The M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) is a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

trust Trust often refers to: * Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality It may also refer to: Business and law * Trust law, a body of law under which one person holds property for the benefit of another * Trust (bus ...

based in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It develops and promotes strategies for economic growth that directly target increased employment of poor women in rural areas. Their methods maximize the use of science and technology for equitable and sustainable social development and environmental stability. The MSSRF logo signifies continuity and change, invoking the DNA model of open-ended, many-sided, and continuous evolution.

History

MSSRF was founded in 1988 by Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, who is chairman of the foundation. In 1970,

C.V. Raman Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (; 7 November 188821 November 1970) was an Indian physicist known for his work in the field of light scattering. Using a spectrograph that he developed, he and his student K. S. Krishnan discovered that when ...

, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, urged Swaminathan to start an autonomous research centre to realize his goals of

sustainable development Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...

, which he now terms the "Evergreen Revolution". In 1988, after receiving the

World Food Prize The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. Conceived by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nor ...

, Swaminathan used the US$200,000 prize to start the MSSRF. Swaminathan also currently holds the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

Chair in

Ecotechnology Ecotechnology is an applied science that seeks to fulfill human needs while causing minimal ecological disruption, by harnessing and manipulating natural forces to leverage their beneficial effects. Ecotechnology integrates two fields of study: t ...

and is chairman of the

National Commission on Agriculture National Commission on Agriculture was an Indian Government body that was created to find ways to increase agricultural productivity in India. The Commission was founded in August 1970 under the Ministry of Agriculture An agriculture ministry ...

, Food and Nutrition Security of India. The foundation was awarded the

Blue Planet Prize The recognises outstanding efforts in scientific research or applications of science that contribute to solving global environmental problems. The prize was created by the Asahi Glass Foundation in 1992, the year of the Rio Earth Summit, and ...

in 1996.

Programs

MSSRF operates in five major program areas — Coastal Systems

Research Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...

Biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

and

Biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

and

Food security Food security speaks to the availability of food in a country (or geography) and the ability of individuals within that country (geography) to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs. According to the United Nations' Committee on World F ...

Gender and development Gender and development is an interdisciplinary field of research and applied study that implements a Feminism, feminist approach to understanding and addressing the disparate impact that economic development and globalization have on people based up ...

, and

Informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems, especially those for data storage and retrieval. According to ACM ''Europe and'' ''Informatics Europe'', informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which ...

.Gopalkrishnan Gita (2000), M.S. Swaminathan - "''One Man’s Quest for a Hunger-Free World''", Education Development Center, Inc

References

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External links

Prof MS Swaminathan's Inspiring Talk on Biotechnology and Food Security at BITS Pilani RajasthanGreen Revolution Champion Prof MS Swaminathan at BITS Pilani
Non-profit organisations based in India Environmental organisations based in India Research institutes in Chennai Colleges affiliated to University of Madras 1988 establishments in Tamil Nadu Research institutes established in 1998

History

Programs

See also

References

External links