Jayant Narlikar Honoured Posthumously with Vigyan Ratna Puraskar, India’s Highest Scientific Award

Jayant Narlikar, India's renowned astrophysicist, science communicator, and Padma Vibhushan awardee, has been posthumously awarded the Vigyan Ratna Puraskar, the country's highest scientific honour.

Narlikar, who passed away on May 20 this year at the age of 86, was celebrated for his bold and unconventional contributions to cosmology.

He challenged the Big Bang theory — which posits that the universe originated from a single massive explosion — and, along with British astronomer Fred Hoyle, proposed the steady state theory, suggesting that the universe has always existed, with new matter continuously created over time.

The Ministry of Science and Technology announced the second edition of the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar on Sunday. Along with the Vigyan Ratna, the awards include eight Vigyan Shri, 14 Vigyan Yuva, and one Vigyan Team honour. Modelled on the lines of the Padma awards, the Vigyan Puraskars aim to recognise and promote pathbreaking research and inspirational achievements of Indian scientists across 13 disciplines.

This year's Vigyan Shri awardees spanned various applied fields, including agricultural sciences, space sciences, engineering, and environmental sciences, as well as fundamental areas such as physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics. S. Venkata Mohan, Director of the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), won the Vigyan Shri for his contributions to Environmental Sciences. Gyanendra Pratap Singh, a renowned wheat breeder, was honoured with the same award for his remarkable work in Agricultural Science.

Aniruddha Bhalchandra Pandit, Vice-Chancellor of the Institute of Chemical Technology, was recognised with the Vigyan Shri in Engineering Sciences, while Yusuf Mohammad Sheikh, Director of the Physics Group at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), received the award for his contributions to Atomic Energy.

K Thangaraj of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) has won the award in the field of Biological Sciences, and Pradeep Thalappil of IIT-Madras bagged the Vigyan Shri in the field of Chemistry. Mahan Maharaj, a monk of the Ramakrishna Order and Professor of Mathematics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, won the Vigyan Shri in the field of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Jayan N of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre has been selected for his contribution to Space Science and Technology.

The 14 Vigyan Yuva awardees are Jagdis Gupta Kapuganti (Agricultural Science), Satendra Kumar Mangrauthia (Agricultural Science), Debarka Sengupta (Biological Sciences), Deepa Agashe (Biological Sciences), Dibyendu Das (Chemistry), Waliur Rahaman (Earth Science), Arkaprava Basu (Engineering Sciences), Sabyasachi Mukherjee (Mathematics and Computer Science), Shweta Prem Agrawal (Mathematics and Computer Science), Suresh Kumar (Medicine), Amit Kumar Agarwal (Physics), Surhud Shrikant More (Physics), Ankur Garg (Space Science and Technology), and Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam (Technology and Innovation).

The CSIR Aroma Mission Team, which spearheaded the 'Lavender Mission' in Jammu and Kashmir, received the Vigyan Team Award for its outstanding collective contribution.