Famous Indian scientists

Story hook

It is 28 February 1928. A 39-year-old physicist named Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman is at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) in Calcutta. He has spent seven years studying why the Mediterranean Sea is blue — a question that struck him in 1921 during a voyage home from London. Today he makes the discovery: when monochromatic light passes through a transparent medium, a small fraction of it is scattered at a different wavelength than the original. This wavelength shift carries information about the molecular vibrations of the medium. The Raman Effect is born.

Two years later, on 10 December 1930, Raman accepts the Nobel Prize in Physics in Stockholm — the first Asian to win a science Nobel and the first non-white person to receive it. India celebrates National Science Day on 28 February every year to mark his discovery.

Raman's Nobel — at a time when India was still under colonial rule — became the template for a generation of Indian scientists. Homi Bhabha would build the atomic-energy programme. Vikram Sarabhai would build the space programme. Satish Dhawan would lead ISRO through its formative decade. APJ Abdul Kalam would build the missile programme and become a President. And in the 21st century, K Radhakrishnan, Mylswamy Annadurai, Ritu Karidhal, Nambi Narayanan, and others would carry the institutions forward.

This unit traces those careers — eight scientists who built the institutions India still runs on today.

Why this matters for UPSC

Famous Indian scientists are a recurring Prelims topic — usually matching person to institution, person to discovery/programme, or person to award. Mains rarely tests biographies directly, but the institutional histories (DAE, ISRO, DRDO) cite these names. UPSC Interview boards often ask about scientific role models, especially for engineering + science background candidates.