List of Indian Nobel laureates

== Nobel Laureates in India

==

Tagore, Rabindranath (born 1861, died 1941)

A man held with a lot of reverance by the Bengalis, and respected all over the country, "Guruji" is well known as the one who wrote the National Anthem. A prolific writer, he also took part in the Freedom movement in his own 'non-sentimental and visioary' way. A friend of the Mahatma, he saw early literary success, after he discontinued formal education in UK. Knighted in 1915, but he resigned the honour in protest to the British in 1915. "Gitanjali" was one of his most well-known works.

Citation*: "because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West"

Sir Raman, Chadrasekara Venkata (born 1888, died 1970) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the year 1930. He had been knighted only the year before and woked extensively on acoustics and on light. He was also deeply interested in the Physiology of the Human Eye. A traditionally dressed man, he headed an institute that is today named after him - Raman Research Institute, Bangalore. His nephew, Subramanian Chandrasekar, an astrophysicist, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1983, although as a US citizen.

Citation*: "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him"

Khorana, Hargobind (born 1922)

A person of Indian Origin, awarded the nobel prize for his work on genes. Having left India in 1945 itself, he became a naturalised US citizen in 1970's. He contines to head a lab in the Massachusetts Inst. of Technology, USA.

Citation*: "for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis"

Mother Teresa (born 1910, died 1997)

She was born in Skopje, then in Turkey. Toiling for years in the slums of Calcutta, the award itself was no great distinction. She saw her happiness in her work, and the smile in the people she served.She worked on bringing help to suffering humanity. "This year the world has turned its attention to the plight of children and refugees, and these are precisely the categories for whom Mother Teresa has for many years worked so selflessly." [2]

Sen, Amartya (born 1933) The first Indian to get the Nobel Prize in Economics, he was given the prize for his works on welfare economics. Amartya Sen has made several key contributions to the research on fundamental problems in welfare economics. His contributions range from axiomatic theory of social choice, over definitions of welfare and poverty indexes, to empirical studies of famine. They are tied closely together by a general interest in distributional issues and a particular interest in the most impoverished members of society. [1]The 'impossibility theorem' suggested earlier by Kenneth 4rrow states that it was not possible to aggregate individual choices into a satisfactory choice for society as a whole. Prof Sen showed mathematically,that societies could find ways to alleviate such a poor outcome. [3]

Citation*: "for his contributions to welfare economics"

References

[1] - Press Release: The Sveriges Riksbank (Bank of Sweden) Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 1998 - 14 October 1998 [2] Press Release - Norwegian Nobel Committee (1979) [3] Webiste of Inidan Embassy of Indonesia - http://www.eoijakarta.or.id/Indian_noble.html