Government House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
17 January 2020
The Governor-General is pleased to announce the following honorary appointment within the General Division of the Order of Australia:
ORDER OF AUSTRALIA
Honorary Member (AM)
Dr Kiran MAZUMDAR-SHAW, Bangalore India
For significant service to advancing Australia's bilateral relationship with India, particularly in promoting commercial and educational links.
By His Excellency’s Command
Paul Singer MVO
Official Secretary to the Governor-General
APPOINTED AN HONORARY MEMBER (AM)
IN THE GENERAL DIVISION OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA
Dr Kiran MAZIMDAR-SHAW, Bangalore India
For significant service to advancing Australia’s bilateral relationship with India, particularly in promoting commercial and educational links.
Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is one of lndia's most prominent entrepreneurs and a tireless champion of Australia-India commercial, educational, government and people-to-people links. She is a pioneer, an inventor, a bio pharmacist-par-excellence, a philanthropist, and an international role model for women in STEM.
Dr Mazumdar-Shaw founded her firm Biocon in her garage in 1978 and has since built it into one of the largest bio-pharmaceutical companies in India. She has demonstrated significant leadership, advocacy and investment in innovation, research and scientific talent to support affordability and accessibility of healthcare, and solutions to complex, global health challenges.
Dr Mazumdar-Shaw has also supported cancer research and treatment through her philanthropic endeavours, such as establishing the Mazumdar-Shaw Medical Foundation in Bangalore, India.
Dr Mazumdar-Shaw credits much of her success to her formative years studying at what is currently Federation University Australia, in Ballarat, Victoria. In 2006 the university awarded her with an honorary Doctorate of Science and this year appointed her its Ambassador, a role in which she promotes Australian education abroad.
She is also recognised for her sustained and significant contribution to industryacademia collaboration between Australia and India. Biocon and Deakin University have developed joint research programs in obesity, diabetes and metabolic studies and a PhD program and scholarship to promote women in STEM.
In 2016 she was appointed as an Australian Global Alumni Ambassador by the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, she currently serves on the Australia-India Business Council, and is also the first Victorian Government Business Ambassador to South Asia.
On the basis of her longstanding commitment and support in advancing AustraliaIndian relations, Dr Mazumdar-Shaw is worthy of recognition with an appointment as an honorary Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia.