From a young age I’ve seen the service being done by Rotary and have admired and been impressed by it. The way Rotarians work for the betterment of the people from disadvantaged families is no ordinary matter. Congratulations,” said Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, while inaugurating the Lead25 Conclave organised by RI director M Muruganandam in Chennai.
TN Deputy CM Udhayanidhi Stalin as (from L) School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, PDG I S A K Nazar and conclave convener RI Director M Muruganandam look on.
Launching a bunch of mammoth community service projects worth a whoppingRs.250 crore, which will be done in a year, some of them in partnership with the Tamil Nadu government, he said he was most happy about one particular project he had flagged off that morning, which was related to women’s empowerment. “We flagged off today 100 pink autos for women drivers which is an excellent example of women’s empowerment. It is also wonderful to see the induction of 250 new Rotary clubs. These are great milestones which speak volumes about Rotary’s commitment to progress.”
Rotary’s history was both “impressive and impactful”; since its founding in 1905 in Chicago, it had grown into a global family with 1.4 million members across 220 countries. “Standing here in this hall filled with some 10,000 participants, I can see and feel the enthusiasm, passion and spirt of service and fellowship that define Rotary, while experiencing how the global spirit of Rotary has come to Namma Chennai. I really admire Rotary’s service to society through a range of projects. From education and health to community development, you are making a difference in every sphere of life.”
Heaping high praise on Rotary, Udhayanidhi noted that one of its “greatest contributions to humanity” was its work to end polio in the world. From the 1980s, the organisation “had led from the front to eradicate polio, investing $2.7 billion and spending millions of voluntary hours. Rotarians have helped to reduce polio cases by 99.9 per cent worldwide, a great achievement. India’s story to become polio-free is incomplete without acknowledging Rotary’s role,”
he added.
He proudly recalled how his grandfather and former Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi had worked along
with Rotary for the eradication of polio. “Because of the action taken by the TN government and the Rotarians of Tamil Nadu, we became the first state in India to eradicate polio. For this, the entire credit goes to Rotary. During the Covid pandemic too, Rotary’s work was truly outstanding in providing medical equipment, essential supplies and extending full support to the TN government. I have personal experience of working closely with Rotary during the pandemic, when we joined hands with TRF to provide masks, sanitation kits and other medical assistance.”
Other services extended by Rotary include support to schools in underdeveloped areas, setting up of dialysis centres benefitting thousands of people and their families. “For all the service they render, Rotary is not just a service organisation but a lifeline of hope,” he added.
The Deputy CM said that RI director Muruganandam had shared with him some proposals for collaboration with the TN government. “Today, we’ve begun by signing the MoU on Namma School Namma Ooru Palli initiative and a statewide cervical cancer awareness and vaccination initiative to safeguard women’s health.” He had also suggested that state-level social service awards be given to outstanding Rotarians. “I assure you that our government has noted them all carefully and we will explore ways to take them forward.”
Udhayanidhi added that as the present TN government was also “committed to sports development, we will be happy to collaborate and partner with Rotary to work in sports for the empowerment of our youth.”
He concluded by saying such gatherings defined true leadership, which was not “just about position or power but service, sacrifice and responsibility. We in the government are also working along with the same values as Rotary does, to build a community based on social equity and gender justice. With partners like Rotary we can create greater impact.”
Addressing the inaugural session, TN Minister for School Education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi welcomed the MoU between the TN government and Rotary to upgrade the infrastructure in 1,000 government-run schools under the Namma School Namma Ooru Palli initiative. He said this scheme was launched by TN Chief Minister M K Stalin in Dec 2022 to upgrade the infrastructure and facilities in government-run schools. “He had made the first contribution of ₹5 lakh; today this scheme has grown to ₹800 crore and being run transparently. You should see the condition of these schools before and after the renovation.”
Thanking Rotary for the collaborative venture under which 1,000 more schools would be renovated, he congratulated Muruganandam for the great work he was doing. “He is special not because of the post he holds but because he is a Rotarian who knows the pain of the underprivileged, the downtrodden and the physically- challenged. If your action inspires others to do more, become more, learn more and dream more, then you are an efficient leader.”
He said as the TN government lays great stress on education, Rotary’s help in improving the hygiene and sanitation in 1,000 schools is greatly valued. Quoting Gandhiji on “education is for life,” he said the state government had recently launched the TN Spark initiative, under which students will be taught how to handle AI tools, robotics, the fundamentals of computer science and other online tools using hi-tech labs, and “that too, at an early age.”
The aim of the government was that after completing school education, all students, “not only the privileged but even the children of autorickshaw drivers and other disadvantaged sections should go to the best of colleges, including the IITs, IIMs, Law universities, etc.”
Lead25 convenor Muruganandam said this conclave was being organised to give an opportunity to all Rotarians, particularly the Rotaractors and Interactors, to participate in such Rotary events. He said a record number of projects worth ₹250 crore were being launched at the two-day event and several partnerships and MoUs for service projects were being launched/signed (See box). He had requested the chief guest — the deputy CM of Tamil Nadu —
to introduce the RYLA programme in schools, and also extend the benefits and marks to Interactors and Rotaractors using similar criteria applied to NCC and NSS cadets.
The RI director also requested the TN government to introduce state-level social service awards to recognise outstanding Rotarians on Independence and Republic Days. “We also request you to allocate land to Rotary either in Chennai or Trichy to set up a Rotary Disaster Relief and Community Centre,” he added.
Apart from RI President Francesco and his wife Anna Maria, co-convenor and RI director K P Nagesh, RI director from Germany Christine Buering, TRF trustee Bharat Pandya, past RI directors Ashok Mahajan, P T Prabhakar, C Basker, A S Venkatesh, Raju Subramanian and Anirudha Roychowdhury participated in the event.
Conclave chairman John Daniel welcomed the delegates and event secretary Y Kumanan delivered the vote of thanks. PRIP Kalyan Banerjee; actor and Rajya Sabha MP Kamal Haasan, Kaveri Group of Hospitals founder Dr S Chandrakumar and R S K Raguraam, pro-chairman, PSNA College of Engineering and Technology, Chennai, were given Lifetime Achievement Award.
PRIP Kalyan Banerjee honoured
Past RI President Kalyan Banerjee was honoured at the inaugural session of Lead25. Introducing him, PRID C Basker said he was being recognised for “the exemplary service and leadership he had provided during 50 years in Rotary from 1972,” which included his stint as trustee chair of TRF during its centennial year.
“We’ve all been moved by his dedication to Rotary and its values,” he said, and described a personal experience where he had found how a “collective will and compassionate leadership can achieve miracles.”
When thousands of homes were lost in the devastating floods in Kerala and Karnataka in 2018, Basker was then RI director and during the Rotary Institute in Chennai, when the DGs of the affected districts sought urgent help, an initiative was formed to “immediately mobilise funds from Rotary clubs and generous donors to help rebuild the homes and lives of some BPL families.” Banerjee was asked to lead this initiative. “He sprang into action and attended every single meeting…
guiding and encouraging us and ensuring that the project stayed on track and reached completion, and 60 homes were handed over to the beneficiaries in
record time.”
In his address Banerjee thanked the organisers for the honour and said for half a century Rotary had been integrated into him like his morning breakfast and evening tea. “The past 50 years have been momentous… today as I look back on the last half a century I often wonder, did we do all the right things? Are we benefitting our town, community, organisation and the world? Do people know what we are doing and what Rotary stands for?”
Striking a melancholic note, he said he was reminded of these lines (from the poem of the English poet Walter Savage Landor, titled Dying Speech of an Old Philosopher): I strove with none, for none was worth my strife. / Nature I loved and, next to Nature, Art (and Rotary’s motto of doing, giving, serving) / I warm’d both hands before the fire of life. / It sinks, and I am ready to depart.
Service
projects & MoUs
At the Lead25 Conclave, pan-India service projects worth ₹250 crore were launched and MoUs signed in Rotary’s focus areas.
A major MoU was upgrading 1,000 government schools across Tamil Nadu by Rotary clubs under the Namma School Namma Ooru Palli with the TN government. Another was a three-year tie-up with the Martin Charitable Trust for a Miyawaki forest to promote green cover and restore native ecosystems in five locations in the state. Planting 50,000 trees through a three-year partnership with Ellappalayam
Arumugam Trust; a one-year partnership with the Kaveri Group of Hospitals for paediatric heart care; and a one-year tie-up with Kamal Panpattu Maiyam to empower youngsters through leadership and vocational skills, and encourage innovation, entrepreneurship and environmental stewardship, were other MoUs.
Service projects launched at the event include upgrading school infrastructure, mobile classrooms for adult literacy, digital classrooms in schools; setting up dialysis centres, blood banks, mobile clinics and ambulances for tribal and remote villages, TB and cancer care, human milk banks, giving smart glasses to the blind; building low-cost houses, check dams and toilets for communities, crematoriums, old age homes and skill development centres; and environment care initiatives such as waste recycling plant, lake restoration and creation of Miyawaki forests.