Know-how firm Zoho’s founder Sridhar Vembu reacted sharply to the Congress celebration’s dig at IIT-Madras director V Kamakoti, who has been chosen for the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian award.
“Professor Kamakoti works in deep tech: micro-processor design. He’s the Director of IIT-Madras, the perfect technological establishment in India… He richly deserves the honour,” Vembu posted on X.
The tech businessman was responding to the Congress Kerala unit’s apparently sarcastic put up: “Congratulations to V Kamakoti on receiving the honour. The nation recognises your bleeding edge analysis on Cow Urine at IIT Madras, taking Gomutra to world stage.”
With it, the celebration additionally shared a video by which Kamakoti mentioned, “The Padma Shri award means solely factor to me, that I’ll put all the perfect efforts in the direction of ‘Viksit Bharat’,” itemizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘developed India by 2047’ pitch as his inspiration.
What was the dig about?
The dig reminded of Professor Kamakoti’s remarks final yr that cow urine has “anti-bacterial” and “anti-fungal” properties, and might heal quite a lot of diseases, together with IBS, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
Kamakoti had claimed later that “prime journals in the US have printed scientific proof” on this. In line with report from the time by NDTV, he shared a write-up printed in Nature, a revered weekly scientific journal, in June 2021, by which some scientists printed the outcomes of “peptide profiling in cow urine”.
The authors in that mentioned they’d “offered a easy methodology for the invention of 1000’s of endogenous peptides in cow urine that contribute to varied bioactivities related to urine”. “We supplied proof for the peptide-mediated antimicrobial exercise in opposition to E. coli and S. aureus, however extra experiments are wanted to validate different predicted bioactivities,” they reportedly mentioned.
Whereas Professor Kamakoti had not but reacted to the Congress’s put up, inside hours Vembu interjected, saying he would proceed to defend Kamakoti on scientific grounds.
“Cow dung and cow urine have glorious microbiome that could possibly be beneficial for people,” Vembu argued. He additional mentioned, “It’s the slavish colonial mindset that thinks these aren’t scientific propositions worthy of investigation. Some day, when Harvard or MIT publish a research on this, these enslaved minds would worship that because the gospel reality.”
The professor’s profile on the IIT-Madras web site lists the next as his analysis pursuits: “Software program elements of VLSI design, Cluster computing, Excessive-performance computing, Algorithms, Information constructions, Computational geometry.”
He was among the many 131 Padma awardees named on Republic Day eve.
‘Put your cash on it’
Not lengthy after Vembu’s put up, the celebration reacted again.
“Analysis is just not about quoting random Western analysis papers out of context. What’s the consequence of all this analysis on cow dung and urine? And why are we restricted solely to cow dung? What in regards to the excreta of buffaloes, goats, and even people?” it posted on X.
It famous {that a} analysis venture on Panchagavya — a conventional combination constructed from cow dung, cow urine, milk, curd, and ghee — for the therapy of most cancers was embroiled in a rip-off.
“Because you (Vembu) are a billionaire who believes within the magical advantages of cow urine, why doesn’t your organization spend money on correct cow urine and cow dung analysis? If cow urine can assist in therapeutic most cancers, that will be considered one of our biggest contributions to the world. Why don’t you’re taking up this problem and put the cash the place your mouth is?” The Kerala Congress deal with additional posted.









