Moon team ignored for Padma awards

India discovered water on the moon and won international acclaim. It was easily India's most impressive scientific feat last year. But scientists and engineers of the prestigious Rs 386 crore Chandrayaan-1 mission which located water molecules on the lunar surface remain unrecognised as they find no mention in the list of Padma awardees. The reason for their work being overlooked is a rule framed by the government a few years ago stipulating that those attached to government organisations like Isro and department of atomic energy (DAE) will not be entitled to any "government-backed" awards, like the prestigious Padmas. Well-placed sources said the matter had been taken up and efforts are on to change this discriminatory rule. Government now wants to revise this decision keeping in view the obvious fact that it will be counter productive in terms of morale of those who labour in official agencies at salaries that are much less than in the private sector and where national pride is a big motivator. The co troversial decision comes at a time when government wants to stem brain drain of scientists and engineers to foreign organisations like Nasa and woo them back to India with better terms than before and by rewarding good performance. Yet, if official recognition is itself banned while Padmas are awarded to achievers of Indian origin in foreign countries, Indian establishments are bound to feel rather left out. In 2009, G Madhavan Nair and Anil Kakodkar, who were then chairpersons of Isro and DAE respectively, were given Padma Vibhushans. "This was a real exception because of the moon mission and the Indo-US nuke deal. This year, none of the 10 scientists or engineers who have been given Padma awards are part of any government organisation," said a senior scientist familiar with the system. Nair was given the award three months after the launch of Chandrayaan-1 when majority of the 11 scientific experiments on board the spacecraft had only just started operating. On Monday evening, when the names of Padma award winners were announced, Isro officials started to look if any one from the Chandrayaan team had been honoured as an exception as was done with Nair last year. They were shocked to find that none had figured in the list.

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