PGI-Chandigarh's Dr Jitendra Sahu, Chandrayaan-3 team among national science awardees

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, August 8

Celebrated biochemist and biotechnologist Govindarajan Padmanabhan was on Thursday named the first Vigyan Ratna awardee alongside 32 other scientists who bagged national awards in various categories.

A strong votary of genetically modified crops which, he believes, addresses the issue of crop productivity, Padmanabhan is best known for his pioneering work on the malaria parasite.

Indian Space Research Organisation’s team behind the successful launch of Chandrayaan-3, National Institute of Virology Pune’s Pragya Dhruv Yadav, whose work enabled the development of Covaxin, India’s first indigenously developed anti-Covid 19 shot and PGI-Chandigarh’s pediatrics expert Jitendra Kumar Sahu are among awardees of the inaugural edition of the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar.

Dr Bhim Singh, Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT-Delhi, who has nearly 108 patents to his name, has also been selected for the award.

These awards were launched last year after disbanding all other previously existent science awards.

The awards are presented across four segments—Vigyan Ratna for lifetime achievement which went to Padmanabhan (86); Vigyan Shri for scientists of all ages; Vigyan Yuva for scientists below 45 years and Vigyan Team for collaborative work.

The team from the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation)—which successfully led the Chandrayaan-3 mission—has been awarded the Vigyan Team Award for their exceptional contribution to the mission’s success.

Thirteen scientists have been awarded Vigyan Shri Award and 18 have got Vigyan Yuva Awards for their outstanding achievements in various fields of science and technology.

PGI-Chandigarh’s Jitendra Kumar Sahu is among the 18 Vigyan Yuva awardees. Sahu is with the PGI’s Advanced Pediatrics Centre.

Pragya Yadav earlier set up India’s first Biosafety Level-4 lab at NIV-Pune. She was the principal researcher at NIV-Pune, who created India’s first anti-SARS-Cov2 antibody test when only two such testing kits were available in the world and later conducted research to enable Covaxin development.

Pragya belongs to UP’s Faizabad and was the first woman in her family to complete higher education.

President Droupadi Murmu will facilitate all 33 awardees on August 23 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre.