PM Modi congratulates Indian scientists among recipients of Special Breakthrough Prize

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday congratulated the Indian scientists who are among the recipients of the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

"Congratulations to the Indian scientists who are among the recipients of the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. These scientists have been awarded for detection of gravitational waves, an exceptional scientific accomplishment", the Prime Minister tweeted.

The February observation of ripples in the fabric of spacetime, first postulated by Albert Einstein a century ago, has landed the researchers $3m in the shape of a prize backed by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

The Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics will be shared among the founders of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) group, Kip Thorne, Rainer Weiss, and Ronald Drever, and scores of physicists and engineers on the team.

The three founders will divide $1m between them, with the remaining $2m shared equally among the 1,012 other researchers and engineers on the LIGO team, each of whom receives about $2000. The prizes will be awarded at a formal ceremony later this year.