Controversial Jio institute selects Mashelkar as board member and Dipak Jain as VC

Scientist R A Mashelkar, who was reappointed as “national research professor” in 2016 by the NDA-II government and currently heads the National Innovation Foundation under the Department of Science and Technology, was pitched to the government committee as the Chancellor of Reliance Foundation’s proposed Jio Institute.

Apart from Mashelkar, who is also the chairman of the Reliance Innovation Council, Dipak C Jain, former director of Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration in Bangkok, will serve as the Vice-Chancellor (V-C) of Jio Institute, whose selection as one of the country’s six Institutes of Eminence (IoE) has set off a controversy.

It was the only greenfield institution, just on paper as of now, to get the status along with IISc, IIT-Delhi, IIT-Bombay, BITS-Pilani and Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

Mashelkar and Jain are members of the board at Reliance Industries. They will form the core group that will provide leadership to set up the institution over the next three years, the Reliance Foundation team, led by Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani.

Mashelkar did not respond to calls and an SMS.