The Winners of the 2025 Tata Transformation Prize were announced today in Mumbai, India. Established to advance innovation and support visionary scientists in India who are developing breakthrough technologies to address the country’s most significant societal challenges in Food Security, Sustainability, and Healthcare, the Tata Transformation Prize aims to generate improved quality-of-life outcomes and scale up the implementation of high-reward research for India and beyond. Selected from a competitive pool of 212 nominations spanning 27 Indian states, the three Winners were chosen by an international jury of eminent scientists, clinicians, technologists, and engineers. Each Winner will receive INR 2 crores (approximately USD 228,000) to advance their research and scale its real-world impact.

2025 Tata Transformation Prize Winners

Food Security Winner: Padubidri V. Shivaprasad, PhD, National Centre for Biological Sciences  

Padubidri V. Shivaprasad, PhD, addresses one of India’s greatest challenges: feeding a population projected to reach 1.5 billion by 2050 amid shrinking farmland and worsening climate stress. His groundbreaking work uses epigenetic engineering and small RNA–based modifications in rice, India’s primary staple crop, to enhance stress tolerance and nutritional quality.  By precisely altering the expression of key genes, Prof. Shivaprasad’s approach surpasses the limits of conventional plant breeding, which can be slow and unpredictable. His engineered rice varieties promise to reduce fertilizer and pesticide dependence, lower production costs, and improve nutrition for millions. Beyond India, this innovation offers a sustainable blueprint for staple crops worldwide in the face of global climate change.

Sustainability Winner: Balasubramanian Gopal, PhD, Indian Institute of Science 

India’s growing biomanufacturing sector urgently needs cleaner, cost-effective alternatives to traditional energy-intensive chemical synthesis methods. Balasubramanian Gopal, PhD, has developed a green chemistry platform that harnesses bioengineered E. coli bacteria to produce key chemicals used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and agriculture. Integrating artificial intelligence with experimental biology, his lab rapidly designs efficient enzymes and optimizes microbial strains for high yields, without antibiotics or harmful additives. This sustainable technology can replace traditional chemical manufacturing, thus reducing pollution, enhancing domestic production, and positioning India as a global leader in environmentally responsible biomanufacturing.

Healthcare Winner: Ambarish Ghosh, PhD, Indian Institute of Science  Ambarish Ghosh, PhD, is pioneering a breakthrough in cancer treatment using magnetic nanorobots – tiny, helical devices that can be safely guided through the body using magnetic fields. These nanorobots are designed to navigate complex biological environments, deliver drugs directly to tumors, and distinguish cancerous tissue from healthy cells. His team is also creating real-time imaging tools to track and steer the nanorobots during treatment. This technology promises more precise, less invasive cancer therapies with fewer side effects, with the potential to revolutionize cancer care worldwide and make advanced treatments more accessible and affordable in India and other low- and middle-income countries.

New research from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biolog revealed Indigenous aquaculture systems, such as fishponds, effectively shield fish populations from the negative impacts of climate change, demonstrating resilience and bolstering local food security.

A new international study shows that medieval communities around Lake Constance actively boosted biodiversity. Combining fossil pollen, archaeobotanical evidence, and historical records, researchers document a sustained rise in plant diversity peaking around 1000 CE. The findings demonstrate that human activity can enhance biodiversity while sustaining food production, offering timely lessons for modern conservation strategies in the Anthropocene.

While the Rapa Nui people did play a role in the island’s deforestation, the greater role may belong to a virtual tidal wave of rats, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York. 

The American science socieites for crop, soil and agronomy awarded Mila Pessotto, Ph.D., a former master's student at the University of Arkansas, an 2025 Outstanding Paper Award for research that determined the cardinal temperatures for eight cover crops. Pessotto and a team of researchers with the University of Arkansas System Division of identified the base temperatures for two cover crop species and the optimum temperatures for three of cover crop species for the first time. They also determined the maximum temperature values of all eight cover crops, which included crimson clover, Austrian winter pea, balansa clover, barley, black-seeded oats, common vetch, cereal rye, crimson clover and hairy vetch.