Kakodkar, a Goan, became the first person to receive the award that the Goa government said it had to specially create to meet his stature.

Together with his family and scientists like Dr K Kasturirangan, former chairman of ISRO, Dr Vijay Kumar Saraswat, scientific advisor to the Defence Minister and Dr Ravi Grover of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Kakodkar had a day-long public interface where he took questions, some of them of a personal nature.

In an unconventional session, the nuclear scientist who is a member of the Planning Commission, sat on the stage with his mother Kamala, a former freedom fighter, wife Syesha, and sister Sushama Gangal as an interviewer chatted with them asking questions about their family and the past in Marathi and English.

Asked if the rigours of his career and high profile job had put pressure on his family life, Kakodkar replied candidly that there might have been some shortcomings on the domestic front, “but I think I largely met my responsibilities”. He said he had no regrets with the way he had lived his life, and he believed that one had to prioritise one’s commitments. Kakodkar said he was all for leaving the young to make their own choices.