Mukesh Ambani gets UDCT award

Ten others were also honoured with the UDCT distinguished alumnus award and another ten felicitated with UDCT Outstanding Alumnus Award for Extra-Curricular achievements.

Earlier in the day, at a seminar organised by UDCT titled `Vision 2050: UDCT and Chemical Industry’, Ambani made some suggestions in UDCT’s bid to re-orient education in chemical sciences.

He observed that "greater emphasis be given to life sciences, material sciences, process economics and industrial ecology in the content of chemical science education". The life science industry for example is slated togrow from the current $ 19 billion to $ 43 billion in ten years, he said.He urged the need to change the perception of chemical industry still labelled as environmentally unfriendly by way of sensitising students to the growing concerns of the society. "Success of an educational institution will be determined not only by how many BSc, BTechs, MTechs and PhDs they turn out. Institutions will be judged by the contribution they make to social and economic progress. … This will mean periodical market research based planning process, market value weighted performance assessment of faculty, greater participation of practicing professionals and strong linkages with industry and other institutes," Ambani observed.

Former UDCT director and consultant, Prof M M Sharma was the chairman of the seminar. CSIR Director General Dr R A Mashelkar, Clariant India Ltd MD P R Rastogi, Merck & Co, US, CEO Vijay Samant were among the others present.