Two Indians Bharat Vatwani and Sonam Wangchuk are among the winners of this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award, regarded as the Asian version of the Nobel Prize. The two are among six individuals declared winners today.

Sonam Wangchuk, a Ladakh-based engineer, is the man on whom the character of Aamir Khan, Phunsuk Wangdu, was based on in the Bollywood blockbuster '3 Idiots'.

Wangchuk, 51, is being recognized for "his uniquely systematic, collaborative and community-driven reform of learning systems in remote northern India, thus improving the life opportunities of Ladakhi youth, and his constructive engagement of all sectors in local society to harness science and culture creatively for economic progress, thus setting an example for minority peoples in the world," the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation said in its citation for the winner

Vatwani is being recognized for "his tremendous courage and healing compassion in embracing India's mentally-afflicted destitute, and his steadfast and magnanimous dedication to the work of restoring and affirming the human dignity of even the most ostracized," it said.

(Featured Image – Siliguri Times)