Why is it in the news?

• It has been 94 years since an Indian won a Nobel Prize in the sciences—Physics, Chemistry, or Medicine—while working in India. V. Raman’s Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 remains the only accolade of its kind for India.
• Three additional Indian-origin scientists—Hargovind Khorana in Medicine (1968), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar in Physics (1983), and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan in Chemistry (2009)—received honours for work conducted outside India, and they were not Indian citizens at the time of their awards.
• This prolonged absence of recognition is often viewed as indicative of the state of Indian science.

Challenges Facing Indian Science

• India’s scientific achievements are hindered by several systemic issues. Key factors include inadequate focus on basic research, low levels of public funding, excessive bureaucracy, a lack of incentives for private research, and deteriorating research capabilities in universities.
• With few institutions engaged in cutting-edge research, India has a research workforce that is five times smaller, relative to the population, than the global average. As a result, the pool of potential Nobel laureates in India remains limited.

Nominations and Recognized Contributions

• Despite the absence of winners, several Indian scientists have been nominated for the Nobel Prize.
• Nominations are a selective process, limited to a small group of respected figures, including university professors and past laureates, who recommend candidates based on their perceived Nobel-worthy work. Details of nominations remain confidential for at least 50 years.
• Among the publicly known candidates, six Indian scientists received nominations: Meghnad Saha, Homi Bhabha, and Satyendra Nath Bose for Physics; G.N. Ramachandran and T. Seshadri for Chemistry; and Upendranath Brahmachari for Medicine. Many of these scientists were nominated multiple times.

Notable Omissions

• Prominent scientists such as Jagadish Chandra Bose, who pioneered wireless communication, and K.S. Krishnan, co-discoverer of the Raman scattering effect, were overlooked for nominations despite their significant contributions.
• N.R. Rao, renowned for his work in solid-state chemistry, is often cited as deserving of a Nobel Prize but has not received one.
• C.G. Sudarshan was controversially overlooked for the Physics Nobel in 1979 and 2005, despite making fundamental contributions to the field.

Global Context and Western Dominance

• India is not alone in its modest Nobel Prize record; countries with substantial scientific funding, like China and Israel, also show low numbers of laureates.
• While Israel has produced many influential scientists, it has only won four Nobel Prizes in science, all in Chemistry.
• China, despite a larger research workforce and higher investment in R&D, has secured only three science Nobel Prizes. Similarly, South Korea, known for its scientific research excellence, has yet to win any.
• The overwhelming majority of science Nobels have been awarded to researchers from the U.S. and Europe. Only a small fraction of the 653 winners in Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine have hailed from Asia, Africa, or South America, with Japan leading in this regard.

Future Prospects

• Discussions about regional bias in Nobel awards exist, but the research ecosystems in the U.S. and Europe remain unmatched. China’s significant investments in new technologies and research ecosystems may enhance its chances of winning more Nobels in the future.
• However, India continues to lag behind countries like China, South Korea, and Israel in developing scientific capabilities and allocating research resources.
• Without a robust support system for scientific research, India’s likelihood of producing more Nobel laureates will largely depend on the individual brilliance of its scientists.