"अनुसन्धानेन समाजविकासः " Anusandhanen Samajvikasah – development of society through research
Science as a Social Enterprise in India
Speaker: Prof. Shekhar C. Mande, (Distinguished Professor, Savitribai Phule Pune University.)
India has witnessed remarkable transformation since independence, much of it driven by advances in science and technology. From food security to healthcare and space exploration, several critical national challenges have been effectively addressed through scientific innovation. Yet, we now stand at a unique crossroads in human history, where the pace of scientific progress has outstripped its ethical, moral, and philosophical assimilation. This imbalance calls for deeper introspection within the Indian scientific community. There is an urgent need to engage with these dimensions and to chart a forward-looking roadmap that aligns scientific advancement with societal values and responsibilities.
He has worked at the CSIR- Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad and National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune. He was the Director of NCCS, Pune between September 2011 and October 2018. Subsequently, he moved to New Delhi as the Director eneral of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)- cum- Secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Govt of India. CSIR is the largest civilian scientific R&D chain of laboratories in India, which he headed. Among his major contributions at CSIR/ DSIR were providing leadership to the scientific and technological response to Covid-19, pioneering cultivation of Asafoetida in India, initiating major program on floriculture (including Lavender in J&K), initiating India's program on futuristic civil aviation including High Altitude Platforms), promotion of Indian footwear size program, promotion of sustainable aviation fuel, and a major initiative on pan-India health monitoring program, Phenome-India. One of the hallmarks of his leadership was to strongly encourage gender-inclusive scientific leadership.
His academic contributions have been in the area of structure-function relationships of proteins, mostly derived from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. He has also contributed to development of computational methodologies for analysis of large biological data. He has been recognized by election to the three science cademies in the country, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi; Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru and National Academy of Sciences, India, Allahabad and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Sciences in 2005. He was recently awarded the Distinguished Alumnus award of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Currently, he occupies Distinguished Professorship at the Bioinformatics Centre, Savitribai Phule Pune University (formerly University of Pune) funded generously by philanthropic donation by Dr. Anand Deshpande. He also serves on the board Tata Steel Ltd as an independent director and chairs the board of the Biotechnology Consortium India Ltd. He also chairs the governing board of the National Council of Science Museums, and is the National President of Vijnana Bharati, a large voluntary movement for Science with Swadeshi spirit. He is the President of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi. He has made significant contributions using techniques of X-ray crystallography, for structural characterization of Mycobacterium tuberculosis proteins. He has also contributed to Computational analysis of genome-wide protein protein interactions.