XLRI to organize the 5th ‘Dr Verghese Kurien Memorial Oration on Sustainable Development’ on 22nd September, 2018
Jamshedpur: XLRI- Xavier School of Management is all set to organize the 5th ‘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 22nd September, 2018 at XLRI Campus, Jamshedpur.
This year, the oration is to be delivered by Noted Development Activist & Economist, Dr. Jean Dreze. He would deliver the oration on the topic “Economic Growth and Social Development”.
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. XLRI instituted the oration in his memory with the aim to commemorate his legacy through propagating and disseminating the idea of an empowered, equitable and sustainable society.”
Fr. E Abraham, S. J. Director of XLRI commented, “We are extremely happy to have Dr. Jean Dreze to deliver the 5th ‘Dr Verghese Kurien Memorial Oration’ this year. His vast work and study on developmental issues like hunger, famine, gender inequality, child health and education, and the NREGA would help our students understand the social realities in the country and inspire them to work for the greater good.”
“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.
Dr. Jean Drèze is a noted Belgian-born Indian Development Economist and Activist. His work in India has been studying several developmental issues like hunger, famine, gender inequality, child health and education, and the NREGA. He had conceptualized and drafted the first version of the NREGA. He has co-authored several publications with noted scholars like Nobel laureate in economics Amartya Sen, Nicholas Stern and Nobel laureate in economics Angus Deaton. He is currently an honorary Professor at the Delhi School of Economics, and Visiting Professor at the Department of Economics, Ranchi University. He was a member of the National Advisory Council of India in both first and second term.