Open to increase number of prize categories: Murthy

B D Narayankar

Press Trust of India

Bangalore, Nov 16: Infosys Chairman Emeritus N R
Narayana Murthy today said the company was open to increasing
the number of prize categories for scientists depending on
returns it gets from its corpus.
He, however, said there was no such proposal as of now.
"Right now we are focussed on five prize categories, but
depending upon the returns that we get from the corpus and
recommendations given by various people,including Jury Chairs,
Board of Trustees of Infosys Science Foundation will meet and
consider from time-to-time (to increase prize categories)," he
told reporters here.
As on date there was no such proposal but the company has
an open mind to consider increasing prize categories, he said.
To a question, Infosys Board of Directors member Mohandas
Pai said the company has no plan of giving research grant to
young talent from the corpus, but wants to create new 'science
heroes' by interacting with Infosys prize-winning scientists.
"At the end of the day, a true measure of any country's
wealth depends on the wealth of scientists it boasts
of," Pai said.
Earlier, Infosys Science Foundation announced 2011 prize
winners across five categories.
Former President A P J Abdul Kalam would felicitate prize
winners Kalyan Deb (Engineering and Computer Science), Imran
Siddiqi(Life Sciences), Kannan Soundarajan (Mathematical
Sciences), Sriram Ramaswamy (Physical Sciences), Raghuram G
Rajan (Economics) and Pratap Bhanu Mehta (Political Science
and International Relations) here on January 9, 2012.
Each winner would receive a 22-carat gold medallion, a
citation and Rs 50 lakh in recognition of their outstanding
contribution to scientific research, Pai said.