In a significant recognition for Indian scientific innovation, three eminent scientists from Bengaluru have been honoured with the prestigious Tata Transformation Prize 2025. The awards were announced in Mumbai on Tuesday, celebrating groundbreaking research that promises to enhance food security, advance healthcare, and promote environmental sustainability.
Celebrating Scientific Excellence for a Better Tomorrow
The Tata Transformation Prize, jointly presented by the New York Academy of Sciences and Tata Sons, was constituted in 2022 to honour research that significantly improves the quality of life both in India and abroad. The 2025 laureates, each excelling in distinct categories—Food Security, Sustainability, and Healthcare—will receive a substantial cash prize of Rs 2 crore to further their pioneering work.
P V Shivaprasad: Engineering a Climate-Resilient Future for Rice
P V Shivaprasad from the National Centre for Biological Sciences was awarded in the Food Security category. His lab has achieved a remarkable breakthrough by using epigenetic engineering and performing small RNA–based modifications in rice. This innovative approach enhances the cereal's stress tolerance and nutritional quality, moving beyond the limitations of conventional plant breeding.
Shivaprasad explained that his decade-long research uncovered the epigenetic basis for how rice lost its nutrients and stress tolerance during domestication. "Our pioneering studies uncovered an epigenetic basis for the mechanism underlying the domestication of rice," he stated. His work aims to reintroduce these lost characteristics, creating rice varieties that can thrive even under the duress of climate change.
He issued a stark warning about the future of paddy cultivation, emphasizing that current high-yielding varieties are ill-equipped for changing conditions. "Due to climate change, we might struggle to grow the current, high-yielding green revolution lines," Shivaprasad said. He urgently called for policy makers to support the generation of new, climate-resilient rice lines to secure India's food future.
Balasubramanian Gopal: Pioneering Sustainable Manufacturing with Green Chemistry
Balasubramanian Gopal from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) was the winner in the Sustainability category. He has developed a revolutionary green chemistry platform that utilizes bioengineered E. coli bacteria to produce essential chemicals for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and agriculture.
By integrating Artificial Intelligence with experimental biology, his team designs efficient enzymes and optimizes microbial strains for high yields, all without relying on antibiotics or harmful additives. This sustainable technology has the potential to replace traditional, polluting chemical manufacturing processes.
Gopal expressed that the prize money will be instrumental in scaling up the technology. "The prize can be used to fine-tune the technology and test it out at a pre-commercial scale," he remarked. His team's work on engineered transcription initiation factors aims to overcome past failures in scaling up synthetic biology strategies from the lab to industry.
Ambarish Ghosh: Navigating New Frontiers in Cancer Treatment
Completing the trio of winners is Ambarish Ghosh, also from IISc, who triumphed in the Healthcare category. His lab is at the forefront of developing an advanced cancer treatment using magnetic nanorobots.
These tiny, helical devices can be safely guided through the human body using magnetic fields. They are engineered to navigate complex biological environments, deliver drugs directly to tumors, and crucially, distinguish between cancerous and healthy tissue. This targeted approach promises to revolutionize oncology by increasing treatment efficacy while minimizing side effects.
The collective work of these three Bengaluru-based visionaries underscores India's growing prowess in leveraging science for societal transformation. Their award-winning innovations in food, sustainability, and health are poised to make a profound and lasting impact on millions of lives.
