Vigyan Ratna Award is the highest award bestowed by Govt of India on an individual for achievements in science, technology and innovation.[1] [2] It has been touted as the Indian equivalent of the Nobel Prize.[3] The award, along with three other awards, namely, Vigyan Shree, Vigyan Yuva-SSB and Vigyan Team, were established as a package under the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar scheme of Govt of India in 2023 and were bestowed for the first time in 2024.
The objective of the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar (RVP) scheme as a whole is to recognize exceptional and inspiring contributions made by Indians or persons of Indian origin individually or in teams in the various fields of science, technology and innovation. In particular, the Vigyan Ratna Award is to recognize life time achievements and contributions made in any field of science and technology. A maximum of three persons are to selected every year for bestowing the Vigyan Ratna Award and the awards are to be distributed every year on the National Space Day which falls on 23 rd September. Even though the scheme envisages the bestowal of the Vigyan Ratna Award on three persons, in the inaugural year, the award was bestowed on only one person, namely, Prof. Govindarajan Padmanabhan of Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. He was selected for the Award for his noteworthy and inspiring contributions to biological sciences.[4] [5]