Indira Gandhi, the first woman prime minister of India, was responsible for many root causes of nationwide growth and success. Courageous and forward-thinking actions to nationalize banks as well as end the practice of royal rulers keeping privy purses earned her a place in the annals of history. It was because of her effective leadership that India was able to successfully beat Pakistan in a war that ultimately led to the independence of Bangladesh and also its establishment. Because of Indira Gandhi’s leadership, India was able to achieve self-sufficiency in food grain production as a consequence of the green revolution. At the same time, she unilaterally revoked an agreement with the United States known as PL 480, which was the basis on which we obtained both rice and wheat from that nation to meet our humongous food shortage.

Green Revolution 

In April of 1969, in the conference center of Villa Serbelloni, Italy, sixteen leaders from the world’s big international assistance organizations and eight scientific food manufacturing professionals met to create a plan to feed the world’s hungry through scientific knowledge. The state of Punjab was chosen by the first woman prime minister of India to obtain a Green Revolution support package suggested by the conference. This was done because Punjab has a proven track record of successfully working to increase its agricultural productivity.

The first woman prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi, exerted a lot of effort into promoting the concept known as the “Green Revolution,” and it started producing results almost immediately. The production of food grains saw a 35% increase between 1967–1968 and 1970–1971. The availability of food continued to grow dramatically, reaching 110.25 million tonnes in 1978 & 128.8 million tonnes in 1984. By the middle of the 1980s, food resources had surpassed the mark of 30 million tonnes, bringing an end to India’s image as a “begging bowl” and generating substantial food security even within severe crisis events.

Role of Indira Gandhi in the Green Revolution

She also concentrated on implementing strategies to reduce poverty, particularly in backward regions and in the poorest segments of the population, by the development of the agricultural sector; managers have incentives and buying power, as well as transmitting the capital assets of lands and livestock to people. The Green Revolution in India was one of the critical components of Indira’s radical curriculum in the middle and late 1960s. 

She decided to make the Green Revolution the highest issue for the government, and in addition to the introduction of new hybrid seeds, she started state subsidies, the assistance of electrical power, water, fertilizers, as well as credit to farmers. In addition, she exempted income from agricultural activities from taxation.

As a direct consequence of this, India achieved its goal of achieving food self-sufficiency, which was a priority for the first woman prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi, following the unpredictable and conditional nature of the food aid provided by President Johnson of the United States.

In fact, contrary to what many doubters anticipated would happen, the Green Revolution did not become a “Red Revolution,” but rather, it evolved into one of the most significant anti-poverty initiatives. An eminent economist by the name of Raj Krishna revealed in 1979 that as a consequence of the combined impact of the different programs that had been introduced up until that point, “small farmers, as a class, control more capital assets and input prices per unit of property than large farmers.” 

Conclusion 

Being the first woman prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi transformed the image of a dependable country into a self-sufficient one. She played a huge role in making the Green Revolution a success.