v4 i4 innovation special

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T E L E C O M S N E W D E A L

ENOUGHABOUT

CUTTING-EDGE SCIENCE IS COMING BACK TO INDIA

18 INDIAN SCIENTISTS WHO ARE CHANGING THE WORLD

INDIA

PRICE RS. 100. MARCH 2, 2012

ARYABHATA!

INSIDE

Plus


2/23

Leading the world in science

5

L e t t e r F r o m T h e E d i t o r

March 2, 2012 | FORBES INDIA

Iwasnt the science teachers pet

in school. And I cant confess I

know too many scientists either.

Yet, over time, Ive come to appreciate

the role of science in our society. And

I have often wondered why India

produces so many brilliant minds in

the world of scienceeach of whom

leave their impact on our world, but

choose to work out of laboratories

many thousands of miles away.

I hear the all-too-familiar reasons.That our scientists are prone to writing

academic papers, but cant apply their

knowledge to solving real-life problems.

Our research institutions dont have a

culture that rewards the discovery of new

ideas. Our innovation system is broken.

So, even the few ideas that do come

through dont end up getting funded. And

whats more, our business people dont

see the value of research. Theyd rather

rely on that much-abused term:Jugaad.

So how is it that countries like

China, Singapore, Korea and Israel

have almost a decades lead over us in

research-based innovation? Amidst

all the hoopla about the India growth

story, this is an area that never quite

gets its place in the sun. Were instead

more involved in debating whether

the Eurozone will collapse. While the

rest of the world was predicting its

demise, guess where the most advanced

original research in science is taking

place? Yes, Europe is all set to lead the

world in science. As my colleague and

Associate Editor Seema Singh tells me,

the European Union upped its research

budgets by a whopping 45 percent to

80 billion till the end of this decade.

Our special package on innovation is

important for one solitary reason: Change

is in the air. India is finally joining therace to build an innovation eco-system

that will do justice to the wealth of talent

it has. Initially, even Seema, who has

been writing on science for more than

a decade now, wasnt quite sure that

the signals she was picking up were for

real. But for the past three months, she

has spent hours talking to researchers,

heads of research institutes, business

folks and policymakers all over the world.

The arduous process of reinventing our

decades-old research and innovation

system has started. Even though Im

pretty excited, Im not about to give

away the story here. I leave it to you to

discover it for yourself on page 63.

And if you care about making India

a leader in science and innovation,

join us on forbesindia.com for more

conversations. Well be waiting for you.

Best,

Indrajit Gupta

Editor,Forbes India

Email: [email protected]

Twitter id: @indrajitgupta

INDIA IS FINALLY

JOINING THE RACE TO

BUILD AN INNOVATION

ECO-SYSTEM THAT

WILL DO JUSTICE

TO THE WEALTH OF

TALENT IT HAS

-------


3/23

March 2, 2012 | FORBES 8 FORBES INDIA | March 2, 2012

INDIA

Vol um e 4 | Issue 5 |March 2, 2012

Contents

14 Letters to the Editor

16 Exit Interview

18 Close Range

20 World Watch

124 Thoughts

REGULARS

38

The iron ore mining in Liberia is going

to be another chapter of growth

- Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal

41

If we dont get it right this time, the next

10 years of telecom will be like the last 10 years

- Sanjeev Aga, former CEO of a telecom company

50

Self-confidence has many facets

- Ashok Soota, former chairman, MindTree

GLOBAL GAME

36 A Beautiful Mine?

Sesa Goas acquisition of the Liberian

mines could make it a top global player

SPECIAL REPORT

40 A New Deal

The government has an opportunity

to restart the telecom sector. Will it

come through?

ZEN GARDEN

48 As the Paths Diverge

Former chairman of MindTree Ashok

Soota talks about self-awareness andmoving on

CROSS BORDER

52 Why Ford Should Worry

The company may have avoided

bankruptcy, but they are not out

of the woods yet

56 SAP Gets a Pit Bull

SuccessFactors Lars Dalgaard is going

to provide the German giant the voice

it needs

60 The Cure for Road Rage

Driving on the streets of Los Angeles has

never been better, thanks to its one of a

kind connected tra ffi c network

64 Comeback Science

India is ready for a renaissance

in innovation

90 To Reinvent the Wheels

Tata Motors is focussing on R&D

to transform into a global company

93 A Few Good Men

A Bangalore-based scientific

institute is leading the way in

innovation

96 How to Upgrade a Countrys

Technology

Yigal Erlich, the founding father

of Israels R&D ecosystem, talks

about his countrys experience

in fast-tracking innovation

FEATURES

indiatodayimages.com

VikasKhot

MallikarjunKatakolfo

rForbesIndia

SameerPawar

66

The wheels have been set in motion to win back some of the finest

minds of Indian origin to align forces with their country of origin

The 18 Great Minds Who Are Doing Cutting-Edge Work

Sangeeta Bhatia

Health Sciences

Prashant Kumta

Medicine& Energy

Ajit Lalvani

Tuberculosis Research

V. Ramanathan

ClimateChange

Rakesh K. Jain

CancerResearch

Vivek Sharma

Sub-AtomicParticles

Vamsi Mootha

MedicineResearch

Ajay V. Bhatt

USBDevices

Chaitan Khosla

ChemicalEngineering

Anil K. Jain

ComputerScience

Aravinda Chakravarti

ComputationalBiologist

Krishna Palem

Nanoelectronics

Rajiv Doshi

Sleep ApneaTherapy

Chennupati Jagadish

OptoelectronicDevices

Rakesh Agrawal

ChemicalEngineering

74 On a Power Trip

Prof. Baligas

invention saves

power and reduces

pollution

78 A Man of Steel

Harry Bhadeshias

passion has helped

him make new

alloys of steel

70 Mys teries of the

Human Brain

Mriganka Sur

is revealing the

secrets of the brain


4/23

I N S I D E

Government policy, academia,research institutions andthe industry are all comingtogether to create an eco-system for cutting-edgescientific research in India

ComebackScience/PG 6418 of the finestIndian minds/ PG70(includingMriganka Sur,Jayant Baliga and

Harry Bhadeshia)

How WeSelected/ PG82

Tata Motors:To Reinvent theWheels/PG90

NCBS, Bangalore:A Few GoodMen/ PG93

Yigal Erlich:Lessons fromIsrael/ PG96


5/23


TEMPLE OF LEARNING Ruins of Nalanda, one of

the first great universities in recorded history. India

is now pushing ahead with a range of new policies

to bring back its brains trust in the West and to

stimulate a renaissance in the innovation eco-system

ComebackSCIENCEThere is enough evidence on the ground to indicate that th

innovation eco-system has vastly improved in the country.

India is ready for a renaissance in innovation

BySEEMA SINGH

Acouple of weeks ago, some

of us got into an interesting

conversation with Howard

Gardner, who was on a visit to

India to deliver a series of lectures. He

is widely regarded as one of the most

influential psychologists in the world

today. Author of 25 books that have

been translated into 28 languages and

best known for his theory of multiple

intelligences, in 1995, he mounted

a study that lasted until 2006 and

involved 1,000 American journalists

and geneticists. The question he was

seeking to answer was an intriguing

one. Why are journalists an unhappy

lot while geneticists a happy bunch?

The answer was interesting.

Journalists, he concluded, were

idealistic individuals who got into

the profession and hoped their work

would change the world. Once theywere in though, they figured, the

business was run by people whose

interests were focussed almost

entirely on the bottom line. The

real world was out of sync with

everything they had imagined it to be.

Geneticists, on the other hand,

as much idealists as journalists are,

had everything going for them. The

Human Genome Project was the Holy

Grail that needed to be cracked. Th

geneticists therefore had to focus on

nothing but their work; the Americ

government was solidly backing

every gamble the geneticists wante

to take; venture capital funding was

chasing them in droves because

they knew as well the Holy Grail

needed to be cracked, and the only

way it could be was by supporting

the best minds America had. And if

need be, do what it takes to get the

best talent from across the world.

Eventually, the project was

completed in 2003 and the euphori

lasted a while. Over time though, it

started to diminish and, much like i

journalism, conflicts began to erup

between the various stakeholders. T

geneticists idealism now finds itsel

at odds with an eco-system starved

for funds and hell bent on maximisprofits. As Gardner wryly says, It i

diffi cult to do good wo rk that is bot

technically excellent and carried ou

in an ethical way when a market is

down. To that extent, it wouldnt b

way off the mark to argue the golde

age of American science is waning.

Of course, as Gardner quickly adds,

All misalignments are temporary.

But in one mans misery, even if it b


6/23


temporary, lies another mans fortune.

Which is why, policy makers in

India, which for decades has exported

its finest minds to countries like

the US, are wringing their hands

with delight. By all accounts, the

wheels have been set in motion to

win back some of the finest minds

of Indian origin to align forces

with their country of origin

either by coming back home, or

by helping set up the framework

that will stimulate a renaissance.

To get a sense of the minds now

being wooed by the government and

businesses in India, starting Page 70,weve put together a list of 18 scientists

of Indian origin whove had enormous

impact on the disciplines they operate

in. It includes areas as diverse as

nano particles to treat cancer, global

warming, landmark discoveries on

diseases until now thought of as

untreatable, biometrics and pattern

recognition, regenerative medicine,

and technologies we now consider

ubiquitous like the humble USB port.

BITS TO TORRENTS

G. Rangarajan is already preparing for

his visit to Stanford three months from

now. A professor of mathematics at

the Indian Institute of Science, he will

descend on the universitys campus

as part of a delegation of directors

from some of the leading institutes

that include the IITs, the National

Institute of Technology and the

Indian Statistical Institute. This crack

team intends to address an audience

of academics, mostly of Indian

origin, and urge them to consider

a career in research back home.

Rangarajan, who is coordinating the

visit, has a deck of slides ready, which

offer a graphic picture of academic

life in India. It even gets down to

brass tacks like salary structures,

what pay hikes to expect, consulting

opportunities available, startup grants

on offer and even domestic helpa

carrot unavailable in the West.

We have an acute shortage of these

professionals, especially in computer

science. So we decided on these

road shows to spread the word that

life here isnt bad, says Rangarajan.

To buttress his case, he argues that

adjusted for purchasing power parity,

a full professors salary in the US at

$12,500, is on par with the $2,900 on

offer in India. This isnt the first time

government-backed institutes have

been on such a man hunt. Two years

ago, a similar exercise was conducted

at Brown University in the US and a

handful of researchers bit the bait.

The department of science and

technology stepped up its initiative

last November. T. Ramasami,

the secretary who looks after the

department, was able to collect at

least 330-odd resumes from leading

universities in the US. I have sent

the CVs to various institutions for

consideration. In the 12th Plan,

my department will give a start

up research grant of Rs. 50 lakh

each to 1,000 people who return to

India. This will be over the salaryor research facilities that the hiring

institution provides, he says.

Last year, M.K. Bhan, a senior

bureaucrat in the department of

bio-technology, was able to attract

300 researchers back to India.

All put together, over the last

three to four years, hes managed

to attract 800 people back to

various Indian institutions.

But getting the brightest talent is

just one way to catalyse innovation.

It wont work until the rest of the

eco-system is geared to support the

influx. Countries like Korea, China,

Singapore and Malaysia figured that

more than 10 years ago and are now

beginning to reap the dividends.

That explains why on January 3

this year, Prime Minister Manmohan

T H E W H E E L S H A V E B E E N

S E T I N M O T I O N T O W I NB A C K S O M E O F T H E F I N E S T

M I N D S O F I N D I A N O R I G I N

Singh announced that by the end of

the 12th Plan in 2017, India would

more than double its annual research

and development (R&D) budget

from $3 billion in 2011 to $8 billion,

or 2 percent of the gross domestic

product (GDP)a measure of the total

value of all the goods and services

produced in a country annually. It

now stands less than 1 percent as

opposed to Chinas 1.6 percent.

But this is only the first step.

Research can convert money

into knowledge, points out R.A.

Mashelkar, former director at CSIR

and now president of the GlobalResearch Alliance. But you need

innovation to convert knowledge into

money, he says. And this, he says, is

where India has f altered historically.

In the post World War II era,

no other nation could innovate as

well as America. It put into place a

great system of universities, enabled

intellectual property rights, and

promoted commercialisation. The

US is probably the only example

of government-funded research

that becomes a company or even

an industry that creates wealth and

jobs, points out Pradeep Khosla,

dean of engineering at Carnegie

Mellon University. Understandably,

many nations have tried to emulate

it, but havent quite made the mark.

The financial meltdown in 2008

changed much of that. Since then, the

famed American model has begun to

develop cracks. Budgets have shrunk;

the focus of research has narrowed,and policy makers now want more

bang out of every buck spent. It is a

view supported by A. Raghuram, head,

department of mathematics at the

Indian Institute of Science Education

and Research (IISER), Pune. After 10

years at Oklahoma State University, he

moved to IISER in December. What

swung the decision for Raghuram:

An overall change in the scientific

community and the possibility of

making a fundamental difference.

Sensing the opportunity, the

Indian government is pushing ahead

with a range of new policies aimed

at not just attracting its brains trust

in the Westbut also filling voids

in the innovation infrastructure.

Taking a leaf out of the Singapore

experience, in the 12th Plan,

Ramasamy proposes to create 1,000

doctoral and 250 post-doctoral

fellowships in foreign universities,

where his department provides

monetary support to Indian candidates

selected by universities such as MIT,

Caltech, Stanford and others. The

hypothesis: Many of them will come

back after their doctoral studies.

Bold ideas that require long

gestation periods will alsoget government funding. The

evidence is on the ground:

In 2010, the department of

science and technology became

a lead investor in the Nasscom-

promoted India Innovation Fund.

In November last year, the Cabinet

approved the Biotechnology Industry

Research Assistance Council,

which will fund science-based

ideas from its 12th Plan budget.

The National Policy on

Electronics, 2011, now in its final

stages of approval, will have an

Electronics Innovation Fund.

In early February, the governmen

approved Preferential Market

Access in public procurement for

locally developed and designed

products, a policy that Israel has

effectively used to build its high-te

industry. (See story on page 96)

A group under the Planning

Commission is evaluating attractive

exit options for investors who

fund risky, innovative ventures

something that doesnt exist today.

But problems exist.

GROUND REALITIES

After a bold biomedical sciencesinitiative in 2000, Singapore decide

to attract 1,000 Singaporeans in 10

years. Today, half of 2,500 research

of the Agency for Science, Technol

and Research (A*Star), the lead

agency fostering scientific research

and talent creation, come from

60 countries. These investments

have brought substantial returns

for Singapore. Between 2000 and

One programme of DBT whichfunds risky ideas from the privatesector shows that it has motivatedcompanies to innovate. In threeyears of its existence (December08 to July 11) it supported 82 proj-ects, at a cost of Rs 570 crore, ofwhich 65% (370 crore) came f romthe private sector, 35% (Rs 200crore) came from the government

THE BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRYPARTNERSHIP PROGRAMME (BIPP)

Rs570croreTOTAL APPROVED COST

COMPANYCONTRIBUTION

BIPPCONTRIBUTION

Rs134croreAS LOAN

Rs66croreAS GRANT

Rs370crore

Rs200crore

65%

35%

67%

33%

WHERE US FIRMS PLAN TO EXPAND R&D OPERATIONS(in %)

11OTHER AS

24NORTH AMERICA

30CHINA

24INDIA

6JAPAN

16EUROPE

10EASTERN EUROPE

22REST OF THE W

Source:Battelle,R&D MagazineSurvey


7/23

68 FORBES INDIA | March 2, 2012

2010, biomedical manufacturing

output has almost quadrupled and

now accounts for about 8.6 percent

of our manufacturing output says

A*STAR Chairman Lim Poh Chuan.

In 2006, when China announced

its 15-year plan to make science and

technology the backbone of future

economic growth, it first introduced

sweeping reforms to its educational

institutions. The message was clear:

Dont follow the leader. Innovate.

But, laments DBT secretary Bhan,

Indias institutional leadership

doesnt push for excellence. Our

institutions train PhDs for faculty

positions, not for innovation. To start

with, he now has the approval of the

Planning Commission to build full-

fledged centres that will operate inter

disciplinary centres. Until now, only

programmes have existed like theones between the All India Institute

of Medical Sciences and IIT Delhi

to develop new medical devices.

Fact of the matter is, older

institutions may find it tough to

adapt to this new scheme of things.

Ramasamy admits institutional

mechanisms need to change. But he

doesnt approve of radical reforms,

least of all the Chinese-way. China is

north of Himalayas and India is south

of Himalayas. We have a difference

in polarity: They prioritise economic

freedom over political freedom.

We prioritise political freedom

over economic freedom, he says.

Be that as it may, in the short term,

indecision and delays are hurting

the cause. Its the lack of speed in

implementing policies that is hurting

India says Mashelkar. He cites the

example of the all-composite trainer

aircraft from National Aerospace

Laboratories (NAL), which firsttook to the skies in May 1998. But

it was only 13 years after Mahindra

& Mahindra (M&M) got into a

joint venture with NAL that the

venture was commercialised.

But that isnt to say business

has played its role to the hilt. Until

now, very few Indian companies,

other than those in pharmaceuticals

and automotive, have focussed on

research-based innovation. We

are not focussing enough on this

as India Inc. We are happy with

the CAD/CAM work at $9 an hour,

compared to $30 that people have

to pay elsewhere in the world,

says Pawan Goenka of M&M.

Many dont have internal

capabilities and some others dont

show the willingness to spend on

R&D; they believe it should come

free, says Battelle India head

Shalendra Porwal. A contract

research agency, Battelle India is

recognised by the Department of

Scientific and Industrial Research.In December 2010, Ratan Tata,

who presides over the IISc Court, the

topmost decision-making body at the

institute, said it is not doing enough

research of greater global relevance.

If I look back on what I have been

trying to say in a very polite and in a

very careful manner, it has been my

perception that this institute, which

is a great institute....has not perhaps

changed as much as one would like to

see. ...I have mentioned that we should

perhaps be looking at greater change,

research of greater global relevance

and I have used my words carefully,

Tata reportedly told the Court.

CHANGING TIMES

A big fan of research-driven

innovation, veteran venture

capitalist Vinod Khosla, who has

made a living hunting for radical

ideas that he can then fund and

build businesses out of, suggestsgetting top notch talent to either

start projects or mentor people. If

you set up centres of excellence and

put thought leadership in research,

great product ideas will flow from

it. China has done that fairly well.

Many critical areas that need

research over the next 20 years dont

need extraordinary infrastructure

he says. What you need is culture

DST has been running an India InnovationGrowth Programme (IIGP) with LockheedMartin and IC2 institute, Texas University,and FICCI for five years. This year theygot Datamonitor to evaluate the economicimpact of IIGP which has funded 60innovative technologies from a widerange aeronautics to biotechnologyto electronics to petrochemicals.The cumulative revenue generation (bythese 60 funded entities) from 2007 to2011 is estimated to be Rs. 490 crore

IIGP 2007-2011:

AWARDED TECHNOLOGIESBY ORGANISATION TYPE

GovernmentLaboratory

Pre Start-up

Institutions andUniversities

Start-up

Existing Small toMedium Enterprises

8%

8%

14%

31%

39%

March 2, 2012 | FORBES

and role models. Once people are

there, things will happen. Attracting

world class researchers will attract

business and investors, he says.

The good news is there is consensus

among decision makers around this

thought. New institutions coming up,

and some of the old ones as well, are

looking at good scientists, regardless

of their areas of expertise. This is in

contrast to the US, which today has

specific requirements, says Collins

Assisi, a neuroscientist at the Salk

Institute in La Jolla, California.

Assisi, who has decided to relocate

to India, has interviewed at a fewplaces, including IISER Pune. I really

liked their commitment to teaching,

he says. Its clear they are not just

coaching students to be scientists,

but to apply their work to life and

go into government, management

or industry. Thats a refreshing

change from what you see in typical

graduate teaching in the US or older

Indian institutions, he adds.

Rahul Siddharthan, a

computational biologist at the

Institute of Mathematical Sciences

in Chennai, reckons India ought not

to restrict itself only to people of

Indian origin. The economic climate

has many foreigners, particularly the

Europeans, interested in India today.

The recent relaxation of rules on work

visas by P. Chidambaram (for people

earning more than $25,000/year)

should be used to get good talent.

The thought gains currency when

you factor in that copy-the-Westused to be the norm in earlier days.

But in a globalised world where

everybody knows what the other

one is doing, youre better placed

as an innovator than a copier, says

Supratim Guha, the director of

physical sciences at IBMs Thomas J.

Watson Research Centre in New York.

It is a lesson inStem, at NCBS

has taken to heart. Since the science

of stem cells is far from definitive,

along with applied work in cardiac

hypertrophy and cancer, inStem ha

taken a new approach to study basi

biology. It is developing Hydra and

Plenarium as model systems to stud

biology. This is something youd

never be able to do in the West toda

[because the disease relevance is no

apparent today, but will be only in 1

15 years], says dean S. Ramaswam

Removed from the world

of academia, state-run power

equipment maker BHEL increased

R&D investment 21 percent last

year. Private companies like L&Tare upping the ante on application

development. M&M has moved

1,200 people to its research centre

in Chennai and the number will

increase to 2,000 this year. Most of

its new products are being designe

in-house. Much the same can be sa

of Tata Motors (See story on pg 90).

A lot of development work is

happening, says V. Sumantran,

executive vice-chairman of Ashok

Leyland and a former member

of the PMs Scientific Advisory

Council. Research is limited to

small pockets. But a lot of multi-

national companies are beginning

to tap into them, he says.

But in the end, from a holistic

prism, quite clearly, there is enough

evidence to indicate that all the

trustees needed to kick start the

innovation eco-system in Indiaas

Gardner would sayare aligned.

The government seems to begetting its act together; businesses

where the money lies to fund

these projects seem keen; and

most importantly, the brains that

can power these projects are

buying into the promise as the

following pages will demonstrate.

It would only be fair to assume

therefore the golden age of Indian

innovation has just about begun.

AMERICAS

ASIA

EUROPE

CHINA

US

JAPAN

INDIA

REST OF WORLD

SHARE OF TOTAL GLOBALR&D SPENDING

37.8

2010

2011

2012

32.8

36.9

32

36

31.1

34.3

11.8

12

24.8

2.6

3

2.8

3.1

2.9

3.2

35.5

11.4

13.1

24.5

36.7

11.2

14.2

24.1

(in %)

Source:Battelle,R&D MagazineSurvey


8/23

JustinKnightforForbesIndia


Mysteries of theHUMANBRAIN

Neuroscientist Mriganka Sur is deepening ourunderstanding of how the brain works and the

mis-wiring that causes mental disease

How is the brain wired? How

does it code and decode

information? What causes

developmental disorders like

autism and diseases like Alzheimers?

These are the questions that have

occupied neuroscientist Mriganka

Sur over the past 30 years.

By studying the connections

in the brainand by making

connections in the lab through an

interdisciplinary approachhe

has transformed not only his own

work, but neuroscience as well.

It was in the late 80s that Sur

rose to fame when he rewired

the brain of a small animal, a

ferret, at Yale University.

In that experiment he showed,

for the first time, that the brain is

plastic. He demonstrated how

the brain changes in response to

the external environment even

as it continues to develop.

That result was stunning; it

beautifully combined physiology

and behaviour and demonstrated

his outstanding ability to hit

the big questions without any

fear, says K. Vijayraghavan,

director of the National Centre

for Biological Sciences, who was

Surs junior at IIT Kanpur.

After finishing at IIT, Sur

moved to MIT; he wanted to

combine technology and science.

At MIT, he ensured that other labs

got interested in pursuing this goal.

The result, in the 1990s, was

the development of extensive

toolkits that allowed researchers

to image the brain at its

barest: A single neuron.

In the following decade, Sur and

his team went on to resolve this

further with even higher resolution

imaging. They could now see a

single neuron and all its processes,

even at the level of a single synapse,

in the living, intact brain.

Now hes shedding light on what

happens if the brain gets mis-

wired. The holistic understanding

of plasticity has allowed Sur to

BySEEMA SINGH

H E D E V E L O P E D E X T E N S I V ET O O L K I T S T H A T A L L O W E DR E S E A R C H E R S T O I M A G ET H E B R A I N A T I T S B A R E S T :A S I N G L E N E U R O N . T H E YC O U L D N O W S E E A S I N G L EN E U R O N A N D A L L I T SP R O C E S S E S , E V E N A TT H E L E V E L O F A S I N G L ES Y N A P S E , I N T H E L I V I N G ,I N T A C T B R A I N


9/23


bring a magnificent shift in how

people study mental disorders.

In 2009, he shot into fame

again when he showed that its the

immaturity of brain circuitry that

causes Rett Syndrome, a subset

of autism. A disease that is on

the rise, autism ranges from mild

communication diffi culties to

severe conditions, even mental

retardation, and affects about one

in 150 children anywhere in

the world.

Sur represents a new class

of molecular neuroscientists

who, equipped with a powerful

understanding of the brain, arenow applying that knowledge to

diseases, says Sumantra Chattarji, a

neuroscientist at NCBS, who studies

Fragile X, a subset of autism.

Its strange that pharma companies

never studied plasticity at its most

basic. The result has been several

failed trials and no breakthroughs

in diseases like schizophrenia, bi-

polar disorder and Alzheimers.

If you now look at what these

companies are doing, they are

hiring some of the people in theforefront of plasticity, be it Roche

or Pfizer, says Chattarji.

Lest we start reading too much

into this, Sur is quick to add that

brain disorders, developmental

disorders in particular, are complex;

more so because children cannot

be administered new drugs. His

goal is to try existing drugs.

Will the problem be solved

anytime soon? He doesnt think so.

Will we make progress? You bet.

We already have begun to,

given that there was nothing

available until now, says Sur.

He is helping a group at the All

India Institute of Medical Sciences

in New Delhi to start a similar

study in India where no data exists

on the incidence of autism.

In January, Sur stepped down

as head of the department of brain

and cognitive sciences at MIT to

lead a new Simons Center for

Social Brain at MIT thatbecame possible with a $26

million grant in December.

We think that just as the brain

has modules for vision, audition

and actionwhich function

seamlesslythere is a social

module, one that mediates

different components of social

interactions. Understanding

what it is and how autism makes

it go wrong is a very big frontier

of neuroscience, says Sur.

Sur has always sought new

frontiers, even as a school boy. In

Class XI at St. Josephs High

School in Allahabad, when

every student had to choose

either the math or the biology

stream, he decided to do bothhe

was the only student in

the school to do so.

Later, at IIT Kanpur, he studied

electrical engineering as there

wasnt any life science course. But

when he was doing his Ph.D at theUniversity of Vanderbilt, in Nashville,

Tennessee, he made sure he did his

thesis research with somebody who

studied the brain. The American

system allows you to do that, he says.

The ethos of interdisciplinary

work that he picked up at Vanderbilt

has been carried forward through

his discovery-filled career. His

philosophy: All interdisciplinary

work first begins in the mind.

Its possible to work in

different subjects and link them

all in the brain, says Sur.

That belief, he says, was inculcated

in him in childhood, particularly

by his mathematician grandfather,

who worked in the education

department in Allahabad.

Over 30 years of active research,

Sur has made several discoveries

that link engineering, computation,

imaging, molecular biology, genetics

and a host of other disciplines.

For example, the first computerthat he programmed was a PDP-

8 with 8 kilobytes of memory at

Vanderbilt, for lab work. I was

the only one around who could

analyse the data using principles

of engineering, he recalls.

More than 30 years ago, Sur

refused a job in India, the only one

offered then, by the Tata Institute of

Fundamental Research. But in the

last 15 years, he has been associated

with Indian science and institutions

in ways that sometimes surprise him.

His association deepened in

the 90s when the government

wanted to set up the National Brain

Research Center (NBRC) in Haryana.

The relationship was formalised

in 2010 when the department of

biotechnology (DBT) offered him

distinguished professorship at

NBRC, an institution he is keen to

handhold to international standards.

Sur is one of those classy Indian

scientists who are thriving in the US,but want to deeply engage with India

now, says M.K. Bhan, secretary, DBT.

Given his involvement in

various Indian institutions, and

his passion for active research at

MIT, the pull of India could get

overwhelming. Its fun. You never

stop being Indian, he says.

J U S T A S T H E B R A I N H A SM O D U L E S F O R V I S I O N ,A U D I T I O N A N D A C T I O N W H I C H F U N C T I O NS E A M L E S S L Y T H E R E I SA S O C I A L M O D U L E , O N ET H A T M E D I A T E S D I F F E R E N TC O M P O N E N T S O F S O C I A LI N T E R A C T I O N S


10/23

Photographs:GerryBroome/APPhotoforForbesIn

dia


On a

POWER TRIPWhile working at GE, Prof. Baliga invented a device that reduceselectricity consumption, saving consumers money and reducing pollution

A

s a child, everyone has a favourite

boast about their daddy. But

few would have a story tomatch Prof. Jayant Baligas.

The first TV broadcast into a home

in India occurred in my house. In

true tradition of a man of science

this isnt an empty boast. It really

did happen. My father, B.V. Baliga,

was chief engineer of All India Radio

after Independence. There was an

exhibition in Delhi in the 1950s where

they were using the All India Radios

setup of a c amera and a transmitter

to show a TV telecast within the

exhibition premises. My father wanted

to test if the signal could be received at

a farther distance. He had a television

set installed at his house at Teen Murti

Marg. It caused quite a sensation

in the neighbourhood, says Baliga.

B.V. Baliga went on to head Bharat

Electronics Limited, the heavyweight

electronics public sector undertaking.

One might have expected Jayant

to go firmly towards the future then:

Computers. Instead, he inventedsomething that joined two sister

disciplines: Electronics engineering

and electrical engineering. That

device was the IGBT (Insulated

Gate Bipolar Transistor), a switch

just like the ones in any house. It

is just that the one Baliga invented

is super-small, can switch on and

off 100,000 times a second and

handle really high voltage power.

Baligas invention has resulted in

cost savings of over $15 trillion for

consumers. Because of the IGBT theworld has not had to build at least

600 hydroelectric dams of the size

[of the] Hoover Dam! says Baliga.

Today, his invention is forming the

basis of the emerging smart grid.

These electrical supply networks

of the future will replaces large and

less effi cient compon ents with small,

cheap and effi cient semico nductor

equivalent. One emerging device

that is holding out great hope is

the transformer-on-a-chip. All of

us have seen the large distribution

transformers in our neighbourhood.Imagine that being replaced by

something that is many times smaller!

It was the late 1970s and Baliga

was heading a team of 40 scientists

that was working on power

semiconductor devices and high

voltage integrated circuits at General

Electrics Research and Development

Center in Schenectady, New York.

By then, the transistorthe device

that makes computers possibleha

been discovered and commercialise

Since Baliga was at GE, he focussedon a complementary area. He tried

develop a semiconductor device tha

could control equipment like comp

fluorescent lights, airconditioners

and electrical motors. Essentially,

the heavy duty stuff. All these

applications need power electronic

circui ts that operate at high effi cien

continuously. This reduces heat

dissipation, which reduces the size

and cost of the electronics. This als

reduces electricity consumption,

saving consumers money and

reducing environmental pollution.

At that time, companies like GE

and Westinghouse were developing

their bipolar transistors for high-

power devices, while another group

led by Siliconix and International

Rectifier was developing another

type of transistor called the power

MOSFET. The feeling in the indust

was that the two technologies were

incompatible because of differentmanufacturing practices and end

customers. It was Baliga who thoug

of combining the physics of the two

There was a vice-president in GE

who was developing a heat-pump

for air-conditioning applications.

He was frustrated that the exiting

transistors were failing and that the

circuit needed to drive the motor

pump was too big, expensive, and v

BySHISHIR PRASAD

B E C A U S E O F T H E I G B T[ I N S U L A T E D G A T E B I P O L A RT R A N S I S T O R ] T H E W O R L DH A S N O T H A D T O B U I L D A TL E A S T 6 0 0 H Y D R O E L E C T R I CD A M S O F T H E S I Z E [ O F T H E ]H O O V E R D A M !


11/23


cumbersome to assemble, says Baliga,

who had already been working for

five years in this area. He rose to the

challenge and created a mechanism by

which the power surges did not blow

out the transistor he had developed.It is a research that requires

not only knowledge and creativity,

but also perseverance. Jay [Baliga]

exhibited all of these attributes.

With his detailed knowledge of

silicon fabrication methods and

these transistor devices, he invented

the IGBT, says Jim Bray, chief

scientist, Electrical Technologies

and Systems, GE Global Research.

The device was considered

such a breakthrough for GE that

Baliga personally briefed Jack

Welch. It wasnt a very usualpractice for a scientist to brief the

chairman. He came down from

Connecticut to Schenectady, says

Baliga. Welch decided that the

discovery should be kept a secret.

I wanted to publish about the

invention, but that was embargoed

for several years. But GE also

rewarded me by making me a

Coolidge fellow, the youngest ever

in the history of GE, says Baliga.

The extent of Baligas contribution

to the world and the US Economy

was recognised in 2011 when US

President Barack Obama presented

him with the National Medal of

Technology and Innovation. This

is the highest form of recognition

given by the US government to an

engineer. After that, while Baliga

remained in academia, he also

founded three companies between

1999 and 2011 to commercialise

various semiconductor technologies.

Unfortunately, his association

with India, which was fairly high

in the 1980s, has declined. In the

1980s and 1990s, I was visiting India

every two years and would make

the effort to meet with scientists

at universities and government

organisations (BEL, BHEL). During

my biennial visits, I gave lectures

at BEL, BHEL, CEERI-Pilani, IISc-

Bangalore, and IIT-Madras. At the

present time, I am not connected to

any Indian science fraternity, he says.

One issue that has held him back

is perhaps the lack of progress inIndia in semiconductor technology.

And developing this does require a

huge amount of capital investment.

My impression is that it would

be very diffi cult to develop the

types of semiconductor chips that

I work on in India due to lack of

infrastructure, says Baliga.

B A L I G A S C O N T R I B U T I O NT O T H E W O R L D W A S

R E C O G N I S E D I N 2 0 1 1 W H E N

B A R A C K O B A M A P R E S E N T E D

H I M W I T H T H E N A T I O N A L

M E D A L O F T E C H N O L O G Y

A N D I N N O V A T I O N


12/23

JungYeon-Je/AFPP

hotoforForbesIndia


A Man ofSTEEL

Scientist Harry Bhadeshias

passion for steel has helped

him invent some of the best

alloys of the metal

steel for 15 years before clearing it.

For Harry Bhadeshia, who led

the team that along with British

Steel (that eventually became Coru

and later acquired by Tata Steel)

invented the steel, this only reiterat

his belief that the metal has an

unbelievable variety that remains

unseen by the outside world.

This is not the only invention

that has come out of the lab of the

renowned metallurgy scientist and

Tata Steel Professor of Metallurgy

at the University of Cambridge in

his 40-year research career. From

making better steel pipes to transpooil to coming out with a unthinkab

and super strong steel that is now

being tested in defence and aviation

sectors, Bhadeshias research

has invoked serious debates and

produced inventions worth million

of dollars, and much more in impac

Looking back, it only seemed

natural that Bhadeshia would choo

a career in research. Growing up

in Kenya, where he was born to his

Indian parents, one of the fondest

memories for Bhadeshia was a

small laboratory with a chemistry

set, a plastic skeleton, a microscope

a self-assembly radio set and a

variety of electrical items that his

parents had helped to set up.

By the time he finished his

schooling in 1970, the family was

forced to leave Kenya and move to

London. This was when fate, as

Bhadeshias friends term it, came

into play. Keen to contribute to hisfamily, the teenager landed a job

at a metallurgical lab owned by the

British Oxygen Company. In the lab

he got hooked to the excitement a

responsibility that came in testing

tiny samples, whose results were

crucial in building large plants. .

The fascination turned into a

passion when Bhadeshia explored

the world of steel, which was

Every year, 17 million people

use the Channel Tunnel, the

undersea rail network that

connects the United Kingdom

with north of France. Considered

as one of the Seven Wonders of the

modern world, 37.9 km of the 50.5 km-

long tunnel passes under the sea. To

make sure that each and every part of

this sophisticated transport network

is as safe as possible, authorities

recently opted for a new kind of

steel that is used to lay the tracks.

Unlike the earlier version, the

new steel doesnt have any carbide

and is rich in silicon. In other words,

while the new steel is hard and

wear-resistant, it is not brittle like the

earlier steel, making it much safer.

The authorities had tested the new

ByPRINCE MATHEWS THOMAS


13/23


complicated and at the same time

had an unbelievable variety that

remains unseen by the world at large.

Explains Bhadeshia: Every year, 1.3

billion tonnes of steel is produced,

but there is no need for the outside

world to understand itit is a product

made in an extremely sophisticated

and controlled environmentit is so

reliable that no one needs to worry

about it. On the other hand, everyone

needs to worry about the operating

software in their computers as these

are not very well developed products!

In 1979, when Bhadeshia published

his doctorate thesis at Cambridge,

an old, but still simmering debatewas ignited once again. Since the

1930s, the metallurgy community

had been debating on the process

that leads to phase transformation

of steel. Bhadeshia showed that

one of the phases in steel, bainite,

is formed through a process of

diffusionless transformation and

not by diffusional transformation.

Says Bhadeshias former

Cambridge student S.B. Singh,

who is now professor, Department

of Metallurgical and Materials

Engineering at IIT Kharagpur:

His work settled the debate. Sure,

there are still some who wouldthink otherwise, but even my

studies thereafter have vindicated

Professor Bhadeshias thesis.

Immediately after the blockbuster

start to his career, the Fellow of

elite Royal Academy of Engineering

focussed on research at the

intersection of lab and its practical

application in plants. We usually

claim that findings in the lab can

be extrapolated to large-scale

production. But I realised that in

a lab we try to oversimplify the

practical challenges of running a

plantin labs we tend to reduce the

problem and find solutions without

worrying about the original problem.

By collaborating with industry, we

can avoid this, says the scientist.

Not surprisingly, two of

Bhadeshias most influential findings

have come at this intersectionthe

rail steel used in the Channel Tunnel

and superbainite. The second is

Bhadeshias personal favourite.It is the strongest low alloy

steel ever produced and is more

than six times stronger than mild

or conventional steel. It is also the

worlds first bulk nanostructured

material. Superbainite is something

that people couldnt even think of

being possible, says T. Mukherjee,

a metallurgist and former joint

managing director at Tata Steel.

Meanwhile, Bhadeshia continues

to be a teacher and a guide to

research students. His lectures

in Cambridge are popular for

simplifying complicated scientific

theories. At those rare times when

he doesnt know the answer to a

students question, he is honest

enough to admit it and asks for

time before he can get back with

the answer, says Singh. Adds

Bhadeshias Cambridge colleague

Mathew Peet: He always makes

a great contribution and expects/

demands a high level of quality. Thismeans we can produce much better

research by working with Harry.

Outside the lab and the classroom,

Bhadeshia bonds with students by

talking about cinema over a cup of

coffee or tea. More often, he has

everyone in splits with his corny

jokes. When the conversation does

lead to metallurgy, a tech-savvy

Bhadeshia uses his smartphone to

draw pictures to make his point clear.

These talks have also led to useful

innovations. His students in South

Korea made some applications for the

smartphone so it is possible to index

electron diffraction pattern or make

calculation about steel transformation

using the phone these days, says Peet.

Even when in India, Bhadeshia

likes to keep interacting with

students. The affable scientist has

strong links with Tata Steel and has

made a few trips to the steelmakers

facility. At Jamshedpur, even while

Bhadeshia would spend time withcompany offi cials at the plant, he

loved to go to local schools and spend

time with them, says Mukherjee.

Bhadeshia has also had other

collaborations in the country of his

origin. This includes sabbaticals at

IIT Bombay and the Indian Institute

of Science in Bangalore, where he

has held mathematical modelling

workshops. This year, in November,

the scientist will be in attendance

when IIT Kharagpur inaugurates

a new steel research centre. He is

also working on a project at the

institute that is trying to develop

a new steel plate material.

There is a lot of work on steel

that is being done in India, says

Bhadeshia. In February, his lecture on

steel in South Korea will be attended

by scientists from the Atomic Power

Station in Kalpakkam via a video link.

When not sweating it out in his

labs, Bhadeshia likes playing squash.

But this is when he is at home inLondon. Right now the scientist is

in South Korea helping the Pohang

University of Science and Technology

(POSTECH) set up 12 laboratories to

cover all aspects of steel. In everything

that he does, Bhadeshia follows a

simple rule: The goal is simply to

be much higher than the reach.

[ S U P E R B A I N I T E ] I S T H ES T R O N G E S T L O W A L L O YS T E E L E V E R P R O D U C E DA N D I S M O R E T H A N S I XT I M E S S T R O N G E R T H A NC O N V E N T I O N A L S T E E L


14/23


PROFILE:He is chair, chemical engineering; Wells H. Rauserand Harold M. Petiprin Professor in the School of Engineering;Professor of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, and Biochemis-try at Stanford University.

HIS MAIN AREA OF WORK:His research lies at the intersectionof chemistry and medicine. He has been working with geneti-cally modified soil bacteria to develop new medicines (calledpolyketides) to treat cancer, infections, and other diseases.

In 1995, he co-founded biotechnology company KosanBiosciences, which was acquired by drug maker Bristol MyersSquibb in 2008. Later, he founded Alvine Pharmaceuticals,which is developing an oral enzyme drug discovered in hislaboratory for the treatment of celiac spruean autoimmunedisorder, triggered by gluten in cereals, that affects the smallintestines.

Yet another company hes founded, Flamentera AG, isfocussed on developing novel biomarkers for gastrointestinaldiseases.

In September 2011, he and his research team found thathigh volumes of biodiesel can be produced from bacteria whereE. coli can be used as a catalyst. Khosla and his team arecurrently trying to find ways to enhance its cellular controlsto push this further.

HOW HIS RESEARCH CAN BENEFIT INDIA:A decade ago, onein 1,000 of the population were affected by celiac sprue but theoccurrence has increased. Today, one in 310 people in India areaffected by the disease and one in 120-300 of the populationin Europe and North America.

His work in biodiesel is globally significant too. If successful,his work could help propel biodiesel to a commercial marketfrom the niche space it occupies now.

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT HIM:Khosla can tackle huge chal-lenges and makes strong efforts to move forward. With celiacdisease, there was an unmet medical need with no treatmentexcept a lifelong gluten free diet at the time he stepped in. Hehas showed a strong commitment to do something about this,says Ludvig M. Sollid, director, Center for Immune Regulation,Research Council of Norway.

- Nilofer DSouza.

PROFILE:He is head of the Rice-NTU Institute for Sustainableand Applied Infodynamics (ISAI), Singapore.

HIS MAIN AREA OF WORK:His research is focussed on embed-ded computing, including low-energy computing and nanoelec-tronics. Hes pioneered a pruned microchip technology. Aninexact hardware that drastically reduces power demandsof microprocessors by allowing them to make mistakes, it isthe harbinger of the next-generation power-stingy processors.Called probabilistic pruning, this technology makes the inte-grated circuits perform twice as fast, use half as much energy,and occupy half the space of the traditional circuits. This, saysKrishna, is done by cleverly managing the probability of errorsand limiting which calculations produce errors.

While doing this Palem has showed that the energyconsumed by a computation could be traded for its accuracy.For applications such as digital image and video processing orcryptography, such integrated circuits can be designed toproduce results to only the required accuracy, and therefore,the power needed for the computation can be drasticallyreduced.

HOW HIS RESEARCH CAN BENEFIT INDIA:Along with histeam, he is creating a complete prototype chip for a specificapplication, a hearing aid to begin with. He has developed asolar powered iSlate, an electronic notepad, which is currentlybeing tested in schools in Mohd. Hussainpalli village in AndhraPradesh. In its 125th anniversary, IEEE recognised his PCMOS

technology and iSlate as one of the seven world changingtechnologies.

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT HIM:An unwavering theme of hisvision has been to address the principal challenges to sustain-ing the performance and economic benefits of Moores Law.With probabilistic CMOS technology, he has perhaps shownthe most profoundly original approach to tackling the barriersof power consumption and noise immunity in the continuationof the decades-long exponential improvement in the area andspeed of the integrated circuits, known as the Moores Law,says Moshe Y. Vardi, director of the Ken Kennedy Institute forInformation Technology at Rice University.

- S.S.

CHAITANKHOSLA

KRISHNAPALEM

He developed atreatment for celiacsprue, a diseasethat affects many inIndia. His work inbiodiesel is globallysignificant too.

He has deviced anew microchip thatuses less energy;also, his solar-powered notepad,iSlate, is beingtested in India

PROFILE:He is Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professorof Chemical Engineering at Purdue University.

HIS MAIN AREA OF WORK:Imagine being able to print out asolar panel on a flexible substrate; to be able to spray-on alow-cost nanocrystal coating and assemble a thin film solarplant wherever power is needed. If Agrawal has his way, thisdream may well be reality one day. He is working on two typeof nanocrystals: Copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), andCopper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS). His team has managed to rea12.5 percent effi ciency with CIGS, which is prett y close to wyou get with silicon solar cells. CZTS has only 8.4 percenteffi ciency, but utilises earth-abundant materials which willdecrease the cost as effi ciency increases.

He is also looking for an effi cient way to convert biomassto liquid fuel (like diesel) that can be used in transportation(which uses up about half the fossil fuel produced worldwid

HIS APPROACH:Thin-film technologies have made photovoic materials more competitive, but costs need to reduce furthAgrawals aims to bring it below 50 cents/peak watt. US solapanel maker First Solar is currently the lowest cost produceof thin films at 74 cents/peak watt. Agrawals approach is toutilise nanomaterials that can be suspended in appropriatesolvents and then deposited utilising high throughput capabties. He hopes to commercialise the systems when he achieveffi ciencies of about 15 per cent.

HOW HIS RESEARCH CAN BENEFIT INDIA:India is grapplingwith huge energy shortages. If solar cells become cheaper a

more easily available, it can change the dynamics of powerproduction and availability in the country.

WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT HIM:Agrawal has been developing what are called ink based precursors to make the thin fisolar cells of eit her CIGS or CZTS. The highe st effi ciencies rported for CZTSSe (Copper Zinc Tin Sulfo-selenide) has beeabout 10 percent. There appears, at this point, no fundamenreason why it should not be possible to exceed 15 percenteffi ciencies, says Supra tik Guha, director, Physical Scien ceDepartment, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center.

- Cuckoo P

RAKESHAGRAWAL

He is working onefficient and cheapenergy productionfrom renewablesources such assolar and biomass.


SABYASACHI BHATTACHARYAA Distinguished Professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.Innovation is not a magic potion; its a mode

of engaging with t he world. In our country, theeducated are not innovative and the innovativeare not educated. The need for change is widely

felt today. Hopefully, we will finally takeeffective steps instead of hand-wringing alone.

MANO MANOHARANGeneral Manager, GE Global Research Centre, JFWTC, Bangalore.

The quality of all the nominations was

outstanding and it was a tough decision to chooseamongst them. It was a learning experience for

me personally since I went and read up on someof the topics these experts worked in.

AJAY SOODProfessor of Physics, IISc, and president, Indian Academy of Sciences.

Indian researchers are not sensitive to theapplied side of their work. We are moving in

the applied research direction, but its tooslow. We have to move much faster.

How We SELECTEDAs we went about identifying the leading lights in

the field of science and technology, we looked for

a good mix of subjects, geographies, topicality and

the big-picture aspect of their work. We then asked

our panelists to shortlist the three most influential

scientists, whose work has a far-reaching impact.

THE JURY PANEL

CHETAN CHITNISPrincipal Investigator, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and

Biotechnology, New Delhi.

The scientific enterprise is not growing inthe West; its growing in India. But we have to

pick the best people, find ways to attract peoplewhod have got jobs at places like MIT, Berkeley,

or NIH but who still choose to come to India.


15/23


PROFILE:He is founding director, Center for Complex DiseaseGenomics, McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine,Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is alsoprofessor, department of medicine, pediatrics, molecular biol-ogy and genetics, and department of biostatistics, BloombergSchool of Public Health, Johns Hopkins.

HIS MAIN AREA OF WORK:He is one of the architects of theHuman Genome Project, and has been a key participant of theHapMap and 1000 Genomes project. He has provided insightsinto many disorders. In September 2011, in a study involving200,000 people across the world, he showed that there are29 DNA sequence variations in the genome in Asians, Africans,Americans and Europeans, which influence blood pressure.The more ways we use to search for blood pressure genes, thebetter is our understanding of hypertension, he says.

HIS APPROACH:Many groups have rushed to translate thegenomic information to therapies, but he says science comesfirst, therapies later. Yes, I have hopes that we will understanddiseases at a fundamentally better level and then the therapieswill come. People believe that if we focus on translation, thetranslation to medicine will happen. I beg to differ: I think thetranslation will depend on a true understanding of the disease.

HOW HIS RESEARCH CAN BENEFIT INDIA:Since 2000, hesbeen working with the Department of Biotechnology and theCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research. He was instru-

mental in setting up the new National Institute of BiomedicalGenomics in Kalyani, West Bengal, and the Institute ofMolecular Medicine (IMM) in Delhi. The IMM is a private,non-profit research and educational institution focussed onbiomedical research.

WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT HIM:Much of what Aravinda saysis right but some bit of translation is necessary, say 10-15 yearsdown the road. It has been proven in physics and chemistry,and in stem cells in biology. Its true, brute force statisticalapproach to genomic data has not yielded results. An integrat-ed approach is needed and thats what Aravinda is now under-taking, says Samir K. Brahmachari, director general, CSIR.

- S.S.

PROFILE:He is Chair of Infectious Diseases, Imperial CollegeLondon. The most cited TB researcher in the world, he foundedand directs the Tuberculosis Research Unit, a world-leadingmulti-disciplinary research group. The Unit also researchessarcoidosis (a disease that causes inflammation in the lymphnodes, lungs, skin, or other tissues) and pandemic influenza.

HIS MAIN AREA OF WORK:In 2009 Lalwani devised new diag-nostics which use interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA)thefirst major advance over the 100-year-old existing diagnos-tic test for TB. Until then, managing TB involved preventingdisease progression from latent to active TB. Through thenew diagnostics Lalwani showed that people can be protectedagainst infection too. It now forms the basis of new guidelinesfor TB screening and prevention throughout the world.

Last year he published a whole new strategy for TB screen-ing in the UK. We found that if new immigrants from the Indiansubcontinent are included for screening and preventativetreatment for latent TB [rather than excluded as has hithertobeen the case], we could really begin to turn the tide on TBin the UK and decrease the national burden of TB and at t hesame time improve the health and l ives of immigrants fromIndia to UK, he says.

HIS APPROACH:Investigate a broad spectrum of fundamentalquestions in tuberculosis from immunology and microbiologyto epidemiology, public health and policy.

THE INDIA IMPACT:Since India has a high incidence of TB,Lalvani works with Indian institutions like Hinduja Hospital,Mumbai, and Christian Medical College, Vellore. In 2011, hereported the discovery of a radical new TB vaccine target thatcould play a key role in making the most sensitive diagnostictest for TB ever. If incorporated into the IGRA that he invented,it could make that test 100 percent sensitive.

WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT HIM:We are looking at latent TBdetection in this country and well look at protective correlatesof immunity in tuberculosis but its too early to say what theresearch may bring up, says Dr. Camilla Rodrigues, chairper-son, Infection Control Committee, Hinduja Hospital.

- Nilofer DSouza

PROFILE:He is Laureate Fellow and Distinguished Professor,Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, AustralianNational University. He is the winner of several IEEE honours.

HIS MAIN AREA OF WORK:His research group is a leading lightin the area of semiconductor nanowires. In the medical indus-try alone, devices based on nanowires are emerging as a classof ultra-sensitive electrical sensors for detecting chemical andbiological agents of disease.

His current research is on new materials to replace siliconin solar cells, which will eliminate reflection waste. The aver-age solar cell ha s an effi ciency of about 10 to 15 per cent. Thatis, only about 10 percent of the photons of sunlight strikingit are converted into electrons of usable electricity. One ofnew materials he is testing is a class of semiconductor calledIII-Vs. With III-V sol ar cells, you coul d get an effi ciency of over40 percent when the cells are coupled with external opticalconcentrators.

HIS APPROACH:His work is at the intersection of semicon-ductors, optoelectronics, nanotechnology, photovoltaics andmaterials science.

HOW HIS RESEARCH CAN BENEFIT INDIA:Work in Jagadishslab could change the rules of how cells are made throughclever use of nanotechnology and exotic structures in III-Vsemiconductors. India has an ambitious target to generate 20GW from solar energy by 2022. Several national international

research partnerships are being struck towards that goal andJagadishs lab could be one such partner.

WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT HIM:Jagadish combines theinsights of a physicist with the advanced technical abilities ofan applied materials scientist to produce work of exceptionalinterest. The quality of the unique nanostructures that hisgroup grows is remarkableand absolutely crucial to makingprogress in fabricating newly imagined applications includingphotovoltaics or solar cells and ultrasensitive sensors,says Howard E. Jackso, professor of physics, Universityof Cincinnati.

- S.S.

PROFILE:He is professor, department of physics, UniversityCalifornia, San Diego. He is a prominent name in the hunt foHiggs boson, a hypothetical elementary particle that is thougto give all matter mass. Experiments to find out whether or nthe Higgs boson exists are currently being performed using tLarge Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, in Geneva.

HIS MAIN AREA OF WORK:He is now leading a team at CMS(Compact Muon Solenoid) detector at CERN that is l ooking fthe Higgs boson, the last missing piece in the prevailing theoof the universes tiniest building blocks. To understand theorigin of mass, it is important to first find the Higgs boson, saSharma. Scientists at CERN have narrowed down the range masses the Higgs could have.

HIS APPROACH:Assuming we do discover it next year, thereis a comprehensive plan of work already in place to measureits properties and pattern of its interaction with different typof sub-atomic particles. This will take about five years or soto complete, he says. If instead we manage to rule out theexistence of the Higgs boson, then physics will be in chaos jas it was at the turn of the 20th century [brave new theorieslike quantum mechanics and relativity were born from thatchaos]. So, in the no-Higgs scenario, there will be a lot of wto figure out the source of mass that we see in the universe.

THE INDIA IMPACT:High energy physicists from India havebeen participating in experiments at CERN and have contrib

ed in building CMS, by way of hardware, sofware and analysCMS success in high energy physics will shape Indias futurambitions in experimental observations about the universe.

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT HIM:Vivek is an excellent physiciand that is evident from his work, but what is equally importis his ability as a co-ordinator. Analysing data collected by thCMS experiments is an extremely complicated task requiringfrontline leadership. He has provided that eminently. Under hleadership, CMS has been able to finish analysing almost allthe data collected till date using eight to ten different methoof setting limits on the Higgs mass, says Sudeshna BanerjeCMS collaborator from TIFR.

-

ARAVINDACHAKRAVARTI

AJITLALVANI

CHENNUPATIJAGADISH

VIVEKSHARMA

A geneticist, hehas has providedinsights into manydiseases, includinghypertension,which afflicts manypeople in India

His workcould makesolar cells farmore efficientthroughclever use ofnanotechnology

Hes working onTB prevention, incollaboration withIndian institutes.Hes reported aradical new TBvaccine

Hes a leading namein the hunt forthe Higgs boson,which will helpus understandthe origin of theuniverse



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PROFILE:She is professor of health sciences and technology,professor of electrical engineering and computer science, anddirector of Laboratory for Multiscale Regenerative Technolo-gies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

HER MAIN AREA OF WORK:She uses the tools of engineering,medicine and biology to understand and treat diseases. Herresearch is focussed on the applications of micro- and nano-technology to tissue repair and regeneration. As an engineerlooking at cancer, she reported in 2011 that nanoparticles canbe used to increase th e effi cacy of chemothera py drugs intumours, and also help reduce the side effects.

HER APPROACH:Bhatia has built unique human microliversby borrowing techniques from semiconductor manufacturingfor better predicting the safety of drugs in humans. That ledher to co-found Hepregen Corp which is supported by TheDeshpande Center at MIT. The plaform has now been used byover 20 drug companies, leading to redesigning of clinical trialsof new drugs.

HOW HER RESEARCH CAN BENEFIT INDIA:Cancer is spread-ing at an alarming rate and soon 70 percent of the new caseswill come from developing countries like India. She is also usingher technology to develop a plaform for drug screening againsta form of malaria, which hibernates in the liver and has beenpart of the problem in malaria eradication efforts in the past.

PASSIONATE ABOUT:She wants more women in science. Ico-founded an outreach organisation for middle school girls in1993 and it is still going. We just hosted 30 girls [in November2011] in our laboratory for hands-on experiments, she saysproudly.

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT HER:The most innovative work forcancer research is being done at the intersection of biology,engineering and science. Sangeeta is at the cutting edge ofthis practice and I have high hopes for her research impactingmillions of lives in this world, says Gururaj Desh Deshpande,entrepreneur, mentor and member of President ObamasInnovation Council.

- S.S.

PROFILE:He is associate professor at Harvard MedicalSchool, Massachusetts General Hospital and co-directorof the metabolism program, Broad Institute, Cambridge.

HIS MAIN AREA OF WORK:His research is mainly focussed onthe mitochondrion, the powerhouse of the cell, and its role inhuman diseases. He has been using genomics and systems bi-ology to define the molecular anatomy of mitochondria. Withthis molecular map in hand, he is advancing the study of raremetabolic disorders and common diseases. About seven yearsago, he showed a correlation between reduced mitochondrialactivity and the common form of diabetes. This work becamethe most cited (2,000 times) paper on diabetes research in thelast decade. Recently, his group showed something happensinside mitochondria that predisposes people to diabetes. If wecould find that pathway within mitochondria, it might provideus with new strategies for preventing or even treating type 2diabetes, something we desperately need, says Mootha.

HIS APPROACH:He uses a multi-disciplinary approach thatincludes mathematics, computer science, biochemistry, andgenetics. In a systematic search for the precise functionwithin mitochondria that gets altered at birth or is modified byenvironment, his lab identified all 1,000 protein parts of thisorganelle. His labs two recent findings on how mitochondriahandles its huge appetite for calciumsolution to a 50-year-old mysteryshows it could be an attractive drug target. Wehave good reason to believe that mitochondrial calciumhandling might represent the link between mitochondriaand the development of type 2 diabetes, he says.

HOW HIS WORK CAN BENEFIT INDIA:His research will go along way in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, an epidemic inIndia. Unfortunately this is a ticking time bomb from a healthand financial perspective, he says.

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT HIM:Vamsi is one of the mostcreative and analytical scientists I have ever met. It is unusualto find someone with both qualities, says Edward Scolnick,director, Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, BroadInstitute; former president of Merck Research Laboratories.

- S.S.

PROFILE:Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric and ClimateSciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University ofCalifornia, San Diego.

HIS MAIN AREA OF WORK: Theoretical enquiry into climatechange and field experiments that have brought unprec-edented understanding of global warming. Until the 70s, CO2was considered to be solely responsible for global warming,but Ramanathan showed the contribution of trace gases andchlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to it. In the 90s, he found that sootfrom cooking plays a key role in climate change. This led to apioneering study with Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen that discov-ered the Asian Brown Clouds (renamed to the more politicallycorrect Atmospheric Brown Clouds).

HIS APPROACH:Conducts extensive field experiments usinghigh-tech, unmanned aerial vehicles to study pollutants overvast geographical areas such as the Indian subcontinent.

HIS INDIA LINK:Ramanathan wrote a white paper in 2007with Kalpana Balakrishnan, Director, WHO CollaboratingCenter for Occupational Health at Sri Ramachandra Universityin Chennai, on a global-scale project to reduce soot pollutionby replacing tra ditional cooking stov es with more effi cientones. Project Surya, which provided biomass and solar cookingstoves to all households, was launched in Uttar Pradesh withUNEP funding in 2009.

HOW HIS WORK CAN BENEFIT INDIA:If Indian villagers areable to reduce soot generati on by using effi cient stoves, theycould not only help fight atmospheric pollution but also earnsubstantial money from carbon credits.

PASSIONATE ABOUT:Conducting field experiments and invent-ing gadgets for them. Hates to be closeted inside laboratories.

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT HIM:Project Surya is very chal-lenging, especially because of the complexities in developingcountries. What we are trying to do is use high-end science toevolve simple, scalable solutions, says Kalpana Balakrishnan,who is leading the evaluation of clean cooking technologies

- Dinesh Narayanan

PROFILE:He is University Distinguished Professor in theDepartments of Computer Science & Engineering, andElectrical & Computer Engineering, Michigan State Universi

HIS MAIN AREA OF WORK:Pattern recognition, computervision and biometric recognition. Jain is one of the pioneers biometrics (some of the basic text books in the field are writby him, and he holds six patents in finger printing).

HIS APPROACH:Jain and his team have found ways to addrfiner issues in pattern recognition using sophisticated imageprocessing and clustering algorithms. Recently, they came uwith a solution to identify surgically altered fingerprints thatautomated systems cant catch.

HIS INDIA LINK:He studied at IIT Kanpur, and afer he moveto the US, collaborated with research groups at the IndianInstitute of Science, Bangalore and Indian Statistical InstitutKolkata. He was also a consultant for the UID (Unique ID)project.

HOW HIS RESEARCH CAN BENEFIT INDIA: The far-reachingimpact of Jains work is likely to be seen in UID. His pioneeriwork in multi-biometric came in handy when the UID team wtaking biometrics of manual labourers with fading finger prin

PASSIONATE ABOUT:Working on problems related to patterrecognition and computer vision, and training and guiding

students in the field.

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT HIM:Prof. Jain was one of the firsto understand the biometrics field in its inception and translthe fundamental biometrics problems into mainstream patterecognition problems, says Sharath Pankanti, who hascollaborated with Jain and works at IBM T.J. Watson Centerat Hawthorne NY.

- N. S. Ramn

SANGEETABHATIA

VAMSIMOOTHA

VEERABHADRANRAMANATHAN

ANIL K.JAIN

She uses micro- andnano-technology totreat diseases likeCancer, which isexpected to spreadat an alarming ratein India

He showed that sootplays a key role inclimate change andnow wants Indianvillagers to help fightpollution by usingefficient stoves

He showeda correlationbetween reducedmitochondrialactivity inside a celland type 2 diabetes,an epidemic in India

He is one ofthe pioneers ofbiometrics and hiswork will come inhandy when takingbiometrics ofmanual labourers


SangeetaBhatia:RobertE.

Klein/AP,

H

HMI;VamsiMootha:JorgeSalcedo


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PROFILE:He is professor of medicine, Stanford University;founder and CSO of Ventus Medical; executive director ofStanford-India Biodesign (SIB) Program.

HIS MAIN AREA OF WORK:Doshi recently founded VentusMedical to develop and commercialise a new class of obstruc-tive sleep apnea therapy, the first in 25 years. Sleep Apnea isa disorder marked by abnormal pauses or low breathing duringsleep. An inventor at heart, an engineer by training, and anentrepreneur by design, Doshi believes medical technologyinnovation can be taught.

HIS INDIA LINK:He is executive director of SIB, which aims totrain the next generation of medical technology innovators inIndia through fellowships, internships and events.

HOW HIS RESEARCH CAN BENEFIT INDIA:Sleep apnea isamong the largest chronic diseases in the world, with about 20percent of urban Indian males having it. Another new-in-class,an over-the-counter device for snoring, is under development.Doshis new, expiratory positive airway pressure nasal device,is US FDA-approved and particularly suitable for India wherepower supply can be erratic. Also, biodesign is important forIndia because so many Indians are medically under served dueto the lack of cost-effective medical devices.

PASSIONATE ABOUT:Mentoring. My other major product isthe 17 fellows that have completed our SIB fellowship pro-

gramme, says Doshi. He thinks many of these fellows, whoget a rigorous training in identifying needs from the societyand then taking them t hrough various filters to the prototypestage, will be among the leaders of the fledgling medical deviceindustry in India.

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT HIM:Dr Doshis role is pivotalfor many reasons: There is a dearth of highly-experiencedmedtech innovators who understand all aspects of the innova-tion and commercialisation process. The last four years of thisprogramme, under his leadership, have been very instructive,says Anurag Mairal, director, Global Exchange Program,Stanford University.

- S.S.

PROFILE:He is director, Edwin L. Steele Laboratory for TumorBiology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH); AndrewWerk Cook Professor of Tumor Biology, Harvard Medical School

HIS MAIN AREA OF WORK:He is a pioneer in tumour biologyand in vivo imaging with more than 500 publications. In thelate 1990s, a cure for cancer looked plausible with HarvardUniversitys Judah Folkman proposing a new theory of angio-genesisstarving cancer cells of their blood supply by usinganti-angiogenesis agents. But clinical studies were discourag-ing. Since then, Rakesh Jain and his colleagues have shownthat blood vessels can be exploited to improve Cancer therapy,but not in the way Folkman was suggesting.

HIS APPROACH:In many studies he showed that rather thandestroying blood vessels that support tumours, these agentswork by normalising the blood vessels. In other words, makethe tumour blood vessels look like healthy tissue by usinglower doses of anti-angiogenic drugs. He showed this approachhelped the patient respond much better to chemotherapy andradiation. Since one of the biggest hallmarks of his work istranslational researchtaking lab research to the bedsideclinicians at MGH have validated his vascular normalisationtherapy. Jain is currently signing up agreements with pharma-ceutical companies to run further trials in some solid tumoursthat grow in areas l ike the brain, colorectal and liver.

HIS INDIA LINK:Jain did his B.Tech from Indian Institute of

Technology, Kanpur.

HOW HIS RESEARCH CAN BENEFIT INDIA:Cancer is spreadingat an alarming rate, especially in developing countries like India,which are expected to show steep growth in number of casesreported. Jains work will go a long way in giving effectivetreatment for those suffering from the disease.

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT HIM:The Edwin Steele Laboratoryunder Dr. Jains leadership has become one of the most produc-tive translational hubs of cancer research in the world, saysJay S. Loeffl er, Chair, Departmen t of Radiation Oncol ogy,Massachusetts General Hospital

- S.S.

PROFILE:He holds the Edward R. Weidlein Chair in the Swan-son School of Engineering and the School of Dental Medicineat University of Pittsburg. He has more than 150 refereed

journal publications and holds four patents.

HIS MAIN AREA OF WORK:His work spans two differentfieldsenergy and medicine. In energy storage, he workswith nano particles and in medicine, with biodegradablenano materials that has applications in gene therapy andregenerative medicines.

HIS APPROACH:In t he mid-90s, he asked a game changingquestion: Why not create degradable ceramic material us-ing calcium and phosphate? That led to at least two break-throughsone in gene therapy and the other in regenerativemedicine. In gene th erapy, he develope d a safe and effi cientway to deliver genes to cells. By combining nano materialswith other materials, he has found a way to stabilise the bonewound and enhance regeneration. This patented work is slatedto proceed for FDA approval. In energy, Kumtas research couldlead to a new generation of lithium-ion batteries that can storemore power and last longer.

HIS INDIA LINK:Kumta has a B. Tech in metallurgy from IITBombay. He is in discussion with Prof. Rudra Pratap at theIndian Institute of Science, Bangalore, to initiate somecollaborative work in biotechnology.

HOW HIS RESEARCH CAN BENEFIT INDIA:India is set tobecome one of the biggest consumers of electronic goods likemobile phones, cameras and laptops even before power infra-structure catches up. His work in energy storage will help.

PASSIONATE ABOUT:Doing excellent scientific work. I remainhopeful that the scientific work will lead to novel technologiesfor improving the quality of life all over the world, he says.

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT HIM:I have known Prof. Kumta fornearly 20 years... No challenge was too great for Prashant:Intellectual or personal, says Aloysius F. Hepp, Editor-in-Chief,Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing.

- N. S. Ramnath

PROFILE:He is an Intel Fellow and Chief Client PlaformArchitect for the Intel Architecture Group at Intel Corp.

HIS MAIN AREA OF WORK:Theres a reason why Intel chosemake Bhatt the rock star in their 2009 ad campaign (althohe was portrayed by a professional actor)he was the leadarchitect responsible for one of the most ubiquitous technolgies in the computing world: Universal Serial Bus or USB. Evyear, billions of new devices like PCs, smartphones, webcamand printers are able to communicate with each other at highspeeds due to Bhatts pioneering work in devising a one-sizefits-all cable format that could transport both data and poweBhatt was also the lead architect behind two other blockbustechnologies at Intelthe Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) its successor, PCI Express.

HIS APPROACH:As computing devices get smaller, cheaperand ubiquitous, Bhatt is now shifing his priorities to thinkmore outside in. This includes work to make PCs bootinstantly, last on batteries all day, become almost as thin astodays mobile phones and tablets and work seamlessly witha host of other non-PC devices. My primary focus these dayis on improving and completely reengineering the PCs as weknow it, says Bhatt.

HIS INDIA LINK:He did his B.E. in electronics from MaharajaSayajirao University, in Baroda, Gujarat.

PASSIONATE ABOUT:Photography, travel and meeting peopfrom different countries and cultures. Hes been learningphotography from some of the world-renowned photographfor about 10 years now. His camera always goes with him.

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT HIM:USB has today become afoundational technology. Considering that the standard wasdefined over 10 years ago but is widely used (albeit with speeupgrades) todayfor instance most new smartphones use itto exchange data as well as draw poweris testament to thefact that it was very well thought out and turned out to befuture-proof, says Prof. Huzur Saran, Head, Departmentsof Computer Sciences and Engineering, IIT-Delhi

- Rohin Dharmaku

RAJIVDOSHI

RAKESH K.JAIN

PRASHANTKUMTA

AJAY V.BHATT

He developeda new class oftherapy for sleepapnea, a disorderthat affects about20 percent of urbanIndian males

He works in thefields of energyand medicine. Ingene therapy, hedeveloped a safeand efficient way todeliver genes to cells

v4 i4 innovation special

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