The central government on Wednesday announced the full list of the first-ever Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar (RVP) 2024 awardees. The award ceremony is slated to be held on August 23, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre to mark the first National Space Day, ommemorating Chandrayaan-3 mission's soft landing on the moon.
The ISRO-Chandrayan 3 Team will be awarded th Vigyan Team award for their contribution in the field of Space Science and Technology.
The government, in January, had called for nominations for this national science award, which honours the work done by teams or individuals in the fields of science, technology, and technology-led innovation.
The four categories of this award are: Vigyan Ratna, Vigyan Shri, Vigyan Yuva, and Vigyan Team.
Celebrated biochemist Govindarajan Padmanabhan has been selected as the first recipient of Vigyan Ratna Puraskar. This award is bestowed to recognise the lifetime achievements and contributions made in the realm of science and technology.
The awardees nominated for the Vigyan Yuva award include Bappi Paul, Abhilash, Radha Krishna Ganti, and Purabi Saikia in the field of Engineering Sciences; Digendranath Swain, Prabhu Rajagopal,and Prashant Kumar in the Space Science and Technology field, and Jitendra Kumar Sahu, Urbasi Sinha, and Pragya Dhruv Yadav in the field of medicine, among others.
The Vigyan Yuva award is to recognise and encourage young scientists for their contribution in science and technology.
Anandharamakrishnan C, Umesh Varshney, Bhim Singh, Adimurthi Adi, Syed Wajh Ahmad Naqvi, Sanjay Behari, Rahul Mukherjee, Avesh Kumar Tyagi, Rohit Srivastava, Annapurni Subramaniam, Jayant Bhalchandra Udgaonkar, and Lakshmanan Muthusamy are amongst those selected for the Vigyan Shri award.
The awardees were chosen from among the following streams: Physics, Technology and Innovation, Chemistry, Space Science and Technology, Biological Sciences, Mathematics, Computer Science, Earth Science, Medicine, Engineering, Agriculture Sciences, Environmental Sciences, and atomic energy.
The government had stated in its notification at the time of inviting nominations that RVP shall be one of the "highest recognition in the field of science, technology and innovation in India. Scientists/technologists/innovators working in government, private sector organisations 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."
The awards will not be conferred posthumously, except in "highly deserving cases".
Like Padma awards, these science awards will not have any cash reward as well.