Quick Answer: The Nobel Prizes are awarded annually in six categories — Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences. Winners are announced in early October and the prizes are presented on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, at ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo. Seven Indian citizens — from Rabindranath Tagore (1913) to Abhijit Banerjee (2019) — have won, a favourite static-GK topic in UPSC, SSC, Banking and CLAT exams.
- Origin: Alfred Nobel’s Will and Why the Prizes Began
- The Six Nobel Prize Categories Explained
- Who Selects the Laureates? The Nobel Committees and Institutions
- The Selection Process: Nomination to Announcement
- Prize Money, Medal and the December 10 Ceremony
- Indian Nobel Laureates: Complete Verified List
- Recent Nobel Prize Highlights Commonly Asked in Exams
- How UPSC, SSC and Banking Exams Frame Nobel Prize Questions
- Nobel Prize Facts That Trick Aspirants: Common Confusions
- One-Page Revision Table: Categories, Awarding Bodies and First Winners
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Q: How many Indians have won the Nobel Prize?
- Q: Which Nobel Prize is awarded in Oslo and why?
- Q: When are Nobel Prize winners announced?
- Q: Is there a Nobel Prize for Mathematics?
- Q: Who won the most recent Nobel Peace Prize?
- Related reading
Origin: Alfred Nobel’s Will and Why the Prizes Began
The Nobel Prizes trace back to Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor, engineer and industrialist best known for patenting dynamite in 1867. When Nobel died in December 1896, his will — signed in 1895 — shocked his family and the public: the bulk of his fortune was to be converted into a fund whose annual income would be awarded as prizes to those who had “conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.”
Nobel’s will specified prizes in five fields:
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Physiology or Medicine
- Literature
- Peace
The first prizes were awarded on December 10, 1901 — five years after Nobel’s death, on the fifth anniversary of his passing. Note for exams: the Economics prize was not part of the original will; more on that below. You can read the full text of the will on the official Nobel Prize website.
The Six Nobel Prize Categories Explained
Today, six prizes are announced each Nobel season:
- Nobel Prize in Physics — for discoveries in the field of physics.
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry — for discoveries in chemistry.
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine — note the exact wording; exams often test whether it is “Biology” (wrong) or “Physiology or Medicine” (correct).
- Nobel Prize in Literature — for outstanding literary work in an idealistic direction.
- Nobel Peace Prize — for fraternity between nations, abolition of armies, or peace congresses; the only prize awarded in Norway.
- The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel — established in 1968 by Sweden’s central bank (Sveriges Riksbank) on its 300th anniversary, and first awarded in 1969. It is technically not a “Nobel Prize” in the strict sense, though it is announced and presented alongside the others.
Who Selects the Laureates? The Nobel Committees and Institutions
Each prize has a designated awarding institution — a classic match-the-following question in SSC and UPSC prelims:
- Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences — awards Physics, Chemistry and Economic Sciences.
- Karolinska Institute (Nobel Assembly) — awards Physiology or Medicine.
- Swedish Academy — awards Literature.
- Norwegian Nobel Committee (appointed by the Norwegian Storting/Parliament) — awards the Peace Prize.
The Selection Process: Nomination to Announcement
The process is deliberately secretive and rigorous:
- Nomination: Only qualified nominators — past laureates, academy members, university professors in the relevant field, and other invited persons — may submit nominations. Self-nomination is not allowed. Names of nominees are kept secret for 50 years.
- Evaluation: Committees appoint experts to assess each candidate’s work; reports are submitted to the full awarding institutions.
- Decision: The institutions vote by majority in September.
- Announcement: Winners are announced in early October each year, immediately after the final votes.
Can a Nobel be awarded posthumously? As a rule, no — the prize may not be given posthumously unless the laureate dies between the announcement (October) and the ceremony (December 10), in which case it is still presented. The most famous exception: Ralph Steinman, awarded the 2011 Medicine Prize days after his death, which the committee decided to let stand.
Prize Money, Medal and the December 10 Ceremony
All prizes are presented on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. The Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Economics prizes are presented at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden; the Peace Prize is presented in Oslo, Norway — a distinction examiners love to test.
Each laureate receives a medal, a diploma and a cash award. The prize amount for recent years has been 11 million Swedish kronor (SEK) per full Nobel Prize, shared if there are multiple laureates. (Always verify the current year’s amount at nobelprize.org, as the figure is reviewed periodically.)
Indian Nobel Laureates: Complete Verified List
Exam questions distinguish Indian citizens from laureates of Indian origin or birth. Learn them separately:
| Indian Citizen Laureate | Year | Field |
|---|---|---|
| Rabindranath Tagore | 1913 | Literature |
| C. V. Raman | 1930 | Physics |
| Mother Teresa | 1979 | Peace |
| Amartya Sen | 1998 | Economic Sciences |
| V. S. Naipaul | 2001 | Literature |
| Kailash Satyarthi | 2014 | Peace (shared with Malala Yousafzai) |
| Abhijit Banerjee | 2019 | Economic Sciences (shared with Duflo and Kremer) |
Key facts:
- First Indian Nobel laureate: Rabindranath Tagore, 1913, Literature — for Gitanjali. He was also the first non-European literature laureate.
- First Indian in Science: C. V. Raman, 1930, Physics, for the Raman Effect (announced on February 28, celebrated as National Science Day).
- Persons of Indian origin/birth: Ronald Ross (born in Almora, India; Medicine 1902, for malaria research — British citizen), Har Gobind Khorana (Medicine 1968), S. Chandrasekhar (Physics 1983), and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (Chemistry 2009).
- Mother Teresa was an Indian citizen of Albanian birth; Amartya Sen holds Indian citizenship; Abhijit Banerjee is an Indian-American economist.
Recent Nobel Prize Highlights Commonly Asked in Exams
Current-affairs sections typically pick the Peace, Literature and Economics winners of the most recent one or two years. Because the 2026 laureates will only be announced in October 2026, always cross-check the latest winners on the official site — nobelprize.org’s complete prize list — before your exam. Reliable Indian sources include PIB for government reactions and profiles.
For mock tests, practise mapping each recent year to its Peace and Literature laureate — SSC CGL and Banking Mains repeatedly ask “who won the Nobel Peace Prize in [year]?” as one-liners.
How UPSC, SSC and Banking Exams Frame Nobel Prize Questions
- Static GK (SSC, Banking, Railways): “Who awards the Nobel Prize in Peace?” “In which city is the Peace Prize given?” “The Nobel Prize in Economics was instituted in which year?” One-liners and match-the-following dominate.
- UPSC Prelims: Statement-based questions mixing selection process, posthumous rules and laureate-field mapping. Expect trick statements like “Economics was one of the prizes mentioned in Nobel’s will” — this is false.
- UPSC Mains/GS: Nobel laureates appear as examples in essays on science (Raman Effect), economics (Sen’s welfare economics, Banerjee’s development economics) and society.
- Current affairs (all exams): The October announcements feed GA sections of IBPS, SBI, SSC and CLAT papers for the following 12 months.
Nobel Prize Facts That Trick Aspirants: Common Confusions
- Economics is not in Nobel’s will — it was created by Sveriges Riksbank in 1968 and is officially a “Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.”
- No posthumous awards — with the rare October-to-December exception noted above.
- Peace Prize in Oslo, not Stockholm — per Nobel’s will, all others in Stockholm.
- No Nobel Prize for Mathematics — the leading equivalents are the Fields Medal (awarded every four years) and the Abel Prize (awarded annually since 2003). Forget the myth that Nobel rejected a mathematician over a personal rivalry.
- “Physiology or Medicine”, not “Biology” — the exact prize name matters in fill-in-the-blank questions.
- C. V. Raman won for Physics (1930), not to be confused with his nephew S. Chandrasekhar, who won Physics in 1983 as a US citizen.
One-Page Revision Table: Categories, Awarding Bodies and First Winners
| Prize | Awarding Body | First Awarded | First Winner | Ceremony City |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physics | Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences | 1901 | Wilhelm Röntgen | Stockholm |
| Chemistry | Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences | 1901 | Jacobus van ‘t Hoff | Stockholm |
| Physiology or Medicine | Karolinska Institute | 1901 | Emil von Behring | Stockholm |
| Literature | Swedish Academy | 1901 | Sully Prudhomme | Stockholm |
| Peace | Norwegian Nobel Committee | 1901 | Henry Dunant & Frédéric Passy | Oslo |
| Economic Sciences | Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences | 1969 | Ragnar Frisch & Jan Tinbergen | Stockholm |
Bookmark this table for the night before your exam — it compresses nearly every Nobel-related static-GK question asked in the last decade of SSC, Banking and UPSC papers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How many Indians have won the Nobel Prize?
Seven Indian citizens have won: Rabindranath Tagore (1913), C. V. Raman (1930), Mother Teresa (1979), Amartya Sen (1998), V. S. Naipaul (2001), Kailash Satyarthi (2014) and Abhijit Banerjee (2019). Separately, laureates of Indian birth or origin include Ronald Ross, Har Gobind Khorana, S. Chandrasekhar and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan — they held other citizenships at the time of the award.
Q: Which Nobel Prize is awarded in Oslo and why?
The Nobel Peace Prize, presented by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo — Norway and Sweden were in a personal union when Nobel wrote his will, and he specified Norway for the Peace Prize. All other prizes are presented in Stockholm.
Q: When are Nobel Prize winners announced?
Winners are announced in early October each year, while the award ceremony takes place on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
Q: Is there a Nobel Prize for Mathematics?
No. The most prestigious mathematics awards are the Fields Medal (every four years, to mathematicians under 40) and the Abel Prize (annual, since 2003). Exams frequently substitute these as trick options.
Q: Who won the most recent Nobel Peace Prize?
Because laureates are announced only in early October each year, always verify the current winner at nobelprize.org rather than relying on outdated compilations. Cross-check with PIB for official Indian coverage.
Related reading
- Wednesday Quiz: 12 Science and Technology MCQs from This Week's Posts
- Nuclear Power in India: Reactors, Thorium Ambitions and the Three-Stage Programme for UPSC
Quick revision
- Nobel Prize in Physics: — for discoveries in the field of physics.
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry: — for discoveries in chemistry.
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: — note the exact wording; exams often test whether it is “Biology” (wrong) or “Physiology or Medicine” (correct).
- Nobel Prize in Literature: — for outstanding literary work in an idealistic direction.
- Nobel Peace Prize: — for fraternity between nations, abolition of armies, or peace congresses; the only prize awarded in Norway.
- — established in 1968 by Sweden’s central bank (Sveriges Riksbank) on its 300th anniversary, and first awarded in 1969.
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