Raghavan Varadarajan, PhD., from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru has won the Tata Transformation Prize in the healthcare category. Dr Varadarajan is working to develop a cost-effective Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine that will allow for greater access to wide-spread deployment of vaccination programmes. His scientific advances will surmount the challenges that have hindered RSV vaccine development for decades and will provide broad, longer-lasting protection against RSV infection.

The Tata Group and The New York Academy of Sciences honoured the 2024 Tata Transformation Prize winners at an award ceremony and dinner at Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai.

Launched in 2023, the Tata Transformation Prize aims to identify and support visionary scientists in India who are developing breakthrough technologies that address India’s most significant societal challenges in Food Security, Sustainability, and Healthcare.

The 2024 Tata Transformation Prize Winners were selected from 169 entries from 18 Indian states by an international jury of leading experts.

Intending to drive impactful innovation and scale-up implementation of high-reward research, each Winner received Rs 2 crore (approximately $240,000) in prize money and was honoured with a Tata Transformation Prize medal at the ceremony.

C. Anandharamakrishnan , PhD, from CSIR - National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology won in the Food Security category; while Amartya Mukhopadhyay, DPhil, from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay won in the sustainability category.

Image caption- (L-R) N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Sons; Dr Raghavan Varadarajan, PhD, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Former Chief Scientist of the WHO