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Raghunath Anant Mashelkar

Raghunath Anant Mashelkar
FTWAS FNA FASc FRS FREng FRSC
A portrait photograph of Raghunath Anant Mashelkar taken in April 2009.
Mashelkar in 2009
Born (1943-01-01) 1 January 1943 (age 81)
Mashel, Goa.
NationalityIndian
Other namesRamesh Mashelkar
Alma materInstitute of Chemical Technology (B.Chem Engg, PhD)
Known for
TitleFTWAS, FNA, FASc, FRS,[2] FREng,[3] FRSC
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsChemical Engineering
InstitutionsCSIR[1]
Global Research Alliance
National Innovation Foundation
Notable studentsYogesh M. Joshi
Websitewww.mashelkar.com

Raghunath Anant Mashelkar (born 1 January 1943), also known as Ramesh Mashelkar, is an Indian Chemical Engineer, born in a village named Marcel in Goa and brought up in Maharashtra.

Mashelkar is a former Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). He was also the President of Indian National Science Academy, President of Institution of Chemical Engineers (UK) as also the President of Global Research Alliance. He was also first Chairperson of Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), Foreign Associate of US National Academy of Engineering and the US National Academy of Sciences.

Life and work

He studied at University of Bombay's University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT; now the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai) where he obtained B.Chem Engg degree in chemical engineering in 1966, and PhD degree in 1969. He also served as chancellor of the institute during 2014-2024. [4]

He served as the Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - a network of thirty-eight laboratories-for over eleven years. Prior to this, he was Director of National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) for six years.

He has been a visiting professor at Harvard University(2007–2012), at University of Delaware (1976, 1988), and at Technical University of Denmark (1982). He has been Sir Louis Matheson Distinguished Professor at Monash University for fifteen years (2007–2022).

He has been on the board of directors of several companies such as Reliance Industries Ltd, Tata Motors, Hindustan Unilever, Thermax, Piramal Group, KPIT Technologies, etc.

He has been a member of External Research Advisory Board of Microsoft (USA), Advisory Board of VTT (Finland), Corporate Innovation Board of Michelin (France), Advisory Board of National Research Foundation (Singapore), among others.

As Director of India's National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) during 1989–1995,[5] Mashelkar gave a new orientation to NCL's research programmes with strong emphasis on globally competitive technologies and international patenting. NCL, which was involved only in import substitution research till then, began licensing its patents to multinational companies.[6][7]

As Director General of CSIR, Mashelkar led the process of transformation of CSIR. The book 'World Class in India', has ranked CSIR among the top twelve organizations, who have managed the radical change the best in post-liberalised India.[8]

The process of CSIR transformation has been heralded as one of the ten most significant achievements of Indian Science and Technology in the twentieth century, by eminent astrophysicist Prof. Jayant Narlikar, in his book, The Scientific Edge.

Mashelkar campaigned strongly with Indian academics, researchers and corporates for strengthening the IPR ecosystem. Under his leadership, CSIR occupied the first position in WIPO's top fifty PCT filler among all the developing nations in 2002. CSIR progressed in US patent filing to an extent that they reached 40% share of the US patents granted to India in 2002.[9]

Led by Mashelkar, CSIR successfully fought the battle of revocation of the US patent on wound healing properties of turmeric (USP 5,401,5041) claiming that this was India's traditional knowledge and therefore not novel.[10][11] Mashelkar also chaired the Technical Committee, which successfully challenged[12] the US patents on Basmati Rice (USP 5,663,484) by RiceTec Company, Texas, (2001). This opened up new paradigms in the protection of traditional knowledge with WIPO bringing in a new internal patent classification system, where sub-groups on traditional knowledge were created for the first time. This led to the creation of India's Traditional Knowledge Digital Library,[13][12] which helped in prevention of the grant of wrong patents on traditional knowledge.

He pioneered the concept of "Gandhian Engineering"[14] in 2008 (Getting More from Less for More People). His paper with late C.K. Prahalad titled `Innovation’s Holy Grail’ has been considered as a significant contribution to inclusive innovation. His other contributions amplify the concept of More from Less for More.[15][16]

He was on the Engineering and Computer Science jury for the Infosys Prize from 2009 to 2015.[17]

National contributions

Mashelkar was a member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and also of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet set up by successive governments. He has chaired twelve high powered committees set up to look into diverse issues ranging from national auto fuel policy[18] to overhauling the Indian drug regulatory system & dealing with the menace of spurious drugs.[19] He was appointed by the Government as Assessor for the One-man Inquiry Commission investigating into the Bhopal Gas Tragedy (1985–86), and as Chairman of the Committee for investigating the Maharashtra Gas Cracker Complex accident (1990–91).[20]

Deeply connected with the innovation movement in India, Mashelkar served as the Chairman of India's National Innovation Foundation (2000–2018). He chaired Reliance Innovation Council,[21] KPIT Technologies Innovation Council, Persistent Systems Innovation Council and Marico Foundation's Governing Council.[22] He co-chairs the Maharashtra State Innovation Society.[23]

Research

Mashelkar has made contributions in transport phenomena, particularly in thermodynamics of swelling, superswelling and shrinking polymers, modelling of polymerisation reactors, and engineering analysis of Non-Newtonian flows.[24]

Controversy

In 2005, the Indian government established a technical expert group on patent laws under the chairmanship of Mashelkar. Its purpose was to determine whether amendments made in Indian patent law were TRIPS compliant. The committee unanimously concluded that the amendments were not TRIPS compliant.

The report generated controversy when editorials published simultaneously in the Times of India[25] and The Hindu[26] alleged parts of the report had been plagiarised. Mashelkar subsequently withdrew the report due to the alleged plagiarism,[27] admitting to flaws in the report[25][28] whilst stating, "This is the first time such a thing has happened."[27] He later also explained that the technical flaw was not the alleged lack of attribution but it was citing the attribution at the end of the report than in the body of the report due to the style adopted for the report.[29]

The controversy was raised in the Indian Parliament, with demands that the report be "trashed" and the issues be referred to a joint standing committee.[30][31] However, the government instead referred the report back to the technical expert group to reexamine and correct the inaccuracies. The report was resubmitted after corrections in March 2009 and was accepted by the Government as such.[32][33]

Awards and recognition

The President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee presenting the Padma Vibhushan Award to Dr. Raghunath Anant Mashelkar, at a Civil Investiture Ceremony, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on March 31, 2014

Mashelkar has received several awards and is a member of numerous scientific bodies and committees.[34] So far, 51 universities from around the world have honored him with honorary doctorates, which include Universities of London, Salford, Pretoria, Wisconsin, Swinburne, Monash and Delhi.[35]

Honours by President of India: (highest Indian civilian awards)

Election to Prestigious Academies (International):

Election to Prestigious Academies (National):

Presidency of Top Academic Bodies

Awards and Honours: International

Social service

Mashelkar established the Anjani Mashelkar Foundation in 2011 to encourage inclusive innovation which includes the excluded by deploying disruptive high technology, scalable products and services often through breakthrough business models.

The foundation has awarded the Anjani Mashelkar Prize to the best innovators of the country with a motive to recognise and reward such innovators who develop high technology solutions for the excluded members of society. As on 2023, the annual Anjani Mashelkar Prize has been awarded 13 times.

References

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