At a time when top-class research sharply declined due to lack of scientific leadership and political will, Mashelkar daringly revolutionized the CSIR machinery. The challenge for Mashelkar was to turn the 40 laboratories spread across the country into a highly focused, goal-oriented, networked organization. Across the 40 labs he changed the mindset of the scientists and established the CSIR as a brand to reckon with.

Turnaround

Unplanned growth, no accountability, government policies influencing research, lack of focus and direction, lack of interaction with the industry, and budget cuts after liberalization: this was the scenario at CSIR prior to Mashelkar’s takeover as its Director-General in 1995.

When Mashelkar spoke about giving CSIR a facelift, everyone feared that he was about to privatize it. There were strong unions at every level of scientists. Their inability to understand change made them resort to protests and strikes. "Science is not labor. Therefore, we do not believe in trade unions," proclaimed Mashelkar. "Today CSIR is peaceful and quiet. It works," says Mashelkar.

Quantum Leap

Mashelkar changed the scenario by insisting that research must make a real value-addition to the knowledge base of the country. Within months of becoming director-general of CSIR, Mashelkar set the vision rolling for CSIR. He called it “Vision 2001.”

It was a roadmap to transform CSIR into a global environment. In five years, all the labs had to gear up to deliver competitive R&D and high-quality, science-based technical services the world over. This was not all; he chalked out a set of goals to be achieved by 2001. Mashelkar explains, "CSIR had never quantified goals: We needed quantification to create internal pressures."

He worked on the minds of the people around him with his inimitable style. To spur the motivation levels of scientists, he introduced a new system of performance evaluation—something akin to what a hardcore businessman would do it to keep up the tempo of his employees. "From the early Eighties, scientists were used to enjoying benefits. As I started tightening the screws, life became harder for many," he notes.

The next task was to make the staff buy into these changes. Mashelkar bestowed more powers on the directors who headed the forty labs. He heavily decentralized CSIR. The result? Today it is a transparent organization. Providing proper leadership to the under-performing labs was yet another challenging task.

Tremendous autonomy to directors made a significant difference in what CSIR was before and where it was headed. Mashelkar defined the concept of 'creating wealth out of research.' Each lab had to raise external funds through its research. The surplus fund could remain with the individual labs. The directors now gained the power to use the reserve fund for marketing and business promotion.

In the process of transforming CSIR, Mashelkar has clearly defined the concept of working jointly with other R&D institutions. "Indian industry should be prepared to assume the role of partners, who have the technical, financial and marketing muscle to take new ideas to the marketplace."

Today, across its forty labs, a strong Intellectual Property Rights culture pervades. The term that he coined, “patent illiteracy,” stirred emotions among the scientific community. "In the world of knowledge-based competition, IPR will emerge as a key strategic tool. India is way behind the rest of the world and the continuing illiteracy in IPR will hurt us badly," says Mashelkar. His campaign for patent literacy started not when he became the Director-General of CSIR, but at the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL).

Copycats

At NCL, Mashelkar quickly learned that all the research that was happening was mere import substitution. Mashelkar was not open to this idea. He explains, "In India we always considered the ‘make’ or ‘buy’ options, which unfortunately got converted to ‘importing’ and ‘import substituting’ in the closed economy that we had. But if India has to create the best practice in economics of knowledge then it will have to carefully consider not just the two options of ‘making’ or ‘buying,’ but also ‘buying to make better,’ ‘making to buy better’ and ‘making it together.’”

He wanted to change the 'better go and buy' mentality that Indian researchers had. He got the opportunity to do so when he became the director of NCL in 1989. "NCL should be International Chemical laboratory," he proclaimed. This was a big message that scientists at NCL had to digest. Nobody had talked about globalization at that time. For Mashelkar, the message went over well.

In 1989, NCL (in fact, all of CSIR) had no U.S. patents. Mashelkar managed to convince his colleagues of the importance of patenting their research, especially if they were to do global R&D. He gave a new slogan: “patent, publish, and prosper.” “The drive towards patenting your property demonstrates your resolve to work, innovate and to protect,” he points out.

Training his few colleagues on writing patents, he also encouraged everyone to scan patent databases to make sure they would not re-invent the wheel.

The CSIR turnaround is an indication that there is no shortcut to navigate uncharted waters. The institution's achievement thus far has generated considerable optimism in India's science and technology circles. Now CSIR is on the path of self-sustenance, but it still has a long way to go.

In the director-general's own words: “CSIR must excel in creating new technologies, which will lead and not follow others. If you look at the entire 20th century there is not a single technology out of India, which played a role at the global level. I personally believe this must be the spirit.” Towards this end, his “New Millennium India Technology Leadership” initiative will hugely network and pick up ideas from unsung Indians.

Mashelkar has been playing a significant role in converting “non-performing” brains into “performing” brains. Today, CSIR's transformation is an eye-opener for many scientific institutions in India.