AWARDS MAY 2011

 AWARDS MAY 2011

• Professor Subhasis Chaudhuri of Indian Institute of Technology-Mumbai was selected for the prestigious G. D. Birla Award for Scientific Research. Prof. Chaudhuri who works in the Department of Electrical Engineering was chosen for the award for his important contributions in the area of electronic communications. The award, constituted by the K. K. Birla Foundation, carries a cash prize of Rs.1.50 lakh and is given to scientists below the age of 50. 
• British-born Sierra Leonean novelist Aminatta Forna won the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for her novel, The Memory of Love. 
• The Information and Broadcasting Ministry announced the list of awardees for the 58th National Film Awards on 19 May 2011. Feature Films jury was headed by J.P. Dutta, Non-Feature Films jury was headed by A.K. Bir and Best Writing on Cinema jury was headed by Ashok Vajpeyi. The jury decided on the awardees to honour the best work of Indian Cinema for the year 2010.
  The list of the awardees in the different categories of the 57th National Film Awards is as follows:
  Best Feature Film: Adaminte Makan Abu directed by Salim Ahamed
  Best Direction: Vetrimaran for Aadukalam (Tamil)
  Best Actor: Dhanush for Aadukalam (Tamil) & Salim Kumar for Adaminte makan Abu (Malayalam)
  Best Actress: Mitalee Jagtap Varadkar for Baboo Band Baaja (Marathi) & Saranya Ponvannan for Thenmerkku Paruvakkatru (Tamil)
  Best Supporting Actor: J Thambi Ramaiah for Mynaa (Tamil)
  Best Supporting Actress: Sukumari for Namma Gramam (Tamil)
  Best Cinematography: Madhu Ambat for Adaminte Makan Abu
  Best Screenplay Original: etrimaran for Aadukalam
  Best Screenplay Adapted: Anant Mahadevan & Sanjay for Mee Sindhutai Sapkal (Marathi)
  Best Editing: T E Kishore for Aadukalam
  Best Music direction: Vishal Bhardwaj for Ishqiya & issak Thomas Kottakapally for Adaminte Makan Abu
  Best Lyrics: Vairamuthu for Thenmerkku Paruvakkatru
  Best Male Playback Singer: Suresh Wadkar for Mee Sindhutai Sapkal
  Best Playback Singer Female: Rekha Bhardwaj: Ishqiya
  Best Special Effects: V. Srinivas & M Mohan for Enthiran (Tamil)
  Special Jury Award: Mee Sindhutai Sapkal (Marathi) directed by Anant Narayan Mahadevan 
• Philip Roth was announced as the winner of the fourth Man Booker International Prize at a press conference at the Sydney Opera House on 18 May 2011. Roth was chosen from a list of 13 eminent contenders. American novelist Philip Roth is a literary giant and one of the worlds most prolific, celebrated - and controversial - writers. Born in March 1933 in New Jersey, Roth is best known for his 1969 novel Portnoy's Complaint, and for his late-1990s trilogy comprising the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Pastoral (1997), I Married a Communist (1998), and The Human Stain (2000). 
• WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation's top honour for exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights. Though the Peace Prize is awarded annually by the foundation, only three other people in its 14-year history have been awarded the gold award for courage in pursuit of human rights — the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Japanese Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda. 
• Super 30 founder Anand Kumar, whose initiative helped several students from underprivileged families make it to the IIT-JEE was chosen for the Education in Excellence Award-2011 to be awarded on Doha on 13 May 2011. 
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel was chosen for the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding for 2009 for her enormous efforts toward sustainable and equitable development. The German leader, Merkel is known for her efforts for good governance and understanding and for the creation of a world better positioned to handle the emerging challenges of the 21st century.