Father of Indian supercomputer Vijay Bhatkar to mentor Green Terre Foundation

Vijay Bhatkar, a pioneering figure in India's IT industry and the creator of India's first supercomputer, Param, has taken on a new role as the mentor for the Green TERRE Foundation

Smart Campus Cloud Network or SCCN, a rapidly growing global network of universities that have agreed to move towards Net Zero Campus has received a major shot in the arm with the addition of Padma Bhushan Vijay Bhatkar, a renowned engineer who is known as the father of India’s first supercomputer Param.

Bhatkar has agreed to mentor Green Terre Foundation, a Pune-based non-governmental organisation, that launched the SCCN a few years ago. It is expected that Bhatkar’s mentorship will add a practical dimension to Net-Zero movement in the universities because of his past role as Chancellor of Nalanda University, which has already made great strides in advancing its campus to net-zero.

Nearly 500 Universities and higher educational institutes from India, China, USA, UAE, Portugal, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka among others stand to benefit from following Nalanda’s example.

Besides having been Chancellor of Nalanda University, Bhatkar has also helped develop India’s education sector thanks to his role as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIT Delhi from 2012 to 2017 and current position as the Chairman of Vijnana Bharati, a not-for-profit organisation of Indian scientists.

Architect of several national institutions and research centres including  Centres for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) which has been at the forefront of developing India as a computing superpower, Bhatkar’s extraordinary expertise in digital technology would be much needed component for measuring, monitoring and assessing the progress of Net Zero University campuses through digital tools.

Bhatkar joins existing mentors of Green Terre Foundation, namely, Erik Solheim, former Environment Minister of Norway and former Under Secretary-General of United Nations and Prakash Javadekar former Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and also former Union Minister of Human Resource development.

“Bhatkar’s vision in deploying potential of the India’s youth in the universities to address the unprecedented challenge of climate change will be the accelerator for SCCN in achieving the net-zero targets underlined in  Paris Climate Agreement. Youth would need to be skilled and empowered for climate-friendly and climate-resilient future to make India a developed country,’’ says Rajendra Shende, Founder Director of Green Terre Foundation and former Director of UNEP.

Rajendra Shende

“Bhatkar’s unique proficiency and mentorship in  achieving time-bound goals through  digital monitoring of emissions from campus and his ability in networking with India’s educational institutes and technologists will be much in demand. Universities are now being guided by ‘100-days 5-year plan’ for U75,’’ adds Shende.

“I consider it as my privilege to mentor youth in universities which I consider as  the human capital-investment, much needed to achieve the global goals for Sustainable Development and target of net-zero. I am a strong believer that science, spirituality and sustainability are the foundation for wellbeing of people and peaceful planet. I will cherish this opportunity provided by Green Terre Foundation to contribute to development of India without compromising the dimension of sustainability,” says Bhatkar.