AWARDS MAY 2014

AWARDS MAY 2014

• Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) chairman CS Verma has been named ‘CEO of the Year’ at the 2014 Platts Global Metals Awards. Verma is the first CEO from India to have been conferred with this honour. C.S.Verma accepted the award in London on May 21.The award is in recognition of a comprehensive leadership style demonstrated by C.S. Verma that has placed SAIL on the path of robust growth overcoming challenges such as price volatility and increased competition.
  
• India’s Mobile Governance Initiative (Mobile Seva) on 28 May bags United Nations Public Service Award for 2014. The United Nations Public Service Awards Programme (UNPSA), the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service, rewards the creative achievements and contributions of public service institutions to a more effective and responsive public administration in countries worldwide. "Mobile Seva", the national mobile governance initiative launched by Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Government of India, has bagged the second prize under the category on "Promoting Whole-of-Government Approaches in the Information Age" of the United Nations Public Service Awards, 2014. Mobile Seva is the only winner from India across all categories this year. The “Mobile Seva” initiative of Government of India aims at mainstreaming mobile governance in the country as a compelling new paradigm for delivery of public services electronically through the mobile platform. DeitY launched “Mobile Seva” in 2011 as a new countrywide initiative on mobile governance to provide public services to the citizens through mobile phones and handheld devices.
  
• Former president of India APJ Abdul Kalam (82) on 15 May awarded an honorary degree by Scotland's prestigious University of Edinburgh for his contribution to science and technology. The award was presented by the University Principal and Vice Chancellor Timothy O'Shea. The award is in recognition of Dr Kalam's outstanding contribution to science and technology, and his commitment to helping transform India into a developed nation by 2020.Kalam was served as the president of India from 2002 to 2007.University of Edinburgh is Scotland's biggest university and is ranked as one of the world's top 20 universities.
  
• An Indian American student Akhil Rekulapelli (13) has won the coveted National Geographic Bee championship. This championship includes a $50,000 college scholarship. The nationwide contest held in Washington. Akhil Rekulapeklli answered the word "Equatorial Guinea" correctly. Akhil Rekulapeklli is the Eighth grade student. He emerged ahead of more than four million students. The National Geographic Bee is an annual geography contest sponsored by the National Geographic Society. The bee, held every year since 1989, is open to students in the fourth through eighth grade in participating American schools.
  
• A union communications and IT ministry project on "mobile governance” on 21st May won the second prize at the prestigious United Nations' Public Services Awards. The project, called "mobile seva" was launched by the Dept. of Electronics and Information Technology’s (DeitY) in January 2012, and won in the category "Promoting Whole of Government Approaches in the Information Age" for Asia Pacific. The first prize in the category was bagged by the Korean health and welfare information service.
  
• Leading NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul’s Caparo group on 10th May, won the International Business of the Year award 2014 at the Asian Business Awards Midlands held in Birmingham.
  
• Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2014 has named India as the recipient of the New Frontiers Award 2014 at its annual meet held on 8th May. Devender Singh, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, accepted the award from Mark Walsh, Portfolio Director, Reed Travel Exhibitions. Last year, the Philippines had won this award. India was honoured with the New Frontiers Award 2014 by a panel of judges consisting of industry professionals from across the globe. The award was made in recognition of India’s ongoing efforts to rebuild physical infrastructure and its rural tourism economy in the wake of the June 2013 floods and landslides in the northern state of Uttarakhand, and the devastation wreaked by tropical Cyclone Phailin, which touched down in the northeast of the country in October.
  
• Indian-American cardiologist Mitul Kadakia won the prestigious 2014 Gregory Bradeb Memorial Fellow of the Year Award. The Prestigious award was given to him by the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) Foundation in US on 9th May. Mitul Kadakia is currently a fellow in Interventional Cardiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. His clinical and research interests include new devices and therapies for coronary and valvular heart disease and bleeding reduction in acute coronary syndrome. The award, considered a tremendous prestige in the cardiology community, is given to one graduating interventional cardiology fellow per year, out of the thousands in the US.
  
• Two Indian American women namely Manjusha P. Kulkarni and Ranjana Patel have been named as Champions of Change within the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) community for their efforts to promote President Barack Obama’s controversial Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) legislation. Manjusha P. Kulkarni and Ranjana Patel were named among the 11 healthcare-related professionals announced by the White House. The purpose of the program is honor and recognizes ordinary individuals who work to promote widespread change and reform in their own respective areas of the country. Kulkarni is the Director of the South Asian Network (SAN), which is a community-based organization in Southern California that is dedicated to advancing the health, empowerment and solidarity of persons of South Asian origin. Ranjana Patel is the Program Manager of the Asian Health Coalition’s partnership consortium, which works towards education, outreach, and enrolment for underserved AAPI communities across the state of Illinois.
  
• A Bihar health official named Martha Dodray, has been selected for the National Florence Nightingale Award 2014 for her extraordinary work to eradicate polio. She had earlier honoured with the United Nations Foundation award. She walked several kilometres each day to reach remote and inaccessible villages to administer polio vaccine to hundreds of children, mostly belonging to the poorest of the poor. The award carries Rs.50, 000 and a merit certificate and is given on the occasion of International Nursing Day as a mark of recognition of the meritorious service rendered by nurses and nursing professionals in the country. The day is observed in the memory of English social reformer Florence Nightingale, who is considered the founder of modern nursing. Last November, Dodray was honoured at the Global Leadership Awards Dinner of 2013 hosted by the UN Foundation. The National Florence Nightingale Award 2014 will be presented by President Pranab Mukherjee in a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi May 12th.