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Veteran statistician C N R Rao has been awarded the India Science Award for a second time in recognition of his distinguished services to the country.

The award made by the government was presented at the 2010 Indian Science Congress (ISC) and carries a Rs2.5m ash prize (about £33.5k or US$54k at 4 Jan 2010 exchange rates).

Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao (90) devised the Estimation theory and has made major contributions to statistical inference and linear models, multivariate analysis, combinatorial design, biometry, statistical genetics, generalised matrix inverses and functional equations.

He is widely regarded as one of the all time great statisticians and holds many honours including the RSS's Guy Medal in Silver. When decorating Rao with the National Medal of Science in 2002, George W. Bush described him  as a "prophet of new age". 

In 1943 Rao graduated in statistics from Calcutta University, then joined the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) as a technical apprentice. He studied for his doctorate at Cambridge University in Britain under the guidance of distinguished statistician Ronald A. Fisher, then re-joined ISI as a professor.

In 1978 he moved to the US to join University of Pittsburgh. Rao then became chair of statistics and director of the Center for Multivariate Analysis at Pennsylvania State University.