Hyderabad: A professor in Japan with roots in Mahbubnagar district has been honoured with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award for 2021 by President Ram Nath Kovind. From among the 30 who have been selected for the award this year, nine are Indians. Professor Miryala Muralidhar is the only one from Telangana among them. He was bestowed the honour in the field of science and technology.
The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (PBSA) is the highest honour conferred on overseas Indians.
The 16th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) convention was held virtually on January 9. A jury-cum-awards committee with Vice-President as chairman and external affairs minister as vice-chair selected the awardees.
Speaking to TOI from Japan, Muralidhar said this year he proposed to facilitate more students pursue their research in Japan.
Through his efforts, 18 top educational institutions in India, including IIT Madras, IIT Delhi and IIT Guwahati, established collaborations with Japanese universities. “As a global educational leader, I am currently investing great efforts to bridge top-ranked Indian and Japanese universities to focus on bilateral relations between India and Japan in the area of science, technology, R&D and higher education,” he said.
While as many as 100 students have benefited from this, Muralidhar said this year students of some higher educational institutions in Hyderabad too would be facilitated to pursue their research in Japan.
The professor, who was born in Karveni village, has a doctorate in physics from Osmania University. He is now professor at the Graduate School of Engienering and Science, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo.
