New Delhi, May 12 : Country's top rocket scientist V K Saraswat and Dipankar Banerjee, credited with developing critical materials for aircraft carriers, were among scientists decorated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Technology Day on Monday.

Teams led by Avinash Chander, which carried out successful test flights of the country's long range 3000 km nuclear capable Agni-III missiles, were decorated with DRDO award for pathbreaking research.

Bannerjee and Saraswat received the year 2007 technology leadership awards.

The coveted titanium trophy award went to the Pune-based high energy materials research laboratory, which has developed the explosive contents for missile programmes like the Agni, submarine launched K-15 missiles and air defence interceptor missiles.

The top-most defence research award was bagged by the Aeronautical Defence Agency, Bangalore for achieving complete integration and carrying out test firing of close combat air-to-air missiles for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).

Raju Venkata Narayana and his team of the LRDE, Bangalore won the Agni award for self reliance for developing an indigenous weapon locating radar for the Army.

The other Agni award went to R B Subramanyam and his team of DMRL, Hyderabad for achieving complete self-reliance in ore-to-product cycle for titanium strategic metal to make it compatible for use in LCA. (ANI)