Dr. M.S. Swaminathan is an Indian geneticist and administrator who played a key role in India's Green Revolution by introducing high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice. He had a long career in agricultural research and administration with the Government of India. He chaired the National Commission on Farmers from 2004-2006 which submitted reports focusing on farmer distress and suicides and recommending a holistic national policy to address their issues. Currently, he protests the 2020 farm bills and advocates that the government fully implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission to alleviate farmer anxiety, such as guaranteeing a 50% profit over costs in determining MSP.

3. DR. M.S. SWAMINATHAN

4.  Dr. M.S. Swaminathan is a renowned Indian geneticist and
administrator, who made a stellar contribution in the
success of India's Green Revolution program.
 He was deeply influenced by his father who was a surgeon
and social reformer.
 After graduating in zoology, he enrolled in Madras
Agricultural College and graduated with a B.Sc. in
Agricultural Science.
 Philanthropic by nature, he wanted to help poor farmers
increase their food production.

5.  He began his career by joining the Indian Agricultural
Research Institute in New Delhi and eventually played the
lead role in India’s ‘Green Revolution’, an agenda under
which high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice saplings
were distributed to poor farmers.
 In the decades that followed, he held research and
administrative positions in various offices of Government
of India and introduced the Mexican semi dwarf wheat
plants as well as modern farming methods in India.

6.  He has been acclaimed by the TIMEmagazine as one of
the twenty most influential Asians of the twentieth
centuary.
 He has also beenhonoured with several national and
internationalawards for his contribution to the field of
agricultureand biodiversity.

7. CHILDHOOD
 Dr. Swaminathan was born on 7 August, 1925 in
Kumbakonam, Madras Presidency, to Dr. M.K.
 Sambasivan and Parvati Thangammal Sambasivan . His father
was a surgeon and social reformer.
 He lost his father at the age of 11 and thereafter he was brought
up by his uncle, M. K.
 Narayanaswami who was a radiologist. He studied at Little
Flower High School in Kumbakonom and later at Maharajas
College in Trivandrum. He graduated in 1944 with a degree in
zoology.

8.  M.S.Swaminathan is married to Mina Swaminthan, a keen
theatre person and supporter of woman's rights, who he met in
1951 while they were both studying at Cambridge.
 They have three daughters - Soumya Swaminathan, Madhura
Swaminathan and Nitya Rao.Soumya is a doctor by profession
and practices in Chennai.
 Madhura is an economist based in Kolkata and Nitya is based
in England, teaching at the UEA. He has 5
grandchildren: Anandi (20), Shreya (18), Kalyani (16), Akshay
(15) and Madhavtipu (11).
FAMILY

11. CAREER
 1972–79 – Director-General, Indian Council of Agricultural
Research (ICAR), established the National Bureau of Plant,
Animal, and Fish Genetic Resources of India.[8]
 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.

12.  1986–99 – Chairman of the editorial advisory board, World
Resources Institute, Washington, D. C.
 1994 – Chairman of the Commission on Genetic Diversity of
the World Humanity Action Trust.
 2002 – 2005 – Co-chairman with Pedro Sanchezof the UN
Millennium Task Force on Hunger.
 2004 – 2014 – Chairman, National Commission on Farmers.
 Over 68 students have done their PhD thesis work under his
guidance.

13. AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS
 He has received the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for
Community Leadership in 1971, the Albert Einstein World
Science Award in 1986, the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Prize
in 2000, and the Lal Bahadur Sastri National Award in 2007,
among other achievements.
 He is the recipient of national honours like Padma Shri in 1967,
Padma Bhushan in 1972 andPadma Vibushan in 1989.
 Moreover, he has received over 70 honorary PhD degrees from
worldwide universities.

18. MS SWAMINATHAN REPORT
 The National Commission on Farmers, chaired by Prof.
M. S. Swaminathan, submitted five reports through the
period December 2004 - October 2006.
 Following from the first four, the final report focused on
causes of famer distresses and the rise in farmer suicides,
and recommends addressing them through a holistic
national policy for farmers.
 The findings and recommendations encompass issues of
access to resources and social security entitlements.

19. PROTEST AGAINST FARMER’S BILL 2020-
2021

21. GOVT MUST IMPLEMENT SWAMINATHAN
COMMISSION REPORT TO ALLAY FARMERS’ANXIETY
 Before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the prime minister had
promised that if voted to power, his government will change
the way MSP is set. It will follow a new formula — the entire
cost of production plus a guaranteed profit of 50 percent which
was one of the key recommendations of the 2006 M.S.
Swaminathan Commission on farmers.
 The government wrongly claims that it has already
implemented the key Swaminathan Commission
recommendation. Agricultural producers’ bodies say that MSP
for crucial crops such as paddy and wheat is only 12 percent
and 34 percent higher than their respective production costs.
For other products too, MSP is far lower than the price
recommended by the Commission.