Infosys Prize 2026: Bengaluru researcher among six winners

Bengaluru: Bengaluru-based researcher Riddhipratim Basu is among the six recipients of the Infosys Prize 2026, announced by the Infosys Science Foundation on Thursday.

. Basu, an associate professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), has won the award in the Mathematical Sciences category for his contributions to probability theory and statistical physics.

. His work includes resolving the longstanding slow-bond problem and establishing new results in percolation models.

. The other winners are Karthik Sastry (Economics), Swarun Kumar (Engineering and Computer Science), Gautam Bhatia (Humanities and Social Sciences), Isha Jain (Life Sciences) and Manoj Kumar Joshi (Physical Sciences). Their research areas include climate change, wireless networks, constitutional law, oxygen biology and quantum simulation.

.IISc honours eight alumni for contributions to science, technology and society. Addressing the event virtually, Infosys Founder N R Narayana Murthy said a nation's economic strength depended on its ability to use invention and innovation to improve per-capita income and people's lives.

. "Invention and innovation are the two children of an inquiring mind, fortified by higher education and research," he said.

. Assessing India's progress, Murthy said the country's achievements in atomic energy, space, vaccines, the Green Revolution and generic medicines placed it in the second stage of technological development in most areas.

. However, he said India continued to lag in making cities livable, reducing pollution and traffic congestion, and providing clean drinking water.

. "India must aspire to reach stage four in every area that touches the lives of our poorest citizens in our remotest villages," he said, stressing the need for better research and education.

. He also called for greater humility in learning from cultures that perform better than India.

. Emphasising the need to strengthen school education, Murthy said classrooms must encourage independent, critical and analytical thinking, questioning and the application of theory to real-world problems.

. He proposed inviting 10,000 accomplished retired STEM teachers from India and abroad to run 2,500 teacher-training colleges, with the aim of training five lakh teachers annually.

. "Training alone is not enough. We must respect our teachers and researchers, pay them better, equip them well, and honour them. They are the role models for our young people," he added.

. Explaining the rationale behind the Infosys Prize, established in 2009, Murthy said it was a contribution towards strengthening research in India.

. He described this year's winners as among the world's promising researchers, adding that the award was intended to spur them towards greater achievements rather than recognise lifetime accomplishments.

. The award, which has focused on researchers below 40 years old since 2024, carries a gold medal, citation and a prize purse of $100,000 (approximately Rs 89 lakh) in each of the six categories. The winners have been selected by an international panels of jurors.