Introduction
The Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar was instituted by the government of India in 2023 to recognize the contributions of outstanding researchers in the fields of science, technology and innovation. The institution of this award was announced in January 2024 after scrapping more than 300 awards given by different institutions. The award consists of a medal and a citation; no cash prize is awarded.
The objective of the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar (RVP) is to recognise the notable and inspiring contribution made by the scientists, technologists and innovators individually or in teams in various fields of science, technology and technology- led innovation. It is to be considered one of the highest recognition in the field of science, technology and innovation in India.
Scientists/ technologists / innovators working in government, private sector organizations or individuals working outside any organisation, who have made distinguished contributions in terms of path-breaking research or innovation or discovery in any fields of science, technology or technology- led innovation shall be eligible for the awards. People of Indian origin staying abroad with exceptional contributions benefiting the Indian communities or society shall also be eligible for the awards.
The awardees are to be selected by a 17-member panel headed by the Principal Scientific Advisor to Govt of India from a list of nominated persons. Other members of the panel are Secretaries of the six Science Ministries/Departments (DST, DBT, CSIR, MoES, DoS and DAE), four select Presidents of the Science and Engineering Academies and six distinguished scientists and technologists from different fields of Science and Technology. Nominations can be made by any individual, institution, State Govts, Depts/Ministries of Govt of India, heads of national science bodies, etc.
Categories
As per the scheme of the awards, each year, a maximum of 56 awardees will be selected from various domains of Science and Technology in four different categories:
1. Vigyan Ratna (VR) award (maximum three) for life time achievements.
2. Vigyan Shri (VS) award (maximum 25) for distinguished contributions.
3. Vigyan Yuva: Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (VY-SSB) award (maximum 25) to recognize and encourage young scientists in a field (age limit 45 years).
4. Vigyan Team (VT) award (maximum of three) to be awarded to a team of three or more persons who, as a team, have made outstanding contributions a field of Science and Technology.
Domains
The award is given in 13 domains: Biological Sciences, Mathematics and Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Earth Science, Medicine, Engineering Sciences, Agricultural Science, Environmental Science, Technology and Innovation, Atomic Energy, Space Science and Technology, and Others. The current year awardees (Biology) are as follows:
Vigyan Ratna Prof Govindarajan Padmanaban
Prof Govindarajan Padmanaban (born 1938) is an Indian biochemist and biotechnologist. He was the former director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and presently serves as honorary professor in the department of biochemistry at IISc and Chancellor of Central University of Tamil Nadu. Prof Padmanabhan was instrumental in ushering in recombinant DNA technology in the country. In the early years of his research, he primarily worked in the transcriptional regulation of Eukaryotic genes in the liver. His group discovered the heme-biosynthetic pathway in the malarial parasite and showed it to be a drug target.
Vigyan Shri Prof Chinnaswamy Anandharamakrishnan
Prof C. Anandharamakrishnan (born 1973) currently serving as a director of CSIR – National Institute of Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, (NIIST) Trivandrum. Earlier, he served as Director of NIFTEM-T. Dr. Anandharamakrishnan has developed engineered human stomach and small intestine dynamic digestive system called ARK® to study the digestion and absorption behaviour of the foods in human stomach. He has custom built in-house designed 3D food printer which could print wide range of food materials.
Vigyan Shri Prof Umesh Varshney
Prof Umesh Varshney is an Honorary Professor of Microbiology and Cell Biology at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He is known for his studies on protein synthesis and DNA repair in Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. His researches are known to have assisted in a wider understanding of the biology of mycobacterium, more specifically the interaction between ribosome recycling factor and elongation factor G as well as the uracil excision repair pathwayforming a basis fordeveloping newer drug targets and the attenuated strains.
Vigyan Shri Prof Jayant B Udgaonkar
Dr. Jayant Bhalchandra Udgaonkar is an accomplished biochemist and molecular biologist of India. He has made outstanding contribution to the area of protein folding, unfolding and misfolding. Using the model protein barstar, he has established that the earliest event in folding is an initial hydrophobic collapse. His work has provided elegant and incisive characterization of multiple unfolding intermediates and transition states of folding and unfolding of proteins.
Vigyan Shri Dr Sanjay Behari
Dr. Sanjay Behari is a Neurosurgeon and is currently the Director of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Trivandrum. Prof. Behari is luminary in neurosurgery, epitomised by exemplary service, high quality research and significant advancements in medical technology and infrastructure. He has fostered an environment integrating health sciences with biomedical technology that translates into patents and medical devices as products.
Vigyan Shri Prof Rohit Srivastava
Prof. Rohit Srivastava is currently working as a Himanshu Patel Chair Professor and leading the NanoBios lab at the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering (BSBE), Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT) Bombay. His lab has developed and commercialised several products including UChek which is a mobile based portable urine analysis system and Suchek which is an indigenous, low-cost glucometer. He along with his collaborators has as many as 80 granted Indian and three US patents to their credit with more than 150 patent applications filed over 18 years at IIT Bombay.
Vigyan Yuva Dr S. L. Krishnamurthy
Dr S. L. Krishnamurthy started his professional career as Scientist (Plant Breeding) with ICAR – Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Karnal (Haryana) in 2009 to 2023. Presently, he is working as a Senior Scientist (Plant Breeding) at ICAR – Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR), Hyderabad. Dr. S L Krishnamurthy has made noteworthy contributions to science and society through effective integration of modern molecular tools with conventional breeding. He has developed salt tolerant rice varieties, and pass port data of 9000 rice accessions for 30 qualitative and quantitative traits.
Vigyan Yuva Dr Swarup Kumar Parida
Dr Swarup Kumar Parida started his career in 2011 as Scientist II in NIPGR and still working there as Scientist V. Dr. Swarup has made significant contribution in area of next-generation molecular breeding for crop improvement. He is instrumental in developing novel concepts, user-friendly databases, web-servers, cost-effective informative genome/pangenome-based arrays on various large-scale genetic markers designing and genotyping, as well as diverse integrated genomics-assisted breeding strategies for rapid quantitative dissection of complex yield, plant architecture, nutritional quality and abiotic stress tolerance traits aimed towards genetic improvement of rice and chickpea.
Vigyan Yuva Dr Radhakrishnan Mahalakshmi
Dr Radhakrishnan Mahalakshmi heads the Molecular Biophysics Laboratory in the Department of Biological Sciences of IISER Bhopal. As an independent researcher at IISER Bhopal (which she joined in 2009), Prof. Mahalakshmi has been one of the first to characterize and identify vital features of the human mitochondrial anti-apoptotic voltage-dependent anion channel isoform 2 (VDAC2). In addition to VDACs, Prof. Mahalakshmi’s current research interests include understanding the dynamics of other essential β-barrels of human mitochondrial outer membranes.
Vigyan Yuva Dr Aravind Penmatsa
Dr Aravind Penmatsa is an Associate professor at the Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science. His group studies the transport mechanisms of neurotransmitters like noradrenaline and GABA and their inhibition by pain and antiepileptic medications. His group also studies antiporters involved in multi-drug efflux and develops novel strategies for using antibodies to determine the structures of integral membrane transporters to study their mechanisms and functional roles.
Vigyan Yuva Dr Vishal Rai
Dr Vishal Rai started his independent career at IISER Bhopal in 2011. His research group is developing chemical technologies for precision engineering of native proteins to enable directed and precision therapeutics. His team is also involved in synthesizing homogeneous antibody- conjugates, protein immobilization, and analytical tools for peptides and proteins.
Note: This is little highlight of full article of August 2024 issue of Biotech Express, For full article, Kindly Subscribe the issue or yearly subscription.
Edited: AUGUST 31, 2024
