Scientists Sanjeev Dhurandhar, Sriram Ramaswamy receive HK Firodia Awards

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Dhurandar’s work had proved their existence earlier this year. Dhurandhar had led the solo Indian group at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) — the detector which was used to discover gravitational waves.

The Vigyan Ratna award was given to current Director of Tata Institute of Fundamental research Sriram Rajagopal Ramaswamy for his work in the subject of active matter, a branch of theoretical physics.

Ramaswamy said, “The secret to this study is not to get into too many details or formulae, but look at how living matter moves in flocks and organises itself. We are just having fun with this right now.” The event was opened with felicitations by Arun Firodia, Chairman of Kinetic Group, to various dignitaries like Dr K H Sancheti, Founder of Sancheti Hospital and author Amitav Malik, among others.

“Where does India stand in science and technology?” said Firodia. “I have often been asked whether India should become the factory to the world like China, but I think our destiny really lies in the services sector. R&D can be our service sector. But in order to improve in R&D, we need to remove our fascination of imitation and instill a practice to question established practices,” he added.

The function also saw five college students get awarded for winning an online science quiz, which was started by the HK Firodia Foundation last year. Among the winners, college student Amruta Nayak was specially congratulated for completing the 30-minute quiz in 10 minutes 43 seconds.

The chief guest of the award function was Deepak Parekh, chairman of HDFC, who concluded the evening by congratulating the panel, the awardees and lauding the efforts of the Firodia family.