The Xavier School of Management (XLRI) is set to host the seventh Dr. Verghese Kurien Memorial Oration, in memory of the Father of White Revolution and the man behind Amul, on January 16, 2021.

This time, the oration will be delivered by noted environmental activist Ashish Kothari, founder-member of Indian Environmental group, Kalpavriksh. It will be conducted virtually in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He would deliver the oration on the topic Ecoswaraj : Recovery Towards Justice and Sustainability.

XLRI Director Fr. P. Christie said, “Dr. Verghese Kurien was an ingenious 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, health, gender parity and empowerment, breaking down caste barriers and grassroots democracy and leadership.”

“XLRI instituted the oration in his memory to commemorate his legacy through propagating and disseminating the idea of an empowered, equitable and sustainable society,” he added.

Christie added that the B-school was extremely happy to have Ashish Kothari to deliver the seventh Dr. Verghese Kurien Memorial Oration.

“His vast work on environmental issues like environment interface, biodiversity policy, and alternatives would help our students understand the current global environmental issues and inspire them to work for the greater good,” he said.

Prof. Raghuram Tata, chairperson of XLRI’s Fr Arrupe Center for Ecology and Sustainability, said, “Dr. Verghese Kurien Memorial Oration on Sustainable Development is our humble initiative to pay tribute to the great visionary. With this annual oration, we aim to inspire and inculcate values of social entrepreneurial spirit in budding business leaders and social entrepreneurs.”

Ashish Kothari is an Indian environmentalist working on environment and development issues.

He is one of the founders of Kalpavriksh, an Indian environmental NGO. He has been associated with peoples' movements like Narmada Bachao Andolan and Beej Bachao Andolan.

Kothari has also been a teacher of the environment at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. He has also been a guest faculty at several universities and institutes and Mellon Fellow at Bowdoin College, USA.

He has served on the steering group or governing board of the CBD (Convention on Biodiversity) Alliance and Greenpeace International.

At present, Kothari is the chairman of Greenpeace India’s board.

Ashish Kothari has also worked as members of quite a few Government of India committees, including Environmental Appraisal Committee on River Valley Projects of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the committee to Assess Implementation of the Forest Rights Act, and Committees to draft design the National Wildlife Action Plan and India's Biological Diversity Act.

He is currently coordinating the Vikalp Sangam (Alternatives Confluence), a process that provides a forum for organisations and individuals working on development alternatives across India to come together.