AWARDS JULY 2016

AWARDS JULY 2016

•  Kanyakumari: Kanyakumari, an outstanding and versatile violinist, will get the Sangita Kalanidhi award of the Music Academy this year. Kanyakumari is the first woman violinist to get the award in the history of the Music Academy and she will preside over the 90th annual conference of the Academy to be held between December 15, 2016 and January 1, 2017. The award will be conferred on her at the Sadas on January 1, 2017.
  
  A composer, who constantly experimented with music, she created seven ragas under the title Saptadri , seven names of Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati. Her other raga creations include Mahalakshmi, Tirumurti and Bharat, a raga created on the occasion of the golden jubilee celebrations of Independence.
  
• Bezwada Wilson, T M Krishna win Ramon Magsaysay Award
  Karnataka-born Bezwada Wilson, a prolific campaigner for eradication of manual scavenging in India, and Carnatic singer T M Krishna from Chennai, were on 27th July chosen for the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2016
  
  Apart from the two Indians, four others have been selected for the award -- Conchita Carpio-Morales of the Philippines, Dompet Dhuafa of Indonesia, Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and 'Vientiane Rescue' of Laos.
  
  Wilson, the national convenor of the Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), has been named as an awardee for "asserting the inalienable right to a life of human dignity" while Krishna was chosen for the award under the 'Emergent Leadership' category for bringing "social inclusiveness in culture".
  
  50-year-old Wilson, born into a dalit family involved in manual scavenging in Kolar Gold Fields township in Karnataka, was the first in his family to pursue a higher education.
  
  The other Indian awardee, 40-year-old Krishna has been hailed in the citation as "showing that music can indeed be a deeply transformative force in personal lives and society itself."
  
  Krishna, born to a privileged, Brahmin family in Chennai, was trained from the age of six in the aristocratic Carnatic music under masters of the form. In the 1990s, he was president of the Youth Association for Classical Music that took Carnatic music to the youth and the public schools.
  
  During the period 2011-2013, Krishna brought his passion and artistry to war-ravaged northern Sri Lanka, the first Carnatic musician to tour that region in three decades, and launched two festivals to promote "culture retrieval and revival" in that country.
  
  Established in 1957, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is considered Asia's highest honour. It celebrates the memory and leadership example of the third Philippine President after whom the award is named, and is given every year to individuals or organisations in Asia who manifest the same selfless service and transformative influence that ruled the life of the late and beloved Filipino leader.
  
• Jnanpith 'Navlekhan' Award for four writers
  Four writers, three of them from Rajasthan, were given the Bharatiya Jnanpith's 11th Navlekhan award for the year 2015. Amlendu Tiwari and Balram Kawant were awarded for their respective novels 'Parityakt', and 'Sara Morila,' while Om Naagar and Tasneem Khan were awarded for their non-fictions 'Nib Ke Chire Se' and 'Yeh Mere Rahnuma' respectively.
  
  The awardees were chosen by a selection panel headed by senior writer and journalist Madhusudan Anand and comprising of eminent literary figures Vishnu Nagar, Govind Prasad and Om Nischal.
  
  The ceremony was attended by Jananpith Director Leeladhar Mandloi who said authorsa Tiwari and Om Nagar would be given a cash awards of Rs. 50,000 each along with a certificate of merit and an idol of Vagdevi. Besides awarding the two, the Bharatiya Jananpith will publish the works of all the four awardees.
  
• Srinivasan K Swamy: Srinivasan K Swamy, popularly known as Sundar, was conferred with the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) on 29 July 2016. The award was bestowed on him in Mumbai. He is the Chairman of RK Swamy Hansa, a marketing communications group. He has been the President of AAAI for three consecutive terms (2004 – 2007).
  
• Bappi Lahiri: Renowned Music Director and singer Bapi Lahiri has been honoured with the first Mahanayak award- named after the legendary actor Uttam Kumar- by the West Bengal Government on 23rd July.
  
• Raghuveer Chaudhari: President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the 51st Jnanpith Award on renowned Gujarati writer Dr. Raghuveer Chaudhari at a function in New Delhi. He was awarded with the India's highest literary honour for the year 2015.
  
  Dr. Chaudhari 's most noted works include novels Amruta, Venu Vatsala and Uparvas. Born in 1938, the Gujarati writer is a Gandhian and his works are largely influenced by literary figures like Kaka Kalelkar. He was given a cash prize, a citation plaque and a bronze replica of Goddess Saraswati.
  
• Aziz Ansari: Aziz Ansari has made history as he has become the first Indian-American actor to land a lead comedy-acting Emmy nomination for his series "Master of None. Ansari is also just the fifth person of South Asian descent to be nominated in an acting category. Ansari, who is also nominated for writing and directing "Master of None", co-created the Netflix comedy with Alan Yang.
  
• Lidudmalingani: The South African writer and filmmaker, Lidudumalingani, has won the prestigious Caine Prize for his short story, Memories We Lost. The prize, launched in 2000, is awarded annually to an African writer of a short story published in English.
  
  The winning story, set in the Eastern Cape, explores how traditional beliefs are used to tackle schizophrenia. The judges said it was a "gracefully narrated" tale that left the reader "full of sympathy and wonder".
  
• BC Roy Awards:President Pranab Mukherjee on 1st July presented the Dr B.C. Roy national awards for 2008, 2009 and 2010 at Rashtrapati Bhavan on the occasion of Doctors' Day. The awardees for 2010 are Nikhil C. Munshi, Tejinder Singh, O.P. Kalra, Amrinder Jit Kanwar, Subash Gupta, Rajendra Prasad and Glory Alexander.
  
  The awardees for 2009 are K.H. Sancheti, Atul Kumar, Renu Saxena, Kanan A. Yelikar, A.K. Kriplani, G.V. Rao, H.S. Bhanushali, Moti Lal Singh, C.N. Purandare and C.V. Hari Narayan.
  
  Mammen Chandy, Rajeshwar Dayal, Rohit V. Bhatt, Neelam Mohan, Mohan Kameswaran, Harsha Jauhari, Gopal H. Badlani and Yash Gulati are the awardees for 2008.
  
  The B.C. Roy Awards were instituted by the Medical Council of India in 1976 in memory of renowned physician and former West Bengal Chief Minister Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy.