Dr. Khatkhatay was awarded with "Technology Day Award", instituted by Ministry of Science and Technology in 2001 for successful transfer of technology for preparation of diagnostic kits for reproductive hormones to industry. He was also felicitated by the then Minister of Health and Family Welfare for the significant contribution in promoting indigenous technology in March 2001. Till now, he has published 9 papers in nationals and 22 papers in internation journals.

The development of immunoassays began at the end of 19th century and today they are among the most widely used of the analytical tools globally. They have been applied to an extensive range of substances, from single molecule to whole cells. They seem to occur in an inexhaustible format, however, enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with microtitre plates as solid phase and enzyme as label, emerged as one of the leading immunoassay techniques.

The essence of popularity of ELISA lies in the fact that besides being specific and sensitive, it is simple to perform, reproducible, needs less space, and simple instrumentations. This has made ELISA the technique most suited to Indian scenario. In India, enzyme immunoassays (EIA) were first developed by Dr. Usha M Joshi, retired Deputy Director, National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health. In fact world's first pregnancy test based on ELISA technique was developed by her in seventies.

We must manufacture assay components in India. Horse radish peroxidase is most widely used enzyme in ELISA, yet it is not being prepared in India and its substrate-chromogens are still being imported. We do not have our own microtitre ELISA plates.

In spite being associated with a research organization in the area of reproductive health; we must give utmost priorities to the development of indigenous diagnostic kits for reproductive hormones as import substitute. The mission is to achieve self-reliance and offer assays at an affordable price.

The R&D in the area of immunoassays have crossed many milestones. The current format of immunoassay technology is "dry- phase technology". Many wet and multi-step assays have been reduced to a one step dry-phase assays that is activated by adding sample. The ultimate goal in devising dry-phase immunoassays is to incorporate all the necessary reagents into a single device that is activated by adding sample.

The incentive for development of such tests is that although the reagent technology may be complex, the tests are simple and convenient to perform.

When test device is unitized dry reagents, transportation, and storage become simpler; and the probable errors at the user's end (mixing and addition of reagents in defined sequences) get totally eliminated.

The test can be performed in the physician's office or primary health center (PHC) with results available in minutes. Some of the recent assays include: immune-metric multilayer immunoassay for human chorionic gonadotropins developed by Liotta, competitive binding multilayered immunoassay assay for thyroxin by Fuji Photo Films and for theophylline by Eastman Kodak, enzyme channeling dry strip assay by Syva, and EIA-chromatography by many companies for pregnancy test. Such assays are most suited for us as many of our PHCs as well as tertiary health centers are ill-equipped with frequent power breakdowns. Thus, industries must act to develop technologies that can be assimilated in Indian situations.