AWARDS APRIL 2016

AWARDS APRIL 2016

• Tabassum Adnan: A women's rights activist from Swat valley of Pakistan, Tabassum Adnan, became the recipient of yet another prestigious award, when she was bestowed with the Nelson Mandela Graça Machel Innovation Award 2016 in Bogota, Colombia. A victim of child marriage, Tabassum Adnan was married at the age of 13. The marriage which was marked by frequent domestic abuse, ended after 20 years when she gathered the courage to divorce her abusive husband.
  
• Pulitzer Prize 2016 winners
  The Associated Press won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for reporting on abuse in the seafood industry that helped free 2,000 slave laborers, and Reuters and The New York Times shared the breaking news photography award for images of the European refugee crisis.
  
  The Pulitzer Board, in conferring the most prestigious honours in U.S. journalism and the arts on 18th April, also honoured the Los Angeles Times for breaking news reporting for its coverage of the massacre by Islamist militants in San Bernardino, California.
  
  This year's announcement at New York's Columbia University marked the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzers, which began in 1917 after a bequest from newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer.
  
  The AP's prize-winning “Seafood from Slaves” report was an investigation into the mistreatment of workers in Southeast Asia used to supply seafood to American supermarkets and restaurants. The coverage resulted in the freeing of 2,000 slave labourers and sweeping reforms, the board said.
  
  The reporters “found captive slaves, countering industry claims that the problems had been solved,” AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll wrote in her nomination letter to the Pulitzer judges.
  
  The New York Times, with a record 117 Pulitzer prizes and citations before this year's announcement, added two more in 2016, taking the prize for international reporting in addition to its photography award. The Boston Globe, the Tampa Bay Times and The New Yorker magazine also won two awards each. In total, the board handed out prizes in 21 categories, selected from about 3,000 entries.
  
  In the awards for letters, drama and music, the musical "Hamilton” by Lin-Manuel Miranda won for best drama. The Pulitzer board called the Broadway hit “a landmark American musical about the gifted and self-destructive founding father whose story becomes both contemporary and irresistible.”
  
  Viet Thanh Nguyen won the fiction award for “The Sympathizer,” an immigrant story about a “man of two minds” and two countries, Vietnam and the United States. The board awarded the history prize to the T.J. Stiles book, "Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America.”
  
• Padma Awards:
  President Pranab Mukherjee on 12th April presented the Padma awards to 56 eminent personalities from various fields in a civil investiture ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
  Scientist and former DG of DRDO V K Aatre, Rajnikant, classical singer Girija Devi, journalist and film maker Ramoji Rao, Oncologist Dr V Shanta were honoured with Padma Vibhushan.
  
  Singer Udit Narayan, former US diplomat Robert Blackwill, Chinmaya Mission Chief Swami Tejomayananda, Theater personality Heisnam Kanhailal, tennis player Sania Mirza were among eleven people honoured with the Padma Bhushan.
  
  Actor Priyanka Chopra, Eminent journalist Jawahar Kaul, Sports commentator Sushil Doshi, Writer Dhirendra Nath Bezbaruah, environment preserver Simon Oraon, Lawyer Ujjwal Nikam, Textile Designer Sribhas Supakar were among forty people who received the Padmashree.
  
• Vishwanathan Anand:
  Chess wizard Vishwanathan Anand was conferred with the prestigious Hridaynath Award, which recognizes individuals for success in various walks of life.
  
  Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao presented the award to the 46-year-old grandmaster in Mumbai yesterday. Among the previous recipients of the award are the likes of Lata Mangeshkar, Babasaheb Purandare, Asha Bhosle, Amitabh Bachchan, Hariprasad Chaurasia and AR Rahman.
  
  The Governor after Honuring the Grandmaster praised him saying, Anand is the greatest chess player India has produced till date. His greatness lies in the fact that he has inspired and encouraged many upcoming players in India and the world.
  
  Born on December 11, 1969, Anand became India's first grandmaster in 1988. He held the FIDE World Chess Championship title from 2000 to 2002 and became the undisputed world champion in 2007.
  
• Davey:
  20-year old Neil Davey, Indian-American student at Harvard University who has developed a technology that can identify cancer cells in blood stream at a very early stage. Mr. Davey was one of the 13 students of Indian origin among the 100 young scientists honoured by Mr. Obama at the White House Science Fair on 13th April.
  
  Mr. Davey’s technology can single out a malignant cell shed into blood stream by a tumour, among a billion normal ones, through a “liquid biopsy”. Mr. Davey said this invention would allow not only the detection of cancer, but could be tweaked to diagnose other diseases such as TB.
  
  Maya Varma from California and Anarudh Ganesan from Maryland found special mention in Mr. Obama’s remarks after his interaction with the students.
  
• Narendra Modi: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on 4th April conferred Saudi Arabia's highest civilian honour- the King Abdulaziz Sash. The Prime Minister was conferred the prestigious award by King Salman bin Abdulaziz at the Royal Court.
  
  Among other notable recipients of this honour are US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
  
• Mother Teresa: Mother Teresa has been posthumously conferred with the U.K.’s prestigious Founders Award, which is given to recognise exemplary achievements of people within the global Asian community.