Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has strongly defended IIT Madras Director V. Kamakoti after the Congress party took a sarcastic dig at his selection for the Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award. Vembu praised Kamakoti’s credentials, calling him a deep-tech expert in microprocessor design and asserting that he “richly deserves the honour” for leading what he described as India’s best technological institution. The controversy erupted after the Congress Kerala unit posted a sarcastic congratulatory message on social media, mocking Kamakoti’s past remarks on cow urine.
Vembu Defends Indigenous Scientific Research
The post drew criticism from Vembu, who accused detractors of having a “colonial mindset” that dismisses indigenous scientific inquiry. Vembu went on to argue that cow dung and cow urine possess microbiomes that could hold scientific value, and that such subjects should not be ridiculed without proper research. He said similar ideas would be readily accepted if validated by Western institutions. The remarks revived debate around Kamakoti’s earlier claims about the antibacterial and antifungal properties of cow urine, which he had linked to published research on peptide profiling in scientific journals. Sharing a video in which he linked the Padma Shri recognition to his commitment towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Viksit Bharat’ vision.
While Kamakoti himself has not responded to the Congress post, the episode has sparked fresh discussion on the intersection of science, politics, and public discourse in India. Kamakoti’s academic profile lists his research interests in areas such as VLSI design, high-performance computing, algorithms, and computational geometry.