Dr. Vijay Bhatkar
Dr. Vijay Bhatkar is one of the most acclaimed and internationally acknowledged scientists of India. India’s leading computer magazine Dataquest has acclaimed Dr. Vijay Bhatkar amongst the star pioneers who shaped India’s celebrated IT industry (US$ 100 Billion In 2012), with supercomputing capability, capacity, and infrastructure, as its crowning glory. Dr. Bhatkar is best known as the architect of India’s national initiative in supercomputing where he led the development of Param supercomputers. When India was denied the supercomputer by the USA, Dr. Bhatkar took the challenge of developing an indigenous supercomputer in a record time of 3 years and delivered Param 8000 in 1991 and went on to develop terascale Param 10000 in 1998, propelling India into the exclusive club of select nations, who possess this strategic technology. Based on the Param series of supercomputers, he built the National Param Supercomputing Facility (NPSF) which has been now made available as a grid computing facility through Garuda grid on the National Knowledge Network (NKN) providing nationwide access to High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure.
Today, Dr. Bhatkar has once again taken the lead in proposing the National Mission on Development of Exascale Supercomputing Capability, Capacity and Infrastructure on National Knowledge Network. This is one of the largest projects in S&T in India with a 12th Plan budget of nearly Rs. 5,000 crores that will not only transform India’s computing but will also catalyze India’s leadership in Science through Third & Fourth modes of scientific discovery by engaging world’s largest number of researchers and scientists across a large number of research labs and universities of India collaborating together.
Dr. Bhatkar is also widely known for bringing ICT to the masses through a wide range of path-breaking initiatives, such as the celebrated GIST multilingual technology covering India’s 22 official languages with 10 diverse scripts that has dissolved the language barrier on computers once for all; MKCL’s computer literacy programme that made a world mark by creating 7.5 million computer literates within a decade; Education to Home (ETH) initiative for bringing the benefits of ICT to school education, in learning, teaching, administration, governance and communication & collaboration.
In the 80’s, Dr. Bhatkar substantially contributed to the ushering of electronics revolution in India. He led the development of several innovations such as India’s first fully solid state color television, colour TV broadcast during Asiad in 1982, distributed control systems for Indian power plants and process industries, traffic control systems, automation of security systems, defense simulators and the like from the component level upward that contributed to building the indigenous foundation of India’s electronics industry which was to become India’s IT industry later. Faced with the challenges of creating a large number of software professionals in a shortest possible time, Dr. Bhatkar founded the Advanced Computing Training School (ACTS) in C-DAC which during the 90s provided over 10,000 software professionals to India’s fast growing IT industry.
Dr. Bhatkar is credited with the creation of several national research labs and institutions, notably amongst them being C-DAC, ER&DC Trivandrum, IIITM-K, TechnoPark, MKCL, IsquareIT, ETH Research Lab and Multiversity. Simultaneously, he has mentored several innovation-based start-ups. Ever since he joined as a core member of IPAG Electronics Commission in 1972, Dr. Bhatkar has substantially contributed to shaping of India’s path breaking policies in electronics, automation and control, computer and software, ICT, education and S&T and e-Governance over the successive four decades contributing to India’s pre-eminence in these fields.
Dr. Bhatkar has served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to PM, Member of the Governing Council of CSIR. He was also a member of the IT Task Force constituted by PM in 1998. He is a Fellow of IEEE (USA) and Fellow of ACM (USA), world’s foremost professional societies in Electronics and Computers respectively, besides being Fellow of CSI, INAE, IETE, NASI, MASc, etc. He has served as the Chairman of e-Governance Committees of Maharashtra and Goa. He was called upon to address the Royal Society of London; he led the Indian delegation to South Africa to formulate India-SA initiative in advanced computing; he was a member of the Indo-Russian Long Term Program (ILTP) in S&T, Indo-Hungarian and Indo-French Joint Commissions, substantially contributing to India’s international cooperation in electronics, computing and ICT. Dr. Bhatkar has authored/edited over 12 books and 80 technical and research papers and addressed several university convocations, international and national conferences and conventions and public functions. His ground-breaking articulations have been widely covered by both print and broadcast media.
His current research interests are in supercomputing, artificial intelligence, brain-mind consciousness, and synthesis of science and spirituality. Dr. Bhatkar is one of the most decorated scientists of India in terms of national and international awards, fellowships of professional societies and public recognitions. He was conferred with the Padmashri Award in 2000 by Government of India and the Maharashtra Bhushan Award of 1999-2000, the highest recognition of the Government of Maharashtra. He is the recipient of the prestigious Jindal Prize 2012 for science and technology in the service of society. He was conferred with the Saint Jnaneshawar World Peace Prize 2010 by World Peace Centre for promoting synthesis of science and spirituality in the service of humanity. He was also nominated to the Petersberg Prize 2004 for Information Technology for Development and was conferred with the prestigious Dataquest Lifetime Achievement Award 2003. Dr. Bhatkar has been showered with a string of awards, notably amongst them being Adi Godrej Award 2010, C-DAC Oration Award 2006, KG Foundation’s Personality of the Decade Award 2004, PGCIL Award 2001, Om Prakash Bhasin Foundation Award 2000, Global e-Biz Award 2001, FICCI Award 1999 for Excellence in Engineering & Technology, LokmanyaTilak Award 1999, Rotary Excellence Award 1997, Pune’s Pride Award 1996, H.K. Firodia Award 1996-97 for LifeTime Achievements in Science & Technology, Distinguished Alumni Award 1994 of IIT Delhi, VASVIK Award 1993, and Electronics Man of the Year Award 1992 and many more. For contributions to the social service and to the world of spirituality, he has been conferred with several social and spiritual awards and public recognitions.
Dr. Bhatkar is presently the Chancellor of the prestigious Nalanda University. He is Chairman of Board of Governors of IIT-Delhi, Chairman of ETH Research Lab, Founder Chancellor and Chief Mentor of Multiversity, Chancellor of D. Y. Patil University, and National President of Vijnana Bharati a People’s Science Movement of over 6,000 scientists across India.
Dr. Bhatkar did his Ph.D. in Engineering from IIT Delhi in 1972; M.E. from M.S. University in 1968; and BE from VRCE, now VNIT, Nagpur in 1965. He has been honoured with D.Sc. (Honoris Causa) by Dr. D.Y. Patil University. Dr. Bhatkar is a Distinguished Alumni of both IIT, Delhi and VNIT, Nagpur.
Dr. Charles Mercieca
Dr. Charles Mercieca spent most of his life doing academic work and traveling in an effort to help bring about world peace through education. In addition, he revealed great interest in problems of human and social concern. He has also advocated using human resources merely for positive and constructive purposes. He was born in the Island of Malta and studied in Italy and the USA where he has been living since 1961.
Academic Achievements
He secured his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 1966 in Philosophy and Historical Foundations and taught at Alabama A&M University for 34 years. During this time he was also Visiting Professor, Kyung Hee University, South Korea, fall 2000; Tver State University, Russia, spring 1993; National University of Santa Ana, El Salvador, spring 1990; Visiting Scholar, Northeastern University, summer 1985; Associate in Education, Harvard University, spring 1985, and Hon. President, SBS Swiss Business School, Zurich, since 2001-11.
This professor is also founder and president of the International Association of Educators for World Peace, which is a non-governmental organization of the United Nations whose four major goals are peace education, environmental protection, human rights and disarmament. He has been enlisted in several “Who’s Who.” Besides, he also studied several languages including English, Maltese, Italian, Spanish, French, German Russian, Latin and Greek.
He published a few books and over 900 articles on a variety of topics related to education, political science, culture, religion and social problems of human concern. Some of his articles were translated into quite a few languages and put on quite a few websites, one of which was done not long time ago in Russia which carries several selected articles of his.
Some websites which carry his articles are: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=129 (in English) and http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=ru_c&key=136 (in Russian). Quite a few other websites, printed some of his articles in other languages especially in Spanish. In all of his writings he expresses concern for all people from every walk of life and from every religion and culture. His main contribution is revealed in transcending all boundaries of division as to make all people feel like brothers and sisters.
Glen T. Martin, Ph.D.
Glen T. Martin, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy and Chair Emeritus of the program in Peace Studiesat Radford University in Virginia, USA. He is President of the Institute on World Problems (IOWP) and President of the World Constitution and Parliament Association (WCPA), organizations that sponsor the Constitution for the Federation of Earth. He has traveled and lectured worldwide on behalf of the Earth Constitution and emerging world law, as well as on behalf of WCPA projects such as sessions of the Provisional World Parliament and the development of a World Court system. He has received several international peace awards, including the GUSI Peace Prize International in Manila, Philippines, 2013. He is author or editor of eleven books, including his well-known book, Millennium Dawn: the Philosophy of Planetary Crisis and Human Liberation (2005) and his latest book, One World Renaissance: Holistic Planetary Transformation through a Global Social Contract (2016) (www.oneworldrenaissance.com). His personal website can be found at www.radford.edu/gmartin.
Professor A.K. Mukhopadhyay
Professor A.K. Mukhopadhyay, MBBS from Calcutta University (1977), MD from AIIMS (1981) joined the Faculty of AIIMS in 1985. Since 2006, he has been the Head, Department of Laboratory Medicine at AIIMS, New Delhi.
He had been instrumental in setting up a new Department at AIIMS, the Dept. of Laboratory Medicine in 1988 and pioneered three-year MD course in Laboratory Medicine since 1977, which is, in fact, for the first time in the Nation. His personal research interest is in psychoneuroimmunology, neurodegenerative disorders, depression and stress, and consciousness.
Besides being Member and Fellow of several National and International Academic bodies, he had been an invitee of Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Vatican in November 1999. He is in the Advisory board of Commission for Extended Science.
He coined the term and concept of supracortical consciousness in 1985 and developed further this idea integrating Science, Humanity and Spirit. His keen desire to develop a Science for Consciousness has given birth to four worthy books; (i) Frontiers of Research for Human Biologists (1985), (ii) The Dynamic Web of Supracortical Consciousness (1987), (iii) Conquering the Brain (1995) and (iv) The Millennium Bridge (2000). Following 2000, all his publications extending this new paradigm could be obtained from latest news/publication page of his website http://www.akmukhopadhyayconsciousness.com.
Rene V.L. Wadlow
Adviser, Global Citizenship
Rene V.L. Wadlow, President and a Representative to the United Nations Geneva, Association of World Citizens (www.worldcitizensunited.org).Editor of the online journal of world politics and social issues Transnational Perspectives (www.transnational-perspectives.org) Formerly, Professor and Director of Research, Graduate Institute of Development Studies, University of Geneva, Switzerland.Founding Secretary of the European Association of Development and Training Institutes (EADI); President of the French child-welfare organization Partage 1992-1998; active in the creation of projects in Cambodia and Vietnam, development of existing projects in Thailand, India and Bangladesh. He served as an advisor in the Ministry of Education, Gabon, Africa during the first years of independence 1961-1964. Later he participated in the planning of development projects, especially in the Sahel zone of Africa as a consequence of the 1972-1982 drought. He was born in the USA, 2 October 1934 and educated at Princeton University and the University of Chicago in international relations.
Nina Lynn Meyerhof, Ed.D
President and Founder of Children of the Earth, a renowned organization that awakens young people to their inner leadership. Nina is a visionary thought leader recognized for a life of advocating for children and youth. The co-author of “Conscious Education: The Bridge to Freedom”, and “Pioneering Spiritual Activism”. Nina has received many awards for her work from The Mother Theresa Award to the Citizens Department of Peace Award to The International Educators Award for Peace as well as the State of Vermont passed a Resolution honoring her for her life’s work in PEACE, the Seeds of Peace Award and second of recipients for the Public Peace Prize.
Nina advocates for all people to go beyond cultural, ethnic and religious differences and strive for altruistic ethics. She moves around the world assembling adults and young people to focus on the potentials of bringing ethical living skills into world consciousness. Her focus is on the realization that peace must come from recognizing our interwoven unity.
Nina is a totally passionate committed world peacemaker and world server. She founded and directed Children of the Earth, a UN NGO , for over 25 years touching into 100 countries. She focuses on inspired inner revolution thus altering one’s behavior for social evolution with constructive actions for building a better world. Nina also trains young people to be these future leaders and have the skills to train others and so the ripple effect of her work continues globally.
Dr. Erik Hoffmann
has done research of the human brain and consciousness for about 40 years. From 1974 to 1982 he worked at Copenhagen University as an assistant professor at the Psychological Institute where he did research in stress management using biofeedback and EEG methods. During the years 1979 – 1983 EH served in several periods as a visiting professor at Rutgers University, New Jersey, where he did research in computerized EEG studies of brain functions in psychiatric patients. His research results have been published in scientific journals and presented at international brain conferences.
From 1994-1996 EH was working at the International Primal Center in Los Angeles, California, where he did an EEG brainmapping study of the effects of feeling release (Primal) therapy. The results of this research were in February 1995 presented to the Californian Psychological Society in La Jolla, California.
In recent years EH has studied Altered States of Consciousness, as seen in e.g. meditation, psychotherapy and ¬¬psychedelic states, using EEG methods and real-time brainmapping. This work took place in the US, Sweden, the Netherlands and Brazil, and the results have been presented at brain conferences in Miami, USA in 2001 and 2002.
In January 2006 EH conducted a study of a group of people before and after the 21-day process in Amma and Bhagavan’s Golden City in India. The effects on the brain of meditation and deekshashaktipat were studied using EEG methods.
In the summer of 2001 EH founded with Inger Spindler Mental Fitness & Research Centre in Symbion Science Park, Copenhagen. He has been working there as a Research Director with neurofeedback and brainmapping methods training children with ADHD and adults with stress.
Dr. A. K. Merchant
Dr. A. K. Merchant is the National Trustee cum Secretary, Lotus Temple &Bahá’í Community of India; General Secretary, The Temple of Understanding—India [NGO with consultative status at the United Nations]. He also serves as Treasurer-Trustee, Sarvodaya International Trust—Delhi Chapter; Associate Secretary General, Global Warming Reduction Centre; Visiting Faculty, Centre for Cultural Resources & Training, Ministry of Culture, Government of India. A subject expert for research scholars enrolled for “interfaith education and Indian culture” of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund; Honorary Director, Messrs. MK Aromatics Limited, Chennai.
Dr. Merchant is the author of three monographs: (i) Communal Harmony—India’s Greatest Challenge (1991), which has been quoted in one of the Supreme Court Judgments on “Babri Masjid—Ram Janambhoomi” dispute, and (ii) Hindu Dharma evamBahá’í Dharma (1999), (iii) Five Basic Human Values & the Bahá’íFaith (2009), and over two hundred articles and research papers that have been published in national and international dailies, journals and books.
Dr. Merchant has represented the Bahá’í Community of India and the Bahá’í International Community at numerous international and national conferences, symposia and seminars in India and abroad since 1985 as well as Temple of Understanding (A Global Interfaith Association accredited to the United Nations). He represented the Indian Bahá’í Community at the 8th Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace, September 1990, held in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. He is an alumni of the United States’ State Department International Exchange Program 2005 for the project on “religious diversity in America post 9/11”; he was invited by H. H. Pope Benedict XVI as National Trustee of the Bahá’í Community of India to the interfaith conference to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Assisi and the World Prayer Day for Justice and Peace held at the Vatican and Assisi, 26-28 October 2011. He has been actively involved with participating and contributing to the deliberations of the Parliament of the World’s Religions held in Chicago (1993), Cape Town (1999), Barcelona (2004), Melbourne (2009), Salt Lake City (2015). On several occasions he was invited by the H. H. the Dalai Lama to address interfaith conferences and assist with organization of international conferences and seminars in India. He is an active promoter of gender justice and has spoken on numerous occasions for the implementation of Beijing Platform for Action, post 4th World Women Summit, September 1995, and written on the subject of equality of men and women on behalf of the Bahá’í Community; the environment and ecology; world peace, inter alia; served as Resource Person for the promotion on discourses of science, religion and development. Contact particulars: Email: akmerchant@hotmail.com / ak9merchant@gmail.com Telephones: 91-11-29237919, mobile: +9810441360
Ashok Kumar Thakur
Mr. Ashok Kumar Thakurwas born in Uttar Pradesh. Ashokis an alumnus of Delhi University, ex-servicemen, and has established an affordable private school- Muni International School in 2002. In his words, “I was not prepared in school for life and my pain was that my parents were poor but were teachers, policy makers and government, too, poor. Then this individual pain which was common in most of people turns into the ownership to change the present education and make a human being with values and skills.
Ashok is passionate about the education sector hence left his cushy business and started a school through modest means. He is a hardworking, self-made man whose main aim is to spread education in society and felt the need to start this from the lowest strata of society.
Ashok and his faculty have a pious intention of letting no child being deprived of any opportunity and to maintain, increase, and diffuse knowledge. He encourages scientific research and training amongst his students. He believes that every human being is unique and equipped with many facets, and that every individual should be developed in his school, to achieve his highest potential.
The school radically re-imagines education- its purpose, structures and spaces to make learning dialogic, reflexive and student-centric. It adopts the ‘Eklavya model’ of CREATION, ‘GRS’ of peer-learning that decentres teacher authority to reconstitute the teacher as anmotivator and facilitator of learning through “Guided Discovery”. The Eklavya model imagines every student to be both, a learner and a teacher–not only learning, but also creating and sharing knowledge within others.
Mr. Thakur with his team evolved this unique system by questioning the self and society. He believes thatthe true meaning of education is to impart knowledge, to keep our body healthy, mind curious to explore, to participate in order, to be prosperous, justice in relations, innovate and invent; and heart compassionate and full of dreams. Today, the school has 687 students and 24 rooms spread over four floors.
Muni International remains marked for its emphasis on learning foreign languages. Mr. Thakur regards proficiency in foreign language critical to securing livelihoods for students in a rapidly globalized world. Along with English, every student speaks basic Japanese, in addition to learning one more foreign language (from amongst Chinese, French, German, Arabic and Spanish) in his school. Students are prepared to be tech-friendly. Children read here with tablets and each child is taught to repair it too. Each child is equipped with more skills like Vedic Maths, Short hand, Acupressure, Ayurvedic remedies etc.
The Research & Development Department in school constitutes a fundamental component of pedagogy in the school. The R&D, consisting of all teachers, supervisors, parents, and elected student representatives assumes a crucial role in developing policy making, lesson plans, assessing the relevance of curricular content, ensuring its responsiveness to student needs and learning levels, and in addressing individual student needs or concerns. Teachers, parents and students share conceptual and pedagogical challenges to commonly identify potential solutions.
The school adopts a blended learning model, with each student accessing lessons through learning tablets. He has too many accolades to list. His views can be heard on the following utube sites:
https://youtube/drMHaSDribk, https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=xRK_5qE7GiY