Kartikeya Sarabhai
Kartikeya V Sarabhai (born November 27, 1947) is a well known environmentalist and industrialist from the Sarabhai family of Ahmedabad in India.
He is the son of the late Vikram Sarabhai, a renowned scientist and the father of India's space programme and Mrinalini Sarabhai, a noted danseuse. His sister Mallika Sarabhai, is also a noted dancer and activist.
He was educated in Cambridge, UK (Tripos in Natural Science) and went on to do post graduate work in development communication at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Sarabhai is the founder director of the Centre for Environment Education headquartered in Ahmedabad, with 40 offices across India. He is also the chairman of the Ambalal Sarabhai Enterprises, the pharmaceutical company which was set up by his grandfather Ambalal Sarabhai. He is closely involved in the activities of the Nehru Foundation for Development, of VIKSAT and Ahmedabad's Vikram Sarabhai Community Science Centre. Sarabhai is also a trustee of the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust, and the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL).
Sarabhai has served on many committees set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India, primarily focusing on the greening of India's formal education system, and initiatives for biodiversity education. He is a member of the Earth Charter International Council. He was also part of the delegations which represented India at the Earth Summit (1992) in Rio and the Earth Summit 2002 in Johannesburg. He was also instrumental in initiating the South and Southeast Asian Network for Environment Education (SASEANEE). He is currently vice chair of the Indian National Commission for the International Union Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He also led the first international conference on the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in Ahmedabad in 2005, and he is a member of the UNESCO Reference Group for DESD.
He is currently the editor of the Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, published by SAGE, and has written and spoken extensively on environment, education and related subjects in national and international fora.
He received the Tree of Learning Award (1998) from the IUCN in appreciation of his contributions to the field of environmental education and communication. The Indian Institute of Human Rights has presented him with the World Human Rights Promotion Award (2005).
More recently, Kartikeya Sarabhai has been in the news for restructuring the ailing Ambalal Sarabhai Enterprises.
He lives in Ahmedabad and is married to Rajshree Sarabhai, a textile designer and photographer.
He has been selected for the for the Padma Shri award in the Environmental Education category by the President of India for the year 2012.[1][2]
[edit] External links
- Website of the Centre for Environment Education
- International Conference on Environment Education 2007
- Journal of Education for Sustainable Development
- The Earth Charter Initiative
- Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India
