ceremony was organized in the auditorium of Swaminathan Research Foundation at Chennai, wherein the ITM University Gwalior conferred the degree of Honoris Causa on popular Indian Scientist Dr. M.S. Swaminathan*. The programme was chaired by Dr. T. Ramaswamy, Former Secretary, Department of Science and Technology and also a distinguished scientist. Amid a number of dignitaries and luminaries the degree was presented to the Father of Green Revolution in India by the Vice Chancellor of ITM University, Prof .Kamal Kant Dwivedi.
In his general address, Dr. Swaminathan expressed gratitude to ITM University for organizing a special convocation at his place, considering his poor health. He also pointed out towards his keen desire to visit the University in near future. He appreciated and encouraged the students of ITM School of Agriculture to make innovations in the field of sustainable development and be a part of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in times to come.
*Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan.(born 7 August 1925) is an Indian geneticist and international administrator, renowned for his leading role in India's Green Revolution, a program under which high-yield varieties of wheat and rice seedlings were planted in the fields of poor farmers. Swaminathan is known as the "Father of Indian Green Revolution" for his leadership and success in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat in India. He is the founder and chairman of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. His stated vision is to rid the world of hunger and poverty. Swaminathan is an advocate of moving India to sustainable development, especially using environmentally sustainable agriculture, sustainable food security and the preservation of biodiversity, which he calls an "evergreen revolution.
On the occasion of the presentation of the First World Food Prize[10] to Swaminathan in October 1987, Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary General of the United Nations, wrote: "Dr. Swaminathan is a living legend. His contributions to Agricultural Science have made an indelible mark on food production in India and elsewhere in the developing world. By any standards, he will go into the annals of history as a world scientist of rare distinction."
Swaminathan has been described by the United Nations Environment Programme as "the Father of Economic Ecology."
He has been one of three from India included in Time magazine's 1999 list of the "20 most influential Asian people of the 20th century," the other two being Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore.
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