Mumbai (Maharashtra), June 07 2025 (ANI): Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries announced an unconditional grant of Rs 151 crore to the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, from where he graduated in the 1970s.Ambani spent over three hours on Friday at the institute (ICT), which back then was called the University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT). He was there to attend the function to publish Professor MM Sharma's biography titled 'Divine Scientist'. He also reminisced how the first lecture he attended at UDCT by Professor Sharma motivated him and how Prof. Sharma later played a role of quiet architect of India's economic reforms.
00:00We must make India a deep tech nation and a world leader in advanced manufacturing using AI and other breakthrough technologies.
00:11Our businesses should get tightly integrated with academia, especially by bringing a problem-solving approach to learning and research.
00:20Today, when many globally reputed universities are facing a crisis, India has the best opportunity to attract back the most talented students and faculties from around the world.
00:34Announce 151 crores to ICT on an unconditional basis and I am very, very pleased to announce that for Professor Sharma.
00:46A very warm good evening to each and every one of you.
00:49Let me begin by doing the Guru Vandana to all those who taught me at my beloved alma mater.
00:59Professor Sharma and Professor J.B. Joshi were my professors.
01:04So in other cultures, Guru is only a teacher.
01:09Parantu Bhartiya Sanskriti mein, Guru hi Brahma hai, Guru hi Vishnu hai, aur Guru hi Maheshwar hai.
01:16Therefore, for me, coming to UDCT campus, I still call it UDCT, has always felt like coming to a sacred temple.
01:27Professor Sharma, my warm respects to you today as my most respected Guru, my mentor and my enduring source of inspiration.
01:40Thank you for everything that you have done for me.
01:47Anita ji, I join all others in this hall in warmly congratulating you.
01:52It is indeed a Herculean task to chronicle the life of a legend like Professor Sharma, but you have done full justice to this mission.
02:02The biography is aptly titled The Divine Scientist.
02:07I am sure it will inspire many generations of students, teachers, entrepreneurs and others in India and around the world.
02:17Let us all give a big hand to Anita ji and the publishers of this book for their remarkable achievement.
02:24Friends, while I can talk about my relationship with Professor Sharma for a long time,
02:35I would like to make only four points today to reflect the immense impact he has had in shaping my life.
02:43First, in the mid-70s, when I came here as a student, it was not ICT, it was UDCT.
02:55I had deliberately chosen UDCT over IIT Bombay.
03:01To this day, I remember Professor Sharma's very first lecture
03:07and how, by listening to him, I felt assured that I had made the right choice from moving to IIT to UDCT.
03:21Soon, I realized that Professor Sharma is an alchemist, not of metals, but of mines.
03:29He has the power to transform curiosity into knowledge,
03:33knowledge into commercial value and both knowledge and value into everlasting wisdom.
03:42He shaped not only my understanding of chemical engineering,
03:47but also my understanding of leadership, responsibility and service to society.
03:55Such was his influence on me that the UDCT campus in Matunga became my second home.
04:03Second, among Professor Sharma's many evergreen teachings,
04:11one that has stayed with me is the principle of economics of chemistry.
04:17He taught us not only the magic of molecules,
04:19but also how molecules make money and create immense societal value.
04:25A perfect blend of scientific insight and business acumen.
04:31That was Professor Sharma.
04:34And in the 80s, I called him a Banya chemical engineering professor.
04:39He taught us all to be Banya's, which is why, even after I graduated and began assisting my father in building reliance,
04:50I continued to consult Professor Sharma at all steps in building reliance, big and small.
04:58Third, I also learned my first lesson in sustainability from him.
05:06As the book says, Professor Sharma does not like the word by-product.
05:13He calls it co-product.
05:15He insists that nothing should be wasted in manufacturing and everything should be turned into value.
05:23This is how we can create perfect harmony between economy and ecology.
05:31And this is how, under Professor Sharma's guidance,
05:35reliance has achieved maximum backward and forward integration in the value chain.
05:42Sir, we have taken your vision and gone from crude oil to PTA to PET bottle,
05:49all the way to Campa Cola, to millions of Indians' homes.
05:54Let me tell you that he never asked for all his consultation for anything in return.
06:00It was only substantial value addition, but zero royalty.
06:06Ladies and gentlemen, fourth, the book describes Professor Sharma as a selfless jnana yogi and karma yogi.
06:20But to me, he is much more.
06:23He is also a yogi of samruti, a yogi of national prosperity.
06:29Professor Sharma believes that when Saraswati and Lakshmi work together,
06:33no power on earth can prevent India's emergence as one of the world's most prosperous nations.
06:41Today, let me share with you one less known fact about him.
06:47Professor Sharma, to my mind, was one of the quiet architects of India's economic reforms.
06:53In the 70s and 80s was an era of extreme economic scarcity and regulatory shackles.
07:04Like my father, Dhirubhai Ambani, he had a burning desire to change Indian industry from scarcity to global leadership.
07:14As the book mentions, I was present in all the meetings between him and my father.
07:21These two bold visionaries believed that science and technology in alliance with private entrepreneurship would open the floodgates of prosperity.
07:35They both concluded that the time had come for India to think big and build world-class manufacturing facilities.
07:45I think, though Vibhu and I went independently, this was a time where I saw Professor Sharma speak Gujarati.
07:58He and my father spoke in Gujarati.
08:01And I think that his Gujarati was very simple and my father understood it.
08:08So, we were just saying and he said,
08:10Don't even talk about it.
08:13So, the decisions were pretty simple between them.
08:21And that was also a time that Professor Sharma was in Delhi.
08:29I still remember him going to the then Petroleum Secretary, Lavraj Kumar and the Petroleum Minister to saying that it's stupid for India to reserve chemical industry only for the public sector.
08:41You should open it and that was, and he had many, many such roles in terms of influences with the policy makers to say that if you want India to grow,
08:53you must allow Indian players to build scale and get out of the license permit Raj, reduce dependence on imports and compete globally.
09:03He told them that brand India must be known across the seven seas.
09:07His voice was so credible and authoritative that they not only listened to him but also accepted his advice and ideas.
09:15Today, from that work in the 70s and 80s, five decades later, we see results.
09:23India's chemical industry is now a global force.
09:26For this reason, I say that Professor M.M. Sharma is not only our guru but also a rashtra guru, a guru of Bharat.
09:37My fellow alumni and students of ICT, Indian culture places an obligation in every student to repay our debt to the guru in the form of Guru Dakshina.
09:53So, how can we, as a nation, pay a befitting Guru Dakshina to Professor M.M. Sharma and all the professors that we have?
10:06Let me present four ideas.
10:08First, we must make India a deep tech nation and a world leader in advanced manufacturing using AI and other breakthrough technologies.
10:20Our universities, institutions of higher learning and research laboratories should have a strong focus on producing tomorrow's technologies,
10:30especially in proteins, enzymes and other areas of chemistry that can cure complex diseases, prolong human life and create new materials,
10:40clean up environment and boost productivity exponentially.
10:44My second idea, after the 1990s, the private sector unlocked the potential of India's economic growth.
10:56Now, it should also unlock the potential of India's education development.
11:02Our businesses should get tightly integrated with academia, especially by bringing a problem-solving approach to learning and research.
11:13ICT has shown the way.
11:15Now, government, industry and the best minds in academia should join hands to transform our universities into world-class institutions.
11:25Today, when many globally reputed universities are facing a crisis, India has the best opportunity to attract back the most talented students and faculties from around the world.
11:39My third idea, education is not only about creating material and financial value.
11:46As Professor M.M. Sharma's life teaches us, education is even more about inculcating human values.
11:53He has taught us, that the power of character is more important than the power of material wealth.
12:01Character is that intangible wealth that comes with integrity, honesty, humility, empathy and other values rooted in India's priceless culture,
12:13which was also so amply described by Dr. Premna in her video.
12:18My fourth idea, Professor Sharma belongs to that rare community of teachers for whom teaching itself is their dharma.
12:31Their passion is to make a difference to the life of humanity.
12:36The word that best captures Professor Sharma's personality is that he is an influencer.
12:42The word influencer has gained currency in recent times in the age of social media.
12:50But Professor Sharma has been an influencer from the 60s.
12:54He is an influencer with a difference.
12:57Today, India has the world's largest population of youth.
13:01We need tens of thousands of gurus like him, who can teach our youth to combine success with sanskar.
13:10This combination is necessary to realize the dreams of Viksit Bharat.
13:17And my fifth idea is not an idea, it's an instruction that Professor Sharma gives me.
13:27And when, like he gave to my father, when he tells us something, we just listen, we don't think.
13:33So he told me, Mukesh, like you have to do something big for ICT.
13:37So I said, sir, you tell me whatever you want.
13:39So he says, announce 151 crores to ICT on an unconditional basis.
13:46And I am very, very pleased to announce that for Professor Sharma.
13:56Dignitaries and friends, as I stand before you, my heart is filled with nostalgia.
14:02I am transported back to my student days, when I saw great dreams for India.
14:09And what Professor JB Joshi said about ambiance, right?
14:15The moving spirit behind ambiance in UDCT, now ICT.
14:22And whenever I visit this campus, is only Professor Sharma.
14:27And this will remain forever.
14:32Today, the star of India is shining bright in the global sky.
14:38So I am filled with hope and confidence in India's future.
14:43So I will conclude today by telling Professor Sharma's grandchildren,
14:50all the young people and students in this audience and ICT,
14:55what Professor Sharma told me in the late 70s is even true today.
15:04Dream big, study well, work with dedication, discipline and a spirit of service
15:10and bring greater glory and greatness to India.
15:14The opportunity for India is even greater today than it was 40 years ago.
