Blog

05 Jul

Israel and India: Prof M S Swaminathan

July 05, 2017: Our Prime Minister’s visit to Israel is a historic one since this is the first time that a Prime Minister of India is visiting this remarkable country. Apart from our relationships in agriculture, water security and climate risk management, we have a long record of friendship with Israeli people. I shall cite one example. On the occasion of the conferment of an Honorary Doctorate Degree on me in 1998, The President of the University of Jerusalem remarked that “you come from a country which is the only one which has never persecuted Jews in our 2000 year history”.

28 Jun

70 years of India - Netherlands diplomatic partnership: Prof M S Swaminathan

June 28, 2017: I went to the Netherlands to study at the Agricultural University at Wageningen in 1949. The First Secretary in our embassy in the Hague was Shri N.B Menon. He did a tremendous job in promoting Netherlands-India partnership in spite of the fact that there was misunderstanding on the part of the Dutch Government with reference to India’s support to Indonesia and President Sukarno in particular. Our first ambassador was Dr Mohan Singh Mehta, who was respected for his scholarship and human qualities. This started the beginning of collaboration in many areas.

28 Jun

The Shrinking Policy Space for Food Security: Dr Madhura Swaminathan, Chairperson

Food security one one of the foremost goals of social policy in most developing countries, including India. Subsidies for food security can be at the producer level (through price support and procurement), at the storage, processing and transport level and, finally, at the retail level (that is, to the consumer). As per the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), subsidies are permissible except through price support and procurement.

31 May

International Day for Biological Diversity - 22 May 2017: Prof M S Swaminathan

Chennai, May 22, 2017: Today is the International Day for Biological Diversity. Biological diversity provides the basic feedstock for food, climate and livelihood security. Unfortunately habitat destruction has lead to the loss of biodiversity to a considerable extent. Also climate change is creating new threats to the long term preservation of biodiversity. For example, I proposed in my presidential address at the Genetics Congress held in New Delhi in 1983 that we should develop technologies for ex-situ conservation of biodiversity under permafrost conditions.

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M S Swaminathan Research Foundation
3rd Cross Street, Institutional Area, Taramani
Chennai 600 113, India
Tel: +91 (44) 22541229, +91 (44) 22541698