[4] He served as the Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - a network of thirty-eight laboratories-for over eleven years.

He has been on the board of directors of several companies such as Reliance Industries Ltd, Tata Motors, Hindustan Unilever, Thermax, Piramal Group, KPIT Technologies, etc.

NCL, which was involved only in import substitution research till then, began licensing its patents to multinational companies.

[8] The process of CSIR transformation has been heralded as one of the ten most significant achievements of Indian Science and Technology in the twentieth century, by eminent astrophysicist Prof. Jayant Narlikar, in his book, The Scientific Edge.

Under his leadership, CSIR occupied the first position in WIPO's top fifty PCT filler among all the developing nations in 2002.

[9] Led by Mashelkar, CSIR successfully fought the battle of revocation of the US patent on wound healing properties of turmeric (USP 5,401,5041) claiming that this was India's traditional knowledge and therefore not novel.

[10][11] Mashelkar also chaired the Technical Committee, which successfully challenged[12] the US patents on Basmati Rice (USP 5,663,484) by RiceTec Company, Texas, (2001).

[24] Mashelkar has made contributions in transport phenomena,in thermodynamics of swelling, superswelling and shrinking polymers, modelling of polymerisation reactors, and engineering analysis of Non-Newtonian flows.

[30] The controversy was raised in the Indian Parliament, with demands that the report be "trashed" and the issues be referred to a joint standing committee.

[36] He surpasses the record for the highest number of honorary doctorates awarded to any Indian engineer, which was previously held by Dr. A.P.J.

[37] Honours by President of India: (highest Indian civilian awards) Election to Prestigious Academies (International): Election to Prestigious Academies (National): Presidency of Top Academic Bodies Awards and Honours: International Mashelkar established the Anjani Mashelkar Foundation in 2011 to encourage inclusive innovation which includes the excluded by deploying disruptive high technology, scalable products and services often through breakthrough business models.