Bengaluru, 12 Nov

IT industry veteran Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy on Wednesday stressed that strengthening India’s focus on research is the only way to build a better India and a better world. He urged the creation of an aspirational, meritocratic and competitive research ecosystem that nurtures scientists, engineers, economists, mathematicians and humanists.

Speaking at the announcement of the Infosys Prize 2025, Murthy quoted Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, saying research represents “the broadening of the mind” that helps unravel the mysteries of nature and find “plausibly impossible solutions”. He said curiosity, imagination and persistence form the bedrock of discovery, adding that research requires “audacity, daring and the humility to learn from failures”.

Meanwhile, the Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) announced the winners of the Infosys Prize 2025, one of India’s top research honours, which carries a gold medal, a citation and a purse of USD 1,00,000.

Among the six laureates are Andrew Ollett, Associate Professor at the University of Chicago and the world’s foremost scholar of the Prakrit languages, and Anjana Badrinarayanan, Associate Professor at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru, recognised for her pioneering work on genome maintenance and repair.

Other winners include Nikhil Agarwal (Economics), Sushant Sachdeva (Engineering and Computer Science), Sabyasachi Mukherjee (Mathematical Sciences) and Karthish Manthiram (Physical Sciences).

Murthy said India must recommit to nurturing a research culture that values ideas over titles, adding, “Research is the only means to fulfil the dreams of our founding fathers.”