V. V. Narlikar Best Thesis Award

At the 20th General Body Meeting of IAGRG, held on Jan. 20, 1999 at D.D.U. Gorakhpur University, it was suggested to institute a prize of Rs. 1000/- , to be given every three years, for the best PhD thesis accepted by universities in India, in GR and related areas. This was followed up by the Council which decided to arrange special sessions for PhD thesis presentations, during the future IAGRG Conferences, inviting the recipients of PhD degrees in Mathematics/Physics from universities in India, for their thesis in GR, Gravitation and Related areas, in periods of four years blocks. It was decided that the best thesis, selected by a panel of referees on the basis of quality and presentation, be given Best Thesis Award. Later the Council accepted the suggestion of Prof. P.C. Vaidya and decided to designate this award as Professor V.V. Narlikar Award for Best Thesis in GRG and Related Areas to be given in blocks of four years with the first award to be given beginning with the block 1997 - 2000. Finally, at the 22nd General Body Meeting, it was decided to keep Rs. 50,000/- in fixed deposit for this purpose. The first award was actually given for the Block 2000 -- 2004.

The award winners are listed below.

Award for the Block	Name and Affiliation	Thesis Title	Submitted to
2004 -- 2008	Sudipta Das Jadavpur University, Kolkata	Aspects of Quintessence Matter - The Driver of the Late Time Acceleration of the Universe	Jadavpur University
2000 -- 2004	Parampreet Singh IUCAA, Pune	Gravity at High Energies	University of Pune
	Ranjan Sharma,	A Model for a Class of Compact Stars	North Bengal University