Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar is a National Award instituted by the Government of India to recognize the contributions of outstanding researchers in the fields of science, technology and innovation. The award has been the subject of controversy because the final selection of awardees is conducted by a political official, the Minister of Science and Technology, rather than a scientific committee.

Background The institution of this award was announced in January 2024 and the names of the first set of awardees were announced on 7 August 2024. The awards were distributed on 22 August 2024, a day ahead of the National Space Day. In 2025, the awards were announced on 25 October 2025. The award consists of a certificate signed by the President of India and a medallion.

Eligibility Scientists, technologists and innovators working in Govt. or private organizations in India who have done highly impactful research, discovery or innovation are eligible for the award. Moreover, such persons of Indian origin and working abroad are also eligible for the award.

The selection process The nominations for the award are initially scrutinized by a 17-member panel headed by the Principal Scientific Advisor to Govt of India from a list of nominated persons. Other members of the panel are Secretaries of the six Science Ministries/Departments (DST, DBT, CSIR, MoES, DoS and DAE), four select Presidents of the Science and Engineering Academies and six distinguished scientists and technologists from different fields of Science and Technology. Nominations can be made by any individual, institution, State Govts, Depts/Ministries of Govt of India, heads of national science bodies, etc.

The panel recommends names to the Minister of Science and Technology who performs the final selection of awardees. In 2024 the inaugural year of the award, the Minister is believed to have overruled the scientific committee to exclude scientists seen as critical of the government leading several scientists to write to the government objecting to this method of selection.

Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar awardees of the year 2024 The following are the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar awardees of the year 2024.

Sl. No. Award Name Field/Domain Institute/Organisation/University1Vigyan Ratna AwardProf. Govindarajan PadmanabhanBiological SciencesIndian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru2Vigyan ShriDr. Anandharamakrishnan CAgricultural ScienceCSIR - National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram3Vigyan ShriDr. Avesh Kumar TyagiAtomic EnergyBhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai4Vigyan ShriProf. Umesh VarshneyBiological SciencesIndian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore5Vigyan ShriProf. Jayant Bhalchandra UdgaonkarBiological SciencesIndian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune (IISER), Pune6Vigyan ShriProf. Syed Wajih Ahmad NaqviEarth ScienceCSIR-National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), Lucknow7Vigyan ShriProf. Bhim SinghEngineering SciencesIndian Institute of Technology (IIT-D), Delhi8Vigyan ShriProf. Adimurthi AdiMathematics and Computer ScienceIndian Institute of Technology (IIT-K), Kanpur9Vigyan ShriProf. Rahul Mukherjee Mathematics and Computer ScienceIndian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC)10Vigyan ShriProf. Dr Sanjay BehariMedicineSree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram11Vigyan ShriProf. Lakshmanan MuthusamyPhysicsBharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli12Vigyan ShriProf. Naba Kumar MondalPhysicsSaha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata13Vigyan ShriProf. Annapurni SubramaniamSpace Science and TechnologyIndian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru14Vigyan ShriProf Rohit SrivastavaTechnology and InnovationIndian Institute of Technology (IIT-B), Mumbai15Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardDr. Krishna Murthy S LAgricultural ScienceIndian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad16Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardDr. Swarup Kumar ParidaAgricultural ScienceNational Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi17Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardProf. Radhakrishnan MahalakshmiBiological SciencesIndian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal18Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardProf. Aravind PenmatsaBiological SciencesIndian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru19Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardProf. Vivek PolshettiwarChemistryTata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai20Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardProf. Vishal RaiChemistryIndian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal21Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardDr. Roxy Mathew KollEarth ScienceIndian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune22Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardDr. AbhilashEngineering SciencesCSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur23Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardDr. Radha Krishna GantiEngineering SciencesIndian Institute of Technology (IIT-M), Chennai24Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardDr. Purabi SaikiaEnvironmental ScienceCentral University of Jharkhand, Ranchi25Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardDr. Bappi PaulEnvironmental ScienceNational Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar26Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardProf. Mahesh Ramesh KakdeMathematics and Computer ScienceIndian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru27Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardProf. Jitendra Kumar SahuMedicinePostgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh28Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardDr. Pragya Dhruv YadavMedicineICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune29Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardProf. Urbasi SinhaPhysicsRaman Research Institute, Bengaluru30Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardDr. Digendranath SwainSpace Science and TechnologyISRO-Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, Thiruvananthapuram31Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardDr. Prashant KumarSpace Science and TechnologyISRO-Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad32Vigyan Yuva- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardProf. Prabhu RajagopalTechnology and InnovationIndian Institute of Technology (IIT-M), Chennai33Vigyan Team ISRO - Team Chandrayaan 3Space Science and TechnologyIndian Space Research Organisation, Bengaluru

Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar awardees of the year 2025 The following are the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar awardees of the year 2025. Sl. No. Award Name Field/Domain 1Vigyan Ratna AwardJayant Vishnu NarlikarPhysics2Vigyan ShriGyanendra Pratap SinghAgricultural Science3Vigyan ShriYusuf Mohammad SeikhAtomic Energy4Vigyan ShriK. ThangarajBiological Sciences5Vigyan ShriThalappil PradeepChemistry6Vigyan ShriAniruddha Bhalchandra PanditEngineering Sciences 7Vigyan ShriS Venkata MohanEnvironmental Science8Vigyan ShriMahan MjMathematics and Computer Science9Vigyan ShriJayan N Space Science and Technology10Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardJagdis Gupta KapugantiAgricultural Science11Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardSatendra Kumar MangrauthiaAgricultural Science12Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardDebarka SenguptaBiological Sciences13Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardDeepa AgasheBiological Sciences14Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardDibyendu DasChemistry15Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardWaliur RahamanEarth Science16Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardArkaprava BasuEngineering Sciences 17Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardSabyasachi MukherjeeMathematics and Computer Science18Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardShweta Prem AgrawalMathematics and Computer Science19Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardSuresh KumarMedicine 20Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardAmit Kumar AgarwalPhysics21Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardSurhud MorePhysics22Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardAnkur GargSpace Science and Technology 23Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardMohanasankar SivaprakasamTechnology and Innovation 24Vigyan TeamAroma Mission CSIRAgricultural Science

Controversy The awards have attracted controversy due to the role played by political officials in the selection of awardees. Soon after the announcement of the inaugural awards in 2024, it was reported that the some of those selected by the scientific committee had been dropped in the final list announced by the Indian government. Initial media reports revealed that one of the individuals dropped was Suvrat Raju a physicist who had been critical of the government. Subsequently, 26 former winners of the Bhatnagar Prize wrote to the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India expressing their concern that "unfair non-scientific considerations" may have influenced this year's awardees. Additional news reports revealed that at least two more scientists had been excluded: Prateek Sharma, a physicist who had signed open letters critical of the government, and Suman Chakraborty. After the appearance of these reports, the official rules governing the award were modified by the insertion of a new line stating that the scientific selection committee could only "recommend" names to the Minister for Science and Technology. In response to this change, 176 prominent Indian scientists wrote to the government stating that it was "shocking" for the Minister to have the "right to veto experts". However, the Indian government stated that its decisions were final and would not be altered.

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