Miramar (Goa) Heading the foundation which bestow world’s most important Awards, Carl Henrik Heldin, Chairman of Nobel Foundation is himself a researcher on Cancer. In Goa, he spoke to The Neutral View, on why there can’t be more categories to this century-old award. We bring you the detailed interview.
- What exactly is Nobel Series that you have come up in India, Goa?
- This is a outreach program by Nobel foundation which done by Nobel media in different parts of the world. I am glad to be here in India. I think the interest in Nobel prize and Nobel laureates is something that we need to take advantage to spread awareness about Science, and that is what we are doing here.
- You can recently increased the prize amount for the Nobel. What does it signify?
Alfred Nobel’s fortunes is with the foundation which is handled by the foundation. We have invested the money and tried to get it to grow. These funds are taking care of the expenses that are connected with the Nobel prizes which is the prizes themselves and money that is needed for the selection committee. We wanted to make the prize as big as possible. But the amount of money available puts the limit and now it was possible to increase the prize money, which we are happy for.
- Why was that the prize money reduced in the year 2011?
- There was element of optimism so that the prize money was sort of gradually increasing. And then some twenty years go it up to 10 million kronor at the time when stocks went up and the future looked very bright. But in reality development of the value of the fund was not as good as predicted and there was a need to correct and lower the prize money for a while.
- Is it country’s economy or foundation’s economy that has grown?
- The prize money has been increased because it is a foundation’s economy that has been on the rise.
- So many Nobel laureates had their Prizes stolen. What is your reaction to that?
- That’s unfortunate of course if that happens, but it is not so common.
- You had said that the knowledge is the key to all the problems of the society.
A It is important that we in our private lives and also out politicians raise the issues on facts or knowledge. I can only hope that knowledge becomes important to get, now alternative facts and fake news and important people are telling lies which is very unfortunate. I want this to end and I feel all of us should base our decisions on knowledge and facts.
- But wrong knowledge on Social media is dangerous.
That is true and it is unfortunate. Such words very quickly and they get life of their own. And for many people it is difficult to know what is true and what is not true. And that is a problem.
While social media is wonderful in a way, it also has a negative side which is that people put lot false information, gossips which has no value and which is not true.
- How do you see the knowledge during the time of Alfred Nobel and now?
- It may not have been better before, the difference is that now everything is immediate. It is easy to spread the information. It is now more apparent then before.
- Do you feel that handing over the Peace Prizes really contribute to the non-violence on the globe?
Peace prize which is handled by the parliament in Norway they give for the people which they feel have done something important for peace and can be of different kind. They have recently broadened area and also included environmentally important contributions.
- Can we expect additional areas to come under Nobel Prize?
To have additional areas under Nobel prize categories would have been nice. But that is not possible because Alfred Nobel donated his fortune to this and specified very clearly what should be the areas where there should be prizes. And this is not possible for us to change.
- Why are developing countries lack in getting prizes in Science or medicine?
- Most of the prizes in science has gone to Europe and America. I expect in future the distribution over the world would be more even that also India and many other countries, where there is no rapid progress will get the awards.
