Optimize IAS
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Courses
    • Prelims Test Series
      • LAQSHYA 2026 Prelims Mentorship
    • Mains Mentorship
      • Arjuna 2026 Mains Mentorship
  • Portal Login
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Courses
    • Prelims Test Series
      • LAQSHYA 2026 Prelims Mentorship
    • Mains Mentorship
      • Arjuna 2026 Mains Mentorship
  • Portal Login

Winners of India’s top science award announced, no women on the list

  • September 12, 2023
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
No Comments

 

 

Winners of India’s top science award announced, no women on the list

Subject: Science and technology

Section: Msc

Context:

  • Twelve “male” scientists have been awarded India’s top Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (SSB) for Science and Technology, 2022.

About the SSB Award:

  • Annual award named after Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, the founder-director of CSIR.
  • Announcement made at the inaugural session of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) — National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research’s (NIScPR) One Week One Lab Programme (a theme-based campaign of the CSIR).
  • Since its inception in 1958, only 19 women scientists have been the recipients of the SSB award.
Scientists (Winner of SSB 2022)Awarded for
1. Ashwani Kumar from CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh
  • His role in understanding biofilm-induced infections involving cellulose.
  • Biofilms are 3D structures of multiple microorganisms (different bacterial colonies or single types of cells in a group), adhering to the surface.
  • Mycobacterium tuberculosis forms biofilms that host drug-tolerant bacteria.
  • Kumar’s lab found that cellulose is a key component of these biofilms, holding mycobacterial cells together in these biofilms.
2. Maddika Subba Reddy Laboratory of Cell Death and Cell Survival Centre for DNA Fingerprinting Diagnostics, Hyderabad
  • His role in ascribing functions to phosphatases in regulating cellular protein-sorting pathways.
  • Phosphatases are enzymes that remove a phosphate group from a protein and protein sorting is a mechanism through which proteins are transported to their appropriate destinations in the cell or outside it to carry out their functions.
3. Akkattu T Biju from the Indian Institute of Science
  • The synthesis of biologically important heterocyclic and carbocyclic compounds.
  • Heterocyclic compounds and carbocyclic compounds are classes of organic compounds.
  • Heterocycles are used in many biological fields, due to their activity in multiple illnesses.
4. Debabrata Maiti from the Department of Chemistry, IIT-B
  • His role in preparing value-added materials by transforming organic molecules.
  • His work could find applications in the agrochemical and pharmaceutical industries.
5. Vimal Mishra from the Water and Climate Laboratory, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar 
  • His work in the Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences field. He examined the role of anthropogenic and natural factors on hydrological extremes and water resources in India.
  • His 2021 study concluded that a roughly 11 per cent decline in the summer monsoon (June–September) during 1951-2016, severe and frequent droughts (2009, 2014, 2015), and groundwater pumping for irrigation have contributed to groundwater depletion in the Ganga basin.
6. Dipti Ranjan Sahoo from the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT-D
  • His work in the area of seismic design and mitigation of seismic effects on buildings and bridges.
7. Rajnish Kumar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
  • His contribution to the fundamental understanding of methane recovery from marine gas hydrates.
  • Marine gas hydrates are ice-like substances known to house huge reserves of methane gas and are being considered as an energy resource.
  • They naturally occur on the seafloor and in subsurface sediments in water depths of 300 metres and beyond.
8. Apoorva Khare from the Indian Institute of Science

9. Neeraj Kayal from Microsoft Research Lab India

  • Awarded the SSB prize for Mathematics.
10. Dipyaman Ganguli, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology
  • His work on autoimmunity and metaflammation.
  • Autoimmunity occurs when the immune system attacks the body’s own cells and tissues.
  • Metaimflammation is chronic low-grade inflammation associated with obesity induced by alterations in metabolism.
11. Anindya Das from the Indian Institute of Science
  • Das has contributed to the understanding of electric and thermoelectrical properties of strongly interacting 2-D atomically thin materials.
  • Atomically thin materials with thicknesses in the atomic scale (typically  less than 5 nanometres) can be used in rechargeable metal-ion batteries, metal-sulphur batteries and metal-air batteries.
12. Basudeb Dasgupta from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
  • His research on coherent interactions of neutrinos (they have no charge but some mass) in dense astrophysical environments and the nature of dark matter.

About Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar:

  • He was an Indian colloid chemist, academic and scientific administrator.
  • The first director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), he is revered as the “father of research laboratories” in India.
  • He was also the first Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
  • He wrote the ‘Kulgeet’, or University anthem.
Science and tech Winners of India’s top science award announced

Recent Posts

  • Daily Prelims Notes 23 March 2025 March 23, 2025
  • Challenges in Uploading Voting Data March 23, 2025
  • Fertilizers Committee Warns Against Under-Funding of Nutrient Subsidy Schemes March 23, 2025
  • Tavasya: The Fourth Krivak-Class Stealth Frigate Launched March 23, 2025
  • Indo-French Naval Exercise Varuna 2024 March 23, 2025
  • No Mismatch Between Circulating Influenza Strains and Vaccine Strains March 23, 2025
  • South Cascade Glacier March 22, 2025
  • Made-in-India Web Browser March 22, 2025
  • Charting a route for IORA under India’s chairship March 22, 2025
  • Mar-a-Lago Accord and dollar devaluation March 22, 2025

About

If IAS is your destination, begin your journey with Optimize IAS.

Hi There, I am Santosh I have the unique distinction of clearing all 6 UPSC CSE Prelims with huge margins.

I mastered the art of clearing UPSC CSE Prelims and in the process devised an unbeatable strategy to ace Prelims which many students struggle to do.

Contact us

moc.saiezimitpo@tcatnoc

For More Details

Work with Us

Connect With Me

Course Portal
Search