Quick Answer: Nobel Prize Basics Every Aspirant Must Know

Nobel Prizes 1901–2026: Categories, Indian Laureates and Key Exam Facts

Quick Answer: The Nobel Prizes were founded by Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel through his 1895 will and first awarded in 1901. There are six categories — Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences. Five were part of Nobel’s original will; the Economics prize was added in 1968 by Sweden’s central bank. The first Indian laureate was Rabindranath Tagore (Literature, 1913). All prizes except Peace are awarded in Stockholm; the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo.

Origin of the Nobel Prize: Alfred Nobel’s Will (1895)

Alfred Nobel (1833–1896), the Swedish chemist and engineer who invented dynamite, signed his famous will on 27 November 1895. It directed that his fortune be used to create a fund rewarding those who “conferred the greatest benefit to humankind” in five fields: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace.

Nobel died in December 1896. After legal disputes and delays, the Nobel Foundation was established on 29 June 1900 to manage the finances and administration of the prizes. The first prizes were consequently awarded on 10 December 1901 — the fifth anniversary of Nobel’s death. This is why exam questions often pair “1895 (will)” with “1901 (first awards)” as a match-the-following trap.

Authoritative details are available at the official site, nobelprize.org.

The Six Nobel Prize Categories and Awarding Institutions

A high-frequency SSC and Banking question: which institution awards which prize? Memorise this table.

Exam pointers: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards three prizes (Physics, Chemistry, Economics). Only the Peace Prize is decided and presented in Norway.

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences: Why It Is Not an Original Nobel

In 1968, on its 300th anniversary, Sweden’s central bank — Sveriges Riksbank (the world’s oldest central bank, founded 1668) — donated funds to establish “The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.” It was first awarded in 1969, to Jan Tinbergen and Ragnar Frisch.

It is not one of the five prizes established by Alfred Nobel’s will, and is technically not a “Nobel Prize” — a classic exam trap. The first Indian-linked winner in Economics was Amartya Sen (1998), followed by Abhijit Banerjee (2019).

Indian Nobel Laureates: Complete Verified List

• Rabindranath Tagore — Literature, 1913 — First Indian and first non-European laureate in Literature; awarded for Gitanjali.
• C.V. Raman — Physics, 1930 — First Indian in science, for the Raman Effect (scattering of light); 28 February is National Science Day in his honour.
• Mother Teresa — Peace, 1979 — Born in Skopje (now North Macedonia); Indian citizen; founder of the Missionaries of Charity.
• Amartya Sen — Economic Sciences, 1998 — For welfare economics; wrote Poverty and Famines.
• V.S. Naipaul — Literature, 2001 — Born in Trinidad; of Indian descent; A House for Mr Biswas.
• Kailash Satyarthi — Peace, 2014 — Shared with Malala Yousafzai; child-rights activist, Bachpan Bachao Andolan.
• Venkatraman Ramakrishnan — Chemistry, 2009 — For studies of ribosome structure; born in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu; UK-based (later Nobel-adjacent controversy aside, he is a citizen laureate of Indian origin holding UK citizenship).
• Abhijit Banerjee — Economic Sciences, 2019 — Shared with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer; born in Mumbai, later a US citizen; J-PAL co-founder.

Other India-connected names: Ronald Ross (Medicine, 1902) — born in Almora, worked in India on malaria; Rudyard Kipling (Literature, 1907) — born in Mumbai; Har Gobind Khorana (Medicine, 1968) — born in Raipur (Punjab, undivided India), later a US citizen. These frequently appear as “born in India” traps.

Indians and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO/OCI): Exam Distinctions

SSC repeatedly asks: “Who was the first Indian citizen to win a Nobel?” The answer is Tagore, not Naipaul or Banerjee. Distinguish:

• Indian citizens at the time of award: Tagore, Raman, Mother Teresa (naturalised Indian), Amartya Sen, Kailash Satyarthi.
• Persons of Indian origin / overseas citizens: Naipaul (British, Trinidad-born), Ramakrishnan (UK/US-based, born in India), Banerjee (US citizen, born in India), Khorana (US citizen, born in undivided India).

Famous Non-Indian Laureates Frequently Asked in PYQs

• Marie Curie — First woman laureate (Physics, 1903); only person to win in two different sciences (Physics 1903, Chemistry 1911).
• Albert Einstein — Physics, 1921, for the photoelectric effect (not relativity — a favourite trap).
• Martin Luther King Jr. — Peace, 1964, youngest male Peace laureate at the time.
• Malala Yousafzai — Peace, 2014, youngest laureate ever (age 17).
• Linus Pauling — Only person to win two unshared Nobels (Chemistry 1954, Peace 1962).
• Barack Obama — Peace, 2009, commonly asked in Banking GA.

Nobel Prize Records and Firsts: One-Liner Facts

• First Nobel Prizes: 1901 (all five categories).
• First woman laureate: Marie Curie (1903).
• Youngest laureate: Malala Yousafzai — 17 years (Peace, 2014).
• Oldest laureate: John B. Goodenough — 97 years (Chemistry, 2019).
• Most prizes by one person: Two — Marie Curie, Linus Pauling, John Bardeen, Frederick Sanger.
• Family records: The Curie family won a combined five prizes; Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot won Chemistry (1935).
• Organisation wins: The International Committee of the Red Cross has won the Peace Prize three times (1917, 1944, 1963); UNHCR twice (1954, 1981).
• Posthumous rule: Since 1974, a laureate must be alive at the announcement; exceptions exist if the winner dies between announcement and ceremony (e.g., Ralph Steinman, Medicine, 2011 — announced before his death was known).
• Award date: 10 December every year (anniversary of Nobel’s death).

Recurring PYQ Patterns: How UPSC, SSC and Banking Ask Nobel Questions

Nobel questions follow predictable formats:

• Match-the-following: laureate ↔ field ↔ year (especially Indian laureates).
• Category–institution matching: which body awards Peace? (Norwegian Nobel Committee).
• Statement-based (UPSC Prelims): one correct, one incorrect statement — often mixing Tagore’s year or the Economics prize’s status.
• Current-affairs linkage (Banking/SSC): previous year’s winners, especially Peace and Economics.

Sample PYQ-style items:

1. Who was the first Indian to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature? — Tagore, 1913.
2. The Nobel Prize for Economics was instituted in which year? — 1968 (first awarded 1969).
3. Which Indian won the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Malala Yousafzai? — Kailash Satyarthi, 2014.

Nobel Prize and Current Affairs: Recent Winners (2023–2026)

2023: Peace — Narges Mohammadi (Iran); Economics — Claudia Goldin (women’s labour economics); Literature — Jon Fosse; Physics — attosecond science (Agostini, Krausz, L’Huillier); Chemistry — quantum dots (Bawendi, Brus, Ekimov); Medicine — mRNA vaccines (Karikó, Weissman).

2024: Peace — Nihon Hidankyo (Japan’s atomic bomb survivors’ group); Economics — Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, James Robinson (institutions and prosperity); Literature — Han Kang (South Korea, first Asian woman in Literature); Physics — John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton (machine learning foundations); Chemistry — protein structure prediction (Baker, Hassabis, Jumper); Medicine — microRNA (Ambros, Ruvkun).

2025–2026: Announcements for these years should be verified at nobelprize.org or on PIB before exams, as this list is updated each October — always confirm latest winners from the official source for current-affairs sections.

Memory Tricks and Quick Revision Table

Mnemonic for Indian citizen laureates: “Tagore Raman Teresa Sen Satyarthi” — TRTSS (“Three Raman-Teresa Stars”). For years: 1913, 1930, 1979, 1998, 2014 — note the roughly rising ladder.

Practice Questions with Answers (MCQs)

1. The Nobel Prizes were first awarded in: (a) 1895 (b) 1900 (c) 1901 (d) 1905
2. Which institution awards the Nobel Peace Prize? (a) Swedish Academy (b) Norwegian Nobel Committee (c) Karolinska Institute (d) Riksbank
3. Who was the first Indian Nobel laureate? (a) C.V. Raman (b) Rabindranath Tagore (c) Mother Teresa (d) Amartya Sen
4. C.V. Raman won the Nobel Prize in 1930 for: (a) photoelectric effect (b) Raman Effect (light scattering) (c) ribosome structure (d) welfare economics
5. The Economics prize was established by: (a) Alfred Nobel’s will (b) Swedish Academy (c) Sveriges Riksbank, 1968 (d) Norwegian Parliament, 1969
6. Who shared the 2014 Peace Prize with Malala Yousafzai? (a) Amartya Sen (b) Kailash Satyarthi (c) V.S. Naipaul (d) Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
7. The Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry is awarded by: (a) Swedish Academy (b) Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (c) Karolinska Institute (d) Nobel Foundation
8. The youngest Nobel laureate is: (a) Marie Curie (b) Lawrence Bragg (c) Malala Yousafzai (d) Han Kang
9. Who won two Nobel Prizes in two different sciences? (a) Linus Pauling (b) Marie Curie (c) John Bardeen (d) Frederick Sanger
10. The Nobel award ceremony is held annually on: (a) 27 November (b) 29 June (c) 10 December (d) 1 October

Answer key: 1-c, 2-b, 3-b, 4-b, 5-c, 6-b, 7-b, 8-c, 9-b, 10-c.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Who was the first Indian Nobel Prize winner?

Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for Gitanjali — the first Indian and first non-European Literature laureate. C.V. Raman was the first Indian to win a Nobel in science (Physics, 1930).

Q: Is the Nobel Prize in Economics a real Nobel Prize?

Strictly, no. It is “The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel,” established in 1968 by Sweden’s central bank and first awarded in 1969. It was not part of Alfred Nobel’s 1895 will.

Q: Which Indian won the Nobel Peace Prize?

Mother Teresa (1979) and Kailash Satyarthi (2014, shared with Malala Yousafzai) are the Indian Peace laureates.

Q: Can the Nobel Prize be awarded posthumously?

Generally no — since 1974 the laureate must be alive at the time of announcement. An exception applies if a laureate dies between the announcement and the 10 December ceremony, as with Ralph Steinman in 2011.

Q: Which city hosts the Nobel Prize award ceremony?

Stockholm, Sweden, hosts the ceremony for all prizes on 10 December each year; the Peace Prize is awarded separately in Oslo, Norway.

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