of Rs. 1,500,000/- for research work on any subject related to petroleum. The company placed the fund through the university and it was used to establish the Department of Petroleum Research under the guidance of Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar. Investigations carried out under this collaborative scheme included deodorisation of waxes, increasing flame height of kerosene and utilisation of waste products in the vegetable oil and mineral oil industries. Recognizing the commercial success of the research, the company increased the fund, and extended the period from five years to ten. Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar persistently refused any personal monetary benefit from his research fundings, and instead advocated for strengthening research facilities at the university. Meghnad Saha wrote to Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar in 1934 saying, "You have hereby raised the status of the university teachers in the estimation of public, not to speak of the benefit conferred on your Alma Mater". Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar wrote jointly with K.N. Mathur Physical Principles and Applications of Magnetochemistry which is considered a standard work on the subject. Establishment of CSIR The first industrial research organisation in India was created as an Industrial Intelligence and Research Bureau, which came into operation in April 1935 under the Indian Stores Department. With its limited budget of Rs. 1.2 lakhs per year, the bureau was virtually inactive. In 1939 there was a strong movement to abolish the bureau, and to replace it with a Board of Scientific and Industrial Research, similar to the British BSIR. Under the persuasive pressure of Arcot Ramaswamy Mudaliar, the Board of Scientific and Industrial Research (BSIR) was formed on 1 April 1940 for a period of two years. Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar, as a leading scientist of the time, was appointed as the Director, and Mudaliar became the Chairman. The BSIR had an annual budget of Rs. 5 lakhs which was placed under the Department of Commerce. Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar persuaded the government to set up an Industrial Research Utilisation Committee (IRUC) in early 1941 for further investment into industrial research. Mudaliar also won the demand for an establishment of Industrial Research Fund, and that it should have an annual grant of Rs 1 million for a period of five years, at the Central Assembly in Delhi at its session on 14 November 1941. These finally led to the constitution of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as an autonomous body, which came into operation