New Delhi: From the initial 26 voices of discontent, the number of dissatisfied academics and scientists has expanded to more than 200—all questioning the selection process of the government’s first Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar, India’s top science honour. But a top official from the Ministry of Science and Technology told ThePrint the selection is final and will not be reconsidered.
The awards were presented by President Droupadi Murmu at a ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan on 22 August. The final list included 33 awardees in four categories—Vigyan Ratna, Vigyan Shri, Vigyan Yuva Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, and Vigyan Team.
On 24 September, 176 scientists and academics wrote to the Centre’s principal scientific adviser Ajay Sood over “shocking” omissions in the final list of Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar recipients, and last-minute changes to the selection criteria on the government website. The signatories, including former heads of institutes like the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research and the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, alleged that the final list and the names recommended by the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar Samiti—the governing body of the awards—were not the same.
This is the second time the Indian scientific community has questioned the award section. On 30 August, 26 academics first wrote to Sood demanding that the selection criteria of the awards be made public. They also alleged that the criteria were changed on the Union home ministry website post facto to justify the omission of three scientists from the shortlist of those who were in the race for the awards.
The final list of winners allegedly excluded the names of at least three scientists—Suvrat Raju, a physicist from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Prateek Sharma, physicist from the Indian Institute of Science, and Suman Chakraborty, a mechanical engineer from IIT-Kharagpur—despite being recommended by the expert committee in the Vigyan Yuva Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar category.
The website also added a clause, not mentioned earlier, that the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar Committee will only recommend the final list of awardees to the Union science minister, who will then take the final call.
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‘Final list not same as list recommended by RVPC’
“The changes made to the awards portal recently, and your response drawing attention to those specific changes, seem consistent with the impression we got from the media reports that the list of names declared as the award winners is not the same as the list recommended by RVPC,” the latest letter to PSA Sood, read.
In the 30 August letter, the scientists alleged that “unfair non-scientific considerations” may have influenced the final selection of the awardees. “We are writing to ask whether the recommendations of the RVPC were accepted in entirety or were revised by further committees or authorities,” the letter read.
They went on to request that the details of the nature of any such committees and the criteria employed in arriving at a decision be made public, as they could not find any mention of this on the government website.
The PSA responded to the letter stating that the Rashtriya Vigyan Puruskar Committee only recommended the awardee list to the science minister, who is the final voice on the selection.
In 2023, the Union government had announced the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar as the highest recognition for contributions in the field of science and technology in India. The awards clubbed individual awards and grants under one umbrella, with four categories—Vigyan Ratna, Vigyan Shri, Vigyan Yuva and Vigyan Team.
In the inaugural edition, 33 scientists were awarded across the categories—one Vigyan Ratna, 13 Vigyan Shris, 18 Vigyan Yuva-SSB and one Vigyan Team.
The Vigyan Ratna aims to recognise lifetime achievements and contributions made in any field of science and technology. Vigyan Shri is awarded for distinguished contributions in any field of science and technology. Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnasagar award is for young scientists under the age of 45 years to recognise exceptional contributions in any field of science and technology. Vigyan Team award will be given every year to a team, comprising three or more scientists, researchers or innovators.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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