Nish Patel is MD of Alfa Laval

Nish Patel

Nish Patel is the new managing director of Alfa Laval India Ltd. He took charge from Satish Tandon on October 17, 2005. Prior to this, he was heading Alfa Laval Ltd UK as managing director since 2001.

His successful career at Alfa Laval began in 1984 when he joined the company as a design engineer at Alfa Laval UK. Within a few years, he was promoted as a sales manager and in 1990 he became general manager for Alfa Laval's Process Industry business in the UK. In the years that followed, he held the positions of managing director of Alfa Laval Thermal Ltd in the UK and director of Alfa Laval's flow business in the UK.

Over the years, the Uganda-born and UK-bred Nish Patel, a chemical engineer by profession, has been active in a number of important Alfa Laval projects. Among others is the introduction of the Thermal software CAS - a tool that helps engineers design and configure heat exchangers to suit specific duties. He was also involved in the start-up of a joint venture with Rolls Royce.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw feted

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director, Biocon Limited has been honored with the Corporate Leadership Award for the year 2005 by the American India Foundation (AIF) for her leadership role in promoting initiatives to support environment, education, health and welfare-related issues in India. The ceremony was held at the second Annual Fall Benefit Gala in October at San Jose, California. The event raised $1 million towards furthering AIF's mission in its three thematic pillars of work in India: Education, Livelihood and Public Health.

Dr Vijay Kelkar, RA Shah join Lupin Board

Lupin has announced that economist Dr Vijay Kelkar and solicitor RA Shah have joined the company's Board as independent directors.

Dr Kelkar was an advisor to the Union finance minister between August 2002 and September 2004. A PhD from the University of California, MS from the University of Minnesota, Dr Kelkar has also served as an executive director of the International Monetary Fund (1999 – 2002) and finance secretary to the Government of India in 1998-99. He has held various other senior positions in the government. Dr Kelkar was chairman/member of several high-powered committees set up by the government.

A solicitor specializing in broad spectrum of corporate laws, RA Shah is a senior partner of Crawford Bayley & Company. Shah serves on the boards of various companies being on the managing committee of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Indo German Chamber of Commerce. He is also a member of the committee for revision of SEBI Takeover Code and President of Society of Indian Law Firms (Western region).

Dr Desh Bandhu Gupta, chairman, Lupin, said, "I am delighted that Dr Kelkar and Shah accepted our invitation to join our Board. Their enormous experience and wisdom will serve Lupin in good stead in the years to come".

Ranbaxy honors Indian scientists

Dr Nita Bhandari	Dr Mohan K Raizada	Dr Bharat B Aggarwal	Dr Asit K Chakraborti

Ranbaxy Science Foundation has announced its Annual Research Awards for the year 2004 to the Indian scientists, in recognition of their outstanding research contributions made by them in the field of medical and pharmaceutical sciences. The awards were presented by the Nobel Laureate Prof. Rolf M Zinkernagel, director, Institute of Experimental Immunology, University of Zurich, Switzerland on November 28, 2005.

Medical Sciences (Basic Research): Dr Bharat B Aggarwal, Professor of Cancer Medicine (Biochemistry) and Chief, Cytokine Research Section, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas, and Dr Amitabha Mukhopadhyay, Staff Scientist V, Cell Biology Lab, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, were chosen jointly for the award. Dr Bharat B Aggarwal received the award for his outstanding contributions in the field of cytokine research, while Dr Amitabha Mukhopadhyay received the award for his contributions to biomedical research on the fundamental issues pertaining to host-pathogen interactions that provided conceptual leads towards the identification of new chemotherapeutic target.

Medical Sciences (Medical Research): In the area of Medical Research, Dr Mohan K Raizada, Professor, Department of Physiology and Functional Genomics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, received the award for demonstrating that systemic gene transfer, targeting the rennin-angiotensin system (RAS), a viable strategy for long-term control of hypertension and related cardiovascular complications.

Medical Sciences (Clinical Research): In the area of Clinical Research, two scientists were selected by the jury to share the award. They were Dr (Mrs) Nita Bhandari, Joint Director, Society for Applied Studies, New Delhi and Dr Vinod Kochupillai, Chief, Institute of Rotary Cancer Hospital & Professor & Head, Department of Medical Oncology, AIIMS, New Delhi.

Pharmaceutical Sciences: In the area of Pharmaceutical Sciences also, the jury selected two scientists to share the award. They are Dr B Gopalan, Chief Scientific Officer, Matrix Laboratories Ltd and Dr. Asit K Chakraborti, Professor and Head, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Punjab. Dr Gopalan receives the award for designing and developing a series of novel, orally active small molecules in Diabetes. Dr Chakraborti won the award for his contributions in developing new organic reaction methodologies.

Seed companies initiate measures to check child labor

Initiatives by two top seed companies, a combination of Incentive and Sanction system for farmers under Project "Harvest of Happiness" is showing positive impact, says Association of Seed Industry (ASI). The tradition of employing child labor in cotton seed production in Andhra Pradesh is on the wane. In fact, compared to last year, there has been a major reduction in the number of children being employed in the cotton seed fields of some ASI companies in the 2005-06 production year.

The positive impact was following the initiatives taken by Proagro Seed Company, a subsidiary of Bayer, and Emergent Genetics (Monsanto), which have their cotton seed operations mainly in Andhra Pradesh.

VR Kaundinya, Director, ASI, India and Managing Director, Emergent Genetics said, "Child labor is a deeply rooted socio-economic problem that has developed in the last three decades in this industry. The decline in child labor can be largely attributed to the combined efforts of some ASI member companies."

Proagro and Emergent Genetics as a part of their action plan chalked out a project titled the "Harvest of Happiness" based on a "Village concept". The project is being carried out in 30 Preferred Villages, which have been identified as having a high proportion of cotton seed producers under contract to both the companies.

This project was conceptualized in consultation with a prominent NGO working on child rights issues and is being implemented by CLEG (Child Labor Eradication Group) within ASI.

Clive J Pegg, Director, ASI and Managing Director, Proagro, added, "Under the project 'Harvest of Happiness', Proagro and Emergent Genetics pay the farmers a bonus on the procurement price if they discontinue the use of child labor. In case of breaches of the contract the bonuses are cancelled and the procurement price cut by 10 percent. In very grave breaches, the contract will be cancelled and the seed refused.

In addition to this, there are other initiatives under 'Harvest of Happiness' Project that are playing a key role in reducing child labor.

One of the highlights of this Project is revitalizing education initiative launched in collaboration with Naandi, a well-known NGO working in educational programs. The Project involves establishing Creative Learning Centers in cotton seed production villages of Proagro and Emergent Genetics where cotton seed production children will be integrated into mainstream education. In addition to the above project , Proagro and Emergent Genetics have also been actively pursuing other interventions including raising seed productivity to improve farmer profitability and a seed production trial in collaboration with Government of Andhra Pradesh involving "women self-help groups" (Velugu Project).