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The President of India Smt Droupadi Murmu will confer National Awards to Teachers (NAT) on 21 teachers/faculties of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and polytechnics at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on September 5, 2026.
This year, 12 teachers/faculties from central HEIs, five from state universities including three government and two private colleges, and four from polytechnics including two government and two private polytechnics, have been selected for the Awards.
Nominations for NAT, 2026 were invited in the online mode through Rashtriya Puraskar Portal – @www.awards.gov.in and included provisions for self, institutional and peer nomination as part of Jan Bhagidari. Nominations were invited from May 26 to July 20, 2026.
The Award is conferred on exemplary teachers/faculty members and the selection is based on their performance, as adjudged against several parameters including teaching-learning effectiveness, outreach activities, research and innovation, and sponsored research/faculty development programmes/consultancy teaching.
The selection procedure involves a two-step process:
(i) Evaluation by Preliminary Search-cum Screening Committee for initial shortlisting of nominees and
(ii) Selection of awardees from the shortlisted nominees by a Committee of Jury.
It was in 2023 that it was decided to institute two categories of awards for HEIs and polytechnics under the umbrella of the National Awards to Teachers. Till then, the awards were conferred on school teachers only. The ambit of the Awards was expanded to align with the vision of the National Education Policy 2020 which envisaged that incentives such as rewards and recognitions must be conferred to cultivate a culture of excellence in the education ecosystem.
The list of awardees is attached.
National Awards to Teachers – 2026 – Department of Higher Education
| Sl. No | Name | Institution | Discipline | Gender |
| 1. | Prof. Avlokita Agrawal | IIT Roorkee, Uttarakhand | Sustainable Architecture and Built Environment | Female |
| 2. | Prof. Kirti Chandra Sahu | IIT Hyderabad, Telangana | Chemical Engineering | Male |
| 3. | Prof. Vinay Chamola,
|
BITS Pilani, Rajasthan | Electricals & Electronics Engineering | Male |
| 4. | Dr. Srikant Gollapudi | IIT Bhubaneswar, Odisha | Metallurgy & Materials Science | Male |
| 5. | Dr. Mithun Radhakrishna | IIT Gandhinagar, Gujarat
|
Chemical Engineering | Male |
| 6. | Prof. Sourav Datta
|
IISER Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh | Plant Sciences | Male |
| 7. | Prof. Vikram Vishal | IIT Bombay, Maharashtra | Earth Sciences | Male |
| 8. | Prof. Sarvaiya Jayrajsinh Indrajitsinh,
|
National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat
|
Forensic Pharmacy and Food Forensics | Male |
| 9. | Prof. Sankar Prasad Rath | IIT Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh | Chemical Sciences | Male |
| 10. | Dr Manis
ha Nigam
|
Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University
Srinagar, Uttarakhand |
Biochemistry | Female |
| 11. | Dr Amar Mohanrao Taksande | Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC),
Wardha, Maharashtra |
Medicines- Paediatrics | Male |
| 12. | Dr Arun Babu
|
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Mangalagiri, Andhra Pradesh | Medicines- Paediatrics | Male |
| 13. | Dr Pukhrambam Lilabati Devi
|
Department of Dance and Music,
Manipur University, Imphal, Manipur |
Manipuri Dance | Female |
| 14. | Prof. Dr Ashutosh Mohan | Institute of Management Studies,
Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi |
Management | Male |
| 15. | Prof. Ankuran Dutta
|
Gauhati University,
Guwahati, Assam |
Mass Communication | Male |
| 16. | Ms Shivani V.
|
Karnataka Sanskrit University, Bangalore | Sanskrit | Female |
| 17. | Prof. Rajeev Choudhary | Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh | Physical Education, Yoga Education | Male |
| 18. | Dr. Vishwanatha H. S.
|
M.E.I. Polytechnic,
Bangalore, Karnataka |
Civil Engineering | Male |
| 19. | Dr Sasikala S.
|
PSG Polytechnic College,
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu |
Electrical & Electronics Engineering | Female |
| 20. | Dr Kannan Rathinam | Sakthi Polytechnic College (Govt Aided),
Erode, Tamil Nadu |
Physics | Male |
| 21. | Dr Sandipann Pralhad Narote
|
Government Polytechnic,
Solapur, Maharashtra |
Electronics Engineering& Telecommunication | Male |
Source: PIB
