NEW DELHI, Oct 25: India’s most celebrated astrophysicist Jayant Naralikar, who passed away in May, was on Saturday selected for the Vigyan Ratna Puraskar, the country’s top science award.
Naralikar challenged the Big Bang theory, which states that the universe was created in a single moment. He, along with British astronomer Fred Hoyle, proposed that the universe had always existed with continuous creation of new matter into infinity.
Naralikar died on May 20 at the age of 86.
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The government also announced eight Vigyan Shri awards for 2025 — Gyanendra Pratap Singh (Agricultural Science), Yusuf Mohammad Seikh (Atomic Energy), K Thangaraj (Biological Sciences), Pradeep Thalappil (Chemistry), Aniruddha Bhalchandra Pandit (Engineering Sciences), S Venkata Mohan (Environmental Science), Mahan Mj (Mathematics and Computer Science) and Jayan N (Space Science & 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 heralded the Lavender Mission in Jammu and Kashmir, has been named for the Vigyan Team award.
The Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar, billed as the top national honour in the field of science and technology, was unveiled in 2023, and the first awards were presented on the eve of the National Space Day on August 22 last year. (PTI)
