On the exciting morning of this day, with patriotic fervor and pride, I first would like to wish you all a very happy independence day. On this day every one of our hearts are filled with immense respect and love for our motherland. For 200 years of colonial rule we finally got our independence on August 15, 1947 after sacrifices of several freedom fighters and national leaders. Today we are celebrating our 75th Independence Day. We have truly achieved a lot all these years in all aspects of development. We need to look back our history to understand the achievements we have made all these years.
The world's worst recorded food disaster occurred in 1943 in British-ruled India. Known as the Bengal Famine, an estimated 4 million people died of hunger that year in eastern India (which included today's Bangladesh). This catastrophe was attributed to an acute shortfall in food production in the area. When the British left India in 1947, India continued to be haunted by memories of the Bengal Famine. It was therefore natural that food security was one of the main items on free India's agenda. This awareness led, to the Green Revolution in India led by Dr.M.S.Swaminathan. The Green Revolution, changed India’s status from a food-deficient country to one of the world's leading agricultural nations.
At the time of the independence, India was not only importing food grains but also milk products like baby food, butter and cheese. Operation Flood launched on 13 January 1970, was the world's largest dairy development program. It transformed India from a milk-deficient nation into the world's largest milk producer. Mr. Verghese Kurien is the architect of white revolution. Two other people who played immense role in white revolution are Mr. Harichand Megha Dalaya who made it possible to make skim milk powder out of buffalo milk and Shri. Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel who brought all the dairy farmers together with his cooperative movement. Both these green and white revolution spear headed India to achieve self-sufficiency in food and dairy products.
Even in science and technology we have achieved great leaps. Today we are world’s one of the leading players in the fields of space research, nuclear science and Technology, Telecom and IT sectors. Also we have made remarkable achievements in the pharmacy sector also.
India today is known as ‘pharmacy of the world’ as Indian companies are supplying affordable drugs and vaccines to not only to developing but also to developed countries. It has been a long journey from the time when Indian drug industry was dominated by foreign companies whose drugs were prohibitively costly. Even in pandemic India is one of the leaders in manufacturing and exporting vaccines against Covid 19. As on May 2021, we have exported almost 663 lakh vaccine doses to 95 countries across the world. So even in combatting the pandemic we are one of the leading players in the world.
Thus, since Independence we are progressing by leaps and bounds. As the future citizens of the nation, it is our prime responsibility to sacrifice ourselves in contributing to our mother India. On this very day, we should pay a heartfelt tribute to the millions of martyrs of mother India. The brave souls and the valiant soldiers, armed forces, and our police, as well as our security forces who have engaged their life in contributing and safeguarding our mother nation. We should also pay our respects to all those people who have played a major role in achieving self-sufficiency from food to science and technology and thus are driving our country on the roads of development.
Jai Hind
