India's biotech queen Kiran Mazumdar elected to MIT board
Bengaluru, June 28: India's biotech queen Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw got elected as a full-term member of the MIT Corporation, the Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), her company Biocon announced on Thursday.
"Shaw is among the eight members who will serve the five-year term on the Board from July 1," said the city-based biotech firm in a statement here.
Shaw, 65, is a pioneer of the Indian biotech sector and founder-chairperson of Biocon, a global drug maker for affordable and accessible healthcare.
"I am honoured to be elected as a full-time member of the MIT Board and look forward to contributing to its journey of making a difference in solving challenges of the world," she said.
A first-generation entrepreneur and a thought leader, Shaw is ranked among the world's most influential people in bio-pharma by Fierce Biotech, Forbes magazine's 'World's 100 Most Powerful Women' and Fortune's 'Top 25 Most Powerful Women in the Asia-Pacific region'.
She has also been ranked number one in the Business Captains category on 'Medicine Maker Power List' 2018, an index of the 100 most influential people the world over in medicine where she has been among the top 10 since 2015.
"It is inspiring to be a part of a premiere research university like MIT, which is engaged in advancing knowledge, leveraging science and technology to address fundamental human needs for food, shelter, energy, transportation and social harmony," said Shaw, who holds key positions in educational, industrial and government bodies, including expert committees of the Department of Biotechnology and governing councils of its institutes.
She is also on the board of directors of the US-India Business Council and the board of trustees of the Keck Graduate Institute at California's Claremont.
Shaw was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in 2006.
She has established a 1,400-bed medical centre here to deliver affordable cancer care to patients of socio-economic background and a non-profit research institute dedicated to treating human diseases.
Shaw graduated from Bangalore University and has a master's from Ballarat College of Melbourne University in Australia.
Ranked among the world's leading universities, the 157-year-old MIT is an independent, co-educational and privately-endowed institution, with 1,000 faculty members, 11,000 under-graduate and post-graduate students and 130,000 living alumni.
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K’taka HC judge whose controversial remarks triggered controversy expresses regret before open court
Bengaluru: Karnataka High Court judge, Justice V Srishananda, on Saturday expressed regret in open court after facing backlash over his controversial remarks in his recent court hearings, reported Bar and Bench.
Two purported video clips from Justice V Srishananda’s court hearing that show him making inappropriate comments went viral across social media platforms.
On Saturday, Justice Srishananda invited members of the Advocates Association, Bengaluru, and senior lawyers to his courtroom at 2:30 PM, where he read out a note expressing regret for inappropriate comments.
Quoting Advocates Association President Vivek Subba Reddy, Bar and Bench wrote, “He expressed regret for the comments and clarified that it was not his intention to offend any community or members of the Bar. He also requested the association to relay this message to all members of the Bar.”
Reddy further stated, “We also advised him to encourage young lawyers in the courtroom and refrain from making any irrelevant remarks during hearings.”
Another senior lawyer present during the session confirmed to the legal news portal that Justice Srishananda also addressed comments directed at a woman lawyer, who was seen in one of the videos being reprimanded by the judge. The judge Justice Srishananda clarified that his remarks were not intended to target her (woman lawyer) specifically, but rather pertained to the appellant she was representing. “He explained that his comment was meant to imply that the appellant seemed to know a lot about the other party,” said the lawyer.
In addition, Justice Srishananda assured those present that he would avoid making such comments in the future.
The controversy came to light on September 19, when a video clip from an August 28 Court hearing surfaced on social media, showing Justice Srishananda referring to a Muslim-majority sub-locality in Bengaluru’s Goripalya as "Pakistan." Hours later, another video from the same courtroom emerged, in which the judge was seen making a gender-insensitive remark.
Following outrage over the viral videos, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, along with Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, Surya Kant, and Hrishikesh Roy, on September 20 took a suo motu cognizance and sought a report from the Karnataka High Court Registrar General in connection with the viral video.
