To encourage the youth to take up science and technology and imbibe scientific temperament, the Haryana Government has decided to confer Haryana Vigyan Ratna and Haryana Yuva Vigyan Ratna Awards on eminent scientists for their contribution in the field of science and technology. The award would be conferred on the occasion of National Science Day on February 28 every year.
This was stated by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar at a function held at the Haryana Raj Bhavan today where the Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki conferred Haryana Vigyan Ratna Award and Haryana Yuva Vigyan Ratna Award for 2012-13 to 2016-17 on 11 eminent scientists of Haryana.
The State Government has also decided to double the amount of Haryana Vigyan Ratna Award from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 4 lakh.
The Governor conferred Haryana Vigyan Ratna Award for 2012-13 on Prof KC Bansal, former director, National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (ICAR), Pusa, New Delhi for his notable contributions in the field of plant biotechnology. Genes discovered by him are used by national laboratories of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in developing drought/stress tolerant transgenic rice, wheat, chickpea, mustard, groundnut, tomato and tea.
His pioneering work as director of the ICAR’s premier institute National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), Pusa on evaluation of the entire wheat germplasm also got accolades from international wheat community and found an entry in the Limca Book of Records.
Similarly, Dr Satish Kumar Gupta, Emeritus Scientist, JC Bose Fellow and former deputy director, Reproductive Cell Biology Laboratory, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, was honoured with Haryana Vigyan Ratna Award for 2013-14. The scientists were presented with cash prize of Rs 2 lakh, citation, trophy and a shawl, each.
The Governor also conferred Haryana Yuva Vigyan Ratna Award on nine scientists aged below 40 years and presented them with cash prize of Rs 2 lakh, citation, trophy and a shawl each.
They were Abhineet Kaushik, deputy general manager in Brah Mos Aerospace, New Delhi; Pradeep Kumar, scientist-E, research centre Imarat (RCI), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Hyderabad; Deepak Sharma, assistant prof, department of biotechnology, IIT Roorkee, Uttarakhand; Parveen Kumar, Scientist-E, (DRDO), Delhi; Savita Chaudhary, assistant professor, department of chemistry, Punjab University, Chandigarh; Abhinav Grover, assistant prof, school of biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Sandeep Kumar, assistant prof, department of bio and nano technology, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar; Vinod Kumar, assistant prof, department of chemistry, Maharishi Markendeshwar University, Mullana, Ambala; and AnuragKuhad, assistant prof of pharmacology, University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Panjab University, Chandigarh.
