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M.S.SWAMINATHAN

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 "Indian Father of 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.^[1] His stated vision is to rid the world of hunger and poverty.^[2] 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."^[3]

From 1972 to 1979 he was director general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. He was Principal Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture from 1979 to 1980. He served as Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (1982–88) and became president of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in 1988.

In 1999, Time magazine placed him in the 'Time 20' list of most influential Asian people of the 20th century.^[4]

Swaminathan's family was among the most important in the village of Moncombu. Generations before, the rajah of Ambalapuzha had travelled to the neighbouring region of Tamil Nadu. He had been very impressed by the scholars at the Thanjavur court and requested that one such scholar be sent to his province. Enji Venkatachella Iyer, Swaminathan's ancestor, was chosen to move to Ambalapuzha. The rajah was so delighted and struck by Venkatachella Iyer's knowledge of the scriptures that he gave him acres of land comprising the village of Monkombu. They came to be called the Kottaram family (‘kottaram’ means palace).

M. S. Swaminathan was born in Kumbakonam on 7 August 1925. He was the second son of surgeon Dr. M.K. Sambasivan and Parvati Thangammal Sambasivan. M.S. Swaminathan learnt from his father, "that the word 'impossible' exists mainly in our minds and that given the requisite will and effort, great tasks can be accomplished." Surgeon M.K. Sambasivam, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, took the lead in Kumbakonam in "burning his foreign clothes," a symbolic act in support of the Swadeshi movement: which emphasized the use of Indian rather than foreign-made clothes, and handloomed rather than mill-spun cloth. The political purpose of the swadeshi movement was to free India from dependence on foreign imports and to protect village industry. His father led in opening the temples to Dalits, part of the temple entry movement of the Indian independence movement in Tamil Nadu, and in eradicating filariasis in Kumbakonom, an area long infected with the dread disease. The sense of service to one's fellow man was thus ingrained in him early.

After his father's death when he was 11, young Swaminathan was looked after by his uncle, M. K. Narayanaswami, a radiologist. He attended the local high school and later the Catholic Little Flower High School in Kumbakonom, from which he matriculated at age 15.^[5] He then went to finish his undergraduate degree at Maharajas College in Trivandrum, Kerala (now known as University College, Thiruvananthapuram). He studied there from 1940–44 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology.

Swaminathan then decided to pursue a career in agricultural sciences. He enrolled in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University where he graduated as valedictorian with another Bachelor of Science degree, this time in Agricultural Science. He explained this career decision thus: "My personal motivation started with the great Bengal famine of 1943, when I was a student at the University of Kerala. There was an acute rice shortage, and in Bengal about 3 million people died from starvation. All of our young people, myself included, were involved in the freedom struggle, which Gandhi had intensified, and I decided I should take to agricultural research in order to help farmers produce more."^[6]

In 1947, the year of Indian independence he moved to the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in New Delhi as a post-graduate student in genetics and plant breeding. He obtained a post-graduate degree with high distinction in Cytogenetics in 1949. He wrote the Union Public Service Commission exam and qualified for the Indian Police Service.^[7]

He chose to accept the UNESCO Fellowship to continue his IARI research on potato genetics at the Wageningen Agricultural University, Institute of Genetics in the Netherlands. Here he succeeded in standardising procedures for transferring genes from a wide range of wild species of Solanum to the cultivated potato, Solanum tuberosum. In 1950, he moved to study at the Plant Breeding Institute of the University of Cambridge School of Agriculture. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1952, for his thesis, "Species Differentiation, and the Nature of Polyploidy in certain species of the genus Solanum – section Tuberarium." His work presented a new concept of the species relationships within the tuber-bearing Solanum.

Swaminathan then accepted a post-doctoral research associateship at the University of Wisconsin, Department of Genetics to help set up a USDA potato research station. Despite his strong personal and professional satisfaction with the research work in Wisconsin, he declined the offer of a full-time faculty position, returning to India in early 1954.^[8]

Swaminathan has worked worldwide in collaboration with colleagues and students on a wide range of problems in basic and applied plant breeding, agricultural research and development and the conservation of natural resources.

His professional career began in 1949:

• 1949–55 – Research on potato (Solanum tuberosum), wheat (Triticum aestivum), rice (Oryza sativa), and jute genetics.
• 1955–72 – Field research on Mexican dwarf wheat varieties. Teach Cytogenetics, Radiation Genetics, and Mutation Breeding and build up the wheat and rice germplasm collections at Indian Agricultural Research Institute IARI.
• 1972–79 – Director-General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), established the National Bureau of Plant, Animal, and Fish Genetic Resources of India.^[9]
  Established the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (changed in 2006 to Bioversity International).^[10]
• 1979-80 - Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, Transformed the Pre-investment Forest Survey Programme into the Forest Survey of India.^[11]
• 1981–85 – Independent chairman, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Council, Rome, played a significant role in establishing the Commission on Plant Genetic Resources.^[12]
• 1983 – Developed the concept of Farmers' Rights and the text of the International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources (IUPGR).President of the International Congress of Genetics.^[13]
• 1982–88 – Director General, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), organised the International Rice Germplasm Centre, now named International Rice Genebank.
• 1984–90 – President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources IUCN, develop the Convention on Biological Diversity CBD.
• 1986–99 – Chairman of the editorial advisory board, World Resources Institute, Washington, D. C., conceived and produced the first "World Resources Report."^[14]
• 1988–91 – Chairman of the International Steering Committee of the Keystone International Dialogue on Plant Genetic Resources,^[15] regarding the availability, use, exchange and protection of plant germplasm.
• 1991–1995 – Member, Governing Board, Auroville Foundation
• 1988–96 – President, World Wide Fund for Nature–India WWF,^[16] Organized the Indira Gandhi Conservation Monitoring Centre.^[17] Organize the Community Biodiversity Conservation Programme.^[18]
• 1988–99 – Chairman/Trustee, Commonwealth Secretariat Expert Group,^[19] organised the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development,^[20] for the sustainable and equitable management of tropical rainforests in Guyana. The President of Guyana wrote in 1994 "there would have been no Iwokrama without Swaminathan."
• 1990–93 – Founder/President, International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems (ISME)^[21]
• 1988–98 – Chaired various committees of the Government of India to prepare draft legislations relating to biodiversity (Biodiversity Act)^[22] and breeders’ and farmers’ rights (Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act).
• in 1993 Dr M. S. Swaminathan,headed an expert group to prepare a draft of a national population policy that would be discussed by the Cabinet and then by Parliament. In 1994 it submitted its report.^[23]
• 1994 – Chairman of the Commission on Genetic Diversity of the World Humanity Action Trust.^[24] Established a Technical Resource Centre at MSSRF for the implementation of equity provisions of CBD and FAO's Farmers’ Rights.
• 1994 onwards – Chairman of the Genetic Resources Policy Committee (GRPC) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), development of policies for the management of the ex situ collections of International Agricultural Research Centers.
• 1995–1999 chairman, Auroville Foundation
• 1999 – Introduced the concept of trusteeship management of Biosphere reserves. Implemented the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve Trust, with financial support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
• 2001 – Chairman of the Regional Steering Committee for the India – Bangladesh joint Project on Biodiversity Management in the Sundarbans World Heritage Site, funded by the UN Foundation and UNDP.
• 2002 – President of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs which work towards reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats.^[25]
• 2002 – 2005 – Co-chairman with Pedro Sanchezof the UN Millennium Task Force on Hunger,^[26] a comprehensive global action plan for fighting poverty, disease and environmental degradation in developing countries.
• 2004 - 2014 - Chairman, National Commission on Farmers.
• Over 68 students have done their PhD thesis work under his guidance.

Notable mentions

On the occasion of the presentation of the First World Food Prize^[27] 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 was 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.^[28]

Swaminathan was the featured speaker at the 2006 Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa on, 19 October 2006. He was sponsored by Humanities Iowa, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Swaminathan presented the "Third Annual Governor's Lecture" and spoke on "THE GREEN REVOLUTION REDUX: Can we replicate the single greatest period of food production in all human history?"^[29][30][31] about the cultural and social foundations of the Green Revolution in India and the role of historic leaders in India, such as Mahatma Gandhi, in inspiring the Green Revolution there by calling for the alleviation of widespread hunger. He talked about the links between Gandhi and the great Iowa scientist George Washington Carver.^[32]

Swaminathan is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Italian Academy of Sciences.

National Awards
He has been honoured with several awards in India for his work to benefit the country.

• Karmaveer Puraskaar Noble Laureates, March,2007 by iCONGO- Confederation of NGOs.
• Dupont-Solae Award for his contribution to the field of food and nutrition security 2004^[60]
• Life Time Achievement Award from BioSpectrum 2003^[61]
• Indira Gandhi Gold Plaque by the Asiatic Society for his significant contribution towards human progress. 2002
• Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development "for his outstanding contribution in the domain of plant genetics and ensuring food security to hundreds of millions of citizens in the developing world." This prestigious award honours those outstanding global citizens who have made a significant contribution to humanity's material and cultural progress. 2000
• The Indian National Science Academy awarded him Millennium Scientist Award 2001, Asutosh Mookerjee Memorial Award for 1999–2000, Shatabdi Puraskar award in the field of Agricultural Sciences 1999, Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award 1992, B.P. Pal Memorial Award of the 1998, Meghnad Saha Medal 1981, Silver Jubilee Commemoration Medal for contributions to genetics and agricultural research 1971.
• Lokmanya Tilak Award by the Tilak Smarak Trust, in recognition of his contribution to the green revolution in India and for his outstanding scientific and environmental works. 2001^[62]
• Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development in recognition of creative efforts toward promoting international peace, development and a new international economic order; ensuring that scientific discoveries are used for the larger good of humanity, and enlarging the scope of freedom. 2000
• Millennium Alumnus Award by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University 2000
• Prof P N Mehra Memorial Award 1999
• Legend in his Lifetime Award by the World Wilderness Trust- India 1999^[63]
• Dr. B.P. Pal Medal for unique contributions to agricultural research and development of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India 1997
• V. Gangadharan Award for outstanding contributions to National Development 1997
• Dr. B.P. Pal Medal for unique contributions to agricultural research and development of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India 1997
• V. Gangadharan Award for outstanding contributions to National Development 1997
• Lal Bahadur Shastri Deshgaurav Samman 1992
• Dr. J.C. Bose Medal, Bose Institute 1989^[64]
• Krishi Ratna Award for "devotion to the cause of agroscience, and for being the benefactor of the farming

community," instituted by the Bharat Krishak Samaj (Indian Farmer's Society)/World Agriculture Fair Memorial Trust Society, and presented by president Giani Zail Singh of India 1986

• Rathindranath Tagore Prize of Visva Bharati University 1981
• R.D. Misra Medal of the Indian Environmental Society 1981^[65]
• Barclay Medal of the Asiatic Society for contributions to genetics 1978
• Moudgil Prize of the Bureau of Indian Standards for contributions to standardisation 1978
• Birbal Sahni Medal of the Indian Botanical Society for contributions to Applied Botany 1965.^[66]
• Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for contributions to Biological Sciences 1961
• Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration of the Indian National Congress ^[67]

International Awards
He has been honoured with recognition from several international organisations for spreading the benefits of his work to other countries.

• UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Gold Medal for his outstanding work in extending the benefits of biotechnology to marginalised and poverty-stricken populations in developing countries and in securing a sound basis for sustainable agricultural, environmental and rural development 1999
• Henry Shaw Medal awarded by the Board of Trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden in consideration of important service to humanity through emphasis on sustainability in agriculture – USA 1998
• Ordre du Merite Agricole, Govt of France to honour services of the highest quality rendered to the cause of agriculture 1997
• Highest award for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, Govt of China for outstanding contributions to the lofty cause of environmental protection and development, and for his signal accomplishments in the field of international cooperation 1997
• Global Environmental Leadership Award "for encouraging village-level responses to environmental issues" by the Climate Institute 1995
• World Academy of Art and Science 1994
• Asian Regional Award by the Asian Productivity Organization APO 1994
• Charles Darwin International Science and Environment Medal 1993
• Commandeur of the Order of the Golden Ark of the Netherlands 1990
• The VOLVO Environment Prize for his outstanding research and devoted work in turning Indian food production from a deficit to a much increased supply. 1990.^[68]
• Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) international award for significant contributions to promoting the knowledge, skill, and technological empowerment of women in agriculture and for his pioneering role in mainstreaming gender considerations in agriculture and rural development 1985.^[69]
• Bicentenary Medal of the University of Georgia, U.S.A. 1985
• Bennett Commonwealth Prize of the Royal Society of Arts for significant contributions to Household Nutrition Security 1984
• Mendel Memorial Medal of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences for contributions to Plant Genetics 1965

HIROSHIMA DAY

HIROSHIMA Before Bombing

HIROSHIMA After Bombing

The atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in August 1945. The two bombings were the first and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare.

Following a firebombing campaign that destroyed many Japanese cities, the Allies prepared for a costly invasion of Japan. The war in Europe ended when Nazi Germany signed its instrument of surrender on May 8, 1945, but the Pacific War continued. Together with the United Kingdom and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945, threatening "prompt and utter destruction".

By August 1945, the Allied Manhattan Project had successfully tested an atomic device and had produced weapons based on two alternate designs. The 509th Composite Group of the U.S. Army Air Forces was equipped with a Silverplate Boeing B-29 Superfortress that could deliver them from Tinian in the Mariana Islands. A uranium gun-type atomic bomb (Little Boy) was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by a plutonium implosion-type bomb (Fat Man) on the city of Nagasaki on August 9. Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians, although Hiroshima had a sizeable garrison.

On August 15, just days after the bombing of Nagasaki and the Soviet Union's declaration of war, Japan announced its surrender to the Allies. On September 2, it signed the instrument of surrender, ending World War II. The bombings' role in Japan's surrender and their ethical justification are still debated.

In 1945, the Pacific War between the Empire of Japan and the Allies entered its fourth year. Of the 1.25 million battle casualties incurred by the United States in World War II, including both military personnel killed in action and wounded in action, nearly one million occurred in the twelve-month period from June 1944 to June 1945. December 1944 saw American battle casualties hit an all-time monthly high of 88,000 as a result of the German Ardennes Offensive.^[1] In the Pacific the Allies returned to the Philippines,^[2] recaptured Burma,^[3] and invaded Borneo.^[4] Offensives were undertaken to reduce the Japanese forces remaining in Bougainville, New Guinea and the Philippines.^[5] In April 1945, American forces landed on Okinawa, where heavy fighting continued until June. Along the way, the ratio of Japanese to American casualties dropped from 5:1 in the Philippines to 2:1 on Okinawa.^[1]

As the Allied advance moved inexorably towards Japan, conditions became steadily worse for the Japanese people. Japan's merchant fleet declined from 5,250,000 gross tons in 1941 to 1,560,000 tons in March 1945, and 557,000 tons in August 1945. Lack of raw materials forced the Japanese war economy into a steep decline after the middle of 1944. The civilian economy, which had slowly deteriorated throughout the war, reached disastrous levels by the middle of 1945. The loss of shipping also affected the fishing fleet, and the 1945 catch was only 22% of that in 1941. The 1945 rice harvest was the worst since 1909, and hunger and malnutrition became widespread. In February 1945, Prince Fumimaro Konoe advised the Emperor Hirohito that defeat was inevitable, and urged him to abdicate.^[6]

The role of the bombings in Japan's surrender and the U.S.'s ethical justification for them has been the subject of scholarly and popular debate for decades. J. Samuel Walker wrote in an April 2005 overview of recent historiography on the issue, "the controversy over the use of the bomb seems certain to continue." He wrote that "The fundamental issue that has divided scholars over a period of nearly four decades is whether the use of the bomb was necessary to achieve victory in the war in the Pacific on terms satisfactory to the United States."^[255]

Supporters of the bombings generally assert that they caused the Japanese surrender, preventing casualties on both sides during Operation Downfall. One figure of speech, "One hundred million [subjects of the Japanese Empire] will die for the Emperor and Nation,"^[256] served as a unifying slogan, although that phrase was intended as a figure of speech along the lines of the "ten thousand years" phrase.^[257] In Truman's 1955 Memoirs, "he states that the atomic bomb probably saved half a million U.S. lives— anticipated casualties in an Allied invasion of Japan planned for November. Stimson subsequently talked of saving one million U.S. casualties, and Churchill of saving one million American and half that number of British lives."^[258] Scholars have pointed out various alternatives that could have ended the war without an invasion, but these alternatives could have resulted in the deaths of many more Japanese.^[259] Supporters also point to an order given by the Japanese War Ministry on August 1, 1944, ordering the execution of Allied prisoners of war when the POW camp was in the combat zone.^[260]

Those who oppose the bombings cite a number of reasons for their view, among them: a belief that atomic bombing is fundamentally immoral, that the bombings counted as war crimes, that they were militarily unnecessary, that they constituted state terrorism,^[261] and that they involved racism against and the dehumanization of the Japanese people. The bombings were part of an already fierce conventional bombing campaign. This, together with the sea blockade and the collapse of Germany (with its implications regarding redeployment), could also have led to a Japanese surrender. At the time United States dropped its atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, the Soviet Union launched a surprise attack with 1.6 million troops against the Kwantung Army in Manchuria. "The Soviet entry into the war", noted Japanese historian Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, "played a much greater role than the atomic bombs in inducing Japan to surrender because it dashed any hope that Japan could terminate the war through Moscow's mediation".^[262]