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By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, Apr 10 (UNI) Noted agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan, who has been acclaimed as the father of the Green Revolution, and Dr Kapila Vatsyayan, a leading scholar of classical Indian dance and Indian art and architecture, have been nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

Prof Swaminathan has been accommodated against the vacancy caused by the retirement of a member, while Dr Vatsyayan has been nominated against the casual vacancy caused by her resignation following the office of profit controversy.

She will remain a member till February 15, 2012, the remainder of the six-year term, it was officially announced today.

Prof Swaminathan has been named by TIME magazine as one of the 20 most influential Asians of the 20th century. He has been described by the United Nations Environment Programme as "the Father of Economic Ecology" and by Javier Perez de Cuellar, past Secretary General of the United Nations, as "a living legend who will go into the annals of history as a world scientist of rare distinction".

He was Chairman of the UN Science Advisory Committee set up in 1980 to take follow-up action on the Vienna Plan of Action. He has also served as Independent Chairman of the FAO Council and President of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. He is the current President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

A plant geneticist by training, Professor Swaminathan's contributions to the agricultural renaissance of India have led to his being widely referred to as the scientific leader of the green revolution movement.

Prof Swaminathan was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1971, the Albert Einstein World Science Award in 1986, and the first World Food Prize in 1987.

He is a Fellow of many of the leading scientific academies of India and the world, including the Royal Society of London and the U S National Academy of Sciences.

He has received 46 honorary doctorate degrees from universities around the world. He currently holds the UNESCO Chair in Ecotechnology at the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai (Madras), India and Chairman of the National Commission on Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security of India.

Dr Vatsyayan received her M.A. from the University of Michigan and Ph.D from the Banaras Hindu University.

She is the author of many books including The Square and the Circle of Indian Arts, Bharata: The Natya Sastra, and Matralaksanam.

She was the founder-director of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (Indira Kalakendra) in Delhi.

She has also served as secretary to the government of India and the Ministry of Education, department of Arts and Culture, in which she was responsible for the establishment of many institutions of higher education in India.

UNI

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