Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman of the city-based vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII), will be honoured with the prestigious Lokmanya Tilak National Award for 2021.

Deepak Tilak, president of the Lokmanya Tilak Trust, has made the announcement. "Poonawalla will be felicitated for his work during the COVID-19 pandemic, wherein he helped in saving many lives by manufacturing the Covishield vaccine. Under his leadership, crores of doses of the Covishield vaccine were made available to the world in record time. Poonawalla has been at the forefront of making different vaccines at affordable prices," Tilak said on Friday.

The award ceremony will take place on August 13, he said, adding that the award comprises a cash prize of Rs one lakh and a memento. The award is annually given on August 1, the death anniversary of Lokmanya Tilak, but due to the coronavirus situation, the date has been changed this year, Tilak added.

The award was started in 1983 and so far, several prominent personalities from different walks of life have been honoured with it. Some of the recipients include socialist leader S M Joshi, former Prime Ministers: Indira Gandhi, Dr Manmohan Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Congress leader late Pranab Mukherjee, and Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy.