Executive Council Meeting Minutes

Minutes of 78^th SSV Meeting EC Meeting of SSV held on July 13, 2010 at NPL, New Delhi

    The executive council meeting of Society for Scientific Values (SSV) was held on July 13, 2010 at NPL and it was presided by Prof. K. L. Chopra. The meeting was attended by Drs. K. L. Chopra, P. N. Tiwari, Bimla Buti, Sisir Sen, Indira Nath, S. N. Singh, Bikash Raymahashay, Indra Mani, J. C. Sharma, Santa Chawla and R. K. Kotnala.

The following decisions were taken by EC:

 1.     The minutes of the last meeting were confirmed.

 2.    Next issue of News & Views should be ready immediately further, members were requested to contribute articles in N & V.

 3.     Members were in favour of open access information system must be adopted by DST and other funding agencies for public funded projects to establish a transparent funding system. It was decided that SSV President shall write a strong letter on this issue to all funding authorities and same to be reproduced in News & Views.

4.      In the last AGM of SSV, a committee was formed to prepare course lecture/reading material on Ethical Issues- Values & Conduct. Committee shall prepare a set of different kind of lectures for inculcating scientific values in science students & research scholars and also to prepare a comprehensive account of norms & ethics of scientific research development and administration. Later course is to be posted on our Open Access Website. Some modifications have been suggested in the committee composition as:

(i)   Dr. Indira Nath (Bioethics)- Coordinator

(ii)  Dr. Raghu Ram (Bioethics)

(iii)  Dr. Indramani (Agriculture)

(iv)  Dr. S. Satyanarayana of  ICMR

(v)  Dr. Sujeet Choudhary, IIT Delhi.

(vi)  Prof. Bikash Raymahashay (Environmental Ethics)

(vii)  Dr. P. N. Tiwari- Convener

   A detailed discussion was held on the basic nature of teaching material document preparation. EC decided teaching material level on ethics should be for M. Sc. and Ph. D students. Plagiarism portion is to be written by Dr. Indramani it was suggested by Dr. P. N. Tiwari. Prof. Indira Nath proposed to include science code of conduct in the course material. Also, it was decided to incorporate lot of examples on Plagiarisation in the course content to make it more lucid for readers.

5.         The EC discussed the some of previous & new cases of scientific misconduct and decided as follows:

(i)      Prof. Yamini B. Tripathi from BHU had approached SSV to seek a support/help to expose the biasness and high headedness of UK scientists, towards their group research work, to international scientific community. Her case summary was discussed in the meeting and members suggested that SSV may not be a good help to her on the basis of prima-face of the case. Therefore no further action is desired on this.

(ii)      The alleged scientific misconduct and plagiarisation of the paper by Nuclear Science Center & IIT Delhi, this case is to be posted at SSV website.

(iii)     ICMR, Ph. D student’s thesis work has been published as a paper in journal by his Co-supervisor. They have been acknowledged in the published paper. EC requested to Prof. K. L. Chopra to write a letter to Co-supervisor’s unethical act for seeking apology  from student & other supervisor.

6.         The grant proposal submitted to DST by SSV is to be reminded to DST by Dr. Indramani.

7.         A proposal put forwarded by travel company to pay advertisement charges to SSV by linking SSV website within it was discussed in meeting and the proposal was not accepted by members. 

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to chair.

      R. K. Kotnala

      Secretary, SSV

Minutes of 77^th EC Meeting of SSV held on Dec. 31, 2009 at NPL, New Delhi

  The EC meeting was attended by DRs, K. L. Chopra, Vikram Kumar, P. N. Srivastav, P. N. Tewari, Bimla Buti, S. Sen, R. K. Kotnala, Hari Kishan, Indramani Mishra, and Santa Chawla.  The following decisions were taken: 

1. 76^th EC meeting minutes were approved.
2. Dr. R. K. Kotnala and Dr. Hari Kishan appraised of the progress in income tax related work of SSV.  Society has been granted income tax registration U/S 12A from the assessment year 2010–11 by Director, IT (exemption).  For SSV income tax 80 G(5) exemption and PAN Card request applications have been filed. 
3. It was decided to pay Rs.10000/- to C.A. Company S. B. Garg & Co, Delhi – 7 for providing its services for IT related work. 
4. Prof. K. L. Chopra donated Rs.5000/- to Society as corpus fund which he received as honorarium from Patna. 
5. Treasurer informed members that 2008 – 09 accounts of SSV have been audited and as per balance sheet on March 31, 2009 Rs.10,22,363 corpus fund, Rs.94,000 interest accured and Rs.54000 funds are available in bank account.    
6. Secretary is to remind DST for grant proposal already submitted by Society.
7. The following nominations of new members were approved:

1.Prof.Aleksander De Majo, Professor of Modern Literature, Belgrade; Serbia.  aleksandar_de_majo@yahoo.com

2.Dr. P. Sujatha Devi, Scientist CGCRI, Kolkata–70032.  psujathadevi@cgcri.res.in, psujathadevi@gmail.com

3.Dr. Anterpreet Singh, Head Deptt. of Applied Sciences, B. K. S. Engg. College, Amritsar.  apsingh_76@yahoo.co.in

4.Dr. Gautam Sridhar, Scientist, NRCMAP, Anand, Gujrat.  gautam2000@yahoo.com

5.Dr. Rakesh Kr. Singh, Patna Women’s College, Patna. 

6.Prof. N. M. Ramaswamy, Foundation for R&D & Biotechnology Centre, Anna University, Coimbatore.  nmrfrd@yahoo.co.in

8. An American author has complained against Dr. P. K. Nagar for allegedly, who copied his article and published in N&V, March 2009 issue of SSV.  This act was condemned by EC members and decided to blacklist Dr. Nagar for future publishing articles in SSV.  On this misconduct a corrigendum is to be issued in N&V.  After a discussion it was concluded that 500 hard copies of N&V to be published for each issue. 
9. For fifth Paintal Memorial Lecture to be held in Feb/March 2010 Dr. E. Sreedharan name has been recommended by Dr. Tewari.  Further it was suggested to purchase a proper momento of worth Rs.3000/- (approx.) for honouring to speaker.
10. Different cases of plagarisation were discussed in meeting:

(i)                  M. Srinivasan & T. Srinivasan’s seven papers have been retracted by Journal CIYAM.  On this a summary is to be prepared and put it on website.  This practice should be adopted in general for all cases under discussion. 

(ii)                AIIMS Dr. Ishayat a senior doctor’s review article has been retracted. 

(iii)               Dr. Parada Saradhi wrote to SSV a complaint against VC of Delhi University for using his student’s work in a project of biotechnology by VC during 2001 in south campus of DU.  He briefed the case before EC today.  The members opinion on this case was that no evidence could be pinpointed against VC involvement in it

(iv)              A senior scientist, Dr. Ajay Acharya, from Dhanbad complained against Dr. B. Dhar who has been awarded by NRDC recently on his work developed in 1986 and it was published in 1992.  On this matter a letter would be written by SSV President to NRDC and subsequently its follow up is to be taken up. 

(v)                Dr. Krishnamurthy data has been cooked up in 12 – 13 papers published in JBC, who is associated with NIH in USA.  It is decided to hoist its summary on SSV website. 

(vi)              A complaint of plagarisation has been received for Director of NIT, Surat whereas Prof. Goverdhan Mehta is the chairman of board.  Prof. Chopra has been requested to write to Prof. Mehta on the issue.  

(vii)             NIT, Allahabad faculty members have plagarised three papers from IIT Delhi.  NIT Director wants to know as what can be done on this?  Prof. Chopra suggested Director to constitute a Enquiry Committee on it. 

 There are more cases to be discussed due to time constraint next meeting will take care of those.  

11. Certain Changes in members of Executive Committee shall be carried out in the annual meeting, it was suggested by President. 

The meeting was concluded with a vote of thanks to chair.   

R. K. Kotnala

Secretary, SSV

 Minutes of the 76^th Meeting held at NPL, New Delhi on Sept. 25, 2009

               The 76^th meeting of the EC of SSVwas held at NPL on Sept 25, 2009.THefollowing members attended the meeting: Prof. K. L. Chopra, Prof. B. Buti, Dr. R. K. Kotnala, Dr. K. Satyanarayan, Dr. J. C. Sharma, Dr. N. Raghuram, Prof. P. B. Sharma and Dr. I. M. Mishra. The president welcomed Prof. P. B. Sharma, the newly nominated member to  the EC . 

1. The minutes of  thwe 75^th EC meeting were approved. 

2. EC decided  that, to economise, only 300 copies of the next News & Views (N&V)  be printed . The e-version of N&V should be posted on our website immediately. We must continue to promote the culture of sending soft copies of N&V to all SSV members.

3. A one day national symposium on “Ethics in Science & Technology” was organized  jointly by Patna Women’s College, Patna University and SSV on Aug. 22, 2009.  The Symposium was presided over by Prof. K. L. Chopra and inaugurated by Prof. Shyam Lal Vice Chancellor, Patna University Dr. R. K. Kotnala was present as the  Guest of Honour.  The symposium had an overwhelming response with a participation of more than 350 delegates , including 6 vice chancellors of Bihar universities.  A  summary of the outcome of the Symposium  will  be written by Dr. Kotnala for  the forthcoming News & Views of SSV.  To honour  our commit to partially support the Symposium which has cost about Rs 75000 to the organizers , namely  Patna Women’s College, the EC decided to pay Rs.25,000/-  as our contribution, It needs to be  recorded  that  the TA of Dr Kotnala was paid by the organisers . The TA of Prof KL Chopra was paid by the new IIT Patna  where Prof Chopra delivered  a public lecture. Also , the organizers have paid Rs 5000 to Prof Chopra as honorarium for his lecture. Prof Chopra has  decioded  to donate this honorarium of Rs 5000 to SSV
4. Prof. K. L. Chopra apparised members about the International Conference on “Science & Spirituality”  being organized by ………… and which will be held at MNNIT, Allahabad during 15 – 17 Jan. 2010.  Further, he informed that SSV has been requested by the organisers  to  conduct a workshop on  Research and Academic Ethics”  during the  conference . Accordingly ,.  Prof. K L Chopra & Prof. P B Sharma  will  be  convenors of this workshop.

5. Prof. P. B. Sharma proposed to organize an international conference on “Scientific Values & Professional Morality”  jointly by SSV and Delhi Technological University.  The EC endorsed the idea and requested Prof Sharma to be the Convenor of the conferencewas

6. Dr. Kotnala informed the  EC on  the progress on income tax exemption efforts made for SSV under 12 A Act,.An application  has  been filed in the  IT Office.  EC members  urged Dr Kornala  and his colleagues in NPL  to expedite the process of getting the approval

7. After due deliberations , the EC approved the nomination of the following new members. The secretary was advised that in  case the elected members donot pay the membership fee, their names should be struck off and the same should be conveyed to the elected mebers.  The elected mebers are :Dr.Manoj Kumar,MNIT Faculty,Maths Deptt.  In response to the request of Dr Raghuram ,a discussion   on whether SSV should take  a stand  on Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT)  and accordingly write a  letter to the US President,Mr. Barack Obama. The majority of the EC members were of the view that such issues  were not  within   the preview of SSV.

8. The following cases of plagiarism under investigation  were discussed:

(i)                  The EC discussed about indifferent attitude of Prof. Deepak Pental, Vice Chancellor of DU, towards the plagiarized papers from DU faculty members.  He is not responding to SSV in any of the cases raised by SSV.  It was resolved that once more president will write to Prof. Pental on the issue, if no reply is received then DU cases shall be posted to SSV Website.

(ii)                Dr …………,an assistant professor from NIT, Allahabad has plagiarized  and published several   papers  . The  President  has written to the Director to conduct an investigation. The Director is rather reluctant. If no  further progress is made , the EC aauthorises  the posting of this case on our website.

(iii)               Dr. Kumar, the director of NERIST   who has been charged with plagiarism, remains suspended for over three years . He continues to draw salary without doing any work. Despite inquiry committee reports andreminders, MHRD has taken no decision so far whether to  dismiss him or reinstate him. The EC  advised the President to  write to the Minster , HRD in this connection. The case as posted on our website may however be updated  

(iv)              Dr. Roy’s case of dismissal from NIPER needs updating in the light of the report of the Inquiry Committee set up by the ChairmanThe committee  has vindicated Dr Roy and has recommended  his  reinstatement . Our website may accordingly be updated

(v)                President shall write a letter to the Director CDRI, Lucknow to precipitate the facts and authenticity in case of Dr. Mukul Yadav’s scientific frauds deeds.  

9.   Prof. P. B. Sharma proposed to prepare a document by SSV on code of conduct    for research & academic interest for education in DTU.  EC accepted the proposal.  More details can be chalked out later on.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to  the Chair. 

      R. K. Kotnala

      Secretary, SSV

Minutes of the 75th EC meeting of SSV held on 6th Apiril 2009 at NPL, New Delhi
 

The Executive Council meeting of Society for Scientific Values (SSV) was held on 6th April 2009 at 3 pm in NPL under the chairmanship of Prof. K. L. Chopra.

The meeting was attended by Drs. K L Chopra, P.N.Srivastava, N. Raghuram,
R K.Kotnala, Indramani Mishra, Hari Kishan,  J C Sharma,
Sisir Sen, P N Tiwari and Bimla Buti. 

First of all, the members expressed their condolences for the sad demise of Dr. Ajit Ram Verma, founder member.  The members observed 2 minutes silence to pay homage to him .It was decided that the Secretary will send our condolence message to the bereaved family of Dr. A. R. Verma.

The minutes of the last meeting were confirmed.

The EC decided as follows;

1. The Secretary updated the EC on the progress made for getting Income Tax Exemption for SSV.  Further he informed that the annual report of SSV has been submitted to DST.  It was decided that the annual report and the fund utilisation report should be sent to AICTE soon.

2. Dr. P. N. Tewari requested to be relieved from the Editorship of New & Views magazine. It was decided that Dr. Santa Chawla be designated as the Editor.  Dr. Tewari was requested to serve as advisory committee member of N & V which he agreed 

3. Dr. Kotnala informed that Miss Preeti, was hired as a technical assistant at a consolidated payment of Rs.4000/- p.m. for the International Conference on Magnetism work.  She has worked very satisfactorily. The Secretary requested that her services be utilized for the SSV office work.  The EC approved her appointment for the SSV work w.e.f. 1st April 2009 at a consolidated salary of Rs.4000/- p.m.

4. Dr. Radesh Suri, Joint Secretary informed that he will not be able to write the book on Ethical Values due to his other engagements. The president will explore possibilities of involving   other members of SSV or suitable academics for the purpose. The recent publication of the US Academy of Sciences in this connection will be circulated by the President as a guideline for such a publication

5. The EC discussed the various previous and new cases of scientific misconduct and decided as follows;

(i). After in depth analysis of Dr. Babbar's case, it is once again concluded that there is only a mild recycling of the contents from one of his papers to another. The later published in a Conference Proceedings, according to Dr. Babbar, was neither communicated nor presented by him. The same be posted on the SSV website. 

(ii). The alleged scientific misconduct and plagiarisation of the papers of his predecessor by Prof Dyanand Dongaonkar , Secretary General , Association of Indian Universities has been  investigated and verified. Prof Dongaonkar and all members of the Executive Council of AIU have been requested to give their comments. However, despite two reminders,SSV has not heard anything. The EC decided to post this case on the website

(iii). Mr Rait ,  a PhD student of  the Electronics Department of the South Delhi Campus of  DU,  being guided  by Profs  Bhatnagar, P C Mathur and Sengupta has published the same  research  paper  twice with different titles in two  different international journals,The President reported that SSV has brought this serious case of plagiarism twice   to the attention of  Prof Deepak  Pental,VC of DU , Prof Dinesh Singh,the   Director of South Delhi Campus of DU, Prof Verma , the Head of the Electronics Department and the supervisors of the student. None of these academics has responded, inquired into, or take any action on this very clear case of plagiarism by a Ph D student who was on the verge of getting his Ph.D from the University.The EC decided that this case be  posted on SSV website. 

(iv). EC decided that  the  cases of  (a)complaints of biased editors   by Profs Karmeshu of JNU, and Sitaramam , (b) plagiarisation by Profs Krishnan  and Selladurai which  have been verified   be posted on the SSV website. Dr. Raghuram be requested to summarise the   cases for posting.  

(v)  Dr Raghuram is requested to summarise   the involvement of SSV as a co-signatory of the PIL on vaccine filed in the Supreme Court. The same be posted on our website

6. The resignation of Prof. Ram Pal Tandon from the EC membership was accepted since he expressed inability to spare time for SSV activity. The EC  approved  the nomination of Prof  PB Sharma , Director , DCE  pbsharma48@yahoo.co.in  as a member to replace Prof Tandon.

7.  Following nominations were approved by the EC for membership of SSV:-
i.  Prof. N. Jaganathan, AIIMS    "N.R. JAGANNATHAN" <jagan1954@hotmail.com>
ii. Dr. Nahar Singh Mehta CSIO, Chandigarh nsmehla@rediffmail.com
iii. Dr. Kulwinder Singh CSIO, Chandigarh  kulvindersingh1956@yahoo.co.in
iv. Dr.Vijay Kumar, ICMR kumarv@icmr.org.in  

8. The  EC considered a proposal  by the  Patna  Women’s College, Patna  to hold a one day seminar on Ethical values in S&T  during August , 2009 and approved that SSV  will bear reasonable  expenses  on food & tea  for the participants in the conference. Similar arrangement is approved for the Punjab University in case it wishes to organize a similar seminar 

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

R.K. Kotnala

Secretary, SSV

Minutes of the 16^TH AGM and 73^rd EC Meeting of SSV held on 6th Apiril 2009 at NPL, New Delhi


    The Executive Council meeting of Society for Scientific Values (SSV) was held on 6th April 2009 at 3 pm in NPL under the chairmanship of Prof. K. L. Chopra   (President of SSV).

 The meeting was attended by Drs. K L Chopra, ,P.N.Srivastava, N. Raghuram, R K.Kotnala, Indramani Mishra,  Hari Kishan,  J C Sharma, Sisir Sen, P N Tiwari and Bimla Buti. The following decisions were taken
    Prof. Chopra welcomed all the members.  
First of all the members expressed their condolences for the sad demise of Prof. Ajit Ram Verma, founder member.  The members observed 2 minutes silence to pay homage to him and it was decided that condolence message will be sent to the bereaved family of Prof. A. R. Verma.

The minutes of the last meeting were deliberated and approved unanimously.

The Hony. Secretary (R. K. Kotnala) informed to all the members about progress made for getting Income Tax Exemption for SSV.  Further he informed about submission of report submitted to DST.  It was also decided that the utilization of fund/report will be sent to AICTE soon (in near future).

Dr. P. N. Tewari requested to get him relieved from Editorship of New & Views magazine and Dr. Santa Chawla shall take this responsibility. President requested Dr. Tewari to be in advisory role for N & V.  It was agreed upon by EC members.

Dr. Kotnala informed that Miss Preeti, was hired at a consolidated payment of Rs.4000/- p.m. for the International Conference on Magnetism work.  She has worked very satisfactorily and requested that her services to be utilized for the SSV office work.  All the members unanimously agreed that her services should be utilized for the SSV work w.e.f. 1st April 2009 at a consolidated salary of Rs.4000/- p.m.

Dr. Radesh Suri, Joint Secretary informed that book writing on ethics job may be given to someone else due to his paucity of time.

Prof. P. N. Srivastava suggested to hire anexpert to write book on ethics in Science & Engineering.  Here, Dr. P. N. Tewari showed his interest to write such book and asked for some help from Prof. K. L. Chopra.

It was further decided that Prof. Chopra will contact US Academy of Sciences for course work on ethics and will send the information to other members particularly to Dr. P. N. Tiwari through e-mail.

There was a lot of discussion about Dr. Babbar’s (Delhi University) case Dr. Raghuram informed about Prof. Babbar’s papers, template copying etc.  After a lot of discussions it was concluded that Dr. Babbar has recycled some of the portion from his own papers in proceedings.  In this context Dr. Raghuram was requested to enquire whether any inquiry against Dr. Babbar is pending with Aquatic Botany Journal or not.

It was also decided that the case of Ph.D. student of Delhi University, who has published two papers with different titles with almost the same text, this case may be put on the website of the SSV.

Prof. Ram Pal Tandon’s resignation from the EC membership of SSV has been accepted as he is unable to spare time for this activity.

Following new members nominations have been approved:-
1.     Prof. N. Jaganathan ,AIIMS
2.     Dr. Nahar Singh Mehta CSIO, Chandigarh
3.     Dr. Randhawa (already approved in the earlier EC meeting)
4.     Dr. Kulwinder Singh CSIO, Chandigarh
5.      Dr.Vijay Kumar,  ICMR
    Many other cases of plagarisation such as Sitaraman’s Science
Congress, Randhawa’s Secretary General AIU were discussed and resolved that sensitive cases should be put on the website of SSV.

Dr. Kotnala informed EC that a conference on Ethics in August 2009 can be organized at Patna Women’s College, Patna provided SSV bears the expenses involved on food & tea in the conference.  The arrangement was agreed upon, further he informed the same intention of Punjab University for organizing a conference on ethics, it was unanimously accepted.

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Condolence Message

    We EC members of the Society for Scientific Values (SSV), New Delhi deeply mourn the sudden demise of Dr. A. R. Verma, Ex – Director NPL and a founder member of SSV was a dedicated, hard working and good natured scientist.  His passing away has saddened our hearts.  We pray the almighty to grant peace and eternal bliss to the departed soul & give strength to the bereaved family to bear the loss.

(K. L. Chopra)
President, SSV

Minutes of the 72nd EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

The president welcomed Mr. Rajesh Jain from “Expression”  and invited him to  present  his proposal, sponsored by SONY, to nurture scientific temper among school students all over the country in collaboration with SSV .  “Expressions” shall be Event Manager to execute the  whole project on behalf of SONY and SSV shall act as quiz master and advisor on academic matters.  . SONY will  contribute   Rs. ten lakhs to the Corpus fund of SSV .

 During the presentation of Mr. Jain the following EC members were present: Dr. Vikram Kumar, 2. Prof. K. L. Chopra, 3. Prof. S. K. Sen, 4. Dr. J. C. Sharma, 5. Dr. R. K. Suri & 6. Dr. R. K. Kotnala.

1.      EC discussed this offer from“Expression” and generally agreed that  the project shall enhance awareness of scientific values among school students and teachers all over India . However , the President  suggested that he will write to other members of SSV  to seek their views.If no serious objections are received, the President will convey to Expression an “in-principle” approval of SSV

2.      Minutes of the 71^st EC meeting were confirmed with a slight modifications on the decision of two cases  of Prof. P. C. Mathur, Prof. Bhatnagar, Delhi University and Dr. Shashi Babbar from Delhi University. The President agreed to write another letter to the VC  requesting him to take an appropriate action   It was also felt that Dr. Babbar’s case may be discussed in next EC for further in depth analysis.

3.      A proposal for a  book on Ethics in S&T ,to be written by Dr. R. Suri and others,  was placed before the  EC by Dr. Suri.  A lot of discussion took place on  the book plan.  Different suggestions were given on chapter structure and content of the proposed book.  It was decided to discuss this plan in the next EC meeting after Dr Suri includes the suggestions from EC members and a synopsis of the proposed book  is  presented.

4.      Dr. Vikram Kumar suggested that the Director General of I.S.O. be requested to consider an ISO standard  for Ethics in S&T

5.      The nominations of new members were approved:

i.             Prof. Uttam Pati, JNU, E-mail: uttamkpati@yahoo.co.in

ii.           Prof. Tarun Kant, IIT Bombay.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to chair.

R. K. Kotnala

Secretary, SSV

Minutes of the 71st EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

Prof. Chopra welcomed newly elected EC team and thanked outgoing EC team members for their contributions.

 Newly Elected EC for 2008-11

President: Prof. K. L. Chopra (Former Director, IIT Kharagpur)

Vice President: Dr. Vikram Kumar (Director, NPL)

Secretary: Dr. R. K. Kotnala (Scientist, NPL)

Jt Secretary: Prof. Radesh Suri (Apeejay School of Management)

Treasurer: Dr. Indramani Mishra (Scientist, ICAR)

 Immediate Past President: Prof. P M Bhargava (Founder Director, CCMB)

Immediate Past Secretary: Dr. N Raghuram (Faculty, GGSIP University)

 Members: Prof. Bimla Buti (Former Prof., PRL), Dr. J. C. Sharma (NPL), Dr. Harikishan (NPL), Prof. Sisir Sen (Formerly, Dean IIT Kharagpur), Dr. Anand Akhila (Scientist, CIMAP, Lucknow) ; Prof. Ram Tandon (Physics Dept., DU)

Special Invitees: Prof. P. N. Srivastava (Former VC, JNU & Member, Planning Commission) ; Dr. A. R. Verma (Former Director, NPL)

Editor Publications: Dr. P. N. Tiwari (Former Director, NRL, IARI)

Associate Editor: Dr. Santa Chawla (Scientist, NPL)

Editorial Board Members : Dr. S. R. Valluri (Former Director, NAL); Dr. Bikash Raymahashay (Former Prof. IIT Kanpur); Prof. S. Sen (Former Dean, IIT Kharagpur), Dr. Vinod Gaur (CMMACS, Bangalore); Dr. P. K. Nagar (Former Prof., BHU) 

1. Minutes of the 70^th meeting were confirmed.
2. A request was made to Secretary & Dr. Indramani Mishra to prepare annual reports of SSV to submit DST & AICTE for grant-in-aid drawn from them.
3. The amount of FDS of society in bank to be transferred to endowment/corpus fund.  This fund also includes membership fees.
4. The President informed that the former President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam has declined our request to deliver next Paintal Memorial Lecture.  So, for this Mr. Sam Pitroda has been requested, if he also finds no time then CSIR Director General is to be requested for it. 
5. SSV joins PIL against the Vaccine, more details on it is to be supplied by Dr. Raghu Ram.
6. A SSV seminar request is to be organized at BHU, Varanasi & DCE, Delhi premise.  This is to be coordinated by Prof. K. L. Chopra & Dr. Anand Akhila, Dr. Raghuram has also been requested for facilitating to hold a SSV seminar at JNU.
7. The following different cases have been discussed:

(i)                  Dr. S. B. Babbar’s case was discussed in detail to know the seriousness of self-plagarism in his papers published earlier.  EC took note of all details discussed and concluded that some of the contents from one paper to another paper were recycled but it is of mild nature and nothing serious was found.  Further, it was decided to communicate this message to Delhi University Vice Chancellor.

(ii)               IEEE/Publications decision on the appeal of Prof. Kameshu to investigate his work plagiarized by Dr. D. Kouvatsos:

“The adhoe committee has determined that the insufficient attribution in the paper by Dr. Kouvatsos was not done deliberately, but was the result of a poorly edited revision of an earlier paper that had used and attributed your (Prof. Kameshu) work.  In light of this, the committee has recommended that the prohibition of publication be lifted from Dr. Kouvatsos.  In order to attribute any material in this paper that is your work, a Notice of Violation will be added to the paper with a credit to you.  If you can post the paper online and provide a link to the unpublished text, we will include the link to your paper on the Notice”.

(iii)               Prof. Kalyan Kumar, Director, NERIST, Imphal has been removed from Directorship after a long battle of SSV with Board of the Institute.

(iv)              Prof. P. C. Mathur, Delhi University has been charged with plagiarism by press information.  EC decided to put on this information on SSV Website for public view.

(v)                IIT, Guwahati case of plagiarism by severe-persuation of Prof. K. L. Chopra has been settled out of court.

(vi)              Lot of discussion was held on Prof. Uagle, case who has been awarded prestigious Ramanujam fellowship and a position in NCL, Pune, in spite of his past tainted personality with doubtful integrity.  Although his academic record is of high calibre. EC took a view that a brief of it may be put on SSV Website with a note stating that authority must ensure high moral values & integrity of awardee besides academic high acclamations prior to selection process begins for such prestigious fellowship.  Such request can also be forwarded by President SSV to higher authorities.

8. Dr. Pushpa Bhargava has been nominated by Government as court representative for case hearing on GM crops being securtinising by Supereme Court.  EC requests him to write an article on it for News & Views of SSV.
9. A. suggestion was made by Prof. S. Sen to write to Journals for template making for papers published by them to minimize plagiarism.  Also Mr. Radesh Suri suggested to set up Blog on website.
10. Further, a decision was taken to enhance life membership subscription fee Rs.1000 from Rs.500 with immediate effect.
11. The EC approved membership of:

(i)                  Dr. Karuppiah Murugan, Head ARC, IARC, Hyderabad (murugan77@sify.com)

(ii)                Prof. Sri Niwas, Earth Science Dept. IIT Roorkee (srsnpfes@iitr.ac.in)

(iii)               Dr. Chakojacob, Dept. of Materials Science & Engg., IIT Kharagpur (cxj14_holiday@yahoo.com)

(iv)              Prof. A. K. Narula Polymer chem., (IP Univ.), Delhi (aknarula58@gmail.com)

(v)                Dr. Rashmi, NPL, Delhi

(vi)              Prof. H. S. Randhawa, Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, DU (hsrandh5@yahoo.co.in)

(vii)             Prof. Avinash Sharma, School of Basic Sciences, Delhi Univ.

(viii)           Dr. P. S. Goel Former Secretary, Earth Sciences Ministry, (dodsec@dod.delhi.nic.in)

(ix)              Dr. Gutam Sridhar, NRCMAP, Boriavi Anand, Gujrat, (gutam2000@yahoo.com).

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to chair. 

Sd/-

R. K. Kotnala

Secretary, SSV.

Minutes of the 70^th Meeting of EC held at 4pm on July 8,2008 at NPL 

1. Minutes of the 69^th meeting were confirmed.
2. Arising out of the minutes,  the Treasurer and Secretary were requested to expedite sending  of the Annual Reports of SSV to AICTE and DST
3. Drs Kotnala and Harikishan were requested to follow up on our application  for a Tax Exemption Certificate
4. The EC gratefully acknowledges the receipt of Rs 10,000 from BHU as institutional membership. Dr Kotnala is requested to send a formal receipt to BHU
5. The EC approved setting up a separate “ Corpus Fund” account for  donations from CSIR ,  Excel Crop Care Ltd,  BHU, RGTU, etc received for the purpose. Accordingly , SSV will  use only the interest/dividend  from the Corpus for its routine expenditure.
6. The President informed that the former President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam has been requested  to deliver the next Paintal Memorial Lecture at a date convenient to him
7. EC discussed  several cases of misconduct/plagiarism which are being  pursued by SSV.Whatever EC decides at its next meeting , summary of these cases will be posted on our  SSV website.
8. The EC approved  membership of : 1. Dr Karuppiah Murugan , Head, ARC, Hyderabad : email ID ; murugan77@sify.com ,

2. Prof Sri Niwas , Earth Science Dept , IIT Roorkee, Email ID:srsnpfes@iitr.ac.in

3.Dr ChakoJacob , Dept  Materials Science &Eng , IIT Kharagpur ;email ID:cxj14_holiday@yahoo.com

9. The term of the present EC comes to an end on July 31. The EC discussed  the constitution                     of the  new EC and proposes the following slate for the next three years for consideration by the  SSV membership by circulation through email ,as per  revised procedure adopted  by an earlier  AGM. Accordingly , the slate is: 

President : Prof  K L Chopra ( Former Director , IIT Kharagpur) 

Vice President : Dr Vikram Kumar ( Director , NPL) 

Secretary : Dr R.K Kotnala ( Scientist , NPL) 

Jt Secretary : Prof  Radesh  Suri ( Apeejay School of Mangement )

Treasurer : Dr Indramani Mishra ( Scientist , ICAR) 

Immediate Past President : Prof P M Bhargava ( Founder Director, CCMB) 

Immediate Past  Secretary: Dr  N  Raghuram ( Faculty,GGSIP University) 

Members : Prof Bimla Buti ( Former Prof , PRL) , Dr J C Sharma (NPL), Dr Harikishan(NPL),Prof Sisir Sen (Formerly,Dean IITKharagpur), Dr Anand Akhila ( Scientist , CIMAP, Lucknow) ; Prof Ram Tandon ( Physics Dept, DU) 

Special Invitees : Prof PN Srivastava( Former VC ,JNU & Member , Planning Commisson) ; Dr A R Verma ( Former Director, NPL) 

Editor Publications : Dr P N Tiwari ( Forrmer Director, NRL, IARI)

Associate Editor : Dr  Santa Chawla ( Scientist, NPL) 

Editorial Board Members : Dr SR Valluri ( Former Director, NAL); Dr Bikash Raymahashay (Former Prof IITKanpur);Prof S Sen ( Former Dean ,IIT Kharagpur), Dr Vinod Gaur (CMMACS,Bangalore );Dr P K Nagar ( FormerProf, BHU) 

Minutes of the 69th EC meeting of SSV held on 7th May 2008 at NPL, New Delhi 

1.      The meeting was attended by Drs. KL Chopra, Vikram Kumar, N. Raghuram, RK Kotnala, Indramani Mishra, PS Datta, Hari Kishan, Santa Chawla, JC Sharma, Sisir Sen, PN Tiwari and Bimla Buti. The following decisions were taken: 

2.      The minutes of the 68th EC meeting have been approved. 

3.      The SSV membership list and contact list needs to be updated urgently. Dr. JC Sharma has been entrusted with this task.The exisiting list  should  be sent  to the EC members  for  their possible  help in updating the list.The list will be posted on the website as well as communicated to all the EC members, and their email addresses will be added to the addressbook of the scientificvalues@gmail.com. In order to facilitate regular updates to the email and contact lists, a message may be posted on the SSV website. 

4.      The Secretary will prepare the progress reports to be submitted to DST and AICTE, based on the financial utilisation and activity details to be provided by Dr. Indramani MIshra and Dr. K.L.Chopra. 

5.      The Secretary will finalise a new webhost based in Delhi for maintaining the SSV domain and website. 

6.      The EC approves the donation and institutional membership of Excel Crop Care ltd , Mumbai  and BHU 

7.      Dr. PN Tiwari requested all the members to contribute original articles by July for the next edition of the SSV newsletter scheduled for Aug 2008. 

8.      The SSV EC resolves that open public access of all the data and information is required for independent scrutiny of all regulatory exercises, including (but not limited to) drug approvals, clinical trials, field trials of crops, environment impact assessments, enquiries into misconduct in S&T and other technical enquiries. SSV firmly believes that all regulatory exercises are primarily scientific exercises and the objectivity, credibility and inherent superiority of any scientific exercise arises from its availability for independent scrutiny, verifiability and correction, if needed. Therefore, All the data considered by the relevant regulatory agencies must be made publicly available (eg. online) in the interest of transparent governance, credibility of the regulatory processes and winning public confidence. 

9.      Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam will be approached for delivering the AS Paintal memorial lecture of SSV for 2008. 

10.  The EC discussed the issue of administrative superiors (Heads of departments, directors etc) often happily lending  their names as coinvestigators or collaborators to their junior staff in exchange for coauthorships in the publications that emerge from the so-called collaboration, without making any scientific contributions to the project per se. This system leads to unethical practices such as : 1) sycophancy by the young PI eventually becoming a norm in the deptt; 2) Young PI [WINDOWS-1252?]‘selling’ the name of a better known/connected senior as a co-I to enhance the chances of funding 3) Seniors in powerful administrative positions unfairly exploiting their younger colleagues. Therefore, SSV suggests that all funding agencies make it mandatory for the [WINDOWS-1252?]co—investigators (especially those in administrative positions) to clearly spell out their role and scientific contributions to the project, and the reviewers asked to evaluate this information to ensure that only those who make significant scientific contributions are retained as coinvestigators.  

11.  Further, members of the program advisory committee (or equivalent) of a funding agency should not be allowed to submit proposals under the same committee for funding, as it creates serious conflicts of interest that cannot be easily resolved by other means. 

12.  These views need to brought to the attention of all concerned through our website,and News &Views 

13.  The President is requested to contact UNESCO for a possible joint seminar. 

14.  Update of Cases under investigation :

1. Prof Kalyan  Kumar, Director ,NERIST: Prof Kumar has been suspended by the Board of the Institute. Prof Barua, Director IITG has been asked by the high court to investigate the case. SSV has agreed to send a nominee in the committee.

 2. Prof Ranjit Singh, Director ,NSIT:  On our request , the Pricipal Secretary, Delhi State Govt has indicated that the case of misconduct  will be placed before the [WINDOWS-1252?]insitute’s Board  at its next meeting.

3. Dr. Gopal Kundu, Scientist, NCCS : Another paper of Dr kundu has been withdrawn by Glycoconjugate Journal (Proceedings of the 7th ICSM conference), as it had data and contents from one of his previously published papers (JBC 2004). In the meantime, Dr. Kundu published the contents of his 2005 paper withdrawn by JBC in Oncology Reports, 2007. According to him, [WINDOWS-1252?]“I took the decision to send new data from repetitive experiments (scientific content being the same) to Oncology Reports and the same was accepted after peer [WINDOWS-1252?]review”.

 4. Prof Mathur , TIFR has been charged  with plagiarism.   A TIFR committee has  verified the charge and the institute has  given awarning to Prof  Mathur

 5. Prof [WINDOWS-1252?]Karmeshu’s complaint to IEEE has been investigated by its IPR committee and has accepted that the paper of Kouvatsos and Assi in the IEEE proceedings has partial similarity to the unpublished manuscript of Prof. Karmeshu. However, identifying this partial similarity has level 3 msiconduct as per its PSBP manual, the IEEE has allowed the plagiarised paper to remain and only banned Kouvatsos from publishing in any if the IEEE publications for a period of 1 year. Prof. Karmeshu has represented to the IEEE against this decision, as it did not offer any relief to him and his paper continues to remain unpublished.

 6. Prof R Singh, IISC (previously from Gurukul Kangri Univ, Haridiwar) has been charged with plagiarism of a paper published by Dr Goddard of Germany. The case is being investigated by Prof. Chandrasekaharan of IISc. Based on the available evidence, it seems to be a clear case of plagiarism.

 7. Prof SC Mishra, IITG  (formerly a PhD student of IITK) has been accused of plagiarism  by Dr David Blank, a former visiting faculty of IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Kharagpur, presently heading a private company in Mussouri. Prof Mishra has inturn accused Dr Blank of forgery. Both have filed cases against each other in the high courts in Guwahati and Mussouri, respectively. The case is being examined by us, but since the matter is subjudice, SSV will not get involved, even though both parties have asked SSV to investigate the whole affair.

 The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

Sd/

N. Raghuram
Secretary, SSV.

Minutes of the 68th EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

Minutes of the 68 th EC meeting held at NPL on March 11, 2008

Drs PN Srivastava, PN Tewari, Bimla Buti, Sisir Sen, Partha Datta, J C Sharma, Santa Chawla, Harikishan, Indramani Mishra, Ravinder Kotnala, and KL Chopra attended the meeting. Drs N. Raghuram and K. Satyanarayana were given leave of absence.

1. The minutes of the 67 th EC meeting were confirmed.

2. It was decided to accept membership and donation from industries subject to the condition that membership will be unconditional, and that membership will be withdrawn if and when the member industry involves in an unethical practice.

3. Nomination of Drs. Abha Chatterjee, RA Blank, S Raisuddin , Bikas Raymahashaya , IP Abrol, and Sunmugan Ganesan for membership were approved. Brief biodata of the nominees has been sent to the Secretary and Joint Secretary who are requested to take immediate action to inform the concerned persons. In view of complaints received by the President that members elected in previous EC meetings have not heard from SSV, the Secretary & Joint Secretary are requested to do the needful.

4. It was decided to seek income tax exemption for SSV, file income tax returns for the year, and also prepare annual report to be submitted to DST and AICTE in the forthcoming financial year. The concerned office bearers of SSV are requested to follow up.

5. It was decided to hold the next seminar on a suitable topic at NPL or IARI, possibly along with Paintal Memorial Lecture. Dr Santa Chawla is requested to coordinate the event.

6. It was decided to expedite hiring part time help for the SSV office. Also, it was decided that we should approach some senior scientists, with an incentive of a suitable honorarium, to write or edit a suitable book/ manual on ethics in S&T for sensitisation of knowledge workers in academic and scientific institutions.

7. SSV has been requested to send a nominee of the President as a member of an Inquiry Committee headed by a High Court Judge to look into the alleged cases of plagiarism by Prof Kumar, the director of NERIST, Itanagar, AP. It was generally felt that if a suitable written statement by SSV could serve the purpose of the inquiry process, participation in person in the committee may be avoided. However, if it is absolutely essential to participate personally, the President will decide after seeking advice from the members.

8. Several on-going cases of scientific misconduct were discussed. It was decided that if no further progress in these cases is possible, a suitable brief summary of these cases may be posted on our website and e-N&V.

9. SSV website updating and maintenance continues to be a problem. It was decided to explore alternative possibilities and all members are requested to provide suggestions and help.

10. It was noted with satisfaction that the next issue of N&V is in the printing press. It was felt that copies of the N&V must reach members either in the e-form or a hard copy form as soon as possible.

11. It was also decided that current brief news of interest to members should be sent periodically through an e-version of N&V.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the chair.

K L Chopra

President , SSV

Minutes of the 67th EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

Minutes of the 67 th EC Meeting held on 13 Dec. 2007 at NPL

The meeting was attended by Drs. K.L.Chopra, Vikram Kumar, N. Raghuram, Indramani Mishra, R.K. Kotnala, Hari Kishan, Santa Chawla and J.C. Sharma. Drs. P.S. Datta, K. Satyanarayana, P.N. Tiwari, Bimla Buti and P.N. Srivastava sent prior information expressing their inability to attend the meeting.

The following decisions were taken

1. The EC confirmed the minutes of the 66 th meeting.

2. The minutes of the AGM were approved with the suggestion to ensure that all the case summaries are included in the President's report. The President has agreed to provide the summaries of the cases that did not find a mention in the earlier version of his report. The EC noted the induction of Dr. R.K. Kotnala as Joint Secretary in place of Dr. Ashima Anand, and Drs Vasantha Muthuswamy, Dr Harikrishna and Dr J C Sharma as members of EC in place of Drs. B B Sharma, Prankishan, and Swaranjit Singh. The EC recorded its appreciation for the service of outgoing EC members.

3. The EC discussed the representation of Dr. K. Satyanarayana in the light of prior information regarding the EC meetings that he was unable to attend. It was decided that he may continue as an active member of the EC. The emails for future EC meetings will be circulated to the current members only.

4. The status of updating the SSV website has been discussed. It was decided that Dr. R.K.Kotnala and Dr. BBG Tilak will handle this task on a regular basis.

5. The EC decided to expedite recruitment of the staff under the AICTE grant.

6. The EC reviewed the progress in various ongoing cases. The President has agreed to circulate a short summary of the progress in the NERIST case and any other ongoing cases.

7. The EC approved the following nominations for the membership of SSV: Dr. Rodrigues, Dr. George, Dr. V.P. Awana.

The meeting ended with thanks to the chair.

N. Raghuram

Secretary, SSV.

Minutes of the 66th EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

Minutes of the 66th EC- SSV Meeting held on Sept 8 at NPL.

Drs P N Srivastava, B. Buti , I Mishra, BB Tilak, Ravinder Kotnala , and K L Chopra attended the meeting. Leave of abscence was granted to Drs P N Tiwari, and P Datta, N Raghuram .

1. The EC confirmed the minutes of the 65th meeting.

2. Arising out of the minutes, the urgent need for an updated list of SSV members with their email IDs was pointed out. The Secretary and Treasurer are requested to do the needful.

3. The EC expressed gratitude to the Director , NPL for providing an office space for SSV in the NPL campus. The need for manning the new office of SSV with a suitable staff on a fixed emolument of a maximum of Rs 5000 per month was discussed and approved for necessary action.Further,the EC approved the purchase of suitable furniture and computer for the new office.

4. The Kundu case was discussed. It was decided that SSV should not be involved in any legal activity, such as PIL, in this case.

5. The plagiarism complaint of Prof. Raju against Dr. Atiyah was discussed in the light of the responses from Dr. Atiyah and the counter-response of Dr. Raju, establishing a prima-facie case. It was decided to place the response of both sides on the SSV website.

6. The EC member,Dr BB Tilak kindly offered to take care of the SSV website in future after undergoing some training .In the meanwhile , Dr Raghuram is requested to update the website.

7. As per the EC decision, the members who have not attended the three EC meetings in a row may be replaced for the rest of the term of the committee. The same may be reported in the forthcoming AGM. The president was asked to wite a letter of thanks to such members for their valuable contributions to SSV.

8. The President mentioned some new cases of misconduct which are being investigated at present

9. Arrangemens for the one day ( 10am to 4pm ) Seminar on Feudalism in Knowledge Institutions to be held at School of Environmental Biology , Delhi University on Oct 24 were discussed and approved. Prof Ram Tandon of DU will be the Convener of the Seminar
   Prof Deepak Pental will be the chief guest on the occasion and he will deliver the third Paintel Memorial Lecture. Among confirmed invited speakers are : Prof KP Powar, former Secretary AIU, Prof PB Sharma, VC, RGUT, Prof Mohan Agarwal, Director, JP Business School, Prof S. Sen former Dean , IIT KGP, Dr S P Seth, and Dr V Sharma. We expect one or two more distinguished speakers for the Seminar.Some SSV members will be given time for interventions.

10. The Seminar will be followed by an AGM at 4;30 pm.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

KL Chopra

President , SSV

Minutes of the 65th EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

Minutes of the 65th EC meeting held on 21st July, 2007 at NPL:

Drs. KL Chopra, Vikram Kumar, N. Raghuram, Indramani Mishra, Ravinder
Kotnala, A.R. Verma, B.B.G. Tilak and Bimla Buti attended the meeting.

1. The minutes of the 64th EC meeting were confirmed.
   
   
2. The matters arising out of the SSV investigation into the Kundu case were
   discussed, including the media coverage as well as the editorial and
   correspondence published in Current Science. It was resolved that SSV
   President should respond to some of the issues raised in relation to this
   case as well as in relation to SSV, through a letter to Current Science
   and/or media as needed. It was also decided that a special edition of the
   SSV New and Views should be published incorporating all the available
   reports, news and correspondence on the Kundu case as a single,
   comprehensive reference source for the future.
   
   
3. The President briefed the EC regarding several other cases that have been
   brought to the attention of the Society in the recent past, and the
   preliminary queries done so far to establish the prima-facie case. The EC
   noted with concern that they include several high-profile names from reputed
   institutions such as IIT-Chennai, NIPER, NSIT and CIMAP and requested the
   President to contact the accused and their employers for their comments and
   give them 4 weeks to defend their position before arriving at a decision.
   
   
4. The EC also noted that at least 3 experts have found that the complaint
   of Dr. C.K Raju against Atiyah is valid, and asked the President to
   ascertain Atiyah's views in this regard.
   
   
5. In view of the increasing instances of misconduct coming to SSV from all
   over India, including some of the well-endowed premier institutions in the
   country, the EC reiterates the earlier demand of SSV that the government of
   India must establish an appropriate autonomous body with legal powers to
   monitor and deters misconduct in the country.
   
   
6. The EC welcomed the suggestion of the Vice-President to expand the
   activities of SSV outside Delhi by forming local chapters or adopting other
   appropriate means.
   
   
7. The EC deliberated on the possibilities of combining the SSV seminar, AGM
   and Paintal Memorial lecture by choosing the date and venue appopriately.
   The topic of the seminar will be "Feudalism in Knowledge Institutions". The
   President has been authorised to contact the various speakers identified for
   this purpose.
   
   
8. The EC resolved to enhance the local travel allowance for the SSV
   meetings from Rs. 200/- to Rs. 300/-.
   
   
9. The EC approved the reimbursement of visa charges of the US embassy, New
   Delhi (Rs. 5,110/-), paid by the Secretary, Dr. N. Raghuram, to obtain visa
   for his participation in the ORI conference in Tampa, Florida, USA and
   poster presentation titled "SSV and the Indian experience" in Dec 2006.
   
   
10. The EC authorzied the Treasurer to renew and/or convert the fixed
    deposits of SSV in order to maximize the financial returns to the society.
    
    
11. The EC records its appreciation to Dr. Vikram Kumar, Director, NPL, for
    providing office space for SSV, which is expected to be ready for occupation
    soon.
    
    
12. The EC records its appreciation to Dr. R.K. Kotnala for his regular help
    in arranging the venue, tea and snacks during the SSV meetings.
    
    
13. SSV reiterates its support to the open access movement and requests the
    government, insitutions and academies to do the needful to set up OA
    archives and make it mandatory for authors to make available their
    publications arising from publicly supported research openly.
    
    
14. The following nominations have been approved for the life membership of
    SSV:
    
    Prof. Sohan P. Modak: spmodak@gmail.com
    09823103418
    
    Prof Gautam Desiraju:  gautam_desiraju@yahoo.com
    School of Chemistry, Univ. of Hyderabad
    
    Dr. (Mrs). Suman Kumari Mishra
    Scientist EII, MST Division, National Metallurgical Lab
    Jamshedpur - 831007
    skm_smp@yahoo.co.in , suman@nmlindia.org
    
    Rekha Gour,
    ACTREC (Formerly CRI), Mumbai
    Cell: 098199 94586, rekhagour@hotmail.com
    
    Prof. Deepak Paintal
    Vice Chancellor, Delhi University
    
    Dr. V.K. Aatree,
    ECE, IISc, Bangalore
    
    
15. The EC meeting ended with vote of thanks to the chair.
    

Minutes of the 64th EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

Minutes of the 64th EC meeting held on 24th Mar. 2007 at NPL:

Drs. KL Chopra, Vikram Kumar, N. Raghuram, Ashima Anand, Indramani Mishra, Ravinder Kotnala, P.N. Srivastava, and P.S. Datta attended the meeting.

1. The minutes of the 63rd EC meeting were confirmed.

2. The results of the SSV's own investigation on the Kundu case were presented and the draft document of the final proceedings on this case was discussed and adopted after incorporating the suggestions from the EC members. This investigation was authorized by resolution no. 2 of the 62nd EC meeting of SSV into the alleged misconduct in the publications of Dr. Kundu's group in JBC. Based on the facts of the case, the list of similarities in the figures identified, the responses of Dr. Kundu and JBC/ASBMB to the queries from SSV, as well as the digital image analysis of the figures in the papers published in 2004 and 2005, it was concluded that Kundu and his co-authors are guilty of falsification/fabrication of data in the papers examined. Accordingly, JBC was justified in withdrawing the 2005 paper from publication, and the Padmanabhan committee was not justified in exonerating the authors of the charges of misconduct. The EC resolves to circulate the findings of the SSV investigation to the authorities concerned for suitable action against the guilty, as well as disseminate the information widely for broader awareness. A copy of the SSV proceedings on this case will be made available on the SSV website.

3. The Mashelkar case of plagiarism in his book on IPR was discussed again, in the light of the positions adopted by SSV in such cases earlier and the standards of ethics used for new members of SSV or new nominees as fellows of INSA. While reiterating that SSV takes a serious note of plagiarism by anyone, it was decided to examine the views of Dr. Mashelkar before taking a position on the matter. SSV also expresses its serious concerns over the controversial recommendations of the Mashelkar committee on certain provisions of the Indian patents act and the attitude of the Indian government to those recommendations.

4. On the issue of open access publishing and the ethics of copyrights, it was agreed that it is ethically desirable for the authors to assert the copyrights over their intellectual work and provide open public access to the publications that arise out of publicly funded research. Without stifling the choice of authors/readers, the government may consider a National Open Access Policy on the following lines:

   The Indian Government (and the various agencies supported by it) expects the authors of
   papers reporting publicly-funded research to maximise the accessibility, usage and applications of their findings. To this end, as a condition for research funding, the Indian Government:
   (a) requires electronic copies of any research papers that have been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, and are supported in whole or in par by Government funding, to be deposited in an institutional digital repository [IR] immediately upon acceptance for publication;
   (b) encourages Government Grant Holders to provide Open Access to their
   deposited papers immediately upon deposit;
   (c) encourages Government Grant Holders to publish in a suitable Open Access Journal where one exists.
   
   5. Regarding new cases, it was decided to obtain more information and take them up for discussion in the next EC meeting.

5. Regarding the News and Views, it was decided to publish it at the earliest with the information available so far, including the proceedings of the Kundu case.

6. The EC resolved that the President, SSV should seek an appointment with the PM and/or President of India to empasise the need for a statutory government mechanism (with legal powers and teeth) to encourage scientific values and enforce research integrity and ethical conduct.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the chair. 

N. Raghuram

Secretary, SSV

Minutes of the 63th EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

Minutes of the 63rd EC meeting held on 28th Feb. 2007 at NPL:

1. Drs. Vikram Kumar, Ravinder Kotnala, Vasant Vankar , Partha Datta
   ,Indramani Mishra, Ashima Anand and KL Chopra attended the meeting.
   
2. The minutes of the 62nd EC meeting were confirmed
   
3. It was reported that SSV has received the Rs 5 Lakh grant sanctioned by
   AICTE. The Treasurer was further authorized to convert the existing Fixed
   Deposits to the higher interest rates available at present.
   
4. The EC appreciated the efforts of our SSV members from Lucknow to form a
   Lucknow / UP Chapter. The Chapter will be formally recognized when it will
   have atleast ten registered members.
   
5. The EC was informed about the continuing problem of not having an
   authenticated and updated list of our members on our website. The Secretary,
   Treasurer, and Dr Kotnala are requested to sort out the problem. All members
   were requested to suggest some person who could assist in taking care of the
   routine administrative functions of the Society on a part time basis, with a
   suitable honorarium for his/her services.
   
6. The President placed before the EC nominations of Prof. Saruppa of IISc,
   Bangalore , and Dr Ghosh, RRL, Bhopal for membership of SSV. The EC accepted
   the nominations.
   
7. The EC noted that our next issue of N&V is delayed and requested the
   Editor to expedite its publication.
   
8. The EC noted with concern that Dr. Satyanarayana has not been able to
   organize the proposed Seminar. It was suggested that faculty members from DU
   and JNU be involved to organize the next seminar in their respective
   institutions. All the members of EC were requested to assist in the process
   of involving faculty members from these institutions. The Kundu case of
   falsification/fabrication was discussed and was noted that the Journal of
   Biological Chemistry (JBC) has withdrawn one of the paper of Kundu etal on
   account of the re-use of some of the photographic strips (Western blots)
   from another of their papers published in the same journal to depict
   different results. The EC takes a serious view of this case of
   falsification/fabrication and has authorized the President to write to the
   Director of the Institute or higher levels in the government to take an
   appropriate action against all those involved. The journal (JBC) should
   publish a note on why it withdrew the paper
   
9. The EC discussed the case of alleged plagiarism by the Mashelkar
   committee, as well as Mashelkar's book on IPR being reported and debated
   recently in the media. The EC takes a serious view of any type of
   plagiarism. An established case of such plagiarism may be reported in our
   SSV website.
   
10. Regarding a lengthy letter from “Save Universities association of India”
    charging DU authorities for unethical practices in the appointment of the
    Head, Ambedkar Centre of Biochemical Research, DU, the President was asked
    to write to the concerned persons for their comments, which will then be
    taken up for further discussion by the EC.
    

Minutes of the 62th EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

The 62nd  meeting of the EC was  held at 11 am on Dec 16, 2006 at NPL.
The following members attended the meeting:

Prof. K.L. Chopra, Dr. N. Raghuram, Dr. B.B. Sharma, Dr. Pran Kishan,
Dr. Indramani Mishra, Dr. R.K. Kotnala, Dr. Bimla Buti Dr. Ashima
Anand and Dr. K. Satyanarayana.

The EC decided as follows :

1. The minutes  of the 61st EC meeting were confirmed
   
   
2. Arising out of the minutes, the Kundu case was discussed in the
   light of his response to SSV queries and the comments of an expert. It
   was decided that SSV may seek views of other expert(s) and place a
   summary of the case on our website as and when appropriate. In the
   meantime, the DBT Secretary may be sent a reminder for his response to
   our earlier queries.
   
   
3. Dr N. Raghuram  summarised the highlights of the ORI conference in
   USA to which he was invited to make a presentation. He will provide a
   report on it for publication in he forthcoming News &Views.
   
   
4. Dr. Ashima Anand informed the EC about the media reports in
   Australia about fraud and plagiarism, mostly involving foreign
   students.
   
   
5. The President informed the members that AICTE has very generously
   approved  a grant of Rs  5 Lakhs for the activities of the Society
   such as a National Seminar on ethics in S&T communication, a Workshop
   on ethics and regulatory issues in biotechnology, development and
   publication of resource materials (especially a compilation of
   literature and teaching/learning resources and curriculum for training
   in scientific values. All members are requested to take active part in
   fulfilling these commitments and organising approriate SSV activities
   in knowledge institutions.
   
   
6. Dr Satyanaryana discussed details of the forthcoming National
   Seminar on ethics in S&T communication, which he will covene. It was
   decided that the Seminar will be held at NPL  (subject to  permission
   by the NPL director) during the mid-late Feb , 2007. A programme
   outline and the names of several possible speakers were discussed. The
   Convener will finalise the program in due course and provide it to the
   Editor for the forthcoming issue of N&V.
   
   
7. Dr Sharma discussed the possible contents for the next issue of
   N&V. Some suggestions were made by the EC members. It was decided that
   the next issue (Dec ,2006) should be ready for circulation during
   January, 2007. The EC noted that the last issue (Aug 2006) was already
   circulated electronically to all the available email addresses and
   also uploaded on the SSV website.
   
   
8. The EC approved the following nominations for the membership of the
   society. As per the decision of SSV, a brief biodata of the proposed
   new members has to be placed  on our website for a month to invite any
   objection from any knowledgable person before the membership is
   conferred.
   

Minutes of the 61th EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

The meeting was held at 2:30 pm on Oct 4, 2006 at INSA.

The meeting was attended by:
PN Srivastava

Indramani Mishra

Ravinder Kotnala

K. Suryanarayana

Swaranjit Singh

B B Sharma

Pran Krishan

Vikram Kumar

KL Chopra

1. The minutes of the 60th EC meeting were confirmed.

2. The following recommendations of an EC subcommittee were discussed and approved:
   

1. Dr Kotnala will henceforth look after all matters related to the induction of new members

2. All nominees for membership, whether accepted members or not , be put on our email list

3. Folders be created for SSV email address so that EC members have an easy access to the SSV information

4. The Rs 2 lacs corpus provided by CSIR be placed in a fixed deposit @ 7.5 % interest for 37 months as offerd by the Sydicate Bank.

5. Application for DST grant for the last and this year be submitted and be followed up.

3. Drs B B Sharma, Dr Pran Krishan and Dr Swaranjit Singh be appointed as Associate Editors of N&V. They will jointly take care of the publication of N&V in the absence abroad of the Editor ,Dr P N Tewari.

4. The Kundu case of an unethical practice was discussed . The President was advised to write first to Dr Kundu for his comments and thereafter take a suitable action for further pursuit of the case.

5. Dr Suryanarayana presented his proposal for the next SSV seminar on Ethical issues for Author Credits for Scientific Publications. The Seminar will be convened by Dr Suryanarayan and is proposed to be held at ICMR during January , 2007. The convener is authorised to sety up committees and make appropriate arrangements as deemed fit and proper.

6. The nominations of Dr P K Nagar by Prof Chopra, and that of Dr Sharma by Dr Mishra were discussed and approved for membership of SSV.

7. Arising out of this discussion , it was decided that in future, a brief biodata of a nominee be placed on our website for a month inviting any comments from our membership. The EC will consider the nomination for approval provided no verifiably negative comments are received by the Secretary /President .

The meeting ended with thanks to the chair.
KL Chopra
President , SSV

TOP    

Minutes of the 60th EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

The meeting was held on 12th July 2006 at NPL.

The meeting was attended by:
Prof. K.L. Chopra

Dr. N. Raghuram

Dr. K. Satyanarayana

Dr. Indramani Mishra

Dr. Bimla Buti

Dr. A.R. Verma

Dr. Pran Kishan

Dr. B.B. Sharma

Dr. P.S. Datta

Dr. P.N. Tiwari

Dr. R.K.Kotnala

Dr. Vikram Kumar, Dr. Ashima Anand, Dr. V.D. Vankar, Dr. P.N. Srivastava
and Dr. BB.G. Tilak conveyed their inability to attend the meeting.

The following decisions were taken:

1. The EC confirmed the minutes of the last 59th EC held on 21st April 2006.

2. The  EC discussed the reactions to the proceedings of the SSV Seminar on "Accountability in Scientific Institutions and a discussion on Corruption and Whistle Blowers Protection Act" held on May 11 at NPL. It was agreed that whereas it is not possible to censor distinguished speakers, we may advise speakers on sensitivities. Further, it was decided that if a documented proof of the publications and patents of the Directors of CIMAP or any other institute is available, the President is authorized to write to the concerned Directors for their comments  and further action may be taken on hearing from them.

3. Several names of possible speakers were discussed to be invited for the second A.S. Paintal memorial lecture, to be held sometime during the third week of September. The president was authorized to contact them.

4. The contents of the next issue of News & Views were discussed and approved. The issue is expected to be published by the end of August. Dr. A.R. Verma said that 2006 is the centenary year of Dr. D. S. Kothari and that there should be an article focussing on his contribution to the promotion of human and scientific values in the next issue of the SSV bulletin. Dr. Krishan Lal would be requested to write the article.

5. The EC acknowledged with gratitude the grant of Rs 2 lakhs , as Corpus, received from CSIR.  The treasurer was authorized to open an FD at the best possible interest rate in a bank.

6. The request for the DST grant for SSV for 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 was discussed. The EC asked the Secretary and Treasurer to process the
   request for these two years at the earliest.

7. The president requested EC members to organise more activities of the Society. It was decided to hold a one day seminar on “Autonomy and Responsibility of Scientific Institutions” in Nov-Dec 2006. Dr. Satyanarayana agreed to be its convenor. He was requested to take necessary action for its organisation.

8. Dr. Pran Kishan has been co-opted as a member of the EC and Associate Editor of News and Views.

9. The president requested EC members to organise more activities of the Society. It was decided to hold a one day seminar on “Autonomy and Responsibility of Scientific Institutions” in Nov-Dec 2006. Dr. Satyanarayana agreed to be its convenor. He was requested to take necessary action for its organisation.

10. The meeting ended with thanks to the Chair.

List of new members whose nominations were approved:

Dr. S.N. Singh,
Head, Electronic Materials Division
National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K.S. Krishnan Marg,
Pusa, New Delhi – 110012.
e-mail: snsingh@mail.nplindia.ernet.in

Phone No. 011-25734283(O)

Dr. J.C. Sharma,
Electrical Sub-station In-Charge
National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K.S. Krishnan Marg,
Pusa, New Delhi – 110012.
e-mail: jcs28@mail.nplindia.ernet.in
Phone No. 011-28742098

Dr. V. Chandrasekharan
Scientist-G,
Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory
Kanchanbagh, Hyderabad.
e-mail: chandru@dmrl.ernet.in

Phone No. 040-24340884

Prof. Anurag Sharma
Physics Department
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
New Delhi- 110 016
Res: 24, Taxila Apt., IIT CAMPUS
Email: asharma@physics.iitd.ac.in
asharma_iitd@hotmail.com
Office: +91-11-2659-1350, 2659-1929
Fax: +91-11-2658 1114
Res: +91-11-2686 7022; 2686 5039

Dr. B.C.Chakravarty

Electronic Material Division

National Physical Laboratory

Dr. K.S.Krishnan Road

New Delhi – 110 012

chakravartybidhan@yahoo.com

Office (011) 25734283; Residence (011) 28743609

Fax: (011) 2575268; 25764189

Dr. Anil Jain

President, Vaiseshika Electron Devices

38-Industrial Estate, Across Tangri River Bridge

Ambala Cantt.-133 006

e-mail - shunya@sancharnet.in 

Phones (171)-2699827, 2699891

Fax -(171)-2699773

Sd/-

N. Raghuram

Secretary, SSV

TOP    

Minutes of the 59th EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

The meeting was held on 21st Apr. 2006 at NPL.

The meeting was attended by:

Prof. K.L. Chopra

Dr. N. Raghuram

Prof. P.N. Srivastava

Dr. Indramani Mishra

Dr. Bimla Buti

Dr. B.B.G. Tilak

Dr. Hari Kishan (Dr. Vikram Kumar's nominee from NPL).

Dr. P.S. Datta, Dr. P.N. Tiwari, Dr. R.K.Kotnala, Dr. Rajesh Kochhar and Dr. Ashima Anand conveyed their inability to attend the meeting.

The following decisions were taken:

1. The EC confirmed the minutes of the last 58th EC held on 27th Jan. 2006.

2. The EC was glad to note that the website has been updated, including the new issue of News and Views, which is now available for circulation. It was decided that the possibility of bringing out special issues on topics of current interest such as deemed universities may be explored.

3. The President informed the EC about the action taken on the email from Rashmi Mishra regarding her authorship on a controversial paper mentioned on the SSV website, and her threats of legal action. The EC noted that the website has been updated to reflect the fact that she and another co-author withdrew their co-authorship after SSV took up that paper on charges of plagiarism.

4. The EC wished to verify the decision of the last AGM held on 29th Apr, 2005, regarding the proposal to shift the registered office of SSV. It is reproduced below:

   "Due to some uncertainty , the present registered office of the Society may have to be changed. The AGM approved the change to any other convenient address as deemed fit by the EC. The Director , NPL may be requested by the President to  permit the use of NPL address for the registered office of SSV."

5. The EC approved the utilisation report regarding the expenditure made from the DST grants received last year, for onward submission to DST. Regarding the separate project proposal to DST for documentation and trend analyses, members of the EC may explore the possibility of finding collaborating social scientists to carry out surveys on scientific values in India.

6. The EC approved the posting of information and news from authentic sources on the SSV website with an appropriate disclaimer that SSV does not owe any responsibility for them.

7. The EC has approved the proposal to hold a half-day seminar in collaboration with National Physical Laboratory and Human Rights Law Network, Delhi. The seminar will be held on the theme "Accountability in scientific Institutions" on 11-05-06 at NPL between 2.30 to 5.30 PM and includes a discussion on corruption and whistle blowers (protection) act. A notice to this effect may be circulated widely to all the members and institutions in Delhi.

8. The EC has approved the nomination of the following new members:

Dr. Surendra Prasad

Director, IIT-Delhi

sprasad@ec.iitd.ac.in

 

Dr. S.C. Kashyap,

Dept. of Physics, IIT-Delhi

skashyap@physics.iitd.ac.in

 

Dr. Anand Akhila

Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CSIR)

Lucknow - 226006

akiladr@hotmail.com

Phone: 9415517642

 

Dr. Swaranjit Singh

Institute of Microbial Technology (CSIR)

Sector 39-A, Chandigarh - 160036.

swaranjitsingh@yahoo.com

9. Considering the enthusiasm of scientists from Chandigarh and the offer of Dr. Swaranjit Singh of opening a regional SSV chapter in Chandigarh, the EC approved the idea of a chapter in principle and requested the President to work out the modalities in consultation with others. 

10. The EC decided to request Dr. Swaranjit Singh to join the Editorial Advisory Committee of the SSV News and Views.

11. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

sd/
N. Raghuram
Secretary, SSV

TOP    

Minutes of the 58th EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

The meeting was held on 27th Jan. 2006 at NPL.

The meeting was attended by:

Prof. K.L. Chopra

Dr. N. Raghuram

Dr. Ashima Anand

Dr. Indramani Mishra

Dr. P.S. Datta

Dr. P.N. Tiwari

Dr. Vikram Kumar

Dr. B.B.G. Tilak 

Dr. R.K.Kotnala.

The following decisions were taken:

1. The EC confirmed the minutes of the last 57th EC held on 7th Nov. 2005.

2. The EC noted that the next issue of News and Views is ready to go to press and suggested that the list of new members inducted during 2005 may be included in this or the next issue.

3. The President informed the EC that SSV is now registered with UNESCO "Global Ethics Observatory" as one of the member organisations dealing with ethics in S&T.

4. The EC approved the report of the treasurer regarding the expenditure made from the DST grants received last year, for onward submission to DST.

5. The EC has approved the nomination of the following new member:

 Dr. B.V.Reddy, Scientist, NPL.

6. The EC has requested the Director, NPL, to provide office space for SSV in NPL campus. The President shall send a formal letter to the Director, NPL in this regard.

7. The EC has resolved to replace any of the EC members who do not attend 3 consecutive EC meetings without prior information or seeking leave of absence.

8. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

sd/
N. Raghuram
Secretary, SSV

TOP    

Minutes of the 57th EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

The meeting was held on 7^th Nov. 2005 at NPL.

The meeting was attended by:

Prof. K.L. Chopra

Dr. N. Raghuram

Dr. Ashima Anand

Dr. Indramani Mishra

Dr. Vikram Kumar

Dr. R.K. Kotnala

Dr. Bimla Buti.

The following decisions were taken:

1. The EC confirmed the minutes of the last 56^th EC meeting.

2. Based on the quotations obtained the EC approved the purchase of a Laptop computer (Acer), a scanner (HP 2200 C) and a USB voice recorder (Advik) from Infochip technologies, Delhi, and a printer from an appropriate source.

3. The EC appreciates the effort of Dr. Kotnala in getting the new letterpads printed and resolves to reimburse the costs involved.

4. The EC entrusted the task of updating the website to the Secretary, in coordination with the service provider, M/s. Indezine.

5. The following new nominations have been approved by the EC for SSV membership.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the chair.

Sd/

N. Raghuram

Secretary, SSV.

TOP    

Minutes of the 56th EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

The meeting was held on 22th Aug. at NPL, soon after the first Dr. A.S. Paintal memorial lecture by Prof. M.G.K. Menon.

The meeting was attended by:

Prof. K.L. Chopra

Dr. N. Raghuram

Dr. Ashima Anand

Dr. Indramani Mishra

Dr. P.S. Datta

Dr. P.N. Tiwari

Prof. P.N. Srivastava

Dr. Vikram Kumar

Dr. V.D. Vankar

Dr. B.B.G. Tilak

Dr. R.K.Kotnala
Dr. Bimla Buti.

The following decisions were taken:

1. The EC confirmed the minutes of the last 55th EC held on 6th Aug 2005.

2. The EC was informed of the username and password of the new email account of the SSV ( scientificvalues@gmail.com ), so that all the EC members can access it to monitor the activities and correspondence of the SSV, as well as to forward profiles of new members, articles/presentations and other resources of interest to the EC
   members. The same would serve as a private website for EC and others.

3. The President informed the EC regarding the letter he received from the office of the SAC-C, in response to the SSV's complaint regarding the recent editorials (Jul. 2005) in British Medical Journal and Lancet "expressing concern" over the suspicious papers published in their journals by Dr. Ram B. Singh from Moradabad, UP. The EC was pleased to note that the SAC-C showed some sensitivity to the issue
   and requested  Delhi University and ICMR to  conduct respective enquiries on the basis of our letter of  complaint.

4. The EC discussed the complaint of Prof. V. Sitaramam from University of Pune against his Vice Chancellor regarding the latter's non-cooperation to forward the former's project proposal to UGC for funding. It was decided that the President will ascertain the facts and write letters to higher authorities, if needed.

5. It was decided that the News and Views of the SSV needs to be brought out more frequently ( 3-4  times a year), by seeking help from other EC members, if necessary. It was also decided to print  a suitable version of Dr. A. S. Paintal Memorial Lecture by Prof. M.G.K. Menon  as an article in the next News and Views of the SSV.

6. The EC deliberated on the need to expand the membership drive, through announcements  in media/journals like Current Science  and  by SSV members  who are invited for lectures on scientific values. There is also a  need to involve students/researchers/post-docs and other young scientists as "Associate Members" .

7. The EC  approved ,in principle,the  possibility of formation of local chapters of SSV, in cities that have a significant number of our members. The possibility of having EC members from outside Delhi, possibly from among the office bearers of these local chapters ,was agreed to.

8. The EC decided to explore mechanisms for raising funds, including seeking donations from various government funding agencies, international donor agencies as well as major charities or industrial houses that are interested in scientific values.

9. The President requested the EC members to organise/suggest more activities that can be taken up in the near future, either by SSV alone or with other suitable partner agencies.

10. The EC approved the nominations of the following list of persons for membership of the SSV.

Dr. L.R. Murmu
Deptt. of Emegency Medicine
All India Instittute of Medical Sciences,
Ansari nagar, New Delhi - 110029.
Email: lrmurmu@aiims.ac.in; lrmurmu@hotmail.com
Phone: 26588700 Ext. 4936/3365/4255 (O); 26588691 (R)

Dr. R. Ramachandran
Science Correspondent
Frontline
203, Ansal Bhavan,
Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi - 110001.
Email: bajji@vsnl.com
Phone: 23731985,6

Dr. Nimisha Sharma
Lecturer, School of Biotechnology,
GGS Indraprastha University
Kashmere Gate, Delhi - 110006.
Email: nimisha401@yahoo.com
Phone: 23869313-16 Ext. 310

Prof. K.K. Aggarwal,
Vice-Chancellor, GGS Indraprastha University
Kashmere Gate, Delhi - 110006.
Phones: 011-23869801-2
Email: kka@ipu.edu; aggarwal_krishan@hotmail.com

sd/-
N. Raghuram
Secretary, SSV

TOP    

Minutes of the 55th EC meeting of the Society for Scientific Values:            TOP

The meeting was held on 6^th Aug. at NPL.

The meeting was attended by:

Prof. K.L. Chopra

Dr. P.S. Datta

Dr. Indramani Mishra

Dr. P.N. Tiwari

Prof. P.N. Srivastava

Dr. Vikram Kumar

Dr. N. Raghuram.

The following decisions were taken: 

1. The EC confirmed the minutes of the last 54^th EC held on 29^th April 2005, and the election of the new office bearers and the new Executive Council of SSV as detailed below:

President:

Prof. K.L. Chopra

former director, IIT Kharagpur;

choprakl@yahoo.com phone: 25154114

 

Vice President:

Dr. Vikram Kumar

Director, NPL, N. Delhi,

dnpl@mail.nplindia.ernet.in Phone: 25726931

 

Secretary:

Dr. N. Raghuram,

Reader in biotechnology, GGS Indraprastha University, nandula.raghuram@gmail.com

web: www.ipu.ac.in/btraghu.htm

phone: 23869313-6 (Ext. 217)

 

Joint Secretary:

Dr. Ashima Anand

visc.mechs@mail.com

Phone: 27667856, 7749

 

Treasurer:

Dr. Indramani Mishra

maniindra99@yahoo.com

Phone: 25842294, 25071303

 

Former President:

Dr. P.M. Bhargava,

Vice Chairma, Knowledge Commission

pmb1928@yahoo.co.in

 

Former Secretary:

Dr. P.S. Datta,

Project Director, NRL, New Delhi.

psdatta@iari.res.in 25843297, 2454

 

Editor, News and Views:

Dr. P.N. Tiwari, Former Project Director,

NRL, New Delhi.

premnatht@rediffmail.com 26012615

 

EC Members:

Dr. R. Kochhar, Director, NISTADS, N. Delhi. rkk@nistads.res.in; rkochhar2000@yahoo.com

Dr. Bimla Buti, Former Professor, PRL, Ahmedabad. butib@sify.com

Dr. V.D. Vankar, Professor, IIT New Delhi. vdvankar@physics.iitd.ac.in

Dr. R.K. Kotnala, Scientist, NPL, New Delhi. rkkotnala@mail.nplindia.ernet.in

Dr. K. Satyanarayana, Dy. DG, ICMR, New Delhi. kanikaram_s@yahoo.com

Dr. B.B.G. Tilak, Library of Congress, American Centre, New Delhi. ti_loc@indiatimes.com

 

Special Invitees:

Prof. P.N. Srivastava,

Former Member, Planning Commission and former VC, JNU,

N. Delhi.

pns07@yahoo.com

 

Dr. A.R. Verma,

Former Director, NPL, New Delhi.

2. The EC requested the outgoing Secretary and Treasurer to inform the bank regarding the following:

a)      The decision of the last General Body Meeting permitting any two of the five SSV office bearers to operate the bank account of the SSV.

b)      The names and contact details of the new office bearers, along with their specimen signatures.

3. It was decided that Dr. A. S. Paintal Memorial Lecture by Prof. M.G.K. Menon on 22^nd August 2005 will be held jontly by SSV and NPL at the NPL auditorium. The invitation cards will be printed by SSV and posted by NPL. The hosting arrangements at NPL would be coordinated by Dr. Vikram Kumar and Dr. Kotnala from NPL.

4. The EC deliberated on the need to update the SSV website with the names and details of the new office bearers, latest membership lists, resolutions of the recent GBMs and ECs, as well as news and views.

5. The EC approved the nominations of the enclosed list of persons for membership of the SSV.

Dr. K. Bheemalingeswara Rao

Deptt. Of Geology, University of Delhi, Delhi.

Email: kbheema@hotmail.com

Phone: 27667073 (O); 22112393 (R)

 

Dr. C.C. Kartha,

Professor, Sri Chitra Tirunal Instt. For Medical Science and Technology

Trivandrum- 695011.

Email: cckartha@vsnl.com

 

Dr. K.J. Mukherjee,

Assoc. Profeessor, Centre for Biotechnology,

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi – 110067.

Email: kjmukherjee@hotmail.com; kjmukherjee@mail.jnu.ac.in

Phone: 26704087 (O); 26187686 (R)

 

Dr. Arun K. Grover

Dept. of condensed matter physics and materials science

Tata Instt. Of Fundamental Research

Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai – 400005.

Email: grover@tifr.res.in

Phones: 022-22804545 (Extn:2327/2441)

 

Dr. Amar Jesani

Centre for Studies in Ethics and Rights (CSER),

Candelar, 4thFlorr, 26, St. John Baptist Rd,

Bandra West, Mumbai – 400058.

Email: jesani@vsnl.com

Phone: 022-26406703

 

Dr. U.C. Lavania,

Scientist F

Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants

Lucknow – 226015.

Email: lavaniauc@yahoo.co.in

 

Dr. Kum Kum Rani,

RA, Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants

Lucknow – 226015

rkumkum@hotmail.com

 

Dinesh Sharma,

Science Journalist Columnist

A-65, Parvana Apartments

Mauyr Vihar Phase I Extn.,

New Delh-110091.

Email: dineshc@vsnl.com

 

Dr. Vikrant Vats

Pharmacologist

264-B Plot. No. 15A, Keshavkunj Apartments,

Sector 22, Dwaraka.

Email: vats.vikrant@gmail.com

 

Dr. Manohara S. Mavinakere

(Research Associate, Children’s National Medical Center, Washington DC)

8003 Apt#204, Eastern Aveenue,

Silver Spring, Maryland

MD 20910, USA.

Email: manohara82@cnmresearch.org; manohara82@hotmail.com

 

Dr. Manoj Joshi

Hindustan Lever Research Centre & Unilever Research India

64, Main Road, Whitefield,

Bangalore – 560066.

Joshi.manoj@unilever.com; joshimanoj@hotmail.com

Phone: 080-28451505, 28452959

 

Dr. Uday Kumar Ranga

Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Research

Jakkur P.O., Bangalore  56000064.

udaykumar@jncasr.ac.in

Phone: 080-22082830; 22082831

6. The EC discussed the recent editorials (Jul. 2005) in British Medical Journal and Lancet “expressing concern” over the suspicious papers published in their journals by Dr. Ram B. Singh from Moradabad, UP, and their inability to firmly establish the case due to the alleged unwillingness of the Indian government to investigate it. The EC noted that the SSV office bearers reacted to the issue immediately through the media, and requested the President of SSV to write letters to the various relevant bodies of the Indian government to investigate the case.

7. The next 56^th  EC meeting would be held on 22^nd Aug. 2005, soon after Prof. Menon’s lecture.

TOP     

Minutes of the 54th Meeting of the SSV Executive Council                          TOP

A special meeting of the EC was held at 6:00 pm on April 29, 2005 at NRL, Pusa campus. The following were present :

1. Prof K L Chopra

2. Dr Vikram Kumar

3. Dr P N Tiwari

4. Dr P S Datta

5. Dr Indramani Mishra

6. Dr Ashima Anand

7. Dr N Raghuram ( Special Invitee)

Dr A R Verma and Dr PN Srivastava     conveyed their inability to attend the meeting.

The special meeting was called to propose a slate for election of the next council by the membership in pursuance of the new procedure approved by the Annual General Body Meeting held at 5.00 pm on April 29, 2005 at NRL , Pusa Campus. The proposed slate is as follows:

1. President  :K L Chopra
2. Vice President : Vikram Kumar
3. Secretary  :  Nandula Raghuram
4. Joint Secretary : Ashima Anand
5. Treasurer   : Indramani Mishra
6. Former Secretary : P S Datta
7. Editor ( News & Views ) : P N Tiwari
8. Members :  R . Kochhar  ;  Bimla Buti ;  VD Vankar ; RK Kotnala ; K Satyanaryana ; B B C Tilak
9. Special Invitees :   P N Srivastava:; A R Verma

10. President  :K L Chopra
11. Vice President : Vikram Kumar
12. Secretary  :  Nandula Raghuram
13. Joint Secretary : Ashima Anand
14. Treasurer   : Indramani Mishra
15. Former Secretary : P S Datta
16. Editor ( News & Views ) : P N Tiwari
17. Members :  R . Kochhar  ;  Bimla Buti ;  VD Vankar ; RK Kotnala ; K Satyanaryana ; B B C Tilak
18. Special Invitees :   P N Srivastava:; A R Verma

It was decided that this slate be sent by email ( wherever possible ) or by post to members for approval or otherwise of each nominee , along with blank spaces for any other nomination for any position. 

Joint  Secretary

( For Information email Ids of the new perasons are : rkochhar2000@yahoo.com, butib@sify.com; vdvankar@physics.iitd.ac.in; rkkotnala@mail.nplindia.ernet.in; kanikaram_s@yahoo.com; ti_loc@indiatimes.com

President  :K L Chopra ( Former Director, IIT Kharagpur)

Vice President : Vikram Kumar ( Director , NPL)

Secretary  :  Nandula Raghuram ( Faculty, GGS University of Technology, Delhi)

       Joint Secretary : Ashima Anand ( Scientist, Patel Chest Institute, Delhi University)

Treasurer   : Indramani Mishra ( Scientist, IARI, New Delhi)

Former Secretary : P S Datta ( Project Director , NRL ,IARI, Delhi)

Editor ( News & Views ) : P N Tiwari ( Former Project Director , NRL, Delhi)

Members :  R . Kochhar ( Director , NISTADS)  ;  Bimla Buti ( Former Professor , PRL, Ahmedabad) ;  VD Vankar (Professor, IIT Delhi) ; RK Kotnala ( Scientist, NPL ) ; K Satyanaryana ; B B C Tilak

Special Invitees :   P N Srivastava ( FormerMember, Planning Commision & VC, JNU):; A R Verma( Former Director , NPL)

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Minutes of the 53rd Meeting of the SSV Executive Council                          TOP

The EC met  at 2:30 pm on March 14, 2005 at NPL. The following were present :

1. Prof K L Chopra

2. Dr Vikram Kumar

3. Dr A R Verma

4. Dr P N Tiwari

5. Dr P S Datta

6. Dr Indramani Mishra

7. Dr Ashima Anand

8. Dr N Raghuram ( Special Invitee)

Dr P N Bhargava, Dr PN Srivastava , and Dr  Lalji Singh    conveyed their inability to attend the meeting.

1. The minutes of the previous meeting were confirmed.

2. Arising out of the minutes , the EC detailed the utilization of the expected DST grant  as  follows :

1. Routine expenses of SSV for the meetings, discussion seminars, part-time clerical assistance, postal expenses, stationary and other contingencies, etc.

2. Bio-ethics Seminar to be held, jointly with IARI, during April at NRL of IARI.

3. Paintal Memorial Lecture, to be held on Aug 18, 2005.

4. News & Views

5. Purchase of a  laptop, with suitable accessories .

3. It was decided that the GB meeting be held on the day of Bio-ethics Seminar. Proposed agenda  should include Reports of the Secretary , Treasurer , and President ; A simplified procedure for election of the next EC  ; Modified procedure for signing of cheques by any two officers of the EC ;  Possible change of the Registered office of the SSV ; Discussion on steps for enhancing the effectiveness of the SSV and  for inclusion of younger  scientists and engineers as Associate Members; etc. Dr P N Tiwari was requested to prepare a note for changes in rules and regulations to be placed before the GB.

4. It was decided to encourage members to start local chapters of SSV in places where the number of members is 20 or more

5. It was decided to hold the Paintal Memorial Lecture on Aug 18 , 2005 ,the foundation day of the SSV. Suggestions for possible speakers were made which the President  will keep in mind for further action.

6. The EC approved the election of the following new members:

1. Dr R K Kotnala , NPL  Email : rkkotnala@mail.nplindia.ernet.in

2. Dr B D Malhotra, NPL  Email : bansidhar_m@yahoo.com

3. Prof Ajoy Ghatak, Physics Department , IIT , Delhi  Email : akghatak@physics.iitd.ac.in

4. Dr T P Singh

5. Prof B R Mehta, Physics Department , IIT ,Delhi  Email : brmehta@physics.iitd.ac.in

7. The President gave an account of the presentation on S&T Ethics which he was invited to make before the Scientific Advisory Committee  to the Cabinet on  Feb 9, 2005. The presentation  and , in particular , a proposal to set up  an autonomous National S&T Ethics Committee, were supported by several members of the SAC-C in the discussion that followed. However , so far , no concrete action has been suggested by the SAC-C .

Further , the President talked about   the  several cases of unethical practices which have been brought to  his attention  by some SSV members . It was decided to seek comments of the accused persons before such cases are placed on the SSV web site.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the chair.

(Ashima Anand)

Joint Secretary

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Minutes of the 52nd meeting of the Executive Council, Society of Scientific Values, held on 17th January, 2005 at the National Physical Laboratory, Delhi

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The following were present 

1.  Dr K.L. Chopra

2.  Professor P.N. Srivastava

3.  Dr A.R. Verma

4.  Dr P.N. Tiwari

5.  Dr Indramani Mishra

6.  Dr Vikram Kumar

7.  Dr Ashima Anand

Dr N. Raghuram (special invitee)

Dr K.L.Chopra, President SSV welcomed the Members.

1. Brief tributes were paid to Dr A.S. Paintal, the founder – President of the Society and to his pioneering role in shaping it from concept to reality. Members observed a minute’s silence as a mark of respect in his memory. The President informed the members that Professor P.N.Srivastava would write his obituary for the forthcoming issue of ‘News & Views’. It was also agreed that an annual Memorial lecture be established to be delivered by an individual known to be committed to upholding ethical values in science and society. It was also proposed that the President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam be invited to deliver the first lecture on August 18th, being the date when SSV was formally established or at a date convenient to him. In the event of the need to request another speaker, other names suggested by the members would be contacted by the President.

2. The minutes of the 51st meeting of the SSV-EC were confirmed

3. It was decided that the main theme of the forthcoming one-day symposium should be ‘Bioethics (Agroethics)-with invitations for particiation to be sent out to Ms. Suman Sahai; Dr Balaram (IISc);Dr Y.K. Gupta, Director ITRC, and others as suggested by members. The venue would be IARI, if IARI agrees and the time would be 2nd or 3rd week of March

4. The following items to be included in the next issue of ‘News & Views-

A.

1. Newer perspectives and issues discussed at the Symposium organized by the office of Research Integrity (USA) that Dr N. Raghuram recently attended as an overseas participant.

2. Suggestions made by the President to the UGC Chairman regarding steps to    improve the quality of PhD theses in Indian institutions.

3. An abstract of the recently delivered Blackett Memorial Lecture (INSA)

B. It was decided to request Dr G. Govil to accept Co-Editorship of ‘News & Views’

 

5. Budget for 2005 : It was decided that as and when the DST grant is received ,  a suitable laptop with accessories , a scanner , some stationary and other office and computer needs be purchased. A post graduate student of GGS Technical Univ, who has offered to help with our office work on apart time basis be employed on the basis of job-wise payment to be decided by the President and Treasurer.

6. President's Report :   The President reported having delivered Lectures  on Ethics in S & T at NPL, RRL Bhuwaneshwar, NTPC (during the National Vigilance week).

7.  

A. The EC approved the election of the following new members

(1) Prof S.R. Gadre , Dept of Chemistry, PuneUniversity

(2) Prof  Seetaramam ,Dept of Biotechnology, Pune University

(3) Dr P.B. Sharma Principal , Delhi College of Engineering

(4) Prof S.K.Sen , JU ,Kolkata

(5) Prof Sumitro Sen,   IIT, Khargpur

(6) Dr BBG Tilak, Librarian American Centre, New Delhi

B. It was decided to write to the Heads of a few Corporate organizations which are   engaged in serious R & D to become Corporate members of the Society.

8. A resolution was passed to enable Dr P.S.Datta to continue signing cheques until a new Secretary takes over.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

(K.L.CHOPRA)                                                                                     (Ashima Anand)

PRESIDENT                                                                                   (JOINT SECRETARY)

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50^th meeting of the Executive Council of the Society for Scientific Values, held on 29-5-2004 at Nuclear Research Laboratory, IARI, New Delhi

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The following were present: 

Dr. K.L. Chopra

Dr. P.N. Srivastava

Dr. P.N. Tiwari

Dr. Ashima Anand

Dr. P.S. Datta

Dr. Inder Mani

Dr. N.D. Kaushika   -   Special Invitee

Dr. B.B. Sharma     -          -do-

Dr.(Mrs.) Indira Nath, Dr. A.S. Paintal and Dr. A.R. Verma conveyed their inability to attend the meeting due to prior commitments.

Dr. K.L. Chopra, President, SSV welcomed all the members and the special invitees. The following decisions were taken:

1. The minutes of the 49^th meeting of the SSV-EC were confirmed.

2. Dr. Indra Mani, Treasurer, SSV briefly apprised the Council about the various actions taken since the last meeting which include expenditure incurred and purchases made from the DST fund and bringing out the March 2004 issue of the SSV bulletin.  Dr. Chopra informed about the panel discussion held at IIT, Delhi in April, 2004, jointly organized by the IIT, Delhi and SSV.

3. The EC approved the DST fund utilization . It was decided that the Treasurer will take necessary steps to get the audit  and fund utilization certificate. The Secretary, SSV will send these documents , along with an Annual Report ( to be prepared by the President)  to DST requesting the release of  grant for the current financial year.

4. The letter of Dr. N. Nath, with a request to relieve him from the responsibility of the SSV, Vice President due to his personal problems, was placed before the EC. The Executive Council decided to request him to continue to complete his  term up to August, 2005.

5. The Council noted that its term  ends on 31^st August, 2005.  It was proposed that   action for the election of the  new Council  should  be started  in the beginning of April, 2005.

6. The President informed the Council that he ,along with Dr. P.N. Srivastava and Dr. P.S. Datta ,had discussion with Dr. P.Chidambaram, Secretary, Scientific Advisory Committee to the PM regarding the need for an autonomous, non-government body such as the  Office of Research Integrity in USA . Dr. Chidambaram has desired that a power point presentation be made by the President, SSV to the Scientific Advisory Committee  justifying   the need for such an organization  . The meeting was earlier scheduled for 8^th June, 2004 but  has been postponed due to the changes in the government.

7. The EC decided that Dr. K.L. Chopra, President, SSV will write another letter to the new Minister of Science & Technology and to the new Minister of HRD, seeking their support for a non –government  watchdog body  for Ethics in the pursuit and management of S &T in India .

8.  An Awareness Committee consisting of Dr. N.D. Kaushika and Dr. P.N. Tiwari for a proactive awareness  and sensitization campaign on Ethics  & Values was approved.

9. The EC approved the nomination of Prof. N.S. Singhi of TIFR, Bombay and Dr.(Mrs.) Rashmi Sanghi of IIT, Kanpur as new members.

10. Dr P N Tiwari was requested to write an article on the history of SSV  for publication in the next issue of the SSV bulletin. The EC agreed to the suggestion made by Dr. P.N. Srivastava that a  printed document on code of conduct (to be written by Dr. Tiwari) should be circulated to different institutions, organizations and universities and  this matter should also appear in every bulletin of the SSV.

The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the Chair.

( DR. K.L. CHOPRA )                                                                 ( DR. P.S. DATTA )

   President, SSV                                                                         Secretary, SSV 

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Minutes of the 49th meeting of the Executive Council, Society of Scientific Values, held on 8th March, 2004 at INSA, Delhi

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The following were present:

Dr. K.L. Chopra

Dr. A.S. Paintal

Dr. P.N. Tiwari

Dr.(Mrs.) Indira Nath

Dr. Krishan Lal

Dr.(Mrs.) Ashima Anand

Dr. P.S. Datta

Dr. I.M. Mishra

Dr. Sanjay K.Sharma

Dr. P.N. Srivastava, Dr. P.N. Bhargava, Dr. Narendra Nath, Dr. Lalji Singh, Prof. A.R. Verma expressed their inability to attend the meeting due to prior commitments.

The President, SSV welcomed all the members present. The Council discussed the agenda and the following decisions were taken.

Agenda Item No.1: The minutes of the 48^th meeting of the SSV were confirmed .

Agenda Item No.2: The President, SSV presented an overview of the SSV activities and the actions taken on the earlier decisions of the Council. The President informed that to promote the cause of the SSV, he delivered several invited lectures in different institutions and organizations in the country.

Agenda Item No.3: The President, SSV sought approval of the Council for the purchases to be made from DST grant. The DST grant will be utilized as already discussed in the earlier meetings for purchase of cabinets for storing files and documents, PC with printer and other accessories, office expenses, stationery items, publication of SSV bulletin, holding seminars and nominal expenses for holding EC and other meetings.  The treasurer was requested to take action in consultation with the President and Secretary, SSV as per norms and procedures. Fresh application will be submitted to the DST for renewal of grant.

A publication will be brought out on the history of SSV, to be jointly written by Dr. P.N. Tiwari and Dr. Narendra Nath.

The present SSV website being hosted by Mr. Geetesh Bajaj will be renewed for another year till the website being developed by Dr. Sanjay Sharma is fully operational.

Agenda Item No.4: The letter   regarding code of conduct, sent by Dr. S.R.Valluri was circulated to the Society members. Another document for code of conduct drafted by Dr. P.N. Tiwari was also circulated . Further, the following code of conduct documents:

1.      Max Planck Society, Germany document, adopted by the CSIR; 

2.      Alliance of European Academies and Universities Document; 

3.      US Office of Research Integrity

were discussed. Dr Tewari, Dr Indira Nath and Dr Sharma were requested to finalise the document  for circulation to the members. 

Agenda Item No.5: It was decided that   a discussion on the  modalities of increasing members and possibility of institutional membership and  the future activities of the SSV be held at the AGB.

Agenda Item No.6: The President briefed on the progress  of plagiarized publications cases of CEERI, Pilani;   and Tatan  University, Egypt.

Agenda Item No.7: The President informed that a panel discussion/seminar on a suggested topic "Ethics in Science and Research" will be organized by the Centre for Value Education in Engineering and Science, IIT, Delhi on 7^th April, 2004 at 4.30 P.M.

Agenda Item No.8: The EC agreed with the institutional membership and it was decided that rules and regulations need to be worked out for this. The Council approved the nomination of the following individuals for membership of the SSV provided they agree with the terms and conditions.

1.      Dr. U.C. Mohanty, IIT, Delhi

2.      Dr. Sandhya Mani, Srichitra Instt. of Medical Research, Thiruvanthapuram

3.      Prof.P.L.Dhar, Head, National Centre for Value Education in Engg, IIT, Delhi

4.      Prof. Mohan Das, Director, Srichitra Institute, Thiruvanthapuram

5.      Prof. D.P. Tiwari, Director, Amity School of Engineering, Noida

6.      Dr. J.P. Mishra, IARI, New Delhi

7.      Mr Ananth Krishnan, Chief Vigilance Officer, CSIR

The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the Chair.

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Minutes of the 48^th meeting of the Society for Scientific Values-Executive Council held on 5^th November , 2003 at Nuclear Research Laboratory, IARI, New Delhi.                                                                      

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The following were present:

1. Dr. K.L. Chopra

2. Prof. A.S. Paintal

3. Prof. A.R. Verma

4. Dr. P.N. Tiwari

5. Dr.(Mrs.) Ashima Anand

6. Dr. Krishan Lal

7. Dr. P.S. Datta

8. Dr. Inder Mani Mishra

Dr. P.N. Srivastava, Dr. P.M. Bhargava, Dr. Narendra Nath and Dr. Lalji Singh expressed their inability to attend the meeting due to prior commitments. After confirmation of the minutes of the 47^th meeting of the SSV-EC, the President, SSV briefed the members on the actions taken on the earlier decisions of the Council.  The President informed the Council that the DST has sanctioned a grant of Rs.1.00 lakh to the Society for Scientific Values during the financial year 2003-2004 towards the scientific activities of the Society. The Council discussed the agenda and the following decisions were taken:

1.   The DST grant will be utilized for holding seminars, publication of News and Views, for purchasing a cabinet for storing files/documents, a PC  with printer, for office expenses, stationery items, and nominal expenses  for holding EC and other meetings.  It was also decided that an honorarium to the extent of a maximum of Rs.3000/- P.M. may be paid to a qualified individual for full or part time basis to take care of the office/clerical work of the Society. The Secretary, SSV and the Treasurer were requested to take action as per established norms and procedures.

2.   The President, SSV will write a letter to  the President, INSA in connection with holding half a day seminar on "Ethics in Management of Science & Technology" in March, 2004 coinciding with the Sectional Committee meeting of the INSA

3.   The letter of Dr S R Valluri and his suggestion for  an Office of Research Integrity  was discussed. The Council appreciated the suggestion and requested Dr. P.N. Tiwari, Dr. Krishan Lal and Dr. P.S. Datta to draft a letter addressed to the Minister of Science & Technology  justifying the need for recognition of a  Non Government Body such as SSV to pursue Ethics in S&T.  It was also decided that the letters which the President and  Prof. Verma have already written to the Hon'ble Minister of Science & Technology in this connection should be followed up.

4.   The EC expressed the need for increasing the membership of younger scientists and activists to expand the activities of the SSV and to promote the value system in  pursuit of science.  It was also decided that young Ph D holders may be nominated for Associate Membership of the Society for a period of three years.

5.   Dr.  Ashima Anand was requested to draft a letter  to SSV members seeking nominations for suitable  individuals for membership of the Society.

6.  The EC approved the following nominations for membership of the SSV provided they agree to the terms and conditions:

1. Prof. R.Baisya, IIT, Delhi

2. Dr. N.D. Kaushika, IIT, Delhi

3. Dr. O.N. Srivastava, BHU

4. Dr. Firoz Ahmad, Delhi University

5. Dr.(Mrs.) N.Goswami, NPL

6. Dr.(Mrs.) N.Agnihotri, NPL

7. Dr. A.V. Moharir, IARI

8. Dr. D.K. Singh, IARI

9. Dr. O.P. Singh, IARI

10. Dr.Bhupinder Singh, IARI

7.   Dr. Sanjay K. Sharma who is taking interest in developing the web page of the Society may be invited as a special invitee to the SSV-EC meetings and TA be paid to him.

The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the Chair.

( K.L. CHOPRA)                                                                          ( P.S. DATTA)         President, SSV                                                                          Secretary, SSV

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Minutes of the 46th meeting of the SSV Executive Council held on 28th April, 2003 at INSA premises.

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The meeting was attended by the following:

1. Dr. K.L. Chopra
2. Dr. A.S. Paintal
3. Prof. A.R. Verma
4. Prof. N. Nath
5. Dr. P.N. Srivastava
6. Dr. P.N. Tiwari
7. Dr. Kishan Lal
8. Dr.(Mrs.) Ashima Anand
9. Dr. P.S. Datta

Dr. P.N. Bhargava, Dr.(Mrs.) Indira Nath and Dr. Lalji Singh communicated their inability in attending the meeting. After confirmation of the minutes of the 45th meeting of the SSV, the President, SSV briefed the members on the actions taken on the earlier decisions of the Council. The Council discussed the agenda and the following decisions were taken:

1. In view of the fact that considerable interest has been shown by various fora for ethical norms in pursuing science, more younger people should be made members of the SSV, who satisfy the membership criteria mentioned in the SSV guidelines. Individuals from other disciplines including Social Sciences should also be made members. Nomination by two existing members and an affidavit satisfying the SSV guidelines of membership criteria should be acceptable by the EC. The existing members be requested to nominate younger people. Life membership fee should be increased to Rs.500/- and the proposal may be placed before the General Body meeting.
   
   

2. The EC approved the following nominations for membership of the SSV provided they agree to the terms and conditions of the Society: Ms. Sunita Narayan, CSE; Ms. Suman Sahay, Gene Campaign; Dr. Vikram Kumar, Director, SSPL; Ms. Nirupa Sen; Dr. Radesh Suri, Ed CIL; Dr. S.K. Sharma (Kurukshetra University); Dr. Dinesh Bothra; Dr.Y.D. Gaur, IARI and Dr. Ashok Jain, JNU.
   
   It was agreed that interactions be developed with other like - minded Societies such as Kothari Centre at Delhi University, Centre for Science & Environment, Gene Campaign, Vigyan Prasar, and Scientific Academies and Professional Institutions.
   
   

3. Regarding International Conference on Ethics in Science, Dr. Chopra mentioned that some International Organizations have shown interest in such a meeting. Dr. Indira Nath and Dr. K.L. Chopra have initiated some action. However, the final decision will depend on the prospects of generating requisite funds.
   
   

4. Regarding the plagiarism cases, Dr. Chopra mentioned that he has received another request from Prof. Bose of NBRI. The Council felt that the SSV should not get involved in Court related cases. However, the SSV supports such cases morally.
   
   

5. Regarding the SSV web page, the responsibility will be handed over to Dr. Sanjay Kumar Sharma of Kurukshetra University. However until Dr. Sharma takes over the responsibility completely, the present web site designer Mr. Geetesh of Hyderabad may be requested to continue for one more year. Meanwhile, Dr. Sharma may develop a parallel website and interact with Mr. Geetesh.
   
   

6. Rs.200/- may be paid to the local EC members as travelling allowance for attending the meetings. The TA for Prof. N. Nath who comes from Kurukshetra will be paid to him as per actual expenses incurred by him.
   
   

7. Regarding the proceedings of the Seminar on Ethics of Science held on 8th March, 2003 at INSA premises, the Council requested Dr. P.N. Tiwari to take the responsibility along with Dr. P.S. Datta and Dr. I.N. Mishra. Dr. Tiwari was also requested to take the responsibility of editing the SSV Newsletter.

The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the Chair.

( K.L. CHOPRA ) ( P.S. DATTA )
President, SSV Secretary, SSV

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Minutes of the 45th meeting of the SSV Executive Council held on 27th February, 2003 at INSA premises.

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The meeting was attended by the following:

1. Dr. K.L. Chopra
2. Dr. A.S. Paintal
3. Prof. A.R. Verma
4. Dr. P.N. Tiwari
5. Dr.(Mrs.) Indira Nath
6. Dr.(Mrs.) Ashima Anand
7. Dr. S.K. Gupta
8. Dr. P.S. Datta

Dr.P.N.Srivastava and Dr. Lalji Singh communicated their inability to attend the meeting.

After confirmation of the minutes of the 44th meeting of the SSV, the President, SSV briefed the members on the actions taken on the earlier decisions of the council. The council discussed the agenda. The following decisions were taken:

1. In view of the fact that the President, INSA has shown considerable interest for ethical norms in pursuing science and expressed his feelings in various forums, it was felt that the INSA members should petition INSA to have a National Committee/Chapter on Ethics in Science and that INSA should be requested again to provide space for the SSV to look after day to day functioning of the National Committee. The President, SSV will pursue the matter.
   
   

2. The Annual General Body meeting of the SSV should be held in the month of April every year to approve an annual report of the SSV. The meeting of the Executive Council should be held preferably once in 3 months. The SSV should bring out a quarterly publication "News and Views". An Editorial Board or Committee for Newsletter may be constituted. Individuals interested in ethics in science may write letters to the Editor on any issue that one would like to be discussed by the SSV.
   
   

3. Dr. K.L. Chopra mentioned that it would be desirable to close the case of Dr. Bagade by bringing the views of the SSV Council to the attention of the VC of the Bombay University.
   
   

4. Regarding the International Conference on Ethics in Science, Prof. Indira Nath mentioned that the International Council on Scientific Unions has suggested that SSV and International Union of Pure and Applied Physics jointly organize this Conference with emphasis on plagiarism in scientific publications. It was decided that Prof. Indira Nath and Dr. K.L. Chopra will take joint actions in organizing the International Conference which may be held INSA, IIT, Delhi or AIIMS towards the end of the next year. However, the final decision will depend on the prospects of getting requisite funds for organizing such a conference.
   
   

5. Prof. Chopra informed the members that the case of Dr. Rajput, Vice Chancellor, Kumaon University has been settled and Dr. Rajput has resigned from the position. The SSV has played a very significant role in settling this case. However, colleagues of Prof. Rajput involved in this case still need to be penalized for which efforts are being made. Regarding Dr.Vankar's case, the matter has been brought to the notice of the Director, IIT, Kanpur, but, the Director has not yet responded to the concern. The issue will be taken up with the MHRD and the Chairman, BOG, Kanpur.
   
   

6. Prof. Chopra briefed the members on the programme for the INSA-SSV Seminar on Ethics in Science, to be held on 8th March, 2003 at INSA premises.
   
   

7. Dr. S.K. Gupta, Treasurer, SSV informed that at present the SSV has Rs.17,000/- in savings A/C in the bank and Rs.1.00 lakh as fixed deposits.
   
   

8. In connection with membership to the SSV, it was decided that if two members of the Society nominate a person, he/she be elected to the membership of the SSV. Members be requested to nominate younger scientists/engineers who would be prepared to work for the society. All members suggested that life membership fee should be increased to Rs.350/-. The proposal may be placed before the General Body meeting.
   
   

9. In view of the fact that the Hon'ble President, Dr. A.P.J. Kalam has keen interest in ethics in the pursuit of science, Members suggested that Dr. Kalam be requested by the President, SSV to become the Patron of the Society.

The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the Chair.

( K.L. CHOPRA ) ( P.S. DATTA )
Chairman, SSV Secretary, SSV

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Minutes of 44th Meeting of the Executive Council, Society for Scientific Values, held on 6th October, 2002 at 10.00 A.M. in the INSA, New Delhi

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The following were present:

Dr. K L Chopra
Dr. M V S Valiathan
Dr. A S Paintal
Dr. P N Tiwari
Dr. A R Verma
Dr. (Mrs.) Indira Nath
Dr. Ashima Anand
Dr. S K Gupta
Dr. P S Datta

Dr. Lalji Singh communicated through e-mail his inability to attend the meeting due to prior committments.

The President welcomed all the members and special invitees, briefly described the objectives of the SSV and emphasized the growing need of fostering ethics and values in pursuing science. Further, he stated that the activities of SSV should be considered as a part of the mission of INSA. The need for a desk space for keeping the SSV papers in any appropriate room in the INSA premises was mentioned by Dr. Chopra. In response, Dr. Valiathan, President INSA, appreciated the role of the SSV and talked about the increasing international concern at various fora regarding ethics in science. He mentioned that a meeting of all the Academies in India will discuss these issues. The views and recommendations of the SSV would be welcome for this discussion.

1. After confirming the minutes of the previous meeting, matters arising out of the minutes were taken up.

* Regarding the case of Dr. U.S. Bagade of Bombay University, Dr. Indira Nath mentioned that Dr. Kishan Lal has advised her to send the case documents sometime later because, he would be out of the country.

" Dr.Indira Nath and Dr. Gupta mentioned that accounting and auditing of the expenditure in connection with the activities has yet to be done and efforts are being made to complete the same as early as possible. Dr. Gupta informed that based on the documents provided to him by Prof. Karmeshu, the previous treasurer, as on 1st October, 2002, the new Executive Council had four FDs with a total of Rs.1.0 lakh and Savings Bank A/C balance with a total of Rs.22,918/- and paise 79 only. He further stated that all the vouchers and cash receipts w.e.f. 1st April, 1998 to 1st October, 2002 are with Prof. Karmeshu, and in due course, he would return all these things along with audited balance sheets for 2000-01 and 2001-02 to Dr. S.K. Gupta. For operating of the account, the bank will be informed to enter the names of the present Secretary (Dr. P.S. Datta) and Treasurer (Dr. S.K. Gupta) in their record as early as possible.

* Dr. I. Nath stated that for updating the web page, Rs. 2500/- has to be paid to the Website designer at Hyderabad. Dr Datta will explore the possibility of getting the same job done in Delhi on expiry of the contract.. Dr. K.L. Chopra mentioned that he would write to the INSA in this connection exploring the possibilities of using the server of the INSA

" Regarding the SSV Newsletter and publication of the article "Report of the Achievements of the Society", written by Dr. P.N. Tiwari, the following Editorial Committee was constituted to finalise the draft:

Prof. Narendra Nath, Chairman
Dr. (Mrs.) Ashima Anand
Mr. Dilip Salvi
Dr. P.S. Datta

2. The modified logo and letterhead were discussed. It was decided that approval of the General Body be obtained. Meanwhile, designs of these will be sent by e-mail to the members for their suggestions.

3. Efforts will be made to hold the Executive Council meeting every 3 months, followed by brainstorming sessions/Group discussions on ethical issues in science. Once in a year, Annual General Body meeting will be organized along with a seminar. To ensure larger participation, the date of the GB meeting will be preferably fixed to coincide with the date of the April meeting of INSA. Some of the suggested topics on brainstorming are: Credit and discredit; Code of conduct; Ethical guidelines for publications; Ethics for editors; Role of internet in S&T; Private Educational Institutions; etc..

4. Dr. Chopra suggested that efforts should be made to generate funds from DST and other funding agencies. It was agreed that Memberships and donations from NRIs be encouraged and welcomed. Further, it was decided to approach the Minister, S&T and DST to provide nominal funds for newsletter, one-day seminars, publications, group discussions, etc. Dr Verma agreed to discuss this issue with the Minister of Science and Technology.

5. The Council decided in principle to start planning for an International Conference to be organized by the end of 2004. Dr. P.N. Bhargava may be requested to be the Co-Chairman of the Conference and to actively involve himself in planning and organizing the International Conference.

6. The President updated the Council on the pending cases of plagiarisim and the actions being taken on alleged cases against Prof. B S Rajput, VC, Kumaon University; and Dr. (Ms) Padma Vankar of IIT, Kanpur.

The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the Chair.

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