The nobele Laureates from India

Nobel Prize - an annual award for outstanding contributions to chemistry or physics or physiology and medicine or literature or economics or peace.

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded annually as per Alfred Nobel's last will and testament.  It is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. Indians have always shown their untapped potential and have achieved Nobel prize in every field. Even though they may not have facilities and luxuries at par with the likes of USA, Britain and other big social economies but the talent, hard work and skill here is unfathomed.

Nobel Prize winners from India are with due respect enlisted below, these are great people from India who showed the world the untapped potential India has,

RABINDRANATH TAGORE(1861 – 1941) - India’s Poet Laureate   

• Nobel Prize for Literature (1913)
• Popularly known as Gurudev, India's most famous writer and poet was awarded the Nobel Prize in recognition of his work Geetanjali, a collection of poems, in 1913. Tagore was also involved in teaching. In 1901 he founded the famous Santiniketan which later came to be known as Vishwabharati University.
  
• He became Asia's first Nobel laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature.
• Tagore wrote many love lyrics. Geetanjali and Sadhana are among his important works.

The poet, dramatist and novelist is also the author of India’s National Anthem.

CHANDRASHEKAR VENKATA RAMAN(1888-1970) - recognized for his work on the molecular scattering of light 

• Nobel Prize for Physics (1930)
• Born at Thiruvanaikkaval in Tamil Nadu, Raman studied at Presidency College, Madras. Later, he served as Professor of Physics at Calcutta University. C.V. Raman won the Nobel Prize for an important research in the field of optics (light). Raman had found that diffused light contained rays of other wavelengths-what is now popularly known as Raman Effect.
• In 1954 he was awarded the Bharat Ratna. He was also awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1957.
  
• His theory discovered in 1928 explains the change in the frequency of light passing through a transparent medium.

India celebrates National Science Day on 28 February of every year to commemorate the discovery of the Raman Effect in 1928.

HARGOBIND KHORANA (b. 1922) 

• The Nobel Prize for Medicine (1968)
  
  
• Hargobind Khorana was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1968. Of Indian origin, Dr Khorana was born in Raipur, Punjab (now in Pakistan). He took his doctoral degree in Chemistry from Liverpool University and joined the University of Wisconsin as a Faculty Member in 1960.
  
• His major breakthrough in the field of Medicine—interpreting the genetic code and analyzing its function in protein synthesis—fetched him the Nobel Prize
• In 1970 Khorana became the Alfred Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology  where he worked until retiring in 2007. 
  

He is a member of the Board of Scientific Governors at The Scripps Research Institute, and currently holds Professor Emeritus status at MIT.

MOTHER TERESA  (1910-1997)

• The Nobel Peace Prize (1979)
  
• The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Mother Teresa in 1979 - A  Roman Catholic nun with Indian citizenship who founded the Missionaries of charity in Kolkata (Calcutta), India in 1950.
• Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu at Skopje, now in Yugoslavia. She wanted to become a nun and joined the Irish order of the Sisters of Loretto (at Dublin) in 1928. It is as a nun that Agnes came Calcutta in 1929. Here she was extremely touched by the misery of the poor and the sick. She decided to dedicate her life to serving them. She then founded a group of similar minded people called the Missionaries of Charity and set up Nirmal Hriday  (meaning Pure Heart) a center where she took care of the dying, the lepers and other people who had been left alone on the streets of Calcutta to die. Today her group has centers all over the world

SUBRAMANIAN CHANDRASEKHAR (1910-1995)

• The Nobel Prize for Physics (1983)
• He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his studies on the physical processes important to the structure and evolution of stars. 
  
• Dr S. Chandrashekar is an Indian-born astrophysicist (a branch of astronomy or the study of space). After studying at the Presidency College in Madras, Dr. Chandrasekhar went to the United States for work and settled there. He has written many books on his field Astrophysics and Stellar Dynamics. He developed a theory on white dwarf stars forecasts the limit of mass that dwarf stars can have. This limit is known as the Chandrashekar Limit. His theory also explains the final stages of the evolution of stars.
  

Dr. Chandrashekar is the nephew of another Nobel Prize winner Sir C.V. Raman.

AMARTYA SEN (b-1933) 

• Nobel Prize for Economics (1998)
• Prof. Amartya Sen is the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics for the year 1998
• He is one of the most respected economics thinkers in the world. He is also an excellent teacher. He won the Nobel for his work in the area of economic theory. Some of his most important work is in the areas of poverty, democracy, development and social welfare.
  
• The ‘impossibility theorem’ suggested earlier by Kenneth Arrow 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.

Prof. Amartya Sen is the first Asian to win the Economics Nobel.

Other Nobel laureates having linked to India

RUDYARD KIPLING (1865-1936) 

• Nobel prize in Literature (1907)
• He was a British author and poet. Born in Bombay, British India.
  
• In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English language writer to receive the prize, and to date he remains its youngest recipient.
  
• British writer, Rudyard Kipling wrote novels, poems and short stories — mostly set in India and Burma (now known as Myanmar). He was the Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration, which characterize the creations of this world-famous author."
  

He is best known for his works of fiction The Jungle Book (1894) (a collection of stories)

Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose

Jagdish Chandra Bose was born on November 30, 1858 in Mymensingh (now in Bangladesh). He was a Bengali polymath: a physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist, and writer of science fiction. He pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made very significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimental science in the Indian subcontinent.

He is considered one of the fathers of radio science, and is also considered the father of Bengali science fiction. He was the first from the Indian subcontinent to get a US patent, in 1904. It was Jagadish Chandra Bose, who explained that plants also suffer pain like us. Though he worked in other fields of science, he is best known for his research into the life of plants.

He had his early education in village school in Bengal medium. In 1869, Jagadish Chandra Bose was sent to Calcutta to learn English and was educated at St.Xavier's School and College. He was a brilliant student. He passed the B.A. in physical sciences in 1879. He was appointed professor of physical science at Presidency College, Calcutta, in 1885 and retained this post until 1915. In 1917 he founded and became director of the Bose Research Institute, Calcutta. He was knighted in 1917 and in 1920 became the first Indian to be elected a fellow of the Royal Society.

His most famous work concerned his investigations into plant physiology and the similarities between the behavioral response of plant and animal tissue. By devising extremely sensitive instruments he was able to demonstrate the minute movements of plants to external stimuli and to measure their rate of growth.

Another of Bose's amazing achievements was his invention of the 'crescograph'. The crescograph was an electrical instrument that could measure the growth of a plant accurately.

JC Bose demonstrated the existence and propaganda of wireless waves in 1885. His work on devices for receiving the polarization of electric waves was later exploited by Marconi who designed a long distance radio signalling device.

Sir J. C. Bose holds the first patent worldwide to invent a solid-state diode detector to detect EM waves. The detector was built using a galena crystal. He worked at millimeter wavelengths which were almost nonexistent for nearly 50 years. J.C. Bose was at least this much ahead of his time.

Bose also wrote a number of books and research papers based on his work and findings in both English and Bengali. Several were translated into other European languages too.

Bose was honoured both in India and outside for his contributions to science. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society on May 13, 1920, becoming the first Indian to be honoured by the Royal Society in the field of Science.

Suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure, J.C. Bose passed away on November 23, 1937 at the age of 79.

Bose’s place in history has now been re-evaluated, and he is credited with the invention of the first wireless detection device and the discovery of millimetre length electromagnetic waves and considered a pioneer in the field of biophysics.

Many of his instruments are still on display and remain largely usable now, over 100 years later. They include various antennas, polarisers, and waveguides, which remain in use in modern forms today.

Ancient India

The Indus Valley Civilization existed in between 3000-1500 BC while the earlier Kot Diji cultures, of the pre-Indus period, existed in the period of approximately 3300-2800 BC. Harappa and the city of Mohenjo-Daro were the greatest achievements of the Indus Valley civilization. These cities are well known for their impressive, organized and regular layout.

Then came Aryans who composed these evocative hymns to nature and celebrated life exuberantly referred to themselves as Aryas usually anglicised as Aryan meaning 'noble'. The 6th Century B.C. was the period of Magadh Kingdom. Chandragupta Maurya ousted the oppressive ruler of Magadh to find his own dynasty that existed from 322 - 298 B.C.

The most famous Maurya King Ashoka the Great ruled from 273 - 232 B.C over a large kingdom stretching from Kashmir and Peshawar in the North and Northwest to Mysore in the South and Orissa in the East. He after witnessing the carnage at the battle field of Kalinga (269 B.C.) in Orissa, dedicated himself to Dharmma ( righteousness ).

In the subsequent centuries, after the Ashoka empire disintegrated,India suffered a series of invasions, and often fell under the spell of foreign rulers - Indo Bactrians, the Sakas and others. After the next 400 years of instability the Guptas established their kingdom.

Kalidas, the famous Sanskrit poet and dramatist, author of Abhijnana Shankuntalam, Kumarsambhavam and Meghadutam is believed to have adorned the Gupta court. Also the great mathematicians like Aryabhatta and astronomers like Varahmihir lived during this period. The dazzling wall paintings of the Ajanta caves too are traced back to this era.

Cholas, Pandayas and Pallavas ruled over the southern part of India during the medieval period of India’s history. Cholas ruled the territory of Deccan (today the districts of Thanjavur and Tiruchirapally) while the Pandyas reined around present day Tirunelvelli and Madurai.

Pallavas of Kanchi rose to prominence in the 4th Century A.D. and ruled unchallenged for about four hundred years. The Nayanar and Alvar saint poets belong to this period. The gemlike shore temples at Mahabalipuram date to this period. The Cholas overthrew the Pallavas were in the 9th Century and regained political primacy in south India. The 15th Century saw the decline of the Pandyas.

Timeline of Ancient Indian History

3000 - 2600 BC - Harappa Civilisation

1200 - 500 BC - Vedic Era

550 BC - Birth of Mahavira

563 - 483 BC - Sidhartha Gautama, the Buddha

327 BC - The Conquests of Alexander The Great

325 BC - Alexander The Great, still goes on

322 BC - Rise of the Mauryas, Chandragupta

298 BC - Bindusara Coronated

272 BC - Ashoka's Reign

180 BC - Fall of the Mauryas & Rise of the Sungas

30 BC - Rise of the Satvahana Dynasty

50 AD - The Kushans and Kanishkas

320 AD - Chandragupta I establishes the Gupta dynasty

360 AD - Samudragupta conquers the North

380 AD - Chandragupta II comes to power

415 AD - Accession of Kumara Gupta I

467 AD - Skanda Gupta assumes power

892 AD - Rise of the Eastern Chalukyas

985 AD - The Chola Dynasty

More related articles to read:

Brief Timeline of Indian History

Prehistoric India

Timeline of India’s freedom struggle

Khardung La - World's Highest Motorable Road

Khardung La (la means pass in Tibetan) (elevation 5359 m) is a high mountain pass located in the Ladakh region, Jammu and Kashmir, India. The local pronunciation is "Khardong La" or "Khardzong La," but, as with most names in Ladakh, the romanised spelling varies. It is the highest motorable road in the world as signs put up by the Border Roads Organization proudly proclaim. However, individuals with their own GPS equipment have, apparently, measured less than the official 18 380 ft that is proudly stated on top of Khardung La, but this does not matter to most bikers who dream about driving their motorbike to the top of the world.

Khardung La, or K-Top as it is affectionately known, is situated on an ancient trade route from Leh to Kashgar in Central Asia, and it is also the gateway to the beautiful Nubra Valley.

Maintained by the Border Roads Organisation, the pass is strategically important to India as it is used to carry essential supplies to the Siachen. Building of the road across the Khardungla Pass in Ladakh at 18,380 feet in 1972-73 was no mean feat. Nothing is easy in the harsh conditions and terrain of such altitudes. The 201 Engineer Regiment, Madras Sappers of the Indian Army commenced work on it on August 17, 1972; not much progress was made initially, and the challenge rose manifold in the winters with the danger of frostbite setting in besides other risks. Work finally started in full swing in April 1973 and the road was opened to traffic on August 27, 1973. An earlier attempt to build this road by the state’s Public Works Department in 1963 had failed. It was quite a task building this road, resulting in the deaths of many engineers. Helicopters lifted jeeps, coal tar cans and other supplies to the site as there was no other way to do so.

The views from this pass are no doubt breathtaking – with the Ladakh range to the south and Karakoram to the north. And snow capped peaks at almost touching distance all around. The pass experiences up to 10 feet of snow in winters, with temperatures dropping to 40 degrees Celsius below zero. Even though temperatures in summers average 20 degrees Celsius, the weather can turn for the worse suddenly.

Vehicles travelling to and from Khardung La are allowed only in one direction at a time: from 9am - 1pm in the Leh – Khardug La direction, and from 1 pm - 5 pm from the Nubra Valley via Khardung La towards Leh. Sometimes it is one direction one day and the other direction the next day. Inner line permits are required to reach Khardung-la. These can be procured at the DC's office in Leh. Make sure to have photocopies of your permits, as each checkpoint needs a copy to be deposited with them.

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Kharagpur - World's Longest Railway Platform

A railway platform is a section of pathway, alongside rail tracks at a train station, metro station or tram stop, at which passengers may board or alight from trains or trams. Almost all stations for rail transport have some form of platforms, with larger stations having multiple platforms. The term platform is most commonly used, in British usage, for designated areas where trains stop.

The longest railway platform in the world (1,072 metres, or 3,538 feet) is at Kharagpur, West Bengal (India). The platform was originally 716m long. It's length was extended twice, once to 833m and then to its present length. Excluding subway platforms (the Chicago subway has the longest one), Kharagpur has the longest railway platform in the world. Kharagpur is located in the Midnapore West district of the state of West Bengal. It is famous as the place where the first Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) was established.

Kharagpur also has one of the biggest railway workshops in India. Kharagpur station lies on the busy and important rail route connecting Howrah with the southern states of India. Kharagpur Junction Railway Station is administered by the South Eastern Railways. The station is situated at a distance of 5 km from the enormous campus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Kharagpur Junction Railway Station has accomplished the honour of having the longest platform in the world.

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Akshardham - World's Largest Hindu Temple

Akshardham is a Hindu temple complex in Delhi, India. Also referred to as Delhi Akshardham or Swaminarayan Akshardham, the complex displays centuries of traditional Indian and Hindu culture, spirituality, and architecture.

Akshardham temple in Delhi, India is recognized as the world's largest temple by Guinness World Records. It was consecrated in November 2005 by Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the spiritual leader of BAPS (Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha).

The temple covers 32 acres (13 hectares) and is built to look as if is hundreds of years old. It measures 356 ft. long, 316 ft. wide and 141 ft. high, covering an area of 86,342 sq. ft. The main building at the centre of the complex is a 141ft high monument of Bhagwan Swaminarayan.It is designed according to ancient Vedic texts known as the Sthapatya-Shastra, it features a blend of architecutral styles from across India.

Built with a combination of marble, sandstone and wood the building is fabulously impressive. It is built according to ancient standards without using any steel and as such is designed to last 1000 years. The intricate nature of the carving both inside and out is stunning and has lovingly restored an almost lost art and is already influencing other temple building projects throughout India and the world.

• The temple building covers 32 acres
• 11,000 people worked on its construction
• It was completed in just 5 years
• 850 volunteers work there daily
• It receives 100,000 visitors a week.

The complex features a large central monument crafted entirely of stone, exhibitions on incidents from the life of Bhagwan Swaminarayan and the history of India, an IMAX feature, a musical fountain, and large landscaped gardens.

Akshardham was consecrated on 6 November 2005 by Pramukh Swami Maharaj, and ceremoniously dedicated to the nation by the President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and the Leader of the Opposition in the Indian Parliament, Lal Krishna Advani, with the presence of 25,000 guests.

On 17 December 2007, Michael Whitty, an official world record adjudicator for Guinness World Records, traveled to Ahmedabad, India to present a new world record to Pramukh Swami Maharaj, for the Akshardham complex.

The record was presented for Akshardham as the World’s Largest Comprehensive Hindu Temple.

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