Dr Vijay Bhatkar- The living practitioner of science and spiritualiy

It was in the year 2000 that I saw Dr. Vijay Bhatkar’s photo receiving ‘Maharashtra Bhushan’ Award at the hands of the then Chief Minisher Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh, on the front page of all leading newspapers. It was a proud feeling to see a Marathi man from a remote place in Maharashtra build a Supercomputer and get India in limelight on the world map. Those days I used to write a column in Daily Lokmat’s Chitragandha supplement called ‘Mee Prekshak’. I decided to meet Dr. Bhatkar for his views for an article, and accordingly took his appointment and met him. Despite being a high profile scientist with remarkable achievements, to my astonishment, I found him to be a very simple person.

An intelligent thinker with a disruptive thought process, researcher, innovator, scientist, philosopher, educator, educationist, author, articulator, policy architect, institution builder are some of the adjectives that describe Dr. Bhatkar; one of the most acclaimed IT leaders of India, with wide international recognition. Dr. Bhatkar is amongst the 25 pioneers who shaped India’s celebrated IT industry during the last 25 years.

Dr. Bhatkar is best known as the architect of PARAM series of Supercomputers and bringing ICT to the masses through a wide range of path-breaking initiatives, such as GIST multilingual technology.

He has played significant role in transformation education & making it reach to corners of the country through creation of institutions such as C-DAC, Education-to-Home (ETH), Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd, International Institute of Information Technology (I2IT), Multiversity, Know-IT etc. Besides, he also provides his valuable guidance to startups and creative minds, be it a student, entrepreneur or just about anyone!

One of the most acclaimed and decorated scientists of India, Dr. Bhatkar has received numerous national and international awards, fellowships of professional societies such as IEEE, and some of highest civilian awards by the National & State Governments, such as Padmashri and Maharashtra Bhushan.

He has authored and edited 11 books and over 80 research and technical papers in the fields of supercomputing, artificial intelligence, distributed computer control, optimal control and education technology as well as in science and philosophy. His contribution to non-local systems based on his doctoral research have been acclaimed and his books on distributed computer control and artificial intelligence have been used as graduate level text books in the US and Indian universities. He has addressed the Royal Society of London, conventions of leading professional societies, convocations of over 10 Indian universities and delivered keynote addresses in many national and international conferences and seminars.

I consider the last 10 years as the highest period of my life, solely because of the opportunity that I got to work with Dr. Bhatkar. It has been a practical extension to my education, where I observed him to be a humble leader, big thinker, peace lover, patriotic and a person with a keen urge for social development. One of the most distinguished traits that Dr. Bhatkar possesses is that of ignoring the negativity and focusing on the positive to bring out positive results. I guess this is possible because of his practical application of the synthesis of science and spirituality. Dr. Bhatkar practices what he preaches! He is probably the only scientist who says science and spirituality are two sides of the same coin. Modern Vijnyaneshwar!!

During the last 10 years, I have been able to build a huge global network of contacts of politicians, bureaucrats, media and VIPs from all sectors. All this was possible just because of Dr. Bhatkar, whose name itself has been a passport for me to get access to most of the important personalities in my database. He has been a great mentor and the source of inspiration for me. Today, 11th October, on his birthday, I wish him my choicest wishes and a great, healthy and peaceful life ahead!

(To read more about Dr Bhatkar pl visit www.vijaybhatkar.org )