79 Facts About Malcolm Adiseshiah

Malcolm Adiseshiah was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, in 1978.

Malcolm Adiseshiah is the second of the five children of Paul Varanasi Adiseshiah and Grace Nesamma Adiseshiah.

Malcolm Adiseshiah's father was a professor of philosophy and the first Indian principal of Voorhees College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu State, India.

Malcolm Adiseshiah's mother was a musician who had studied up to the Senior Cambridge and was the first woman Councilor of the Vellore Municipality.

Malcolm Adiseshiah taught her five children until they were ten years of age.

Malcolm Adiseshiah obtained a doctorate in economics at the London School of Economics, William, the eldest brother, in philosophy at Cambridge, Padmini in education, and Noble in medicine.

Malcolm Adiseshiah studied in Voorhees High School, where he obtained two double promotions.

In 1930 Malcolm Adiseshiah joined as a lecturer in St Paul's Cathedral Mission College, an affiliate of the University of Calcutta, and continued until 1936.

Malcolm Adiseshiah worked on planning a rural service program in the college in cooperation with the Visva-Bharati University associates at Sriniketan and Santiniketan.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was engaged, with his fellow economists in the Madras University, in work on planning the future industrialization of India and Madras State.

Malcolm Adiseshiah married Helen Paranjothi, with whom he had a son and a daughter.

Malcolm Adiseshiah then married Elizabeth Pothen, a history professor he met at the Madras Women's Christian College.

From 1946 to 1948, Malcolm Adiseshiah served as Associate General Secretary of the World University Service in Geneva.

Malcolm Adiseshiah made a referral to Sir Julian Huxley, then Director-General of UNESCO, who invited Adiseshiah to the organization in 1948.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was posted as Deputy Director of the department of exchange of persons.

In March 1950, Malcolm Adiseshiah was promoted to the Director of technical assistance department, and he was one of its six top executives.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was authorized to represent the Director-General at the technical assistance board set up by the UN.

Malcolm Adiseshiah organized the new department, established area desks corresponding to UN geographical regions, instituted the procedures and methods of operation, and set up a 'report and information unit' which periodically produced a technical assistance bulletin.

Radical changes which had affected educational demand and supply are forcing a reconsideration of the very foundations of educational planning such as they prevailed in their heyday some 30 years ago, when Dr Malcolm Adiseshiah played a historical role, guiding UNESCO in setting regional targets for public spending on education throughout the world and in establishing UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was responsible for developing the Karachi Plan for Universal Primary Education for Asia, the Addis Ababa and Santiago plans for the African and Latin American educational development, and the corresponding science plans for Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Malcolm Adiseshiah worked with David Owen, Executive Chairman of the Technical Assistance Board, to convince donor countries since the financing of the expanded program rested on voluntary contributions made by them at pledging conferences.

Malcolm Adiseshiah contributed to the persuasion to shift IBRD's focus exclusively from the expansion of physical capital towards the development of human capital, especially the extension of education.

Malcolm Adiseshiah used a substantial part of USSR's contribution for technical assistance to establish IIT, Mumbai.

Malcolm Adiseshiah formulated a program of technical and financial assistance in each country, which he started with a global outlay of $3 million per annum in 1950.

Malcolm Adiseshiah had mastered the art of training a team to fulfill the aspirations of the mission.

Malcolm Adiseshiah made two rounds of round the world trips each year which took him to as many as twenty-five countries in succession.

Malcolm Adiseshiah organized more than 120 projects in various countries for their economic and social development through education, science, and culture.

Malcolm Adiseshiah visited the hundred and twenty-seven member states of the UN several times.

Malcolm Adiseshiah visited each one of the Third World countries that were becoming a member of the UNESCO, studied its economic situation first hand, assessed its need for literacy and education, and made recommendations as to how those needs could be met in the 'Mission Reports.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was instrumental in rendering such assistance to all member nations of UNESCO, emphasizing to Asian, African, and South American countries.

In January 1981, Malcolm Adiseshiah was elected chairman of the governing board of the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning for a five-year period.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was a member of the UN International Committee of Consultants on Environment.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was the co-coordinator of the UNESCO Working Group on the New International Economic Order.

Malcolm Adiseshiah reviewed India's experience with the UN during the first forty years of its existence in an assessment of the role of the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development and International Monetary Fund and the powerful interests working behind the scenes in shaping their policies in a book which he edited.

In September 1970, Malcolm Adiseshiah and his wife Elizabeth registered in Paris a trust fund for starting Madras Institute of Development Studies.

Malcolm Adiseshiah created a place where motivated scholars could work at their projects with a minimum of direction or regulation.

Malcolm Adiseshiah's early teaching career, his Vice Chancellorship of the Madras University, and his various activities in his entire life had their focal point in education.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was requested to write a book based on the facts and ideas presented in those speeches about that book, U Thant, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, in his 'Foreword' writes:.

Malcolm Adiseshiah undertook a survey of the school education in Tamil Nadu in the late 1970s and published an influential report.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was instrumental in setting up the Asian Social Science Research Council, New Delhi, and was its first President.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was a member of the Central Advisory Board of Education, the Indian National Commission for Co-operation with UNESCO, the Indian Council of Social Science Research, the National Council of Educational Research and Training, and the National Council of Teacher Education.

Malcolm Adiseshiah's meticulously compiled two-volume report, one on a retrospect and the other on the prospect, had been an influential guide in the development of social science of research in India at that period.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was the chairman of the panel which reviewed the functioning of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Malcolm Adiseshiah chaired the committee set up to recommend the establishment of Mother Teresa Women's University in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu.

Malcolm Adiseshiah founded the Tamil Nadu Board of Continuing Education in 1976 and took all steps to sustain and advance its activities.

Malcolm Adiseshiah chaired the Non-Formal Education Curriculum Preparation Committee in 1976.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was a member of the UGC Standing Committee on Adult Education.

The Mission searched for an alternative agency and a strategy to create a country-wide churning for literacy and created the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samithi in August 1989 and invited Malcolm Adiseshiah to be its President.

Malcolm Adiseshiah had the satisfaction of witnessing the declaration of Ernakulam district in Kerala as having achieved the status of total literacy on 4 February 1990.

Late V R Nedunchezhiyan, who was a cabinet minister in the DMK and AIADMK ministries in Tamil Nadu, recalled the memorial meeting held in the Centenary Hall of the Madras University in December 1995 that Adiseshiah refused to accept the offer of a Governorship of a state in 1977.

Malcolm Adiseshiah said that a central cabinet minister asked Adiseshiah's consent for appointment as Governor of Goa.

Malcolm Adiseshiah immediately refused the offer stating that he was not willing to accept any task which would cause his long separation from his beloved MIDS.

Malcolm Adiseshiah requested a day to make up his mind.

Nedunchezhian replied that Malcolm Adiseshiah was always a man of action.

Later in the day, Malcolm Adiseshiah conveyed to the central cabinet minister that he was not accepting the offer of the Governorship of Tamil Nadu.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in April 1978 for a six-year term as one of the twelve persons under the category of those having special knowledge and practical experience in literature, science, art, and social service.

Malcolm Adiseshiah recommended the imposition of income tax on rich peasants.

Malcolm Adiseshiah pleaded for a level playing field and opposed special concessions to non-resident Indians when they invested in India.

Malcolm Adiseshiah longed for larger two-way traffic between the Central and State Planning Commissions.

Malcolm Adiseshiah opposed the nationalization of sick mills in the private sector.

Malcolm Adiseshiah showed his courage to dissent when the occasion demanded.

Malcolm Adiseshiah provided an outstanding example of a role model for what a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha should be.

Malcolm Adiseshiah had written extensively on the environment and edited a book on that theme.

Malcolm Adiseshiah employed all printed media such as books, reports, journals, magazines, and newspapers to carry his message.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was instrumental in obtaining UNESCO assistance to the translation programs of Tamil classics.

Malcolm Adiseshiah encouraged the publication of research articles in Tamil.

Malcolm Adiseshiah brought out the Hindi and Tamil versions of UNESCO's journal 'Courier'.

Malcolm Adiseshiah lent a helping hand in launching the World University Centre in Spur Tank Road in Chennai.

Malcolm Adiseshiah desired the heritage sites to be well preserved.

Malcolm Adiseshiah initiated a pioneering research work by a French scholar tracing the history and traditions of the Sri Rangam temple in Tamil Nadu.

Malcolm Adiseshiah lent a helping hand in obtaining assistance from UNESCO and the French government for organizing the Third World Tamil Conference in Paris in 1969.

Malcolm Adiseshiah strove hard to reply in Tamil all letters addressed to him in Tamil.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was a member of the Royal Economic Society.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was hospitalized for less than a week with kidney and heart ailments.

Malcolm Adiseshiah died on 21 November 1994, aged 84 years.

Elizabeth Malcolm Adiseshiah died in 1986, leaving all her property to her husband.

Malcolm Adiseshiah is remembered for significant awards, prizes, scholarships, and endowed chairs.

The Malcolm Adiseshiah Award carries a cash grant of 200,000 rupees and a citation.

Malcolm Adiseshiah was the first president of the center at its inception in 1973 and held the post for a decade.