PM’s daughter among five scholars awarded inaugural Infosys Prize

Prime minister Manmohan Singh's daughter Upinder Singh was one of the recipients of the inaugural Infosys Prize instituted by the Infosys Science Foundation. Along with Singh four other scholars received the award in different categories at the hand of vice president Hamid Ansari in New Delhi on Monday.

Instituted by IT major, Infosys, the prize seeks to boost morale of scholars engaged in research in the fields of science, medicine, social sciences, and other areas, as it has been seen that despite a number of stellar achievements in recent times, research in pure and applied sciences in India has not received its due.

The Infosys Prize comprising a gold medallion, Rs50 lakh and a citation recognises achievements in five major disciplines – engineering and computer science, life sciences, mathematical sciences, physical sciences and social sciences. The winners are decided by special juries drawn from renowned scientists and academicians from all over the world.

Professor K Vijay Raghavan, senior professor in the area of development genetics was awarded the prize for life sciences "in recognition of his many contributions as a development geneticist and neurobiologist". He is director of the National Centre of Biological Sciences in Bangalore.

Professor Ashoke Sen, of the Harish Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad, was awarded the prize in mathematical sciences "in recognition of his fundamental contributions to mathematical physics, in particular, to string theory". Sen also received special commendation from the physical sciences jury.

The physical sciences prize went to professor Thanu Padmanabhan, for his work that has fostered a deeper understanding of Einstein's theory of gravity in the context of thermodynamics, and for his contributions in large-scale structure in cosmology.