Dr. Bhushan Patwardhan takes charge as new chairperson of NAAC

Dr. Bhushan is currently serving as the chairman of the interdisciplinary AYUSH R&D task force on Covid-19. He has over 40 years of experience in research and development in the area of evidence-based Ayurveda, ethnopharmacology, drug discovery and development, and integrative medicine. He was also a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (India), National Academy of Medical Sciences (India), and visiting Professor at IIAS, Shimla.

He worked on Boards of several Universities and was a member of important national committees of the UGC, CSIR, DST, DBT, ICMR, FSSAI, and Ministry of AYUSH. He has worked on committees of NITI Aayog, National Knowledge Commission, and Planning Commission. He was invited as a temporary consultant to the WHO Geneva and was the Director, Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, and Vice-Chancellor of a deemed University. He is on the research advisory committees of national and international institutions and universities. Founder Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine published by Elsevier, Academic Editor of eCAM (Hindawi) and is on Editorial Boards of many reputed Journals

He received his Master of Science from Ahmednagar College and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Savitribai Phule Pune University and the Haffkine Institute of Mumbai. Dr. Patwardhan told The Indian Express that he would concentrate on finding ways to initiate improvement in the NAAC processes. "My main area of interest will be aligning the accreditation and assessment process to the University Grants Commission policy mandate and the new National Education Policy 2020. NAAC is not new to me because I was a part of it, the UGC vice-chairman is an ex-officio member. But I will have to review the whole process now," he said.

" I also know that there is room for improvement everywhere. But one important thing is that NAAC has to be aligned with the NEP recommendations because if the assessment is not made based on what is required by the policy, then the whole process is not complete", he added.