BUSINESS

KERALA GOVT HONOURS MALAYSIA'S FORMER HEAD IN RUBBER RESEARCH

16/01/2021 10:00 PM

By Mohd Iswandi Kasan Anuar

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 16 -- The late Tan Sri Dr B.C. Sekhar’s significant contributions to the rubber industry, both locally and globally, have received yet another honorary recognition, this time by the Kerala state assembly in India.

As the world’s foremost rubber research scientist, his legacy will be given due recognition as a new science and technology school within a university in Kerala, India will bear his name.

The move was revealed during the tabling of Kerala’s 2021-22 budget by the State Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac recently.

In his speech, the minister said 30 fully autonomous inter-university centres and schools will be established within universities in the state, and these new schools will be named after prominent scientific scholars from Kerala or of Kerala descent, including Sekhar.

 

‘Father’ of the Malaysian rubber industry

 

Back home, several international awards have been introduced in honour of Sekhar's exemplary contributions to the rubber industry and the overall commodities sector.

This includes the prestigious ‘Sekhar Gold Medal’, which is awarded to members of the rubber industry for notable excellence in the rubber industry globally, through the International Rubber Research Development Board.

Sekhar was also one of the very few people in the history of the Malaysian rubber industry to receive the title ‘Tan Sri’ from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

"Sekhar is no doubt the pioneer and considered as the ‘father’ of the Malaysian rubber industry. There are too many contributions that he made to the country," said Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities, secretary-general Datuk Ravi Muthayah to Bernama.

Details of his legacy can be found in his autobiography, published by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia.

Ravi said Sekhar's contributions to the rubber industry stretched beyond the Malaysian borders, as the research and development by the local rubber industry have directly or indirectly helped develop the rubber industries in neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam.

 

Contributions to glove industry

 

"In light of his legacy, the Malaysian Rubber Board and Malaysian Rubber Council will continue to strive to help all stakeholders in the rubber industry under the ministry," said Ravi.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association president Dr Supramaniam Shanmugam said Sekhar was a true industrial icon.

His tireless efforts via the Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia (RRIM) has brought the Malaysian rubber industry on to the international stage.

“Malaysia’s leadership in the global rubber glove industry is a testimony to his contribution," said Supramaniam.

Sekhar became the first Malaysian director of the RRIM in 1966 and headed it for 21 years until his retirement.

He was credited with creating the best ever research environment for natural rubber.

During his tenure, the RRIM had filed 21 patents, including on the results of his research project on the viscosity of stabilised rubber -- the remedy for the undesirable hardening of natural rubber in storage.

Sekhar had also transformed the RRIM into the world’s largest research organisation devoted to a single crop, which became Malaysia's most important export crop and highest foreign exchange earner for decades.

-- BERNAMA

 

 


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