It requires an eye and a head to recognise excellence and a heart to appreciate it.  Excellence became a buzz word in management during the 90s.   However, as far back as 1967,  Dr. Atthreya, had set up the Indian Center for Encouraging Excellence.  Aided by  an advisory council comprising of Mr. K. C. Shroff, Mr. M .V. Kamath, Mr. M .R .Pai, Dr. L. N. Godbole and Dr. Manohar Kher, a pioneering attempt   was made  for the first time in India  to  spot , recognise  and award  excellence in various  aspects of  education , health, trade, profession  and   service .  The ACME Excellence  award was unique both in its concept and  in  the sculpting of the trophy  .  The award functions did not have the glitz and glitterati  of present excellence award functions with high profile sponsors , but were modestly organised, well attended by the  general public and most of all, the awardee very often was a hitherto unrecognised  person, who was a karmayogi, and did what he or she  did with excellence, because that is the only way he knew how to do the work he was doing .

The organisation under its auspices, with the help of noted poet Mr, Nissim Ezekiel,  organised in 1971,  for the first time in India , a lecture series on  “ Great Books, Great Ideas”.    The “Excellence week” was an annual event, when eminent speakers such as Swami Ranganathananda  from Ramakrishna Mission, the noted cricketer Mr. Vijay Merchant,  educationists  such as Mr. Soli Pavri and Dr. J. W. Airan, planning commission consultant Dr. R. K. Hazari, were invited to address audiences on the subject of  “Pursuit of Excellence”.

Through this section, we share a brief background of the awardees, Dr. Atthreya’s published writings, some of his unpublished writings, and a few select news letters on excellence.