The Infosys Science Foundation said Dr. Kaushik Basu, chief economic advisor to the government of India has been appointed as the chairman of the jury that selects the Rs 50-lakh Infosys Prize for Social Sciences.
Basu takes over from Amartya Sen, who will now chair the jury for the newly-created Humanities award.
Five Infosys Awards, each carrying Rs 50 lakhs, are given every year to researchers and scientists. The awards are paid from a corpus of more than Rs 100 crore contributed by Infosys trustees.
They are given for achievements in the areas of Engineering and Computer Science, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences. A new award for humanities has been instituted from this year, Infosys said.
The Infosys Science Foundation is a not-for-profit trust set up in February 2009 by Infosys and some members of its board.
The subjects under Humanities will be — Philosophy, History, Archaeology, Legal Studies, Linguistics and Literary Studies.
The Social Sciences category includes Economics, Political Science, International Relations, Anthropology, Sociology and Psychology.
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“Infosys Science Foundation has been doing wonderful work in drawing attention to and encouraging research in various areas including the natural sciences, mathematics as well as the social sciences. The Humanities as a cluster of subjects – Literary Studies, Philosophy, History, Art, Legal Theory – complement these sciences and have an important role in broadening human lives, like science has, but they work through very different channels. Having a prize in Humanities will add incentive for younger people in the country to pursue these subjects. I am delighted that the Infosys Science Foundation is moving in this direction,” said Prof. Amartya Sen.
