Yashwant Gupta conferred with MP Birla Memorial Award

Exam-focused facts from the 14 March 2026 current affairs briefing.

Key facts

The MP Birla Planetarium (MPBP) conferred the MP Birla Memorial Award on Yashwant Gupta, the director of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).
The biennial award was instituted in 1993 and was last presented to Prof Thanu Padmanabhan in 2019.
The award ceremony resumed after a six-year hiatus caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and renovation work at the planetarium.
Notable past recipients of the award include Jayant Vishnu Narlikar, Govind Swarup, K Kasturirangan, and APJ Abdul Kalam.
The award was not presented in 2015 and 2017 as the MPBP was undergoing renovation during those years.