AWARDS AUGUST 2016

AWARDS AUGUST 2016

• Bibhuti Lahkar: In Assam, ecologist and conservation activist Dr Bibhuti Lahkar has become the first Asian to be nominated for the prestigious ‘Heritage Heroes Award' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
  
  Lahkar is among five conservationists from across the globe to be nominated for this year's Heritage Heroes Award which is aimed at recognising the outstanding efforts of conservationists around the world in making a difference in the conservation of World Heritage sites in challenging situations
  
  Dr Bibhuti Lahkar has been working to save the grasslands, flora and fauna of Manas National Park area for the past two decades and is currently engaged as Manas Landscape Administrator for Aaranyak, an NGO working for biodiversity conservation in North East India.
  
  The recipient for the award will be selected through online voting through the website www.iucn.org, which began on August 25 and will continue till August 31.
  
• Priyanka Chopra: Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra, filmmaker Shobha Kapoor and choreographer Saroj Khan have been honoured with the women achievers awards for their accomplishments in chosen fields. The awards, popularly known as "Fempowerment Women Achievers", have been instituted by Molecule Communications in association with Zee TV. They were presented recently.
  
  Other women achievers to be honoured with the awards in various categories included Hetal Dave (sports), Shikha Sharma (corporate), Shaili Chopra (journalism), Gitanjali Babar (education), Priti Shroff (health and wellness), Shanoo Sharma (entertainment creative), Arohi Singh (fine arts), Anisha Singh (young entrepreneur) and S Prassanashree (literature)
  
  Chhaya Momaya, Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj, Karuna Waghmare, Sapna Moti Bhavnani and Sathya Saran received special recognition awards in different categories. Sabu George was honoured with special award in a category of 'recognition to a man by women'.
  
  The jury consisted of Ridham Desai, MD, Morgan Stanley India, Subhash Ghai, film maker, Mrunalini Deshmukh, senior lawyer, Annurag Batra, Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, Business World, Adil Malia, Global Head For Leadership, Learning & People Management, Essar Group) and Bhawana Somaaya, critic columnist and author.
  
• President Pranab Mukherjee presents national sports awards on occasion of National Sports Day
  President Pranab Mukherjee on 29th August presented the national sports awards at Rashtrapati Bhawan on the occasion of National Sports Day.
  
  Rio Olympics Silver Medalist PV Sindhu, Bronze medalist Sakshi Malik, Gymnast Dipa Karmakar and Shooter Jitu Rai were conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awards.
  
  The Award is given for the most outstanding performance by a sport sperson over a period of four years. Six coaches have been honoured with Dronacharya Awards.
  
  They include Nagapuri Ramesh for Athletics, Sagar Mal Dhayal for Boxing and Raj Kumar Sharma for Cricket. Dipa Karmakar's coach Bishweshwar Nandi also received the award.
  
  The Dronacharya Award for Lifetime contribution has been conferred on S. Pradeep Kumar for Swimming and Mahabir Singh for Wrestling.
  
  Apart from this, 15 sports persons were given Arjuna Awards. They include Olympian runner Lalita Babar, boxer Shiva Thapa and wrestler Vinesh Phogat. Athlete Satti Geetha, hockey player Sylvanus Dung Dung and Rower Rajendra Pralhad Shelke were given the Dhyanchand Award.
  
  The day is celebrated to honor legendary hockey player, Major Dhyan Chand Singh who was born on 29th August, 1905.
  
• Padma Sachdev: Eminent author Padma Sachdev was awarded the prestigious Saraswati Samman for the year 2015 for her autobiography 'Chitt-Chete' in Dogri language. She was felicitated by Delhi's Lt Governor Najeeb Jung in New Delhi
  
  The award is given every year for an outstanding literary work written in any Indian language by an Indian citizen, published during the last 10 years. The award carries a sum of Rs 15 lakh besides a citation and a plaque. The 76-year-old poet and novelist's autobiography, published in 2007, was shortlisted from 22 works written in as many languages published between 2005 and 2014.
  
  Sachdev, who is the first women poet in Dogri language, has been a recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award in 1971 for her poetry book 'Meri Kavita Mere Geet.' She has 60 books to her credit and recited poems in several regional languages, including Gujarati and Punjabi.
  
• Kamal hasan: Prominent film actor Kamal Haasan has been selected by France for its Chevalier Award for this year. The “Chevalier de L'Ordre Arts et Lettres,” which is also known as “the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters,” is part of France’s premier award “the Legion of Honour.” It is aimed at honouring artists and writers of world repute. The other recipients of the Chevalier Order from India include actors Amitabh Bachchan, Sivaji Ganesan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Nandita Das.
  
• Awards for PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Jitu Rai & Dipa Karmakar to get Khel Ratna
  National Sports Awards have been announced. Olympic Medalists P V Sindhu and Sakshi Malik will get Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awards. Shooter Jitu Rai and Gymnast Dipa Karmakar have also been selected for the top national sports award.
  
  Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award is given for the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over a period of four years.
  
  Six sports coaches will be honoured with Dronacharya Awards. They are Nagapuri Ramesh for Athletics, Sagar Mal Dhayal for Boxing, and Raj Kumar Sharma, Cricket.
  
  Dipa Karmakar's coach Bishweshwar Nandi will receive the award for Gymnastics. The Dronacharya Award for Lifetime contribution will be given to S. Pradeep Kumar for Swimming and Mahabir Singh for Wrestling.
  
  Apart from this, 15 sports persons have been chosen for Arjuna Awards. They include Olympian Lalita Babar, cricketer Ajinkya Rahane, boxer Shiva Thapa, and wrestler Vinesh Phogat. Athlete Satti Geetha, hockey player Sylvanus Dung Dung and Rower Rajendra Pralhad Shelke will be conferred with Dhyanchand Award.
  
  Reserve Bank of India, India Infrastructure Finance Corporate Limited and Subroto Mukherjee Sports Education Society are among the seven organisations selected for Rashtriya Khel Protsahana Purushkar, 2016. The awardees will receive their awards from President Pranab Mukherjee at a function at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on 29th August.
  
  Apart from a medal and a citation, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardee will receive a cash prize of 7.5 lakh rupees. Arjuna, Dronacharya and Dhyan Chand Awardees will receive statuettes, certificates and cash prize of five lakh rupees each.
  
  Recipients of Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar will be given Trophies and certificates. An award money of ten lakh rupees and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy will be given to Punjabi University, Patiala for overall top performing university in inter-university tournaments.
  
• Award for Bengaluru Tomato
  Bengaluru’s very own high-yielding tomato varieties of Arka Rakshak and Arka Samrat have helped their researchers bag a prestigious national award. A team of horticultural scientists from the Hessarghatta-based Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) who had developed these varieties after a five-year research has been honoured with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s award for “Outstanding Interdisciplinary Team Research in Agriculture and Allied Sciences.”
  
  These varieties represent the city even in their names as ‘Arka’ stands for the Arkavati river on whose bank IIHR is located.
  
  According to Dr. A.T. Sadashiva, one of the main criteria for the award was the social and economic impact the research work had on society. These tomato varieties are not only high-yielding, but also show high resistance to three major diseases. This reduces the cost of cultivation by 10 to 15 per cent in terms of savings towards the cost of fungicides and pesticides, he noted.
  
  The fruits of these varieties are suitable for long-distance transportation as they are firm and have a shelf life of 15 to 20 days as against 10 to 12 days of other hybrids, and six to eight days of ordinary tomato varieties, Dr. Sadashiva added.
  
  Arka Rakshak, which gives a yield of up to 19 kg a plant, is already sought after by farmers and traders in eight countries.
  
  The award for the year 2013-14 was presented recently at a programme held in New Delhi to the nine-member team led by Dr. Sadashiva, principal scientist and Head of the Division of Vegetable Crops, IIHR.
  
• Havildar Hangpan Dada: Havildar Hangpan Dada has been posthumously honoured with Ashok Chakra, the country's highest award for gallantry during peace time on the eve of Independence Day. He belonged to the Assam Regiment/35th Battalion of the Rashtriya Rifles.
  
  Dada had shown exemplary courage, devotion and gallantry beyond the call of duty during an encounter with a group of terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. In the last week of May, Dada along with his team spotted the movement of terrorists in the area and lost no time in engaging them in an encounter that went on for over 24 hours. He killed three terrorists single handedly before attaining martyrdom.
  
  14 Shaurya Chakras have been awarded this year to armed forces personnel. Of them, seven are honoured posthumously. These include Lieutenant Colonel Niranjan Ek of National Security Guards and Corporal Gursevak Singh of Indian Air Force Security who were martyred in the Pathankot operation. 63 personnel have been honoured with Sena Medal and 2 each have been given Nao Sena Medal and Vayu Sena Medal.
  
• M.S. Subbalaxmi: The United Nations will issue a stamp in honour of carnatic music legend, M S Subbulakshmi, on her birth centenary next week, coinciding with the celebrations of India's 70th independence day.
  
  India's Permanent Mission to the UN said in a press statement that a photo exhibition will also be held from August 15 to 19 at the world body's headquarters to commemorate Subbulakshmi's birth centenary which falls on September 16.
  
  The Indian mission said, this year also marks the 50th anniversary of her performance at the UN and the photo exhibition will depict various facets and moments of Subbulakshmi's life and times providing a rare insight to the music legend's achievements. India's independence day will be commemorated at the world body's headquarters this year, A R Rahman will enthrall UN diplomats and international dignitaries at a special concert in the UN General Assembly hall on August 15.
  
  Rahman will be the second Indian artist after Subbulakshmi to perform at the iconic UN hall, which is the usual platform for global leaders to address the world.
  
• Film awards
  Bollywood actors Sonam Kapoor and Nawazuddin Siddiqui bagged the best actress and best actor awards at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2016
  
  While Sonam, 31, was awarded for her performance in Neerja Bhanot's biopic, "Neerja," Nawazuddin won the award for his role of psycho serial killer in "Raman Raghav 2.0".
  
  Batra's directorial venture won the best film award and Yadav's film lead the best indiefilm category. She also bagged the best director award. Pakistani actor Fawad Khan was given a special diversity award by the statespecial minister Gavin Jennings.
  
  Rishi Kapoor was honoured with the lifetime achievement award for excellence in cinema. Expressing his happiness to receive the award,Rishi reminisced when his father Raj Kapoor thought of casting him as his younger version in "Mera Naam Joker".
  
  This year, the festival has screened a variety of films, features, shorts and documentaries in 17 languages. Around 50films are shortlisted for the festival. The theme for this edition is 'Women Empowerment'. "Angry India Goddesses," will bring the curtains down for the festival on August 21.