The director IRMA, Professors, and Students
My father believed that “India's place in the sun would come from the partnership between wisdom of its rural people and skill of its professionals”
From this belief he built IRMA - One of my father’s pet projects. It gave him immense pleasure to see the students study and pass out to go out into the world taking up careers which would somehow contribute to the common good and partner the rural people with their skills.
He placed his trust in the small and marginal cooperative dairy farmers and landless labourers who helped India become the largest milk producing country in the world, by adopting a cooperative strategy… a strategy evolved at Anand. By doing so, my father could help millions of our dairy farmers earn their livelihood. Strictly speaking, he would say that he was not in the business of milk and milk products, but used milk as a tool for empowerment of our farmers through the medium of dairy cooperatives. My father worked his whole life as an employee of the farmers and would not have it any other way. He dedicated his life to bring about a positive change in the socioeconomic status of the farmers. Equity and equality were the cornerstone of this belief.
My father believed that the difference that separates success and failure lies in our capacity to convert a vision or dream into reality. In the case of a nation, it is the effectiveness of implementation of its plans and programmes, or the lack of it, that decides the destiny of its people. A dream needs to be followed by a mission and - to succeed in our mission, one should have conviction of purpose and perseverance to overcome challenges. He said that the most important quality to succeed, is integrity.
India, he believed is emerging as a world power and he have no doubt in his mind that she will be the most powerful nation on earth and it is then that, we should not have a single person who cannot afford one square meal or education for his children or drinking water.. Therefore he hoped that the youth of our country would dedicate their lives in order to provide a more equitable society, conducive also for the development of our lesser privileged, and to make our nation a better place to live for all its citizens.
It was for this very purpose that IRMA was set up to build professionals committed to rural development. The best way, I believe, to celebrate his memory is to honour Verghese Kurien's dream by collectively striving towards making India an equitable, self-reliant and proud nation.
Thank you,
Warm regards,
Nirmala
No comments:
Post a Comment