Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad gave away various awards to 51 scientists for excellent performance in bio-medical research relevant to the needs of the people of the country. The selection for the awards was for the years 2009 and 2010.  However, Dr Bhushan Kumar, former professor at PGIMER, Chandigarh received JALMA Trust Fund Oration Award for the year 2007.

The prestigious Dr B R Ambedkar Centenary Award for the year 2008 was presented to Dr S K Sarin, director, Institute of Liver & Biliary Science, New Delhi for his path breaking contributions in the field of liver diseases especially portal hypertension, hepatitis and liver cancer. He is credited with developing five major Asian Pacific treatment guidelines in liver diseases, which are widely practised.

The Dr B R Ambedkar Centenary Award for the year 2010 was presented to Dr Vinod K Paul for his exceptional contributions to the health of the newborn. Dr Paul who heads the Department of Paediatrics in AIIMS, New Delhi has been instrumental in establishing the National Neonatal-Perinatal Database Network of India besides making noteworthy research contributions in the area of mother and child health. The award carries a cash prize of rupees one lakh.

The Basanti Devi Amir Chand Prize for the year 2010 was given away to Dr G Bhanuprakash Reddy, of National Institution of Nutrition (ICMR), Hyderabad. his work assumes significance for developing the functional foods for diabetic complications whereas for the year 2009 it was received by Dr Radha Krishan Dhiman of PGIMER, Chandigarh for his research work on ‘Hepatic encephalopathy’.

The Amrut Mody Unichem prize for the year 2010 was received by Dr Sunit Singhi of PGIMER, Chandigarh for his work on ‘maternal and child health.’ Through his research work we now know that the use of dextrose-water for oxytocin infustion in mothers during labour leads to transplacental hyponatremia and increase risk of jaundice whereas for the year 2009 it was given away to Dr Premashis Kar of Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi for his research contributions in the field of enhancing knowledge about hepatitis-E infection during pregnancy.

The H B Dingley Memorial Award for the year 2010 was given away to Dr Parag M Tamhankar who is Scientist ‘C’ in ICMR’s Genetics Research Centre at Mumbai for his research work for developing screening tests for finding out genetic disorders in Indian population, its diagnosis, subsequent management and prevention.

The ICMR Kshanika Oration Award for the year 2010 was jointly given away to Dr Annie John, Scientists ‘E’ of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences & Technology, Thiruvanantapuram for her research work on orthopaedic reconstructive surgery and to Dr Sudha Mahajan Cowsik, School of Life Sciences, JNU, New Delhi. For the year 2009, the Kshanika Oration Award was received by Dr. Sangita Mukhopadhyay of Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad for her research work on ‘induction of immunosuppression during infection and ageing and implication of anti-oxidants as therapeutic approaches’.

The ICMR Prize for biomedical research for scientists belonging to underprivileged communities for the year 2010 has been jointly presented to Dr Surender Singh, associate professor, AIIMS, New Delhi for his research work on ‘scientific validation of traditional drugs used for rheumatoid arthritis’ and Dr Insaf Ahmed Qureshi, assistant professor, Department of Biotechnology, University of Hyderabad for his research work on designing of novel therapeutics against malarial parasites.

The BGRC Silver Jubilee Oration Award for the year 2010 has been jointly presented to Dr Jasmina Ahluwalia of PGIMER, Chandigarh and Dr Malay Biswanath Mukherjee of ICMR’s National Institute of Immunohaematology, Mumbai.

Dr Kunti & Dr Om Prakash Oration Award for the year 2010 has been presented to Dr N R Jagannathan, AIIMS, New Delhi whereas Dr M K Sheshadri Prize to Dr Babasaheb V Tandale of NIV, Pune.

Dr P N Raju Oration Award for the year 2010 was given away to Dr Shyam Sunder of Institute of Medical Sciences, BHU for his work on the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis in India whereas Dr Vidya Sagar Award for the year 2010 was presented to Dr G Venkatasubramanian of NIMHNS, Bangalore.

Dr Praveen Rishi of Punjab University, Chandigarh received Dr Y S Narayana Rao Oration Award whereas Dr Amrinder Jit Kanwar of PGIMER, Chandigarh was presented Lala Ram Chand Kandhari Award, both for the year 2010.

Whereas the honourable Minister gave away the M N Sen Oration award for the year 2010 to Dr Chandrasekharan Kesavadas of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology the Novartis Oration Award for Research in the field of Cancer for the year 2010 was presented to Dr. Narayanan Subhash, former scientist at Centre for Earth Science Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.

Dr Rashmi Kumar of King George’s Medical University, Lucknow received the coveted Prof. B K Aikat Oration Award for the year 2010. Dr Om Prakash of IHBVAS, Delhi got Prof. Surindar Mohan Marwah Award for the year 2010.

For the year 2009 the recipients were: Dr Ritesh Agarwal got Kamal Satbir Award and Dr Vikas Medhi received Dr D N Prasad Memorial Oration Award, both of PGIMER, Chandigarh whereas Dr J B Srivastav Oration Award was presented to Dr Paban Kumar Dash of DRDO, Gwalior, Dr MOT Iyengar Memorial Award to Dr R B Narayanan of Centre for Food Technology, Anna University, Chennai, Chaturvedi Ghanshyam Das Jaigopal Memorial Award to Dr P Selvaraj, Chaturvedi Kalawati Jagmohan Das Memorial Award to Dr Surjit Singh of PGIMER, Chandigarh and Swaran Kanta Dingley Oration Award to Dr Nafisa Huseni Balasinor of ICMR’s NIRRH, Mumbai.