Nobel Prize Winners in India – Complete List 1913 to 2024

Nobel Prize is a prestigious award that is given in six fields, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, physics, economic sciences and peace. It was founded by Alfred Nobel, who was a Swedish chemist, engineer and industrialist. Henri Dunant of Switzerland and Frederic Passy of France were the first recipients of the Nobel Prize in 1901. The first Indian to receive the Nobel Prize was Rabindranath Tagore in 1913. After him, many Indians have won this Prize in different fields, here is the list of those Indians.

1. Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore, India’s revered poet and writer, who composed the national anthem of two countries- India (Jana Gana Mana) and Bangladesh (Amar Sonar Bangla), received the Nobel Prize in 1913. He was the first Asian to receive the Nobel Prize in literature. Tagore received the award for the English translation of his collection of poems, Gitanjali.

Rabindranath was born into a prominent Bengali family on 7th May 1861 and was the youngest son of his parents. His father was a renowned philosopher and leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a movement that aimed to revive the core monistic principles of Hinduism, as mentioned in the Upanishads. His mother had died early, and he was mostly raised by servants. His brother’s wife, Kadambari, was a very dear friend of Rabindranath Tagore and her death soon after his marriage distraught him for years. 

Tagore brothers were great musicians, philosophers, and poets, and his sister was a novelist. He was homeschooled and was sent to England for formal education, but he returned without completing his education. He said later that formal education did not explain things, and education should be about nurturing curiosity and creativity. Tagore’s early exposure to literature from his family greatly influenced him, and he composed his first poem at the age of eight.

Most of their work was influenced by Upanishads, mystic Kabir, and Ramprasad Sen. Some of his popular works, which include songs, poems, short stories, novels, and works are Gitanjali, Chokher Bali, Nastanirh, Zamindar, Sonar Tori, Amar Shonar Bangla, Partition of Bengal and many others.

2. C.V Raman

Indian physicist C.V Raman won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930 for his discovery of a light scattering effect, known as the Raman Effect. He was the first Asian to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics, an achievement which brought international attention to India’s science and research.

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born in Madras Presidency of British India, on 7th November 1888. His father was a lecturer in physics and mathematics, so he grew  up in an academic environment. He obtained his graduation degree from Presidency College (Chennai) in 1906. He obtained his M.A. degree from the same university in 1907 with distinction.  

He published two papers during his studies; his physics teacher saw his potential and told him to continue his research in England, but due to poor health, Raman couldn’t go. After completing his post-graduation, he joined the Indian finance department. Though the work of the department kept him engaged all day, he found opportunities to carry on his research at the laboratory of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science at Calcutta.

He befriended the founder and secretary of IACS, Ashutosh Dey and executive member of the institute, Ashutosh Mukherjee. This friendship helped him pursue research at the centre in his spare time. Initially, his research revolved around music and acoustics, which later helped him uncover the mechanism behind light phenomena. His remarkable discovery, Raman Scattering, came up on his trip to England when he saw the dark blue colour of the water and got curious about it. His curiosity led him to investigate and find out that when a beam of light is directed into a material, a small fraction of light changes its wavelength due to its interaction with the molecules of the material.

Raman received several honorary doctorates and memberships from scientific societies within India and the world for his contribution to the field of physics.

3. Har Gobind Khorana

Har Gobind Khorana was an Indian American biochemist who received the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1968 along with Robert W. Holley and Marshall W. Nirenberg. He was the first scientist who successfully synthesised a fully functional gene in a laboratory. He also established the groundwork for modern genetic engineering and gene manipulation.

Khorana was born in a Hindu Khatri family in the Multan village of Punjab; his father was a patwari- a taxation clerk in British India. He completed his graduation from Punjab University in Lahore in 1943 and his post-graduation in 1945. Before moving to England in 1945 to study, he resided in India. He received his PhD from the University of Liverpool in 1948.

His family moved from Multan to Delhi during the partition of India, and he never visited his homeplace after that. His whole family moved to British Columbia in 1952 after he accepted a position at the University of British Columbia. Here, he worked on nucleic acids and the synthesis of many important biomolecules.

In 1962, he was appointed professor of biochemistry and then professor of life sciences in 1964 at the University of Wisconsin. While in Wisconsin, he conducted research that led to him winning the Nobel Prize in 1968. According to the Nobel Prize site, he made a significant contribution to the field by using enzymes to create RNA chains. 

4. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, an Indian-born Astrophysicist, won the Nobel Prize with William A. Fowler for their research on the evolution and structure of stars in 1983. His discovery helped us understand the life cycle of stars, black holes, and many more things.

Born in Lahore on 19 October 1910, Chandrasekhar’s father taught him mathematics and physics at home, while his mother taught him Tamil. In 1918, his father was transferred to Madras, and he completed his schooling at a Hindu high school in 1925. He pursued his bachelor's in physics from Presidency College, Madras. During his graduate studies, he wrote his first paper on Compton scattering and new statistics.

He received a scholarship from the government of India to complete his graduate studies at the University of Cambridge in England. His scholarship was secured by R.H. Fowler, who was a renowned British astrophysicist. Chandrasekhar was a research fellow of Fowler and spent his time working on degenerated stars. Chandrasekhar discovered the upper limit of a white dwarf during his voyage from Madras to Cambridge in 1930. This limit, also referred to as the Chandra limit, demonstrates that stars larger than the sun when explode or die, create black holes.

NASA honoured Chandrasekhar by naming the third of its four observatories after him. He received the second highest civilian award, Padma Vibhushan from government of India in 1968.

5. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, an India-born physicist and molecular biologist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with American biophysicist Thomas Steitz and Israeli protein crystallographer Ada Yonath, for their research on Ribosomes, which is a macromolecular machine found within the cells in 2009.

Born in Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu, his parents, Prof C.V. Ramakrishnan and Prof Rajalakshmi Ramakrishnan, were scientists. When he was three, his family moved to Vadodara which is in Gujarat. After completing his graduation and post-graduation from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, he moved to the US, where he received his doctoral degree in physics from Ohio University in 1976.

Though Ramakrishnan's academic background was in theoretical physics, his interests took him to molecular biology. From 1978 to 1982, he completed his postdoctoral research at Yale University. At Yale, he worked with biochemist Peter More and investigated the structure of the Ribosomes using a technique called neutron scattering. He also employed other techniques to study the structure of Ribosomes, such as X-rays, and crystallography, along with neutron scattering to study Ribosomes. He then published a research paper in which he presented data on the structure of RNA and antibiotics, which made him win the Nobel Prize.

He received many awards from the Nobel Prize in chemistry to the Heatley Medal of the British Biochemical Society and many more. He was awarded with Padma Vibhushan on 31st March 2010.

6. Kailash Satyarthi

Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian human rights activist, received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to eliminate child slavery and exploitation and for advocating children's right to education in 2014. He shared the award with Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by terrorists for supporting girls' education in Pakistan. Together, they got recognition for their work for children's education and for creating a world where children can live freely.

Satyarthi was born in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, into a Brahmin family. However, he dropped his surname “Sharma” and changed it to “Satyarthi”, which implies one who longs for truth after he got married under the influence of Arya Samaj. According to Kailash, his mother's idealism and helping nature influenced him to work for children and society.

At an early age, he saw children working as labourers, which disturbed him a lot and he wanted to do something for them. Public education was not free when Kailash was small, so he started a football club to raise money for poor children.  

He completed his graduation in electrical engineering from Samrak Ashok Technological Institute and postgraduation in high voltage engineering from the University of Bhopal. After his post-graduation, he joined as a lecturer in his college but soon gave up his career, and founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan and many other organisations for his humanitarian work. However, his journey was not easy and, he along with his team faced several threats and attacks from the mafia and traffickers. His persistent efforts helped  rescue hundreds of children from slavery and child labour.

Satyarthi received several awards for his humanitarian work, such as the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, The Trumpeter Award, Freedom Award, Gold Medal of the Italian Senate and many more.

7. Abhijit Banerjee

Abhijit Banerjee, an Indian-born economist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics alongside his wife, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer in 2019. They received the award for developing an approach that tackles global poverty.

Banerjee was born into a family of economists; his father and mother were economists. He was interested in almost every subject when he was young, from literature and history to mathematics and everything in between. However, he completed his BSC in economics from Presidency College, affiliated with the University of Calcutta, in 1981. Banerjee obtained his post-graduation degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, in 1983. In 1988, he pursued his PhD in economics from Harvard. After his PhD, his academic and research career started, which made him one of the leading economists.

He taught and conducted research in several prestigious institutions and ultimately joined MIT, where he, along with his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer, developed an innovative approach to reducing poverty. Banerjee received several awards and recognition for his work in economic sciences, such as the Golden Plate Award, Doctors of Letters, and many more.

Along with these seven winners, there are two other noteworthy Indians who received noble prizes. Mother Teresa, who was known for her good work, won the Nobel Prize in 1979. Similarly, Amartya Sen achieved this honour in 1998.

Final words

The above list demonstrates the capability of Indian brains and their potential to make meaningful changes on a global scale. However, note that many exceptional Indians, such as Dr Narinder Singh Kapany, did not get the recognition they deserved for various reasons. Still, their contribution made a mark on the world, advancing knowledge and shaping industries. So, feel proud and try to make a difference in the field that you are most interested in and want to work in the future. Your work and dedication will be India’s pride and achievement.