M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation

“We have the science, the agri-technology to give the world. It’s only by sharing each other’s sorrow, by caring for each other, by sharing our surplus wealth, can we become a great country, a great nation.” -Dr. Swaminathan

Since we are all math and science teachers we are invited to visit places of interest in each city that we visit. Chennai is a city in the south of India on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. It is one of the leading cities in India today from the point of view of trade and commerce, with the fourth largest port in the country.

The Swaminathan Research Foundation is a “non-profit trust with the basic mandate to impart a pro-nature, pro-poor and pro-woman orientation to a job-led economic growth strategy in rural areas through harnessing science and technology for environmental sustainable and socially equitable development. It is doing research in coastal systems research, biodiversity and biotechnology, eco-technology and sustainable agriculture, reaching the un-reached through education, communication and training.”

Some highlights for me were the children’s camp they run throughout the year to teach children about the environment and their responsibility to preserve our planet for future generations. I talked to the teacher who runs the program and we are going to be sharing some ideas. On the grounds is a touch and smell garden for the visually impaired. I am particularly interested in this because part of the project for my students at school will be to create a garden based on ideas from my trip to India.