Infinite Vision - Padmashri Dr.Govindappa Venkataswamy

Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy (1918–2006, b. Vadamalapuram, near Aruppukottai, Tottukudi dist, Tamil Nadu) is an Indian ophthalmologist and 1973 recipient of Padma Sri award.

Born in 1918 in Vadamalapuram in Tamil Nadu, India, Dr.G.Venkataswamy, Founder, Aravind Eye Hospital had his education at American College, Madurai, Stanley Medical College, Madras and qualified for MS Ophthalmology at the Government Ophthalmic Hospital, Madras. He first joined the Indian Army as Physician during 1945-48. He then was appointed Head of Department of Ophthalmology at the Government Madurai Medical College, and eye surgeon at the Government Erskine Hospital at Madurai. He held these posts for 20 years and made remarkable contributions to research, clinical service and community programmes. And with a willpower and dedication far beyond the ordinary, he went on to perform over one hundred thousand successful eye surgeries, and that too with fingers that were badly affected with a rare disease. As a young man he followed the teachings of Gandhi.

More than a century and a half after the German poet and dramatist Von Goethe’s impassioned plea, ophthalmologist Dr.G.Venkataswamy persuaded his colleagues and staff to action: “If you can do something, then you must go ahead and do it.”

A quarter of a century ago, at mandatory retirement age, fifty eight year old Dr.Venkataswamy, a man known to most of us simply as Dr.V, founded the Aravind Eye Hospital at Madurai in 1977. In an eleven-bed hospital manned by four medical officers, he saw the potential for what is today, one of the largest facilities in the world for eye care. Over the years, this organisation has evolved into a sophisticated system dedicated to compassionate service for sight. The mission of this organisation in the words of its founder was “to eradicate needless blindness”. The endeavour required a leap of imagination, vision and innovation. In India alone, there are 12 million who are blind, and 80% of these are blind due to cataract. To this enormous number another 2 to 3 million are added every year. Despite staggering obstacles, Dr.V. and his team persisted. Using mass marketing and an operating system that resembles an assembly line, they helped the modest hospital to grow steadily in service delivery and infrastructure. And a system that enabled Aravind to provide free eye care to two-thirds of its patients from the revenue generated from its one-third paying patients. Twenty-five years later that system is still in place.

Only a biography can say enough of a man who makes use of every second, every paise and every inch of space. He has an amazing ability to use everyone effectively. He is the father of Community Ophthalmology, and because of his ‘Vision’ numerous people have been able to see again. It was his dream of being able to market ‘good eye-sight’ to the world, the way McDonald’s sells hamburgers. It is no wonder that around eight hundred thousand surgeries have been performed and lakhs of people have benefited from services rendered through his organisations. In his words “ in Aravind, we scan new horizons and look forward to exploring new vistas in eye care”.

October 1 2018 marked the birth centenary of Dr G Venkataswamy, the founder of renowned Aravind Eye Hospitals, search engine giant Google thought it fitting to honour him with a doodle.

Google’s homepage displayed a doodle in honour of Dr Venkataswamy, who launched Aravind Eye Hospital with just 11 beds in Madurai in 1976 along with his four siblings.

The hospital now has 57 branches - five tertiary care centres, five secondary care centres, six outpatient centres and 41 vision centres - across India.

Dr.Venkataswamy was conferred Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1973.

Degrees earned:
Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from American College in Madurai in 1938

Doctor of Medicine from Stanley Medical College in Madras in 1944
Doctor of ophthalmology at the Government Ophthalmic Hospital in Madras in 1951

Honorary Doctorate from University of Illinois, 1985

Awards:

Padma Shri , 1973
Lifetime Service Award from the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, 1982
Helen Keller International Award, 1987

International Blindness Prevention Award, American Academy of Ophthalmology, 1993

WHO Award for Health for All

Academy International Blindness Prevention Award

International Social Entrepreneurship Award

Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic.

Raja-Lakshmi Award for the year 2001 from Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation, Chennai.

Harold Wit Lectureship, Harvard Divinity School, 1991

Pisart-Lighthouse for the Blind Award, 1992

Susruta Award, Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology, 1997.

World Telugu Federation honoured him in the year 2000.

Dr.B.C.Roy Award – 2001

Comments

Anonymous said…

He was among the "100 Most Influential People" list of TIME - Only Kamma to ever feature in such list. His organization is still performing greatly with recognition from reputed foundations like the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, Hughes Medical etc.

Sunday, October 02, 2011 7:50:00 PM

Kamma Cine Heroes

1) N.T.Rama Rao 2) Akkineni Nageswara Rao 3) Gattamaneni Krishna 4) Sobhan Babu (Uppu Sobhana Chalapathi Rao) 5) Gummadi Venkatwsara Rao 6) Maganti Murali Mohan 7) Manchu Mohan Babu 8) Kongara Jaggayya 9) Giri babu (Yerra Seshagiri Rao) 10) Sridhar Surapaneni 11) Madala Ranga rao 12) Nandamuri Bala Krishna 13) SaiChand Tripuraneni 14) Akkineni Nagarjuna 15) Daggubati Venkatesh 16) Gadde Rajendra Prasad 17) Raja Sekhar (Kasukurthi) 18) Daggubati Raja 19) Bhagya Raj 20) Nandamuri Hari Krishna 21) Veeramachineni Jagapathi Babu 22) Meka Srikanth 23) Vadde Naveen 24) Tottempudi Venu 25) Gattamaneni Mahesh Babu 26) Junior. N.T.R 27) Sivaji Sontineni 28) Nandamuri Taraka Ratna 29) Nandamuri Kalyanaram 30) Yarlagadda Sumanth 31) Tottempudi Gopi Chand 32) Manchu Vishnu Vardhan 33) Manchu Manoj 34) Edara Naresh 35) Edara Aryan Rajesh 36) Ram Pothineni 37) Myneni Sarvanand 38) Daggubati Rana 39) Akkineni Naga Chaitanya 40) Nani (Ghanta Naveen Kum...

Raja Vasireddy Venkatadri Naidu Ruler of Amaravati

Muktyala fort ‘Harihara Vilas’ Amaravati: The temple town of Amaravati was once ruled by Raja Vasireddy Venkatadri Naidu . He was the man behind establishment of Jaggayyapet and Achammapet on behalf of his parents. He ruled up to 552 villages and towns located on borders of Krishna district including Madhira, Khammam, Kalidindi, Kondapalli, Kondaveedu, Vinukonda, Ponnuru, Nizampatnam and Palivela near Rajahmundry. He provided large temple towers at Lord Narasimha Swamy temple at Mangalagiri and Amareswara Swamy temple in Amaravati. He built Lord Brahma temple at Chebrolu village near Guntur and installed 108 Sivalingas in temples at various villages in one auspicious muhurat. Raja Vasireddy Venkatadri Naidu was born in 1761 and died in 1816. Highlights: * Raja Vasireddy Venkatadri Naidu ruled Amaravati * Vasireddy Sri Rama Gopala Krishna Maheswara Prasad was the Raja of Muktyala * He conducted a lot of research on Ayurveda and cancer and published ‘Sri Dh...

List of Kamma Chief Ministers & Governors

Sri.Edpuganti RaghavendraRao List of Kamma Chief Ministers: 1. Bollini Munuswamy Naidu: (Primie Minister) Chief Minister of Madras State - 1930-34 2. Sir.E.Raghavendra Rao: Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh (Central Province ) - 1936-37 3. Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao: Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh during 1983, 1984-89 and 1994-1995 4. Nadendla Bhaskara Rao: Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh - 1984 5. Nara Chandra Babu Naidu: Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh during (1995-99 1999-2004) and 2014- List of Kamma Governors: 1. Sir.Edpuganti .Raghavendra Rao, Governor, Central Province and Berar (1935-36) 2. P.Ramachandran (Tamilnadu), Governor, Kerala (1982-88) 3. P.S.Rama Mohana Rao, Governor, Tamilnadu (2002-2004) 4. Vadlapatla.Rama Devi, Governor, Himachal Pradesh (1997-99) Karnataka (1999-2005) 5. Kambhampati Haribabu Governor, Mijoram (2021 -

Kamma Movie Directors

List of Kamma Movie Ditrectors 1) Gudavalli Ramabrahmam 2) Akkineni Lakshmi Vara Prasad (LV Prasad) 3) Kovelamudi Bapayya 4) Veeramachineni Madhusudhana Rao 5) Kovelamudi S.Prakasa Rao 6) Kolli Pratyagatma 7) G.Sambasiva Rao 8) Tammareddy Krishnamurthy 9) Mannava Balayya 10) Tatineni Prakasa Rao 11) Tatineni Rama Rao 12) Tatineni Prasad 13) Kovelamudi Raghavendra Rao 14) Gutta Ramineedu 15) Kolli Hemambaradhara Rao 16) Uppalapati Visveswara Rao 17) Tripuraneni Maharadhi 18) Tripuraneni Gopichand 19) Tottempudi Krishna 20) Madala Ranga Rao 21) Siva Nageswara Rao 22) Uppalapati Narayana Rao 23) P.Sarat 24) A.Mohan Gandhi 25) Bezawada Gopal 26) T.Kranthi Kumar 27) Maganti Vijaya Bapineedu 28) Tammareddy Bharadwaj 29) Akkineni Kutumba Rao 30) K.Vasu 31) Edara VV Satyanarayana 32) Muppalaneni Siva 33) Yalamanchili VS Chowdary 34) Theja Jasti 35) Sreenu Vytla 36) Koduri Srisaila Sri Rajamouli 37) Vemulapalli Srikanth 38) AS Ravikumar Chowdary 39)...

A road named after Veerasamy Naidu in Singapore

Veerasamy Road - Little India/ Singapore Veerasamy Road was renamed twice in its history; it was originally called Inche Lane, and was renamed Jalan Tambah in 1910. In 1927, the road was renamed again as Veerasamy Road, in honour of Dr N. Veerasamy Naidu (1865-1926), one of Singapore’s first Indian doctors and a leader in the local Indian community. Dr N Veerasamy Naidu was born in 1864. He was the son of Narayanasamy Naidu and Ramanuja Ammal. He learned Tamil from the age of four from his grandfather, Kuppusamy Naidu. He studied English at the Raffles School in Singapore and first worked at the lawyer’s office of Mr Cook. Unsatisfied in his job and drawn to the study of medicinal herbs, he decided to pursue an education in medical science and eventually worked in a hospital owned by Govindasamy Naidu. He set up his own clinic called Indian Dispensary in Rochor Road and derived effective scientific and traditional treatments for a variety of new diseases. He was the Presid...

List of 30 Kamma Billionaires and rankings

The IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2021 shows that India has more than 1,000 individuals who have a net worth of ₹ 1,000 crore or more across 119 cities. The cumulative wealth in the country has gone up by 51 per cent, while the average wealth has also increased by 25 per cent, the report by Hurun India said. 30 Kamma business and industrialists finds place in the list from AP, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. 14. Murali Divi Rs76,000 crores Divis Laboratories 179. Venkateswarlu Jasti 9,600 crores Suven Pharma 190. Veeraiah Chowdary Nannapaneni 9,100 crores NATCO Laboratories 209. Chava Satyanarayana 8,400 crores Laurus Labs 264. Satya Nadella 6,200 crores Microsoft 368. Mandava PrabhakaraRao 4,300 crores Nuziveedu seeds 377. Ella KrishnaMurthy 4,100 crores Bharat Biotech 384. Doppalapudi Bhaktavatsala Rao 4000 crores Privi Speciality Chemicals 398. Galla Ramachandra Naidu 3,900 crores Amara Raja Batteries 398. Chinta VisveswaraRao 3,900 crores...

List of Kamma MLAs elected to The Tamilnadu Assembly 2021

Thalapathy 1) Kadambur Raju (AIADMK) Kovilpatti 2) Dr.A R Raguraman (MDMK) Sattur 3) A R R Seenivasan (DMK) Virudhunagar 4) G Thalapathy (DMK) Madurai - West 5) P R G Arun Kumar (AIADMK) Coimbatore 6) M K Mohan (DMK) Anna Nagar 7) P K Sekar Babu (DMK) Chennai - Harbour 8) A C Vilvanathan (DMK) Ambur 9) A P Nanda Kumar (DMK) Anaikattu

List of Kamma Cine Heroes (Updated)

List of Kamma Movie stars: 1) Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao 2) Akkineni Nageswara Rao 3) Gattamaneni Krishna 4) Sobhan Babu (Uppu Sobhana Chalapathi Rao) 5) Gummadi Venkatwsara Rao 6) Maganti Murali Mohan 7) Manchu Mohan Babu 8) Kongara Jaggayya 9) Giri babu (Yerra Seshagiri Rao) 10) Sridhar Surapaneni (Mutyalamuggu fame) 11) Madala Ranga rao 12) Nandamuri Bala Krishna 13) SaiChand Tripuraneni 14) Akkineni Nagarjuna 15) Daggubati Venkatesh 16) Gadde Rajendra Prasad 17) Raja Sekhar (Kasukurthi) 18) Daggubati Raja 19) Bhagya Raj 20) Nandamuri Hari Krishna 21) Veeramachineni Jagapathi Babu 22) Meka Srikanth 23) Vadde Naveen 24) Tottempudi Venu 25) Gattamaneni Mahesh Babu 26) Junior. N.T.R 27) Sivaji Sontineni 28) Nandamuri Taraka Ratna 29) Nandamuri Kalyanaram 30) Yarlagadda Sumanth 31) Tottempudi Gopi Chand 32) Manchu Vishnu Vardhan 33) Manchu Manoj 34) Edara Naresh 35) Edara Aryan Rajesh 36) Ram Pothineni 37) Myneni Sarvanand 38) Daggubati Rana...

List of Kamma Beauty Queens (9)

Leela Naidu 1) Nina Davuluri - Miss NewYork ( USA ) and Miss USA 2013 2) Leela Naidu Prattipati - Miss India 1954 3) Sindhura Gadde - Miss India World 2005 and Semi Finalist Miss World 2005 4) Vasuki Sunkavalli - Miss Universe India 2011 5) Kerishnie Naicker - Miss South Africa 1997 6) Pratima Yarlagadda - Miss Indiana ( USA ) 1999 and Finalist Miss USA 1999 7) Kaisha Naidoo - Miss South Africa finalist 2010 8) Sandhya Naidoo - Miss South Africa finalist 2010 ( Second Princess at the Miss SA Teen competition in 2005) 9) Shravya Kalyanapu - Miss Alberta state - Miss World Canada 2017

G.K. Devarajulu The textile city Architect of Coimbatore

The brothers who contributed substantially to the industrialisation of Coimbatore are G.K. Devarajulu and G.K. Sundaram . The sons of cotton merchant G.Kuppusamy Naidu, who also had a ginning unit, both evinced immense capability. Devarajulu, born in 1911, was a man with appetite for risks. He set up the Lakshmi Mills at the age of just 21. As the machinery for the cotton units were imported from Europe under the impression that those from Japan were substandard, Devarajulu visited the factory in Japan to study whether the machinery would suit Indian requirements. Consequently all the machinery for his unit were imported from Japan. He also introduced the administrative system he found good in Japanese units. When Devarajulu and Mr. Sundaram joined Textool as shareholders in 1940, the company produced its first ring frame. Devarajulu joined hands with R.Venkataswamy Naidu of Peelamedu to set up the South India Viscose for which he imported m...

Kammas World

Search This Blog