Centre announces Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar for scientific achievements

The Centre announced the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar (RVP) — its Padma-style national awards for scientific achievement — with 24 individual awards and one team award, on Saturday (October 25, 2025). Eminent physicist Jayant Vishnu Narlikar, who passed in May this year, was announced the recipient of the Vigyan Ratna, an award for lifetime contribution.

This year, eight scientists were selected for the Vigyan Shri awards: Gyanendra Pratap Singh, Yusuf Mohammed Shaikh, K. Thangaraj, Pradeep Thapalil, Aniruddha Balchandra Pandit, Venkata Mohan, Mahan Mj and Jayan N.

Recipients for the Vigyan Yuva awards: Jagadis Gupta Kapuganti, Satendra Kumar Mangrauthia, Debarka Sengupta, Deepa Agashe, Dibyendu Das, Waliur Rahman, Arkaprava Basu, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Shweta Prem Agrawal, Suresh Kumar, Amit Kumar Agrawal, Surhud Shrikant More, Ankur Garg and Mohansankar Sivaprakasam.

The Vigyan Team award went to the CSIR Aroma Mission.

Last August, ahead of National Space Day 2024, the inaugural RVP ceremony was held at Rashtrapati Bhavan, with President Droupadi Murmu presenting the awards to 33 scientists. This year, the announcement had been delayed for nearly two months. Last year, there were allegations that the award selection process was not fair and speculation that those scientists, critical of government policies, had been ousted at the last minute. An independent committee — the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar Committee, steered by the Principal Scientific Adviser — decides on award recipients and makes a recommendation to the Minister of Science and Technology. It is unclear if the Minister has a veto on the committee’s recommendation.

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 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.