Who among the following Indian scientists were awarded the 2017 Dan David prize in ‘future’ category?

The correct answer is D) Shrinivas Kulkarni. He was among the 2017 laureates in the Future category of the Dan David Prize, which is given by the Dan David Foundation at Tel Aviv University. The prize recognises work across three time dimensions: Past, Present and Future. Kulkarni, an astronomer at Caltech, was honoured for his work in time-domain astronomy, the study of objects that change in brightness or position over time, such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts and transient events.

• A) Dronamraju K. Rao is a geneticist and historian of science. He was not a Future-category laureate in 2017.
• B) Biman Bagchi is a theoretical chemist known for work on chemical dynamics. He is not the 2017 Future-category laureate.
• C) N.R. Rao is a chemist and science administrator. He is not the correct answer here.

Keep the core concept in mind: the Dan David Prize rewards scholarship across time, and the Future category honours work that shapes future research. For Mains GS-III (science and technology), this links to big-data astronomy and India's own facilities such as the GMRT at Pune.

Trap: candidates often match names to the most famous scientists they know, such as N.R. Rao, and miss the fact that the Future category is specific. Learn the prize categories and the field of each laureate together.