Chair, CII 4R Awards 2024, Indian Scholar - Innovation and Padma Shri

Dr. D. N. Singh has been a faculty member of Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, since 1994. He served Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi, and Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, for short durations. He obtained his bachelor’s, masters and Doctoral degrees from IIT Kanpur in 1986, 1989 and 1993, respectively.

His teaching, and research and developmental activities are in quite diversified areas of geotechnical engineering (viz., soil mechanics, foundation engineering, environmental geotechnology, mechanics of unsaturated soils, soil characterization based on thermal and electrical properties, contaminant transport in porous media, mineralogical characterization, utilization and recycling of industrial waste, geotechnical centrifuge modeling, etc.). He has been successful in filing 31 patents out of which 8 (including 1 US) patents have been granted.

Dr. Singh has been very actively associated with some of the most prestigious business houses, as an in-house instructor and retainer consultant. He has taken up sponsored projects from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Department of Science and Technology (DST-TIFAC), All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). With financial aids received from these and several other organizations, he has established a state-of-the-art Environmental Geotechnology Laboratory in the department.

He is the recipient of Excellent Contributions Award 2008, which is given by the IACMAG to individuals who have a record of significant contributions in research, academic activities and professional service in different regions of the globe. He is the recipient of John R. Booker Excellence Award-2011, which is given by the IACMAG for the advancement of research, education and practice of Environmental Geotechnology and development of novel techniques to simulate contaminant transport in geomaterials, under laboratory and in-situ conditions. He is the recipient of (i) Richard Feynman Prize 2014, for the best paper published by the ICE journal and (ii) Canadian Geotechnical Journal Fredlund Award 2019, for the paper with the highest number of citations among all those published by the journal in previous five years.

Head of Department, Environmental Science & Engineering Department Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay

Prof. Shyam R. Asolekar is a head of Department, Environmental Science & Engineering Department from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay

His current area of research includes preventive environmental management, hazardous waste treatment and disposal, eco-technologies for wastewater treatment, reactor modelling and technology development for biological and physico-chemical treatment of hazardous waste leachates, special industrial wastewaters, and application of Remotely Sensed Data for Monitoring of Environmental Systems His research interest includes hazardous, municipal & biomedical waste management, eco-industrial networking, eco-centric and low-cost wastewater treatment, treatment of leachates and special industrial wastewaters, environmental policy and preventive environmental management, recycle and reuse of effluents and air pollution control technologies.

He has done his Ph. D. (Environmental Engineering) and M. S. (Environmental Engineering) from USA. He has done M. S. in Chemical Engineering) from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He graduated in B. Chemical Engineering with specialization in Chemical Engineering.

He was President of the Indian Environmental Association (IEA) for 2003-2005 term. He is member in Board of Directors of the National Solid Waste Association of India (NSWAI), member of the Supreme Court Authority entitled and member of the Steering Committee

Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao is currently the Director, IIT Delhi. Before joining IIT Delhi as the Director in April 2016, Dr. Rao served as a P. K. Kelkar Chair Professor for Nanotechnology in the Department of Electrical Engineering and as the Chief Investigator for the Centre of Excellence in Nanoelectronics project at IIT Bombay. Dr. Rao has over 450 research publications in the area of nano-scale devices & Nanoelectronics and is an inventor on 43 patents and patent applications, which include 15 issued US patents. Eleven of his patents have been licensed to industries for commercialization. Prof. Rao is a co-founder of two deep technology startups at IIT Bombay (Nanosniff & Soilsens) which are developing products of relevance to the society. Dr. Rao is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Indian National Science Academy.

Prof. Rao's work is recognized with many awards and honors in the country and abroad. He is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Engineering Sciences in 2005 and the Infosys Prize in 2013. Dr. Rao also received the Swarnajayanti Fellowship award from the Department of Science & Technology, IBM Faculty award, Best Research award from the Intel Asia Academic Forum, TechnoMentor award from the Indian Semiconductor Association, DAE-SRC Outstanding Research Investigator award, NASI-Reliance Platinum Jubilee award, J.C.Bose National Fellowship, Prof. C.N.R.Rao National Nanoscience award, VASVIK Award and the Excellence in Research Award from IIT Bombay. Prof. Rao was an Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices during 2003-2012 for the CMOS Devices and Technology area and currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Nano Letters, a leading international journal in the area of Nanotechnology. He is a Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE Electron Devices Society and interacts closely with many semiconductor industries both in India and abroad.

Dr. Rao served as the Chairman, IEEE AP/ED Bombay Chapter and as a Vice-Chairman, IEEE Asia Pacific Regions/Chapters sub-committee for two terms. He was the first elected Chairman for the India section, American Nano Society during 2013-2015.

"Dr. Monoranjan Mohanty has a Ph.D. degree in the field of Soil Science from the University of Queensland, Australia. He has a specialization in crop growth simulation and soil carbon modelling in agricultural systems. Dr. Mohanty has played an important role in conducting several capacity-building programs on agricultural system modelling, geoinformatics, and climate change courses which are important for scientists, academics, students, and research fellows. During his service tenure spanning more than 23 years at ICAR, he has been involved in research for improving and managing natural resources in agriculture. He has also developed software (SQI CAL) © on soil quality, which is very relevant to soil health assessment in India. Dr. Mohanty is currently an adviser/Scientist G for the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. He is the Mission Director for the Waste to Wealth Mission which is spearheaded by the Office of the PSA and hosted at Invest India"

A Post Graduate (PGDM) from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a Ph.D. From University of Rajasthan, Dr. Neeraj Sharma is an engineer from MLS University, Rajasthan. He has served the Department of Science and Technology for more than two and a half decades in his capacity as a Scientific Officer. He has been instrumental in promotion of Innovation, Incubation and Techno-entrepreneurship promotion in the country besides supporting R&D and Technology Development and Commercialization.

Dr. Neeraj Sharma has also steered Department's flagship programme, Swarnajayanti Fellowships, to nurture young scientists for conducting world class research in the country.

Presently, Dr. Sharma has been given the responsibility of Secretary, Technology Development Board which is an autonomous Board under the Ministry of Science and Technology. The Board has a mandate to support commercialization of indigenous technologies in the country.

He is heading the Technology Development and Transfer Division, National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Drugs and Pharmaceutical Research Programme, National Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) Compliance and Monitoring Authority of the Department. In past, Dr. Sharma has also headed the Planning, Budget and Coordination, State S&T Programme, Policy Research Divisions of DST.

Dr. Sharma has been instrumental in preparation of the 11th and 12th Plan documents of the Department of Science and Technology. He has also prepared the Strategy and Results Framework Documents for the Department.

Dr. Sharma has been interacting with a large section of the stakeholders, be it students, scientists and institutions, to design new policies, programmes and strategies for taking the country march ahead in science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Dr. Sharma is a member of the Technology Mission for Indian Railways which has been formed to identify technology problems and find indigenous solutions for the Indian Railways.

Dr. Shailja Vaidya Gupta has done her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. She is presently the Chief Project Director, IndCEPI, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI),(An Autonomous Institute of the Dept. of Biotechnology, Govt. of India and was the Former Adviser Department of Biotechnology, GoI,Former Senior Adviser at the Office of Principle Scientific Adviser to GoI.

Prior to this, where she was handling International Collaborations and was responsible for establishing active bilateral collaborations with Canada, Denmark,Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, UK and US and with the EU, in the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology.

Dr. Gupta was also responsible for DBT's collaborations with Non-Governmental Organisations such as Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO), PrakashLab, Stanford University, Nobel Media and Cancer Research UK.

Dr. Gupta has been instrumental in developing the Clean Barapullah Drain project in partnership with The Netherlands, Denmark and Afforest; Bringing Foldscope: the low-cost microscope developed by PrakashLabs, Stanford University to India and Indian schools & colleges. She also organised and established the Nobel Prize Series 2017 and 2018 in partnership with Nobel Media.

One of the first workshops on "Edutech and EduGaming: The future of Education" to promote e-learning was organized jointly with Finland in 2017. She has also helped establish the concept of "FarmerZone", a single window cloud service that will offer curated data solutions leading to improved farm productivity and market connectivity for smallholder farmers.

At the office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Dr Shailja Gupta was responsible for the PM-STIAC Missions on Waste to Wealth, Deep Ocean Mission, COVID-19 Response and Science outreach.

Dr. Rakesh Kumar is Director of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), part of CSIR (Council and Scientific and Industrial Research).He completed his M.Tech in Environmental Science & Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1987 and later got Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering. He is also qualified ISO 14001 EMS auditor through RAB UK and EARA, USA. He was visiting adjunct Professor at CESE, IIT Bombay besides visiting faculty to Drexel University under Obama-Singh Education Initiative.

His main area of expertise is in development of appropriate technology for environmental quality improvement encompassing the field of air pollution, particularly vehicle pollution, hazardous waste management, waste water treatment and disposal besides Climate Change and Health related subjects. Urban environment management is an another area where numerous works related to carrying capacity, urban heat island effect, waste management and water sector analysis have been carried out.

Some of the notable awards conferred on him are “Environmental Leadership Award” by US Asia Environmental Partnership and US-AID for the year 2005 for outstanding contribution in improving quality of life for the population of Asia.

In NEERI, he has been awarded with best patent for the year 2005-2006.He has been also awarded distinguished personality by MIDC in August 2007 for his immense help in providing environment friendly direction to MIDC policies. He has been also awarded for Best Patent for Technology Patent by NEERI in 2008-09.

He has been given an award for largest number of technology transfer for low cost waste water treatment -PHYTORID in the year 2012.He has been given VASVIK award for 2012 for his exemplary work for urban environment improvement and sustainable technology "Phytorid" for sewage treatment for better environment.

He has been awarded "Hiyoshi Think of Ecology Award" in September 2015 for his work on use of ecology in solving environmental engineering problems. He was also given awarded by Trans Asia Chamber of Commerce for Industries (TACCI) for Environment Protection,2017; Mumbai Green Hero, 2019 and IDAC Award for Best Environmental Institution for exemplary environment protection work, 2020.

He has twelve patents on pollution control devices, of these two international patents, besides more than 105 papers in national and international Journals and many in national and international conferences. He has authored three Self Learning Books on various topics of Environmental Science and Engineering, one of them for Commonwealth of Learning, Canada.

He is member of various national committees in MOEFCC, CPCB, BIS, MDWS, MPCB and others. He is also members of many international team as member of IAEA, Vienna on the use of radioisotope in surface water pollution studies, Auto Fuel Policy, GOI, Quality Committee of Indian Register of Quality System, IRS, various courts related PIL matter etc.He has worked on various assignments with many international agencies.

Prof Abhay Karandikar is currently the Director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, one of the premier technical institutes of India. Before joining IIT Kanpur as the Director in April 2018, he served as Institute Chair Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. He also served as Dean (Faculty Affairs) and Head of the Electrical Engineering Department at IIT Bombay. He spearheaded a national effort in setting up Telecom Standards Development Society of India (TSDSI), India's standards body for telecom with participation of all stakeholders. Prof Karandikar was the founding member and former Chairman of TSDSI. He was also Member (Part-Time) of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from January 2018- January 2021. He serves on the board of several companies and has founded and mentored start-ups in telecom and networking. He was member of High Level Forum on 5G setup by the Government of India and Chaired the 5G Spectrum Policy Task Force. Prof Karandikar has several patents issued and pending, contributions to IEEE, 3GPP standards, contributed chapters in books and large number of papers in international journals and conferences to his credit. Prof Karandikar was awarded with IEEE SA's Standards Medallion in December 2016 in New Jersey.

Anjan Ray received his Doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Prof. Alan MacDiarmid. He then moved to the chemical industry and worked for over 25 years across functions ranging from Quality Control, Technical Service, R&D and Marketing to General Management, Mergers & Acquisitions and Corporate Strategy.

His professional interests have spanned fields as diverse as surfactants, oleochemicals, lubricants, coatings, adhesives, textiles, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, water treatment, energy efficiency, biofuels and renewable energy policy. Currently, he holds the position of Director, CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun.

He also leads the Supply Chain vertical of the CSIR Strategy Group, constituted in March 2020 for developing CSIR's concerted response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to the transformations necessary in the post-COVID world.

Apart from his professional career in chemical technology, Dr Ray has had an active interest in media, education, heritage and environmental conservation for over three decades.

Ms. Bineesha is an Environmental Scientist with 23 years broad-based experience in the field of Environmental Management. She has been a field scientist, conceptualizing and piloting several environmental projects and then successfully monitoring its replication. Her Specialization includes Urban and Rural Environment Management with innovative technologies implementation. She has executed more than 150 projects related to Waste Management. She has working knowledge of Indian Environmental Regulations, in addition to exposure to International regulations. She is conversant with Techno-Economic Analysis of projects.She has undertaken several evaluations of bilateral projects in India. She has worked on projects of World Bank, UNDP, NORAD, GTZ, WASTE Netherlands, DANIDA, USAID, UNEP, UNIDO, CIDA, SIDA, SECO, SDC, etc., Ms.Bineesha has undertaken study visits to more than 35 countries in Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa.

Ms. Bineesha is the Board Member of Technology Development Board, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, since November 2018 and Chairperson of the DRC of TDB of the same Board. She is a member of the AICTE’s, Ministry of HRD, Green Campus Committee. She is also the Panel Member of PBD Convention 2019 on Waste Management, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. She is the Expert Member of Ministry of Human Resources Management’s MBA in Waste Management Curriculum Development and IGNOU’s Certificate in waste management curriculum development team. She is also the Jury of Smart and Clean Campus programme of AICTE. Ms. Bineesha is one of the expert resources at International Centre for Environment Audit and Sustainable Development of the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India). She has been a member of the Tata Council for Community Initiatives (TCCI) between 1998 and 2000. Bineesha is one of the Expert Member of the Panel for Selection of Appropriate technology for waste dump site reclamation formed under the Principle Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister’s Office. She is the Chairperson of Evaluation Committee of Venture Capital Funds under TDB, Government of India. She has been the founder member of Healthcare Waste Management Cell till date.

Ms. Bineesha has her Master’s Degree in Environmental Sciences (MSc.) from University of Pune and master’s in business management (MBA), Commonwealth Executive MBA Programme. She is currently pursuing Ph.D in Environmental Law from National Law School of India University, Bangalore. She has an ISO -14,000 lead auditor’s certificate on EMS audit.