Friends: Here is a news item on Dr Mashelkar's retirement. Best wishes. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/news/article_1238449.php Top Indian science administrator Mashelkar retires Dec 31, 2006, 17:45 GMT New Delhi, Dec 31 (IANS) R.A. Mashelkar, who is credited with giving new direction to Indian science, retired Sunday as head of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), an organisation he served for over three decades. During his 11 years as CSIR head, Mashelkar turned around the organisation into a world-class, profit-making, performance-driven, research and development organisation. Winner of around 50 national and international Awards, Mashelkar has been well known for spearheading new thinking in the field of science and technology. He chaired about 12 high-power committees set up to look into diverse issues of national importance, an official release said. 'Dr. Mashelkar will also be remembered for championing the cause of protection of traditional knowledge in India by fighting the Turmeric and Basmati (patent) battles, which set a new paradigm in the protection of developing world's traditional knowledge heritage,' the release added. Mashelkar is only the third Indian engineer to have been elected Fellow of Royal Society (FRS), London, in the 20th Century. He was also elected Foreign Fellow of the US National Academy of Science in 2005, becoming only the eighth Indian scientist in over 140 years to have been so honoured. He was the first scientist from Asia to have won the Star of Asia Award presented by former US president George Bush. Over 25 universities including those of London, Salford, Pretoria, Wisconsin and Delhi have honoured him with honorary doctorates. Post retirement, Mashelkar is slated to become president of Global Research Alliance, formed by nine CSIR-like institutions from Asia-Pacific, Europe and the US, comprising over 60,000 scientists and engineers. The organisation has a $6 billion budget. ------------ Comments by Subbiah Arunachalam Among other honours Dr Mashelkar received is the Foreign Associateship of the National Academy of Engineering, USA. He is the only Indian to have been elected to both the National Academy of Sciences, USA, and the National Academy of Engineering, USA. In an illustrious career, which is truly one of 'from a log cabin to the dizzy heights of science administration', Dr Mashelkar missed a great opportunity - to bring about the culture of open access to all CSIR labs and to all of Indian science. It was well within his reach and he could have done it without much effort. Let us hope his successor, Dr V Prakash, gives top priority to this one unfinished task of Dr Mashelkar. Incidentally, open access to published journal literatures makes it possible for anyone, anywhere with an Internet connection to access, download and use the full text of research papers without any barrier. Open access can improve the visibility and utilization of research published by Indian scientists. The Indian Institute of Science, thanks to the vision and leadership of Prof. N Balakrishnan, was the first Indian research institution to set up an interoperable institutional open access archive and now it has more than 5,000 papers by the Institute's faculty and students. Only three CSIR labs, viz. National Chemical laboratory, Natioanl Aerospace Laboratory and national Institute of Oceanography, have such institutional archives. Subbiah Arunachalam Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com