Two years, top national science prize for young talent is on hold

A day later, Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said that the government had decided to withhold the Bhatnagar Awards as part of efforts to “rationalise” the awards given by science ministries and departments.

Ten months on, with the CSIR Foundation Day approaching, there’s still no word from the Government. When asked by The Indian Express about the delay and the fate of the awards, a spokesman for CSIR, which gives these awards, said: “The matter is under consideration.”

A government official said the new “structure of science awards would be “announced soon”. Asked why there was a need to do away with the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awards, the official declined to comment.

The Bhatnagar awards for 2022 haven’t been announced and, this year, too, there is no sign that the awards will be re-instated.

Indeed, this year, the nominations for Bhatnagar Awards 2023 were not called for. Usually, the window of applications is open between January and March. That window is over for this year.

Each year, on an average, 500-600 nominations come in for the seven categories of the prize, made by institution heads, eminent scientists, previous award winners and some others who are eligible to make these nominations. A panel of eminent scientists, put together by CSIR every year, makes the final selection.

Named after Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, the first director of CSIR, these awards are given every in seven scientific disciplines — physics, biology, engineering, mathematics, medicine, chemistry, and earth sciences. Each award — there cannot be more than two per discipline — carries a cash component of Rs 5 lakh and, since 2008, an honorarium of Rs 15,000 per month till the scientist is serving in a publicly funded institution.

The award has a formidable track record of identifying future science leaders: According to an article published in Current Science some time ago, of the 500 plus Bhatnagar awardees (till 2020), 16 have been honoured with Padma Vibhushan; 49 with Padma Bhushan and 69 with Padma Shri. Seven Bhatnagar Awardees have been honoured with all three. CNR Rao is the lone Bharat Ratna. As many as 25 Bhatnagar awardees have become Fellow of the Riyal Society; 15 of them foreign associates of National Academy of Sciences in US, and 143 of them are fellows of The World Academy of Sciences.

Several scientists in topmost institutions, many of them past winners of the prize, told The Indian Express, on the condition that they not be identified, that the decision to suspend the Bhatnagar Awards, along with many other prizes, sends a wrong signal to future talent.

“There is this widespread feeling within the community that the government doesn’t trust the scientists enough…The suspension of Bhatnagar awards is a good example of how the government treats the community,” said a scientist at one of the IITs.

A scientist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research said the Bhatnagar Awards are inspirational and a major incentive for young scientists.

“For the winners, Bhatnagar Awards have been a big springboard in their careers. The reputation of the award is very high. Within the community, you are looked at with respect. And it is a big encouragement to the scientists. Most of the awardees have gone on to do great things, many of them receiving other major distinctions and awards as well. That means that the Bhatnagar awards was picking up the right kind of talent. It was picking up the cream of Indian science,” he said.

A senior scientist at another IIT questioned the government’s approach. “What was the need to cancel the function, suspend the awards, and then go in for a rationalisation of awards? It is not that awards are being given every day. The awards could have been given last year, as always, and in the intervening time, whatever rules had to be changed, could be changed,” he said.

Said another head of a research institution: “These are the highest honours for our young scientists, the finest who have resisted the temptation to move overseas, they have stayed back and risen by sheer brilliance and hard work. Of course, the Government can come up with new awards, better awards, but why deprive these to two batches given that age is a factor.”

“There is a special dignity associated with the Bhatnagar Awards. You cannot be treating India’s top science award like this,” said a scientist, himself a Bhatnagar Awardee.

A professor at Indian Institute of Sciences in Bengaluru said the nature of any award is such that it would always invite criticism from some quarters.

“We were told that one of the reasons for restructuring the awards is that there were complaints about deserving candidates being left out. Even the Nobel Prizes are contested. Every year, there are people who think that someone more deserving had been overlooked. I don’t know what systems the Nobel Committee employs to continuously improve its systems, but imagine if, in response to such criticisms, it decided to withhold the Nobel Prize, and then sit down to improve the systems. This is bizarre,” he said.

Incidentally, in 2019, the awardees for the year 2017, 2018 and 2019 were presented with the awards. For the years 2020 and 2021, the awards have not been presented. Instead, they were sent by mail.

This decision to send the awards by mail was taken before the decision to suspend the award. This despite the fact that there have been previous occasions when three years’ awardees were honoured together.

“Surely, Covid was an issue but they could have, like they have done in the past, bunched the awards and got the Prime Minister to give them away but sending them by mail shows the way the establishment looks at these,” said a top scientist at a Central institute.

In fact, one of the premier research institutions in Maharashtra asked a visiting Nobel laureate to give the award to one of the winners who worked at that institute.