IFFCO archives have revealed that in the year 2008 the one who gave the prestigious IFFCO Jawahar Lal Nehru Lecture was none other than the man for whom the entire nation is grieving today. APJ Abdul Kalam ,among other things, felt that IFFCO PURA can lead to societal transformation.
Sharing the great news IFFCO Managing Director Dr. U S Awasthi tweeted “#Peoples President #APJ Abdul Kalam also delivered #IFFCO JLN #Coop lecture. IFFCO PURA 4 rural societal transformation”.
In his speech Kalam had said “I am delighted to be with the members of Indian Farmers Fertilizers Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) and deliver the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial IFFCO lecture. When we think of Panditji, we remember him for his unique contribution to our freedom struggle.”
“small aim is a crime”. Always, he executed big things for the country, whether it was industry, education, healthcare or cooperative, Kalam said eulogizing Panditji’s vision.
I am happy that in the last four decades, IFFCO has steadily grown from a membership of 57 societies in 1967-1968 to 40,000 societies in 2008. The equity capital has also gone up from rupees six lakh to over 424 crore.
IFFCO has a deep faith in cooperatives and has commitment towards empowerment of the rural masses. With this commitment, I would suggest IFFCO to take up pro-active integrated measures which will enable accelerated development of rural India and bridge the rural urban divide. Thereby IFFCO will become a partner in national development.
Soon after Awasthi’s tweet, the issue became viral with Harshendra Vardhan, PR Manager putting it on his F B Wall. It is indeed a matter of pride for cooperatives in general and IFFCO in particular that a person of APJ Kalam’s caliber chose to speak from a cooperative platform.