Science meet: Tata's name not in awardees list

Chennai: The name of industrialist Ratan Tata was on Monday missing from the list of awardees honoured at the 98th Indian Science Congress here.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who inaugurated the five-day gathering of scientists, conferred awards on leading scientists and Nobel laureates, including Venkataraman Ramakrishnan - the 2009 Chemistry laureate.

The Indian Science Congress Association President K C Pandey had announced on Sunday that Tata would be presented the Jawaharlal Nehru Award by Singh for his contribution to the development of Nano car. At a press conference, Pandey had

said that Tata had confirmed his presence.

When contacted Pandey said the award will be presented to Tata at a later date. He was unaware of the reason for Tata's absence.

Besides Ramakrishnan, Ada Yonath, Thomas Steitz, Tim Hunt and Martin Chalfie were among the scientists who were honoured by the Prime Minister.