AWARDS AUGUST 2009

 AWARDS AUGUST 2009

• Indian sanitation expert and founder of Sulabh sanitation movement in India, Bindeshwar Pathak has been awarded the prestigious 2009 Stockholm Water prize. The award equivalent to Nobel Prize on environmental issues was presented to him by Prince Carl Philip of Sweden.
• The former director of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), J. S. Rajput, was presented the 2004 Jan Amos Comenius Award by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). 
• Eminent Sanskrit poet Satya Vrat Shastri was presented the prestigious 42nd Jnanpith Award by the Princess of Thailand, Maha Chakri Sirindhorn for introducing a number of new genres in Sanskrit writing such as autobiography, diary and collections of letters in verse.
• The 17th Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award has been presented to Guatam Bhai of Paunar Ashram, Maharashtra, by Indian PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh. Bhai received the award for his endorsing communal harmony, peace and goodwill.
• Venezuelan Stefania Fernandez won the 2009 Miss Univere in Bahamas. The first runner-up was Miss Dominican Republic, Ada Aimee de la Cruz, while Miss Kosovo, Gona Dragusha, was the second runner-up.
• The Pakistan government has conferred its highest civilian award, Sitara-e-Imtiaz, posthumously on Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande for working towards peace, harmony and cordial relations between India and Pakistan.
• Stephen Hawking, the world’s leading theoretical physicist, was awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of USA.
• Major Mohit Sharma and Major D. Sreeram Kumar have been awarded the country’s highest peace time gallantry award Ashok Chakra. Major Sharma will be decorated with Ashok Chakra posthumously. Major Sreeram Kumar, 28 of Artillery Regiment, is presently serving in Assam Rifles. He was awarded in recognition of his service in the Operation Hifazat in Manipur.
• RajyaLaxmi Foundation has selected Sunita Narayan, Director of Center for Science and Environment for RajyaLaxmi award.
• 'Khabar Lahariya' bags UNESCO Literacy Prize
  Nirantar, a non-governmental organisation, which runs Khabar Lahariya a fortnightly newspaper in Hindi run by rural women in Uttar Pradesh has bagged the prestigious UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize 2009.
• Prominent Indian social activist Deep Joshi, who has done pioneering work for "development of rural communities", was named along with five others for the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2009, considered as Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
  
  
  Joshi was the co-founder of Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) and now works as an independent consultant for the NGO which works for rural poor, promoting self-help groups, developing locally suitable economic activities, mobilising finances and introducing systems to improve livelihoods of rural people.