New Delhi, March 27 (IANS): The Gandhi Peace Prize for the year 2014 has been awarded to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), it was announced on Friday.

The Indian space agency successfully launched Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), making India the first Asian country to enter the Martian sphere of influence - and at a very cost effective price of Rs. 450 crore($70 million).

It became the fourth space agency after National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) of the US, Russian Federal Space Agency (RFSA) and European Space Agency to have undertaken a mission to Mars.

The Gandhi Peace Prize for social, economic and political transformation through non-violence was instituted in the year 1995 and comprises an amount of Rs.1 crore and a citation, said a culture ministry statement.

Its previous recipients have included Nelson Mandela, Baba Amte, Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan and Ramkrishna Mission.