On February 4, 2009, Infosys Chairman & Chief Mentor NR Narayana Murthy announced the establishment of Infosys Science Foundation that had endowed five Science Prizes of Rs 50 Lakh each (more than $ 100,000) in the areas of
- Engineering Sciences, including Computer Science
- Mathematical Sciences
- Economic Sciences
- Biological Sciences, and,
- Social Sciences, including History
An international jury of eminent scientists decided the winners for the year 2009. The chairpersons of the jury include
- Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen of Harvard Professor for Social Sciences
- Professor Shrinivas Kulkarni of California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for Physical Sciences
- Engineering Dean Professor Subra Suresh of MIT for Engineering Sciences
- Abel Prize winner Professor Srinivasa SR Varadhan of Courant Institute (NYU) for Mathematical Sciences, and,
- Professor Inder Verma of Salk Institute for Life Sciences
The announcement of the winners for 2009 was made at Infosys campus in Bangalore on November 30, 2009.
The winners are
- Professor Abhijit Banerjee of MIT (Poverty Lab) and Professor Upinder Singh of Delhi University in the areas of Economics and History respectively
- Professor Thanu Padmanabhan of Inter University Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune for Physical Sciences
- Professor Ashoke Sen of Harish Chandra Institute, Allahabad for Mathematical Sciences, and,
- Professor K VijayRaghavan of National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore for Biological Sciences.
No winners were selected in the area of Engineering Sciences.
A pure coincidence, the prizes reach all parts of India – North, East, West and South. Two of the winners (Professors Ashoke Sen and K VijayRaghavan) are IIT Kanpur alumni; in fact, Professor VijayRaghavan did his B Tech & M Tech degrees in Chemical Engineering
The actual prize distribution happens in Delhi today (January 4, 2010)
What is special about Infosys Prize?
For the past two decades, most youngsters were ‘lured into’ computing & IT, thanks to lucrative jobs, career growth and other creature comforts, including global postings/offerings. During this period most youngsters aspired to do an engineering degree, preferably in the “circuit” branch – Computer Science, Electronics, Telecom, Information Technology – so that they have a fair chance of getting into IT industry. No doubt, IT industry created nearly 2 million jobs in the past two decades. The IT companies made the jobs more attractive through the right messages and follow up action – recruitment at the third year itself, good salary, fast promotion, swanky campuses, start up bonus, employee stock option, and other benefits including gym, food court, bank, shopping, transport to different parts of the city etc. The movement was unstoppable, till the recent slow-down, job loss, Satyam Saga etc. It even became a social phenomenon – parents preferring prospective sons-in-law from IT industry! In the process, scientific establishments had suffered. Laboratories such as CSIR, DRDO, ISRO, DAE and public sector R&D oriented organizations like BEL, ECIL, HAL, C-DAC, C-DOT could not attract the best talent. Most universities and colleges could not attract talented youngsters for teaching. IT industry even came for undue flak from scientific community for damaging the scientific infrastructure of the country!
It is this context the establishment of Infosys Science Prize is commendable.
- It is a positive answer to the undue criticism
- The prize amounts are substantially large; the largest Science Prize in India today is Rs 5 Lakhs and Infosys prize is 10 times larger!
- The corpus for this Prize does not come from Infosys Corporation alone; many of the key individuals (Infosys co-founders who are trustees of the Infosys Science Foundation) have individually contributed to the initial fund and Infosys is expected to contribute a small percentage of the profit in future years.
- The Prize recognizes outstanding contributions to scientific research in India. It is not limited to Indians alone, but much of the work is expected to be done in India. In fact, this year’s Prize winner Professor Abhijit Banerjee teaches in MIT, USA but did extensive field work in India. Not all jury members are Indians.
- The Foundation itself does not influence the choice of winners. The selection is by an international jury; the first jury chairmen are such outstanding individuals, that the prize gets a stature comparable to Nobel prize.
- This act is beyond CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiative of many corporations. Infosys does not directly gain in anyway.
- It may be noted that in its Silver Jubilee year (25th year) Infosys instituted a global award for Computer Science – ACM Infosys Foundation Award ($ 150,000). The Awards in 2008 and 2009 went to Prof Daphne Koller of Stanford University and Prof Jon Kleinberg of Cornell University respectively. Infosys along with NIAS instituted a Prize for Mathematics in 2008; the award went to Prof Manindra Agarwal of CS Department of IIT Kanpur. This award will merge into Infosys Science Prize from now on.
- The award ceremony was to be presided over by the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Keeping the highest standard of probity in public life the erudite Prime Minister has declined when he came to know that one of the winners is his daughter. Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari will be distributing the awards today.
According to the Foundations’ website
“The Infosys Prize endeavors to elevate the prestige of scientific research in India and inspire young Indians to choose a vocation in scientific research”
In the words of Infosys Founder N R Narayana Murthy
“India needs bright minds in academia, government, business, military and society to strive for global excellence. It is academia that provides bright minds for all other areas in any society. Research is an important dimension of excellence in academia. This award honors outstanding researchers who will make a difference to India’s future”
Thanks to 6th Pay Commission the relative unattractiveness of teaching / research jobs has come down. Prizes like Infosys Prize will restore the prestige associated with academic jobs in the minds of youngsters. Hopefully scientific establishments and academic institutions will make organizational changes also to make their places welcome for bright youngsters; and, some of the youngsters will be future winners of Infosys Prize and Nobel Prize in the decades to come.
