Dr. M.S. Swaminathan : Biography

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Part-13.



With India essentially self-sufficient in food production by the end of the 1970s, Swaminathan began to work on a global scale.

In 1982 he moved to the Philippines to take a post as director general of the International Rice Research Institute.

He returned to India in 1989 and founded the Center for Research on Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development in Madras, having served as honorary vice president of the World Wildlife Fund from 1985 to 1987.

As of 2004 he remained the institute's director.

Among the numerous honors and prizes Swaminathan accumulated are 32 honorary degrees and, in 1987, the $200,000 World Food Prize sponsored by the U.S. General Foods conglomerate.

Receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, Swaminathan quoted U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt in his remarks, telling graduates that "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have too much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little."

To be continued  ...


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