Late astrophysicist Jayant Naralikar selected for Vigyan Ratna award

India’s most celebrated astrophysicist Jayant Narlikar, who passed away in May, was on Saturday selected for the Vigyan Ratna Puraskar.

Narlikar 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.

Narlikar died on May 20 at the age of 86.

Modelled on the Padma awards, the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar is the country’s top science award. The winners for 2025, the second edition of the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar, were announced on the website of the national awards—awards.gov.in—on Saturday.

The government also announced eight Vigyan Shri, 14 Vigyan Yuva and one Vigyan Team awards.

Noted agriculture scientist Gyanendra Pratap Singh, popularly known as the wheat breeder, won the Vigyan Shri award for his contribution to the field of Agricultural Science.

Yusuf Mohammad Seikh, Director of the physics group of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, won the Vigyan Shri for his contribution to the field of Atomic Energy.

K Thangaraj of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology has won the award in the field of Biological Sciences and Pradeep Thalappil of IIT-Madras bagged the Vigyan Shri in the field of Chemistry.

Aniruddha Bhalchandra Pandit, Vice Chancellor of the Institute of Chemical Technology, was awarded the Vigyan Shri in the field of Engineering Sciences and S Venkata Mohan, Director of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, won the award in the field of Environmental Science.

Mahan Maharaj, a monk of the Ramakrishna Order and Professor of Mathematics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, won the Vigyan Shri in the field of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Jayan N of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre has been selected for his contribution to Space Science and 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, won the Vigyan Team award.