 |
NAME:
R.A. MASHELKAR
AGE:
64
DESIGNATION: Director
COMPANY:
Reliance Industries |
He has possibly been one
of the most visible and, indeed, one of the most celebrated faces
of Indian science for some time now. In the recent past, however,
Raghunath Anant Mashelkar, former Director General of the Council
of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), has been in the
news for all the wrong reasons.
The Left has time and again accused him of tweaking scientific
policies to suit the West; and former colleagues like J. Sundaresan
Pillai, Secretary, csir Workers' Association (who has filed a
public interest litigation in the Supreme Court), allege that
he misused his position at the helm of India's premier scientific
body to misappropriate funds. If this was not enough, he has courted
charges of plagiarism on at least two counts-first for a report
on patent law issues (his 12th, and last as the CSIR chief), which
attracted the ire of the Indian pharma industry and which he has
had to face the ignominy of having to withdraw; then for a book
on intellectual property (IP) issues, co-authored by him in 2004,
which reportedly bears "striking similarities with a 1996
paper brought out by a British IP expert, Graham Dutfield".
None of this, however, has deterred the Mukesh Ambani-controlled
Reliance Industries (RIL) from appointing the 64-year-old Padmabhushan
awardee-who is credited with bringing scientific research to the
shop floor of Indian industry, for steering India's way the protracted
techno-legal argument in the famous turmeric patent case (a US
company had patented the spice known for its therapeutic effects)
and for mentoring several well-known scientists-on its board as
an independent director.
Further, the market is abuzz with speculation that Mashelkar,
presently the President of the Indian National Science Academy
(INSA), may also join the board of one or more Tata companies
in a similar capacity (he has himself gone on record that he has
been invited by more than two dozen companies to join their boards).
Retirement, it seems, will not keep this scientist away from the
limelight.
-Aman Malik
|
