AWARDS APRIL 2011

 AWARDS APRIL 2011

• Aboubakr Jamai of Morocco, the co-founder and former managing director of the weekly newspaper Le Journal Hebdomadaire was presented the 2010 Gebran Tueni Award in Beirut, Lebanon. The award was conferred upon him in recognition of constant struggle in publishing some of the region's finest independent journalism while dealing with a monarchy that prefers to maintain control of the Moroccan media. The Gebran Tueni Award is the annual prize of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) that honours an editor or publisher from the Arab region. 
• The New Delhi Railway Station received the National Tourism Award for the Best Tourist-Friendly Railway Station in India. The award was given for the station’s development in the areas of passenger amenities and efficiency of operations. New Delhi station launched battery-operated vehicles to ferry senior citizens and the disabled. 
• Creative Abby awards recognising the best of advertisements were given out during the Goafest 2011, Varca village in Goa. Ogilvy and Mather won the only Grand Prix and five gold metals. The Piyush Pandey-led agency's work on Cadbury Dairy Milk won the only Grand Prix awarded this year, in the integrated category. Mudra Communications bagged the maximum 37 medals. The Times of India's Aman ki Asha campaign won three awards at the Creative Abby awards-the finale of Goafest 2011. 
• Indian novelist Vikas Kumar Jha has been chosen for the 2011 International Indu Sharma Katha Samman, for his novel ‘McCluskieganj ‘.
  Noted Hindi poet Vishwannnth Prasad Tiwari was selected for the 20th Vyas Samman for his poetry collection, Phir Bhi Kuch Rah Jayega. 
• President Pratibha Patil on18 April decorated personnel of the armed services with awards that included the Kirti Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra, during the Defence Investiture Ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Indu Sharma, mother of Captain Deepak Sharma of the Corps of Signals, who lost his life fighting militants in Jammu and Kashmir in March last year, received the Kirti chakra. Major Rahul Gurung (Corps of Engineers/Assam Rifles) and Captain Vikrant Ajit Deshmukh (Madras) were also awarded the Kirti Chakra for fighting insurgents and terrorists in Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir respectively.
  The five personnel who were posthumously awarded the Shaurya Chakra included Major Deepak Yadav and Major Nitish Roy, who were killed during the terrorist attack on the Indian mission in Kabul in February last. Guardsman Krishan Kumar (Brigade of Guards), Sepoy Ravi Kant (Dogra), and Sepoy Sangat Singh (Mahar/Rashtriya Rifles) were also awarded the Shaurya Chakra posthumously. 
• Pulitzer awards were announced for the year 2011. Pulitzers were awarded in 13 journalism categories and seven arts categories. The prize for fiction went to Jennifer Egan for A Visit From the Goon Squad. Bruce Norris won the award for drama for his play Clybourne Park. The history prize went to Eric Foner for The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. Ron Chernow won in the biography category for Washington: A Life. Madame White Snake, by Zhou Long, won for music. Kay Ryan took the prize for poetry for The Best of It: New and Selected Poems. 
• The award for general non-fiction was awarded to Siddhartha Mukherjee for The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. Carol Guzy, a photographer from The Washington Post, became the first journalist to win four Pulitzer Prizes. 
• Rights activist Binayak Sen, who was freed on bail by the Supreme Court in a case of sedition, has been chosen for the South Korean Gwangju Award for human rights for 2011. 
• The managing director of Cheminnova group of companies, M. Vasudev Rao, has been presented the prestigious “Pride of India Leadership Award” for his outstanding contribution to the Pharma Industry in India. The award was presented by President of Mauritius Anerood Jugnauth to Mr. Rao at a function organised in Mauritius by the NRI Institute and hosted by Government of Mauritius recently. 
• VA Tech Wabag Limited, a leading global player in water and wastewater management has received the prestigious GWI Global Water Award in Berlin. 
• Indian mathematician and theoretical computer scientist Ravi Kannan was awarded the 2011 Knuth Prize. For research in computer science it is a prestigious international recognition. Professor Kannan is a leader in algorithms research group at Microsoft Research Labs in India. He is the first Indian to receive the Knuth Prize. The Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory (SIGACT) awarded the prize to Professor Kannan. 
• Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) bagged the prestigious Srishti Good Green Governance Award for 2010. Srishti Good Green Governance Award was given to RSP in recognition of its eco-friendly efforts to reduce pollutants and green house gas emissions. It was also rewarded for its measures of waste utilisation and water conversation as well for its initiatives to expand corporate social responsibility. 
• State-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd on 21 April 2011 was honoured with the Outstanding PSU of the Year award by All India Management Association (AIMA). The award was received by GAIL Chairman and Managing Director B C Tripathi from Home Minister P Chidambaram. The award was conferred upon GAIL in recognition of its outstanding performance and its contribution towards the growth of the nation, development of innovation & technology and building an equitable society. The company had been earlier ranked the number one gas utility in Asia and number two gas utility in the world by Platts which is an eminent petroleum research and publishing house. 
• Social activist Anna Hazare was on 7 April 2011 announced the winner of the 2011 Rabindranath Tagore Peace Prize by the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM). IIPM entrepreneurship and National Economic Planning declared the award for Hazare to show solidarity to the modern Gandhi’s determined and non-violent protest against corruption and the institution of a Jan Lokpal Bill. The award carries a cash reward of one crore rupees, a gold medal and a citation. The award is meant to honour people who selflessly work throughout his lifetime for the betterment of the society, working for the poor, the needy and the general public. The 2010 Rabindranath Tagore Peace Prize was won by social activist Irom Sharmila Chanu, the Iron Lady of Manipur. 
• Kannada writer S. L. Bhyrappa was selected for the 20th Saraswati Samman for his novel Mandra on 5 April 201. Mandra depicts the world of North Indian classical music and its locale is Bombay, Delhi, Gwalior, Banaras, Malva and California. 
• British astrophysicist Martin Rees, whose research delves deep into the mysteries of the cosmos, has won the 2011 Templeton Prize for career achievements affirming life's spiritual dimension. Announcing the award, the United States-based Templeton Foundation said Rees's insights into the mysteries of the Big Bang and so-called black holes in space have "provoked vital questions that address mankind's deepest hopes and fears. 
• Pillitla prakash, a folk artist from Andhra Pradesh has elected for central government’s “Bharath Vikas Ratna”award. Both information and broadcasting ministry and visveswarayya foundation have jointly constituted this award.