Mohanbhai I. Patel, after graduating in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from Faraday House College of Engineering, London, joined the London office of the Tatas in 1952. After some six years of technical and business experience with them, he established Lans Metals, Extrusion Processes, Impact, P & R Automation and other companies, known as the Patel Extrusion Group (PEG), of which he is the Chairman. He developed for the first time in the world, the Ophthalmic Nozzle pure aluminium tube.

His group of companies manufacture a wide variety of aluminium-extruded products such as collapsible tubes, rigid containers, bottles, extruded sections and profiles, colour cartons, as also machinery to manufacture these items. PEG plants are located at Mumbai, Vadodara, Vapi, Silvasa, Goa and Halol.

A keen observer and student of Industrial Economics, he realised very early that for India, to progress economically, research in the field of industry and agriculture must be intensified and made relevant so as to make use of indigenously available raw materials and talent. In a country where natural resources are limited in relation to the large population it has to sustain, human ingenuity must be put to work so as to increase per capita output. It was from this desire to promote greater creativity, innovativeness and inventiveness in India that the idea of VASVIK was born. With several friends who are prominent men of science and industry he promoted Vividhlaxi Audyogik Samshodhan Vikas Kendra (VASVIK), which is dedicated to the cause of economic prosperity in India through industrial research. He was awarded Honorary Doctorate of Science by Sardar Patel University, Vidyanagar, Gujarat.