AWARDS FEBRUARY 2015

AWARDS FEBRUARY 2015

• Masih Alinejad: He is an Iranian journalist. He has received a human rights award in Geneva for creating a Facebook page inviting women in Iran to post pictures of themselves without their headscarves in defiance of rules requiring them to wear a hijab. He launched Stealthy Freedoms of Iranian Women last year, attracting more than half a million likes on Facebook in a matter of weeks. Thousands of women took off their veils in public and sent in their photos to be published.
  
  The Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, a group of 20 non-governmental organisations, gave Ms. Alinejad its women’s rights award for “giving a voice to the voiceless and stirring the conscience of humanity to support the struggle of Iranian women for basic human rights, freedom and equality.”
  
  Ms. Alinejad’s campaign, reported in the Guardian last May, irritated Iranian authorities, and state-affiliated media launched a smear campaign accusing her of using recreational drugs or being perverse. A year after it was created, the Facebook page has more than 760,000 followers and still receives photos from Iran.
  
• Ratan Tata: Ratan Tata has been honoured with an honorary Doctorate of Automotive Engineering by Clemson University at the South Carolina Automotive Summit this week. 77-year-old Tata has led a worldwide enterprise with interests in transportation, steel, consulting, communications, chemicals and hospitality, just to name a few.
  
  In 1981, he was named chairman of Tata Industries where he was responsible for transforming it into a group strategy think tank and a promoter of new ventures in high technology businesses. Tata serves on the board of directors of Alcoa and Mondelez. He is also on the international advisory boards of Mitsubishi Corp., JP Morgan Chase, Rolls-Royce, Temasek Holdings and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. A graduate of Cornell University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in architecture, Tata went on to complete the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
  
• Energy awards for Chhatisgarh and Telangana
  Chhattisgarh was felicitated for emerging as one of the best performing states in the renewable energy segment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15th February presented the award to Principal Secretary of Chhattisgarh's Energy department
  
  The state was adjudged for the award on the basis of criteria fixed by 13th Finance Commission. In addition, various villages are using 3,000 solar power pumps for drinking water and 1,500 for irrigation purpose, he said.
  
  For Telangana: The Telangana Government has received the award for 'Outstanding Performance in Promotion of Renewable Energy'. The award was received by Telangana Energy Minister Jagadish Reddy and Energy Secretary Aravind Kumar from Prime Minister Narendra Modi
  
  The award has been given in view of addition of 809 MW of renewable energy capacity in the State of Telangana during the last four years and recognition of efforts that were made to promote energy security, equity, accessibility and sustainability in the country.
  
• ANU receives Global HR Excellence Award
  Acharya Nagarjuna University (ANU) has received “Global HR Excellence Award” in the category of E-learning from the World Education Congress (WEC), Mumbai. The award was presented to the university in Mumbai wherein 700 delegates from about 130 countries across the globe participated. ANU bagged the award in a tight contest among several Central, State, Deemed and Private Universities.
  
• Purnendu Dasgupta
  An Indian-American, who developed an environment friendly field analyser for checking toxic arsenic levels in water, has been awarded a prestigious award for his special contribution in the field of chemistry
  
  Purnendu Dasgupta, a Jenkins Garrett professor of chemistry at The University of Texas at Arlington, has been awarded the 2015 American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry J. Calvin Giddings Award.
  
  The national award recognises a scientist, who has enhanced the professional development of analytical chemistry students, developed and published innovative experiments, designed and improved equipment or teaching labs and published influential textbooks or significant articles on teaching analytical chemistry.
  
  As the recipient of the award, Dasgupta will receive a plaque and cash prize. He will also attend the ACS national conference in August in Boston, where he will address and participate in an awards symposium on education in analytical chemistry.
  
  Dasgupta’s research area includes: methods for environment-friendly analysis of arsenic in drinking water; rapid analysis of trace heavy metals in the atmosphere; iodine nutrition in women and infants and the role of the chemical perchlorate; and the development of a NASA-funded ion chromatograph for testing extraterrestrial soil, such as on a trip to Mars.
  
  He is the author of more than 400 scientific papers and book chapters and holds 25 US patents. His work has earned more than USD 18 million in research grants.
  
• BAFTA 2015: 'Boyhood', 'Grand Budapest Hotel' win big
  At the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) 2015 held in London on 8th February, coming-of-age drama 'Boyhood' took home three of the biggest awards, however, it was Wes Anderson's whimsical drama ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ proved the star, clinched five trophies. 
  • Best film- Boy hood
  • Best director- Richard Linklater (Boyhood film)
  • Best supporting actress- Patricia Arqutte (Boy hood film)
  • Best Actress- Julianne Moore (Still Alice Movie)
  • Best Actor – Eddi Redmayne (The theory of everything movie (story of Stephen Hawking)
  • 'The Grand Budapest Hotel', which dominated the craft categories, won best original music, makeup and hair, costume design, production design, as well as best original screenplay for director Anderson who was conspicuous by his absence.
  • The winner of the best documentary was Laura Poitras' gripping 'Citizenfour', which documents Edward Snowden's efforts to expose the scale of NSA post-9/11 spying.
  • Other awards included outstanding British debut where writer Stephen Beresford and producer David Livingstone won for their film 'Pride'.
  • 'Interstellar' won best special visual effects, 'Ida' won best film not in the English language, beating India's epistolary romance 'The Lunchbox', and Jack O'Connell clinched the EE rising star award.
  
  
• Grammys 2015: Indian origin musician among winners
  At the 57th Grammy Awards held on 8th February in Los Angeles, Bangalore based Indian origin musician Ricky Kej won the best new age album award for his album 'Winds of Samsara', which was his collaboration with African flautist Wouter Kellerman
  
  Self-taught musician Kej, has previously composed soundtracks for Kannada films. 'Winds of Samsara', with multiple collaborations, is his 14th studio album and the composition talks of the cycle of life. On the US Billboard New Age Albums last year, it had debuted on the number one slot.
  
• Amartya Sen: Economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has won the newly instituted Charleston-EFG John Maynard Keynes Prize.
  
  Regarded as one of the foremost thinkers in the field of famine, poverty, social choice and welfare economics, Professor Sen’s ground-breaking work has been academically influential and has had a profound impact on the formation of development policy worldwide.
  
  Currently a Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University, he has been a Professor at the London School of Economics and until 2004 was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages.The prize was announced by Dame Liz Forgan at the Royal Academy. Professor Sen will receive £7,500 to commission a work of art and will give the annual Charleston-EFG Keynes Lecture at the Charleston Festival in the UK.
  
• Amlan Aditya Biswas, P.C. Jaffer:Election Commission of India has selected Amlan Aditya Biswas, Regional Commissioner, and P.C. Jaffer, Deputy Commissioner, Bidar, for significant contribution to the conduct of elections in the year 2014
  
  They were selected for the zonal award in the category of manpower management and expenditure monitoring. The awards were presented at a ceremony in Hyderabad.
  
• Nayudumma award declared
  Two women scientists, who have made a mark in defence research development and space research have been chosen as joint recipients of Dr.Y. Nayudamma Memorial Award 2014. Director, Advanced Systems Laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Hyderabad and Project Director (Mission) Agni V, Tessy Thomas and Director, Advanced Data Processing Research Institute of ISRO, Geeta Varadan, would be conferred the award for their contribution in the fields of missile technology and remote sensing at Tenali on March 1. Former Head of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and Ramon Magsaysay Award recipient Shanta Sinha will present the award.
  
  Founder and Managing Trustee of the Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Trust, P. Vishnu Murthy said in a media release on Saturday that this was the first time in the annals of the trust that two eminent women scientists were being concurrently honoured.
  
  The award was instituted in 1986 in memory of global leather scientist and former director general of CSIR, Yelavarthy Nayudamma. Among the distinguished scientists and technocrats honoured with the award were, Sam Pitroda, Jayant Vishnu Narlikar, Lalji Singh, Rajendra Pawar, V. Shanta, V.K. Saraswat, T. Ramasami, A. Sivathanu Pillai and Nori Dattatreyudu etc.
  
• AIFF awards
  Indian men’s football team captain Sunil Chhetri and striker Bala Devi were awarded with the All India Football Federations (AIFF) 2014 Player of the Year trophy in men and women category, respectively.
  
  Others awards are….
  • 2014 Player of the year (Men): Sunil Chhetri
  • 2014 Player of the year (Women): Bala Devi
  • 2014 Emerging Player of the Year: Sandesh Jhingan
  • 2014 Best Referee: Santosh Kumar
  • 2014 Best Assistant Referee: Sappam Kennedy
  • Best Grassroots Programme: Western India Football Association (WIFA)
  • Long Time Contribution to Indian Football: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)
  
  
• Shahid Kapoor, Kangna Ranaut bag best actor Film fare awards
  Shahid Kapoor won the Film fare award for Best Actor (Male) for his performance in the film “Haider”, while KangnaRanaut received the Best Actor (Female) award for “Queen”, at the 60th Britannia Film fare Awards ceremony
  
  Rajat Kapoor's critically acclaimed film “Ankhon Dekhi” won the Best Film (Critics) award. The prize for the Best Male Actor (Critics) went to Sanjay Mishra for “Ankhon Dekhi” and the Best Female Actor (Critics) award was given to Alia Bhatt for her performance in “Highway”.
  
• Indian short wins at Sundance film fest
  175 Grams, directed by Bharat Mirle and Aravind Iyer, is one of the five Short Film Challenge winning films at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Sundance Institute premiered the Sundance Institute Short Film Challenge, a program of nine international short films on January 28, at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival held at Utah.
  
  The program is designed to spark global conversation about solutions to challenges like extreme hunger and poverty. The short films were due to premiere on a variety of digital
  
  Apart from "175 Grams", the Short Film Challenge winning short films and directors are: "Man in the Maze" by Phil Buccellato and Jesse Ash (US), "Dropping In" by Willem Van Den Heever (South Africa), "Isabelle's Garden" by Jeffrey Palmer (US), and "A Will of Iron" by Seyi Fabunmi and Mobolaji Adeolu (Nigeria). Each filmmaker or film team received a $10,000 grant.
  
• Cyrus s. Poonawalla: Cyrus S Poonawalla, Serum Institute of India’s chairman and managing director, who pioneered the development of affordable life-saving vaccines, was on 5th February named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2014.
  
  K Radhakrishnan, the former chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) who oversaw the breakthrough Mangalyaan mission, was honoured with the EY Lifetime Achievement Award.
  
  Winners in other categories. 
  • Start-Up: Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal CEO and COO, Jasper Infotech (Snapdeal);
  • Services: Ajit Prabhu, chairman and CEO, QuEST Global;
  • Manufacturing: Yogesh Mahansaria, CEO, Alliance Tire Group;
  • Entrepreneurial CEO:Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman, SBI;
  • Financial Services: Sanjiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Finserv;
  • Life Sciences and Agrochemicals: Salil Singhal, CMD,
  • PI Industries; and Consumer Products: MB Parekh, CMD, Pidilite Industries.
  
  
• Bhalachandra Nemade:
   Eminent Marathi litterateur BhalachandraNemade has been chosen for the 50th Jnanpith Award for 2014.Born in 1938, Namade occupies a unique place in Marathi literature. His hugely celebrated works -- from "Kosala", 1963 to his recently-published magnum opus "Hindu" -- have earned him a reputation as a self-aware, globally conscious and alert writer. He has also been conferred the Padma Shri and has won the Sahitya Akademi Award besides many other accolades.
  
  
• Award for HCU
  The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee presented Visitor’s Awards for Central Universities in the categories of ‘Best University’, ‘Innovation’ and ‘Research’ for the year 2015 on 4th February
  
  The University of Hyderabad received ‘Best University’ Award for academic excellence & overall outstanding work.
  
  ‘Innovation’ Award was presented to Prof. Vijay K. Chaudhary and Dr. Amita Gupta of University of Delhi for their invention of ‘TB Confirm’, a rapid diagnostic test for Tuberculosis.
  
  The ‘Research’ Award was received by Cosmology and Astrophysics Research Group, Centre for Theoretical Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia for path breaking research carried out in the field of Astrophysics and Cosmology.
  
  The ‘Best University’ received a Citation and Trophy while winners of Visitor’s Award for ‘Innovation’ and ‘Research’ received a Citation and cash award of Rs. one lakh.