The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded Ghatak the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1974. The Indian Academy of Sciences elected him as a fellow in 1976 and he became a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy in 1980. The Chemical Research Society of India awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. Among the several award orations he delivered were Professor K. Venkataraman Endowment Lecture (1982), Acharya P. C. Ray Memorial Lecture of Indian Chemical Society (1985), Professor N. V. Subba Rao Memorial Lecture (1986), Prof. R. C. Shah Memorial Lecture of Indian Science Congress Association (1986), T. R. Sheshadri Memorial Lecture of Delhi University (1987), Baba Kartar Singh Memorial Lecture of Panjab University (1990) and S. Swaminathan Sixtieth Birthday Commemoration Lecture of Indian National Science Academy (1994). He was also associated with the Royal Society of Chemistry and Chemical Society of London as an associate member. The Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science have instituted an annual oration, Professor U. R. Ghatak Endowment Lecture, in honor of Ghatak.