Jamshedpur: XLRI- Xavier School of Management is all set to organize the 3rd ‘Dr Verghese Kurien Memorial Oration on Sustainable Development’ in memory of the Founder of AMUL Dr. Verghese Kurien, otherwise known as “the Milkman of India” on 24th September, 2016 at XLRI Campus, Jamshedpur. This year, the oration is to be delivered by Dr. Ela Bhatt, eminent social activist and Founder of SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association). She would deliver the oration on the topic “Living with Anubandh: A Way to Sustainability”.
Fr. E Abraham, S. J. Director of XLRI commented, “Dr. Verghese Kurien was a thinker, a revolutionary and a social entrepreneur who ideated the world’s biggest agricultural development programme. It was his “billion-litre idea” which made dairy farming India’s largest self-sustaining industry, with benefits of employment, incomes, credit, nutrition, education, heath, gender parity & empowerment, breaking down caste barriers and grassroots democracy and leadership.”
Padma Bhushan Dr. Ela R. Bhatt, a lawyer by training, is a part of the international labour, cooperative, women, and micro-finance movements. She founded the Self-Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA) in 1972 – a trade union which now has more than 1,000,000 members. She was the Founder Chair of the Cooperative Bank of SEWA, she also founded and served as chair for Women’s World Banking, the International Alliance of Home-based Workers (HomeNet).
Dr. Bhatt has received several national and international awards and recognition. She is a recipient of civilian honours of Padma Shri in 1985 and the Padma Bhushan in 1986 by the Government of India. She received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1977 and the Right Livelihood Award in 1984. Fr. E Abraham, S. J. Director of XLRI commented, “We are extremely happy to have Dr. Ela Bhatt to deliver the 3rd ‘Dr Verghese Kurien Memorial Oration’. She is a legend herself and one of the most remarkable visionaries and entrepreneurial forces who dedicated her life’s work for betterment of the poorest and most oppressed women workers in the country.”
“Dr. Verghese Kurien Memorial Oration on Sustainable Development is our humble initiative to pay tribute to the great visionary,” said Prof. Madhukar Shukla, Chairperson of XLRI’s Fr Arrupe Center for Ecology & Sustainability. “With this annual oration, we aim to inspire and inculcate values of entrepreneurial spirit in budding business leaders and social entrepreneurs”, he added.
