Five years ago, when there was an acute shortage of sulphur, the sugar industry was in a quandary as sulphur was one of the important substances needed in the process of making sugar. If to-day it is in the happy position of not depending upon sulphur to manufacture sugar, it is due largely to the work of Dr. Nanduri Atchuta Ramaiah, Professor of Physical Chemistry in the National Sugar Institute, Kanpur, who has been selected for the Bhatnagar Award for 1966 in the field of chemical sciences. Freeing the sugar industry from reliance on sulphur is only one of the many contributions of this 48-year-old scientist. He has developed new techniques and products that will improve the quality of sugar and prevent deterioration of sugar stocks in godowns. The coveted Bhatnagar Award of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research is one more feather in his cap. He had been honoured earlier by scientific bodies and the Invention Promotion Board for his contribution to sugar chemistry and technology.
