Infosys prize justified?
By Shalini Singh

Highly regarded Infosys may not be the biggest Indian tech company, but it certainly has the respect of most Indians.  Much of this respect is due to the almost Gandhian beliefs of its co-founder Narayana Murthy and the fact the Infosys shares its wealth with employees and shareholders. The current Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is universally regarded as a man of impeccable integrity.

Infosys also has a Science Foundation which awards an annual Infosys Prize amount of Rs. 2.5 crore (Rs. 50 lakh in each of 5 categories),  to recognize accomplishments in pure and applied sciences research in India. The 5 categories are Social Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering and Computer Science, Mathematical Sciences and Life Sciences for 2009.

Infosys announced the prizes on November 30, 2009. The Laureates for the Infosys Prize 2009 are Prof. Abhijit Banerjee (Social Sciences – Economics, Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA), Prof. Upinder Singh (Social Sciences – History, Professor in the Dept. of History at the University of Delhi, India), Prof. Thanu Padmanabhan (Physical Sciences, Distinguished Professor at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, India), Prof. Ashoke Sen (Mathematical Sciences, Professor at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad, India.), Prof. K VijayRaghavan (Life Sciences, Senior Professor in Developmental Genetics and Director of National Centre of Biological Sciences, Bangalore India).

Soon after the awards ceremony, Indian media ran positive reports about how the winner of the Social Sciences award happens to be the daughter of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.  All the news reports were very positive.

But being India where all of us have a million views on a million topics, Blog Churumuri has forward a contrarian view.  And while some would not agree with it, the logic and argument has been well presented.

Pritam Sengupta, who admires PM Singh, Infosys and Jury Chair Amartya Sen wrote in an article for Blog Churumuri

“
That said, we have to ask if either or all three of them have covered themselves with glory with Professor Upinder Singh of Delhi University being honoured with the inaugural Infosys Prize in social sciences “in recognition of her contributions as an outstanding historian of ancient and early medieval Indian history.”

The booty: a cash award of Rs 25 lakh, a 22 carat gold medallion, and a citation.

The catch: Upinder Singh happens to be Manmohan Singh’s daughter.

The academic qualifications of Upinder Singh (an MA and MPhil in history from Delhi University, and a PhD from Canada for an epigraphic study of kings, brahamanas and temples in Orissa) are not in question. Nor are her professional accomplishments: a 2008 history of India from the Stone Age to the 12th century.

Her commitment to free speech is well known: she has challenged the Marxist view of Indian history and challenged right-wing fundamentalists who questioned her inclusion of A.K. Ramanujan’s Three Hundred Ramayanas for reading in the BA syllabus of Delhi University.

The question, plainly and simply, is of propriety.

………….
“

This article in Churumuri is recommended reading. And so are the comments at the end.

(Techgoss had published the following article on Dec 2, 2009)

Why Infy prize not given?
By Shalini Singh

Highly regarded Infosys may not be the biggest Indian tech company, but it certainly has the respect of most Indians.  Much of this respect is due to the almost Gandhian beliefs of its co-founder Narayana Murthy and the fact the Infosys shares its wealth with employees and shareholders.

Infosys also has a Science Foundation which awards an annual Infosys Prize amount of Rs. 2.5 crore (Rs. 50 lakh in each of 5 categories),  to recognize accomplishments in pure and applied sciences research in India. The 5 categories are Social Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering and Computer Science, Mathematical Sciences and Life Sciences for 2009.

Infosys announced the prizes on November 30, 2009. The Laureates for the Infosys Prize 2009 are Prof. Abhijit Banerjee (Social Sciences – Economics, Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA), Prof. Upinder Singh (Social Sciences – History, Professor in the Dept. of History at the University of Delhi, India), Prof. Thanu Padmanabhan (Physical Sciences, Distinguished Professor at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, India), Prof. Ashoke Sen (Mathematical Sciences, Professor at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad, India.), Prof. K VijayRaghavan (Life Sciences, Senior Professor in Developmental Genetics and Director of National Centre of Biological Sciences, Bangalore India).

But the Infosys Jury could not find a single Indian engineer worthy of its Infosys Engineering Science Prize 2009.  And so none was granted this year. There were 34 nominees for this particular prize and the age limit was relaxed to 55 years, but the Jury still took the unanimous decision to not award the prize this year.

A tipster feels that the decision not to award this prize may be because Infosys has selected the 5 Jury Chairs mainly from USA. And perhaps having at least half the Jury Chairs from people based in India would have meant more balanced decisions.   These Jury Chairs head teams that select the winner. The Jury Chair holds the position for 3 years while the rest of his team have a renewable tenure of a year. While the US is the preeminent tech and science hub in the world, it is interesting to see no one from Europe or India as the Jury chair for prizes awarded to Indians.

What is equally interesting is the age limit. Why should people over 55 be excluded from such recognition? The Nobel and other such awards do not have such ageist policies.

Details of this year’s jury chairs are as follows:

Social Sciences - Prof. Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University, Bharat Ratna awardee.

Physical Sciences - Prof. Shrinivas Kulkarni, John D. & Catherine T. McArthur Professor of Astronomy & Planetary Science at the California Institute of Technology, Interdisciplinary Scientist for the international Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) and co-PI of the Planet Search Key Project.

Engineering and Computer Sciences - Prof. Subra Suresh, Dean of the School of Engineering and Ford Professor of Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, acknowledged as one of the top 10 researchers whose work in nanomechanics of biological systems will have "significant impact on business, medicine or culture".

Mathematical Sciences - Prof. Srinivasa Varadhan, Professor of Mathematics and Frank J. Gould Professor of Science at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University and 2007 Abel Prize winner.

Life Sciences - Prof. Inder Verma, American Cancer Society and Laboratory of Genetics-Salk Institute for Biological Studies, one of the worlds’s leading authorities on the development of viruses for gene therapy vectors.

I accept the fact that America is the centre of the scientific and technological research. But surely, there can be some Jury Heads from India and Europe as well.