Author: Prabhat Ranjan

Prof. Prabhat Ranjan is Vice Chancellor, D Y Patil International University, Akurdi, Pune. He was heading India's Technology Think Tank, TIFAC(tifac.org.in) as its Executive Director since April 2013 to April 2018. Earlier he was Professor at Dhirubhai Ambani Institute for Information and Communication Technology, Gandhinagar (DA-IICT) since 2002. He was educated in Netarhat School(near Ranchi), IIT Kharagpur and Delhi University. He received his Ph D from University of California, Berkeley where he carried our research on “Nuclear Fusion” at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory during 1983-86. He immediately returned to India after this and carried out research in Nuclear Fusion area at Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Calcutta and Institute for Plasma Research(IPR), Gandhinagar. He played a major role in India’s Nuclear Fusion program and was Project Leader of the largest operational Indian Fusion Reactor, ADITYA, at Institute for Plasma Research from 1996-2002. His current interests include applications of Wireless Sensor Network to Wildlife, Planetary Exploration (Chandrayaan mission), Nuclear Fusion, Healthcare, Agriculture etc. He has received National Science Talent Search Award, IBM Faculty Innovation Grant and HP Innovate 2009 award, NPEDP-Mphasis Universal Design Award 2012, Bihar Gaurav Samman 2012 etc. In March 2022, he was also honored with EduStar India’s Most Impactful Vice Chancellor Award for 2021-22. He has been recognized by outlook among few visionaries, who can lead India towards 5 Trillion Dollar Economy. He has been also honoured with Maharashtra Ratna Gaurav Puraskar by Shalini Foundation in 2024. He is also recognized among the top “100 Great IITians : Dedicated to the Service of the Nation”.

Linus Torvalds and Me!

I came across this article on net http://liw.fi/linux-anecdotes/, written by one of Linus Torvald’s office mates at Helsinki. I have been a user of Linux since 1993-94 period. As I was reading this article I found few interesting coincidences and I thought I would share it in my blog.

1. Use of Sinclair

“Let’s go back to the spring of 1991. In January, Linus bought a PC. He’d been using a Sinclair QL before that, which, like much British computer stuff, was ingenious and almost unusably different from everything else.” Continue reading “Linus Torvalds and Me!”

Sarita’s dream came true!

in 2011, I had developed a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) based system to allow persons with severe disability to type on computer and do other things such as control light fan etc. This could help those who do not have hand/leg movements. A device of this kind was provided to Mr Suresh Karat in Coimbatore in March 2012. I came across video of talented Sarita Dwivedi and thought she may benefit from this device. Sarita lost both her hand and one leg in a childhood accident. Continue reading “Sarita’s dream came true!”

How India continues to lose enormous wealth!

Since joining TIFAC in April 2013, I have been learning many things that never crossed my thoughts due to my research focused on S&T for Nation and Society. I would like use this blog to share some of the issues I have been talking about at various forums so that the same is available to larger audience. Continue reading “How India continues to lose enormous wealth!”