Amartya Sen, the 1998 economics Nobel laureate and Harvard University economics and philosophy professor, felicitated the winners with a citation, gold medal and a purse of $1 lakh (Rs 72 lakh).
The winners are Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, Professor G. Mugesh, Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay (IIT-Bombay) Computer Science and Engineering chair professor Sunita Sarawagi and IIT-Mandi School of Humanities and Social Sciences Assistant Professor Manu V. Devadevan.
Other winners include Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology's (CCMB) Chief Scientist Manjula Reddy, Professor Siddhartha Mishra at Swiss University ETH Zurich in mathematical sciences and Anand Pandian, Anthropology professor at Baltimore's John Hopkins University.
"There are deep links between friendship and knowledge. Our intellectual horizons expand when we learn from each other. We can give to the world much more than what we get from it. Friendship is, in fact, central to the development of knowledge," said Sen felicitating the awardees.
The winners were zeroed in on from a pool of 200 nominations by a jury of eminent international academic.
Set up in 2009 as a not-for-profit organisation by Infosys co-founders N.R. Narayana Murthy, Nanda Nilekani, S. Gopalakrishnan, S.D. Shibulal and Dinesh, the foundation promotes interest in science and research in the country.
( With inputs from IANS )