The prestigious campus of BHU churns out chemical engineers in dozens every year but rarely has the luck to gloat over some. Its alumnus Dr Udai Shanker Awasthi is one such example who travelled an unchartered course ending up at the top of the fertilizer-cooperative pyramid.
Managing Director of the world’s largest fertilizer cooperative IFFCO Dr U S Awasthi has clocked 50 years working for the fertiliser industry on Monday October 16, 2017. His tweet read “My journey of 50years, a golden era with continuous non-stop 18, 250 days dedicated to fertiliser industry. Worked with various companies.”
When we asked him what comes to his mind after completing 50 glorious years as a true professional he said “Keep going till you can walk. Never give up on your principles and passion”.
It was his love for rural life and for the farmers that he applied his knowledge in a field which is both technical
(fertilizer industry) and equally social (co-operatives), say those who know the boy “Udai” since childhood.
Born in SathneewwalaKhera, a nondescript village 35 Km South of Unnao in Uttar Pradesh on 12th July 1945, Awasthi was witness to a restless India eager to get freedom and come of its own. Imbued with patriotism the young boy began to nurse ambition of serving the country in his own ways. And he succeeded and succeeded famously.
Despite putting in his best, the man was still not satisfied. And then came IFFCO’s Golden Jubilee. He saw in it a chance of fulfilling his life’s ambition- an ambition of connecting each and every farmer to the digital way of life and welding the two parts together- Bharat with India.
And thus he embarked on a massive course which took him to remotest parts of the country from Kashmir to KanyaKumari. He covered hundred and twenty five locations across the country interacting with farmers.
His yearlong ” connect farmers campaign” has not only given him the ennobling experience of the countryside but also enlightenment on what obtains at the grassroots level. Dr. Awasthi says digitalization will go a long way in bridging the rural-urban divide as this will enable the farmers to improve their living conditions and help them transcend their immediate narrow economics. Keeping this goal in mind, Dr. Awasthi says, IFFCO has developed a digital platform exclusively devoted to their needs.
IFFCO’s digital platform aims at transforming India through digital means, that is to say, training technologically illiterate farmers into looking at pics and pressing buttons to say things. This will mark a big change in India’s countryside.
Dr. Awasthi has had a checkered career. In 1966, he began working as a trainee engineer with Shriram Fertilizers. In 1976, he hopped his job joining IFFCO as planning officer. Since 1993, he has been IFFCO”s MD. IFFCO’s growth has been impressive under his able leadership.
IFFCO has not only established itself as a brand at home but also abroad. Dr Awasthi counts creating a bridge between employees and committees, stopping interference from banks giving loans, induction of new technologies and retraining people for new technologies and ramping up production capacity of factories, among his challenges.
Dr Awasthi’s accomplishments are many but he is humble about them. Indian Cooperative congratulates him and salutes him for his dedication.
