‘Unfair considerations?’: 26 scientists express concern about new process for prestigious award

A group of 26 eminent Indian scientists have written to the Union government’s principal scientific advisor seeking a clarification on whether “unfair non-scientific considerations” influenced this year’s list of recipients of the prestigious Vigyan Yuva Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award.

On condition of anonymity, four signatories to the letter told Scroll that they have come to know from their peers and media reports that two of the three names recommended by a selection panel of experts for the Vigyan Yuva Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for the physical sciences section were dropped from the final list of winners.

On Tuesday, The Indian Express reported that a third candidate in another section was also dropped.

The signatories told Scroll that this was a departure from the convention as recommendations made by the expert panel have always been followed since the award was instituted in 1958. One of the scientists whose name is believed to have been dropped from the list is a vocal critic of the Narendra Modi-led government, these scientists said.

The Vigyan Yuva Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award is the rechristened avatar of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, which has for more than six decades been widely considered to be the most prestigious science award in India.

The awards are given in the fields of biological sciences, chemical sciences,...

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