Cloned hybrid seeds that would save farmers from becoming captives of seed companies, algorithms that mimic evolutionary principles to help companies make design trade-offs, explaining the natural symmetry in a flock of birds, esoteric number theory work that explains equally esoteric quantum mechanical phenomena, the relationship between financial development and economic growth, pondering over the foundations of democracy and justice — such were the contributions to research that the Infosys Science Foundation honoured on Monday when it gave away India’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize to six world-leading researchers.

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam gave away the prizes – comprising a 22-karat gold medallion, a citation and Rs 50 lakh in cash — at a ceremony that was attended by the city’s intelligentsia. The Infosys Prize is given out of a Rs 100 crore corpus that the founders of Infosys and the company itself have created.

Infosys chairman emeritus N.R. Narayana Murthy said the prizes were part of a broader effort “to encourage higher education and research”. Manipal Education chairman T.V. Mohandas Pai announced that the foundation would add a Humanities prize category next year.