AWARDS MAY 2017

AWARDS MAY 2017

• Rohan Chakravarty: An Indian Wildlife and environment cartoonist won World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) International President’s Award. The award ceremony was held in Manado, Indonesia. Chakravarty cartoons under the banner of Green Humour mainly emphasis on environmental issues honored with the award.
  
• ITC Limited: ITC Ltd has won the Porter Prize 2017 award for ‘Excellence in Corporate Governance and Integration’ and for its contribution in ‘Creating Shared Value’. The eponymous award was presented by Michael E Porter, the Harvard Business School Professor and a stalwart on competitive business strategies, to Sanjiv Puri, CEO and ED of ITC. Organised by the Institute for Competitiveness, the Porter Prize recognises corporates for their acumen in competitive strategies.
  
• Mark Zuckerberg: He is the founder of Facebook. He received an honorary doctorate degree from Harvard University. He dropped out of the Ivy League school to focus on Facebook. He started Facebook in his Harvard dorm room in 2004.
  
• VVS Laxman: Former India batsman V.V.S. Laxman has been elected an honorary life member of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Laxman is to receive the honour after Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Zaheer Khan. Laxman played 134 Tests, 86 one-day internationals and 25 Twenty, 20 internationals for India. MCC was founded in the year 1787, There are more than 300 honorary life members of MCC.
  
• David Letterman: David Letterman has been named the next recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American humour, the award granted annually by the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. David is the longest-running host of late-night TV, is the 20th humorist to receive the prize, which began in 1998s.
  
• Aravind Kumar: Aravind Kumar, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering at IIT Hyderabad awarded the prestigious Indian National Science Academy (INSA) medal in the Young Scientist category for 2017. His research work was published in the journal of NANOSCALE (Impact factor 7.76) and ACS NANO LETTERS (Impact Factor: 13.78) which made him achieve the award. The INSA Young Scientist Medal award carries a bronze medal and a cash prize of Rs.25,000.
  
• Anil Dhave: Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Anil Madhav Dave passed away after a cardiac arrest on 18th May.
  
• Reema Lagoo: Veteran actress Reema Lagoo, known for her performance in movies like "Hum Aapke Hain Koun" and "Kal Ho Na Ho", died due to a cardiac arrest on 18th May.
  
• 17th Annual New York Indian Film Festival Awards
   The 17th Annual New York Indian film festival took place from April 30-May 7, 2017.
  
  Konkona Sensharma got an award for Best director for "A Death in Gunj" and best actress for the film 'Lipstick under My Burkha". Other awards include:
  Best Films - Mukti Bhawan
  Best Actor - Kaladharan Malayalam film Ottayaal n Paatha
  Best Documentary - An Insignificant Man
  Best Screenplay –Kammatipaddam
  Best Recordist For Final Mixed Track - Ventilator
  Best Gujarati Film - Wrong Side Raju
  Best Short Film - Aaba
  Best Child Actors - Colours of Innocence
  Special Mention - Adil Hussain (Hotel Salvation).
  
• Chandrababu Naidu: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has been selected for the 'Transformative Chief Minister Award' in recognition for his role in advancing the US-India partnership at the state level.
  
  The award by the US-India Business Council would be presented to Naidu during the USIBC West Coast Summit in the Silicon Valley on May 8.
  
  The summit will convene 150 industry leaders from sectors such as information technology, banking, food processing, healthcare, clean energy, digital payments, manufacturing and Government of India officials to explore the impacts of manufacturing in India, digitisation, India's move towards a cashless society and the future of the US-India trade relations.
  
  Participants will discuss key issues such as how Internet of Things (IoTs), smart city planning, and manufacturing issues are shaping the future of the US-India technology partnership.
  
  Led by USIBC chairman and Cisco Executive Chairman, John Chambers, the summit among others will feature Union Cabinet Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT Aruna Sundararajan.
  
  The summit will also honour Sundararajan with the 'Transformative Leadership Award' for excellence in public service and for her commitment to advancing US-India cooperation and Digital India. Last year's recipient for this award was Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog.
  
• The Black Prince' awarded at film fest in Houston
  Hollywood film The Black Prince, featuring singer-poet Satinder Sartaaj and veteran actress Shabana Azmi, was awarded the Special Jury Remi Award at the 50th annual Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival (WHIFF). The film is a historic biopic on the poignant life story of the last king of Punjab - Maharajah Duleep Singh. The film is Directed by Kavi Raj.
  
• Rajiv Kaul: Chairman of Nicco group and past president of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Rajive Kaul was conferred with the Order of Diplomatic Service Merit Sungnye Medal of the Republic of Korea for his services rendered as honorary consul general of South Korea in Kolkata.
  
  The award was conferred by the acting President and Prime Minister of South Korea Hwang Kyo-ahn at a programme in New Delhi recently.

AWARDS APRIL 2017

AWARDS APRIL 2017

• K. Vishwanath selected for Dadasaheb Phalke Award 2016
  Renowned film director and actor Kasinadhuni Viswanath has been selected for Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2016. President Pranab Mukherjee will confer the award on 3rd of May at a function in New Delhi.
  
  The Award is given for outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Cinema. The award consists of a Swarn Kamal and a cash prize of 10 lakh rupees. Viswanath has made fifty films since 1965 on a wide range of social and human issues. His films have great appeal to the masses. His film, Sankarabharanam, is one of India’s most memorable classics.
  
  Viswanath was born in February 1930 at Gudivada in Andhra Pradesh. An ardent art lover, he made a series of films based on varied themes of art, music and dance. His films empathized with courage and frailty, aspirations and convictions, perseverance and distractions, social demands and individual struggle and at the core believed in the goodness of the human spirit.
  
  His contributions have received recognition in the form of Padmashri Award in 1992 by the Government of India for his contribution to film making. He has also been awarded 5 National Awards, 20 Nandi Awards (awarded by the Government of Andhra Pradesh), 10 Filmfare Awards including Lifetime Achievement Award.
  
  His national award winning Swathi Muthyam was the India’s official entry to the 59th Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Film category.
  
• Prafulla Samantara: Top environmental activist Prafulla Samantara of Odisha has been selected for Goldman Environmental Prize or Green Nobel from Asia region for championing the cause of State’s Dongria Kondh tribals and safeguarding their land and culture.
  
  Samantara, the sixth Indian to win the prize, had led a historic legal battle that protected the Niyamgiri Hills in Odisha and safeguarded land rights of indigenous Dongria Kondh living in the area from massive destruction due to mining.
  
  Samantara’s case established a precedent authorising local village bodies throughout the country to decide on mining activities in their regions, giving them control and rights over their land and lives.
  
  Instituted by the Goldman Environmental Foundation, headquartered in San Francisco, the prize includes a no-strings-attached award of 1 lakh 75 thousand US dollar per recipient.
  
  Samantara has received the award for the Asian region for 2017. The prize honours grassroots environmental activists from six inhabited regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands & Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America.
  
• Sankha Ghosh: President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the 52nd Jnanpith Award on eminent Bengali poet Professor Sankha Ghosh at a function in New Delhi.
  
  He was awarded for his outstanding contribution in the field of literature. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Mukherjee said, an ardent writer of Bengali poetry literary works of Prof.Ghosh reflect a rare poetic style encompassing not only a lyrical style but also a deep reflection of the social milieu.
  
• Aamir Khan: Superstar Aamir Khan was honoured with the 75th Master Dinanath Mangeshkar Award for his blockbuster ‘Dangal’.
  
  RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat presented the Vishesh Puraskar, part of the Dinanath Mangeshkar Awards given to eminent personalties in various fields, to the Aamir
  
  Kapil Dev was given the award for his outstanding contribution to the Indian cricket. Legendary actress Vyjayanthimala Bali was honoured with Master Dinanath Vishesh Puraskar for her achievements in Hindi cinema. ‘Mohan Wagh Award’ for best drama was presented to Sunil Barve for “Amar Photo Studio Subak Sanstha”. Uday Nirgudkar received an award for his editorial work while Kaushiki Chakraborty for her endeavour in the field of music.
  
• Nizamabad market yard bags national award
  The Nizamabad Agriculture Marketyard was selected for the national level award for the effective implementation of reforms for strengthening the electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM). District Collector Yogitha Rana received award from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a function held in connection with the Civil Services Day celebrations in New Delhi on April 21.
  
  E-NAM is the flagship programme of the Central Government and the district secured very good recognition for being in the forefront in the execution of the project. The Collector has taken special interest on it to plug laxities in the project implementation resulting in the easy access to nationwide trading for farmers avoiding middlemen.
  
• Asha Khemka named as the 'Asian Businesswoman of the Year'
   An Indian-origin educationist in the UK Asha Khemka, who moved to Britain after her marriage with no English language skills, has been named the 'Asian Businesswoman of the Year' in an award ceremony in Birmingham. Dame Asha Khemka, Principal and CEO of West Nottinghamshire College, was honoured for her efforts in the field of education and skills at the Asian Business Awards ceremony.
  
• Colson Whitehead awarded Pulitzer Prize
  Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad," his celebrated novel about an escaped slave that combined liberating imagination and brutal reality, has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
  
  The announcement confirmed the book as the literary event of 2016, an Oprah Winfrey book club pick and critical favorite which last fall received the National Book Award, the first time in more than 20 years that the same work won the Pulitzer and National Book Award for fiction.
  
  Whitehead, known for such explorations of American myth and history as "John Henry Days," conceived his novel with what he calls a "goofy idea: Take the so-called Underground Railroad of history”, the network of escape routes to freedom, and make it an actual train. He wove his fantasy together with a too-believable story of a young girl's flight from a plantation.
  
• President conferred the Padma awards
  President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Padma awards to 42 people. Eminent Singer Yesudas, spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev were given Padma Vibhushan award.
  
  Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Sunder Lal Patwa was given Padma Vibhushan posthumously. Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Dr Devi Prasad Dwivedi were given Padma Bhushan. Eminent Journalist Cho Ramaswamy was given the award posthumously.
  
  Wrestler Sakshi Malik, Gymnast Dipa Karmakar, Paralympian Mariyappan Thangavelu, Discus Thrower Vikas Gowda and renowned chef Sanjeev Kapoor received Padma Shri. Media magnet H R Shah, Film critic Bhawna Somiya, Journalist Balbir Dutt, Singer Kailash Kher and surgeon Dr Mukut Minz were given Padma Shri.
  
• Manas Mandal honored with Technology Leadership Award
   A visiting professor at IIT-Kharagpur, Manas Mandal, who had previously served as a scientist at Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), has been conferred the prestigious ‘Technology Leadership Award’ by the agency.
  
  Dr Mandal had received the ‘Agni Award for Excellence’ in 2005, ‘Scientist of the Year’ in 2006 and ‘Defence Technology Spin-off’ award in 2007.
  
• Dawit Isaak selected for UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize
  An imprisoned Eritrean-Swedish journalist has been chosen to receive the 2017 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. Isaak was arrested in a crackdown on the media that occurred in September 2001. The last time he was heard from was in 2005. His present location is unknown.
  
  Dawit Isaak, a playwright, journalist and writer, moved to Sweden in 1987, where he later became a citizen and went into self-imposed exile. After the independence of Eritrea, he returned to his homeland to become one of the founders and reporters of Setit, the first independent newspaper in the country. He was known for his critical and insightful reporting.
  
  The Prize will be awarded during the celebration of World Press Freedom Day, 3 May, hosted in Jakarta, Indonesia this year in the presence of the Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, and the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo.
  
• Hindustani vocalist Kishori Amonkar passed away
  Renowned Hindustani classical vocalist Kishori Amonkar passed away on 3rd April. Born on April 10, 1932, Amonkar was recognised as one of the foremost singers in the Hindustani tradition and as an innovative exponent of the Jaipur gharana. Amonkar was awarded the Padma Bhushan (1987) and Padma Vibhushan (2002). In 2010, she became a fellow of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.
  
• 64th National Film Awards: Akshay Kumar wins best actor, best Hindi film is Neerja
  The 64th National Film Awards have been announced; 
  • Akshay Kumar has been chosen for the Best Actor Award for Hindi Movie Rustom.
  • Surabhi has been named as the best actress for her role in Malayalam film Minnaminungu-The Firefly.
  • Marathi Movie Kaasav directed by Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar has bagged the Best Feature Film Award.
  • This year the best Hindi film award has been bagged by Sonam Kapoor starrer Neerja.
  • Hindi movie Dhanak directed by Nagesh Kukunoor will get the best children film award.
  • Telugu movie Sathamanam Bhavathi has been chosen as the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment.
  • Best Film on social issue has been awarded to Hindi movie Pink.
  • The award for Best Supporting Actress will be conferred on Zaira Wasim for her role in Hindi movie Dangal.
  • Manoj Joshi will get Best supporting actor award for Marathi movie Dashkriya.
  • Best Music Direction has been bagged by Bapu Padmanabha for Kannada movie Allama.

AWARDS MARCH 2017

AWARDS MARCH 2017

• Pranab Mukherjee presented Dr. B. C. Roy National Awards
  President Pranab Mukherjee presented Dr. B. C. Roy National Awards and Hari Om Ashram Alembic Research Awards at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. 49 physicians got the Dr B C Roy award for the year 2014, 2015 and 2016. Four physicians got Hari Om Ashram Alembic Research Awards.
  
• President Pranab Mukherjee presented the Padma awards
  President Pranab Mukherjee facilitated presented Padma awards in his at a function hosted by Rastrapati Bhavan. Veteran Politicians Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Sharad Pawar and renowned Space Scientist Prof Udipi Ramachandra Rao were given Padma Vibhusan.
  
  Former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma was given the second highest civilian honour posthumously. Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and renowned Gastro-Enterologist Tehemton Erach Udwadia received the Padma Bhushan.
  
• Chandrababu Naidu selected for the US India Business Council Award
  The US India Business Council Award (USIBC) has selected Mr. Chandrababu Naidu for the award of ‘Transformative Chief Minister’ and he would be receiving the award at the second annual West Coast Summit to be held in Menlo Park, California on May 8. He has been requested to deliver his massage on the occasion and a message towards award function has been received by the CMO. Electronics and IT Secretary Aruna Sundararajan would also receive Transformative Leadership Award at the Summit.
  
• KCK International Award
  President Pranab Mukherjee on 20 March 2017 presented the KCK International Award for excellence in Print Journalism. The awards were organized by Rajasthan Patrika in New Delhi. The award for the year 2014 was conferred upon Wanjohi Kabukuru's team for the story How East Africa Lost Its Innocence that was published in New African magazine, London.
  
  The award for the year 2015 was awarded to Rakesh Sharma and his team for an investigative news series on sexual harassment in Nari Niketan, published in Amar Ujala.
  
• Gurinder Chadha honoured with the Sikh Jewel Award
  Indian-origin British director Gurinder Chadha has been honoured with the Sikh Jewel Award for 2017 for her immense contribution to British cinema.
  
  Chadha, whose films include "Bhaji on the Beach", "Bend It like Beckham" and "Bride and Prejudice", received the award from UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon at the Vaisakhi Dinner organised by the British Sikh Association at the Lancaster Hotel in London.
  
• Mahabaleshwar Sail selected for Saraswati Sammam award
   Konkani writer Mahabaleshwar Sail was on 9 March 2017 selected for the Saraswati Samman 2016 for his novel Hawthan. His novel, published in 2009, was shortlisted from 22 books written in as many languages.
  
• Indrani Das won Regeneron Science Talent Search Award
  An Indian-American teen has won the top award, worth 2,50,000 US Dollars in the oldest and most prestigious science and maths competition in the US, for her research on preventing death of neurons due to brain injuries or neuro-degenerative diseases.
  
  Indrani Das, a 17-year-old resident of New Jersey, and four other Indian-origin students were among the top ten finalists to be honoured at the annual Regeneron Science Talent Search Awards Gala for their research projects demonstrating exceptional scientific and mathematical ability. Forty finalists took home more than 1.8 million US Dollars in awards.
  
• La La Land' wins six awards at 89th Oscar Academy Awards
  The showbiz fairy tale "La La Land" has won six awards at the 89th Oscar Academy Awards. "La La Land" won awards for best actress Emma Stone, its Director, Damien Chazelle. The coming-of-age drama "Moonlight" won the best picture award. Casey Affleck took the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in "Manchester by the Sea".
  
  Mahershala Ali won the Oscar for best supporting actor in "Moonlight", while Viola Davis won for best supporting actress for her role in "Fences".
  
  Iranian Film 'The Salesman' Wins Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. The award for best documentary feature went to "O.J. Made in America". The Syrian war documentary "The White Helmets" has won the short documentary Academy Award. Indian actor Om Puri, "Star Wars" actress Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds and Bill Paxton were among late stars, who were remembered and honored at the Oscars.
  
• Virat Kohli nominated for Polly Umrigar award
  India captain Virat Kohli was nominated for the prestigious Polly Umrigar award while all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin named for the Dilip Sardesai award. The awards will be presented at the BCCI Annual Awards to be held in Bengaluru on 8th March. Kohli becomes the first Indian cricketer to get Polly Umrigar award on the third occasion after 2011-12 and 2014-15 season.
  
  The award is given to the international cricketer of the year by the Indian cricket board. Ashwin will also become the first cricketer to receive the 'Dilip Sardesai Award' twice. The award is given to honour the best performance in the bilateral Test series between India and West Indies.
  
• Former CCMB director Lalji Singh honored with SERB fellowship
  Lalji Singh, former Director, the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), has been selected for the award of SERB Distinguished Fellow. It is given by the Science and engineering Research Board (SERB) which is a statutory body of the Government of India.
  
  The award supports research of scientists who are active and performing even after superannuation. The award has been given in recognition of Lalji Singh, also a former VC of BHU for his continued outstanding performance and also for mentorship young researchers. It carries an amount of Rs 60,000 a month and a research grant of Rs 5 lakh a year for a period of three years.
  
  He has started the Genome Foundation, a non-profit company established in May 2004 in Hyderabad. It strives to take authentic and affordable DNA technology and other genetic diagnostic services to the underprivileged and rural populations in the country to eradicate or control genetic disorders by using genetic screening and prenatal diagnosis.

AWARDS FEBRUARY 2017

AWARDS FEBRUARY 2017

• Rajkummar Rao starrer 'Newton' wins Art Cinema honour at Berlin ale 
  Rajkummar Rao and Anjali Patil starrer political satire "Newton", which had its world premiere at the 67th Berlin Film Festival, has won the International Federation of Art Cinemas (CICAE) award in its Forum segment.
  
  Directed by Amit Masurkar, the film received a standing ovation at the festival, with a long and engaging Q and A post the screening. The jury, consisting of Spanish film composer Pedro Barbadillo, Croatian director and Pula Film Festival producer Tanja Milicic and French producer Rainer Wothe labelled "Newton" as a "wonderful" and "exceptional" film.
  
  The award was received by film curator Meenakshi Shedde on behalf of the director. Taking to Twitter, Rao congratulated the entire team of the film.
  
• 59th annual Grammys awards
  British singer Adele has won top awards at Grammys and she walked away with major prizes-- Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year in the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on 12th February.
  
  Adele won in all the five categories that she was nominated for including Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Pop Vocal Album, triumphing over Beyonce, who was the front-runner in the race. Chance the Rapper won in three categories, including best new artist.
  
  Indian tabla player Sandeep Das was part of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble "Sing Me Home" which won the Grammy in the World Music category that also included sitarist Anoushka Shankar's "Land of Gold". Yo-Yo Ma's "Sing Me Home" features tunes composed by different global artists as it examines the ever-changing idea of home
  
• Surendra Verma honoured with Vyas Samman award
  Well known Hindi Scholar and writer Surendra Verma has been selected for Vyas Samman-2016. Verma has been chosen for this prestigious award for his novel Kaatna Shami Ka Vriksha Padma Pankhuri Ki Dhar Se, published in 2010.The award instituted by K K Birla Foundation carries a cash award of 3.50 lakh rupees.
  
• AIIMS wins first prize for sanitation
  Premier health institute AIIMS, New Delhi, has won the first prize, and a cash reward of Rs 5 crore, for maintaining high standards of sanitation and hygiene under the Governments Kayakalp awards.
  
  AIIMS was followed by North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), Shillong, which got a cash prize of Rs 3 crore. Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, received the third prize of Rs 1 crore.
  
  Commendation awards of Rs 50 lakh each were given to AIIMS, Raipur, AIIMS, Jodhpur and National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases (NITRD), Delhi, by Union Health Minister J P Nadda.
  
• Lata Mangeshkar honoured with legendary award
   Lata Mangeshkar has been honoured with the 'Legendary Award ' 2017 by Brand Laureate. The Brand Laureate Awards recognize world-class achievement in branding amongst individuals and companies.
  
  In 2012, actor Shah Rukh Khan was honoured with the Brand Laureate Legendary Award for his unmatched contribution to Indian Cinema.
  
  The Brand Laureate Legendary Award has been earlier given to the likes of former South African president Nelson Mandela, Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus, Indian businessman Ratan Tata, late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Facebook CEO Marck Zuckerburg and F1 ace Michael Schumacher.

AWARDS JANUARY 2017

AWARDS JANUARY 2017

• Padma awardees list announced
  Politician Sharad Pawar, Murli Manohar Joshi and singer Yesudas and spiritual leader Jaggi Vasudev are among the seven prominent personalities who will be awarded Padma Vibhushan, the country's prestigious civilian award. Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Sunder Lal Patwa and former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma have also been selected for this award posthumously.
  
  Instrumentalist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and former Journalist Cho Ramaswamy are in the list of seven people who will be given the Padam Bhushan. Cho Ramaswamy will be awarded posthumously.
  
  Besides, Indian cricket captain Virat Kohili, Olympic medalist wrestler Sakshi Malik, Athlete Deepa Malik, Olympian gymnast Dipa Karmakar and singer Kailash Kher are among the 75 prominent names who will receive Padma Shri for their outstanding performance in different fields.
  
  From Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, Banskantha in Gujarat to a small village Vatakra in Kerala, awardees transcended geographical boundaries. Chintakindi Mallesham from Telangana, AIDS crusader Dr. Suniti Solomon and Chettlah Ramiah are among unsung heros.
  
• Havaldar Hangpan Dada awarded Ashok chakra
  The highest peacetime military decoration award - the Ashok Chakra - was given to Havaldar Hangpan Dada posthumously for his selfless service to the nation. The award was received by his wife Chasen Lowang Dada.
  
• Meghalaya governor Shanmuganathan resigned
  Meghalaya Governor V. Shanmuganathan quit office on 26th January after several Raj Bhavan employees wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee, demanding his removal as he had ‘compromised the dignity’ of the post. The letter was written after complaints of sexual harassment cropped up against Mr. Shanmuganathan. Employees alleged that the Governor had made the Raj Bhavan a ‘young ladies club.’
  
• Indian origin people to receive Australia’s highest civilian honour
  Three Indian origin persons have been awarded Australia's highest civilian honour this year for their contributions in the field of medicine and community work. Purushottam Sawrikar, a Sydney-based medical practitioner, received Order of Australia medal for the year 2017 for his service to medicine, and to the Indian community.
  
  Makhan Singh Khangure from Perth was given the award for his service to medicine in the field of neuroradiology, to education, and to a range of professional medical associations.
  
  Vijay Kumar, was given the award for his service to medical research in the disciplines of nuclear medicine and biology, to professional organisations, and to the community. Over 950 Australians were named in the Australia Day Honours this year, announced on 26th January on the Australia Day.
  
• Infosys Science Foundation announced its annual prizes
  The Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) will be felicitating the winners of the Infosys Prize 2016 categories in Bengaluru. Now in its eighth year, the winners were shortlisted from over 250 nominations by a panel comprising renowned scientists and professors.
  
  The winners are Prof V. Kumaran (IISc) in the engineering and computer science section; Prof Sunil Amrith of Harvard University (Humanities); Dr. Gagandeep Kang of Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad (Life sciences); Prof Akshay Venkatesh of Stanford University (mathematical sciences), Dr. Anil Bhardwaj of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (physical sciences) and Prof Kaivan Munshi of Cambridge University (social sciences).
  
  Each winner would get Rs 65 Lakh, a 22 karat gold medallion and a citation certificate. They will be felicitated by Nobel Laureate Prof Venkatraman Ramakrishnan.
  
   
   
• La La Land sweeps Golden Globes with seven wins
  "La La Land", a romantic musical comedy drama film swept the Golden Globes awards by winning in all the seven categories including the top award of best musical or comedy at the ceremony in Los Angeles.
  
  The film director Damien Chazelle took home the trophies for best director and screenplay. The film's leading stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone won the trophies for best actor and actress. "La La Land" also took the best original score award.
  
  The other big award of the night went to "Moonlight", for best motion picture. The film piped Dev Patel-starrer "Lion" and "Manchester by the Sea", "Hacksaw Ridge" and "Hell or High Water".
  
  In the best supporting actor and actress categories the trophies went to Aaron Taylor-Johnson of "Nocturnal Animals". Viola Davis won the best supporting actress category for "Fences".
  
  The Golden Globe Awards is a major part of the film industry's awards season, which culminates each year with the Academy Awards or Oscars.
  
• Parag Havaldar won ‘Technical Oscar’
  An IIT-Kharagpur alumnus has won the prestigious Technical Achievement Award (the Scientific & Technical Awards prize), popularly called the 'Technical Oscar', awarded by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences.
  
  Parag Havaldar, who graduated from IIT-Kharagpur in 1991 with a degree in computer science and engineering, has been awarded for "the development of expression-based facial performance-capture technology at Sony Pictures Image works". He will be awarded a certificate from the Academy at Beverly Hills on February 11.
  
• Amitabh Bachchan honoured by US Embassy
  Amitabh Bachchan has been honoured by the US Embassy to acknowledge his immense contribution to the India-US ties on tuberculosis. The award was presented on January 8 by US Ambassador to India Richard R Verma to the 74-year-old actor, who himself is a TB survivor and brand ambassador for the cause.
  
• Four Indian-American Scientists for Presidential Awards
  Four Indian-American scientists have been chosen among 102 researchers who will receive the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) the highest honour given by the US government to science and engineering professionals.
  
  Pankaj Lal from Montclair State University ( Department of Agriculture); Kaushik Chowdhury from Northeastern University (Department of Defense), Manish Arora, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (Department of Health and Human Services) and Aradhna Tripati, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) (National Science Foundation).
  
• Joe Biden honoured with Presidential Medal of Freedom
  Outgoing US President Barack Obama has awarded Vice President Joe Biden with the highest civilian honour, commemorating an extraordinary man with an extraordinary career in public service. Mr. Biden accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a ceremony in his honour at the White House.
  
• Aamir Khan got award at 62nd film fare award
  Aamir Khan bagged the Best Actor Award for his performance in 'Dangal'. Alia Bhatt was honoured with the Best Actress Award for her gritty portrayal of a Bihari migrant in 'Udta Punjab'. Nitesh Tiwari bagged the Best Director Award, for Dangal, and Dangal itself awarded as the best film.
  
  Sonam Kapoor won the Critics Award for Best Actor (Female) for her portrayal of Neerja Bhanot in the biopic 'Neerja'. Actors Shahid Kapoor and Manoj Bajpayee got the Best Actor (Male) nod for their performances in 'Udta Punjab' and 'Aligarh' respectively.
  
  'Neerja' and 'Kapoor & Sons (Since 1921)' won five awards each. Actor Shatrughan Sinha took home the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.
  
  
• J&K AACL announces the Best Book Award-2015
  J&K Academy of Art, Culture & Languages announced the Best Book Award-2015, carrying a cash prize of 51,000 rupees, a citation, a memento and a shawl each, in various languages spoken in the State. The announcement of the award was made by Secretary Academy, Dr. Aziz Hajini in Jammu on 3rd January, after the recommendation of adjudicators was approved by the President of the Academy.
  
  Announcing the winners of the coveted literary award, Dr. Hajini said, the award in Dogri language goes to Narinder Bhasin for Char Dishan Char Dham, in Kashmiri to Prof. Ratan Lal Shant for his work Kashir Afsana Manzil Te Munaar, in Urdu to Wali Mohammed Aseer Kishtwari for Tarekh-e-Awliya-e-Jammu Wa Kashmir, in Pahari to Mohammed Maqbool Sahil for his book Parchhanwan, in Gojri to Choudhary Fazal Mushtaq Kohli for Gujjar Gandhi.

AWARDS DECEMBER 2016

AWARDS DECEMBER 2016

• Katy Perry honoured with the Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award
  Singer Katy Perry was honoured with the 'Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award' for her work as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador at a UNICEF event in New York on 1st December. Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer and songwriter.
  
• India's football federation wins Asian award
  The All-India Football Federation won the Asian Football Council's Developing Member Association of the Year Award in Abu Dhabi. The award is given on the basis of organisation of courses, seminars and competitions, grassroots youth development and women's programmes and special projects. In 2014, AIFF had earlier won the AFC President's Recognition Award for grassroots football.
  
• Amitabh Bachan and Alia Bhatt Won Star Screen Awards
  Courtroom drama "Pink" swept the Star Screen Awards here with megastar Amitabh Bachchan bagging the best actor award for the film while actress Alia Bhatt picked up the best actress for her performance in controversy-ridden drug-themed crime thriller Udta Punjab.
  
  Produced by Shoojit Sircar and directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, "Pink" won four awards including editing and dialogues and was adjudged the best film.
  
  Ram Madhvani got the best director Award for "Neerja". The Sonam Kapoor-starrer also got the best story screenplay award for Saiwyn Quadras. Best cinematography award was given to Anay Goswamy for "Fitoor".
  
  Rishi Kapoor was honoured as the best supporting actor for "Kapoor And Sons" while Shabana Azmi bagged the Best Supporting actress award for "Neerja". Varun Dhawan got best actor in a comic role award for "Dishoom".
  
  In the music category Karan Johar's directorial venture "Ae Dil Hai Mushkil" won the maximum awards including the best lyricist award to Amitabh Bhattacharya, best music award for Pritam and Best Playback Singer (male) to Amit Mishra for his rendition of hit song "Bulleya".
  
  The best playback singer (Female) was won by Palak Muchhal for "Kaun Tujhe" from "MS Dhoni The Untold Story". The most promising director award was given to Tinu Suresh Desai for Akshay Kumar-starrer "Rustom".
  
  Sidharth Malhotra and Katrina Kaif starrer hit song "Kala Chashma" from the film "Baar Baar Dekho" got the best choreography for Bosco Caesar. The best child artiste award was given to Riya Shukla for "Nil Battey Sannata".
  
• Yu Long Yu received ICCR distinguished Ideologist Award
  President Pranab Mukherjee on 1st December presented the second ICCR distinguished ideologist award to Prof. Yu Long Yu of China at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan.
  
  On the occasion, the President said, the contribution of foreign scholars to the development of Indology has been critical and their efforts have led to the worldwide awareness of India’s rich cultural and civilizational past. Prof. Yu Long Yu, Professor and Director at the Centre for Indian Studies, Shenzhen University, has studied Indology for half a century and is the pioneer for Indology in South China. He has set up the Centre for Indian Studies and Tan Yunshan Sino-Indian Friendship Museum in Shenzhen University.
  
• Vajiralongkorn ascends Thailand Kingship
  Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn was proclaimed king of Thailand on 1st December, opening a new chapter for the powerful monarchy in a country still mourning the death of his father.
  
  Vajiralongkorn, 64, who inherits one of the world's richest monarchies as well as a politically troubled nation, ascends the throne 50 days after King Bhumibol Adulyadej's death.
  
• Kehkashan Basu Wins International Children’s Piece Prize
   Dubai based Indian girl Kehkashan Basu wins International Children’s Piece Prize was presented the award by Bangladesh's Nobel peace laureate Mohammad Yunus at a ceremony in The Hague.
  
  Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his efforts for economic and social development, underlined the urgency and importance of Kehkashan's work, as more than three million children under the age of five die every year from environment-related diseases and many more suffer deeply from environmental issues.

AWARDS NOVEMBER 2016

AWARDS NOVEMBER 2016

• Indira Gandhi National Service Scheme Awards
  President Pranab Mukherjee on 19th November presented Indira Gandhi National Service Scheme Awards for 2015-2016 at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi
  
  Eight programme co-ordinators, 20 programme officers and 31 volunteers from across the country were honoured in this ceremony. The Awards are given for the outstanding work done under the National Service Scheme (NSS). The NSS, one of the flagship programmes of the government, aims at developing of personality and character of students through voluntary community service.
  
• Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain was awarded Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice 2016
  Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain, one of the three Bangladeshi hostages killed in the terrorist attack on the Holey Cafe in Dhaka’s Gulshan diplomatic zone on July 1 earlier in 2016, was awarded the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice for 2016.
  
  The award was conferred posthumously by the Harmony Foundation in Mumbai on 20th November. Faraaz’s parents received the award on his behalf at a ceremony from the Foundation’s President Abraham Mathai. This is the first time the award has been conferred posthumously.
  
  The international award in memory of late Mother Teresa was first introduced in 2005 with Medecines Sans Frontieres, the largest volunteer medical organisation worldwide, receiving it that year.
  
• Maha Chakri Sirindhorn was conferred with first world Sanskrit award
   Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand was conferred the first 'World Sanskrit Award' on 21st November for her contribution towards promotion of the language. The award was presented by Vice President Hamid Ansari.
  
  The award, instituted by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), is presented to eminent Sanskrit scholars to recognize their outstanding contribution to the study/teaching/research in Sanskrit language and literature. The Thai Princess is an eminent Sanskrit scholar and had played a prominent role as Royal Patron for the World Sanskrit Conference held earlier in Bangkok. Sirindhorn is an educator and scholar of Sanskrit and Pali.
  
• Kehkashan Basu: A 16-year old Indian girl in the United Arab Emirates is among three finalists chosen for International Children's Peace Prize for her unique role in improving the rights and position of children. From a record number of 120 international entries, the expert committee chose Kehkashan Basu from the UAE, Divina Maloum from Cameroon and Muzoon Almellehan from Syria.
  
  The announcement was made by International children's rights organisation 'KidsRights' ahead of Universal Children's Day to be observed on 20th November.
  
  According to the committee, all three have improved the rights and position of children in unique and tangible ways. Kehkashan began campaigning for environmental protection at an early age.
  
  When she was just eight, she organised an awareness campaign for the recycling of waste in her neighbourhood in Dubai.
  
• Ban-Ki-moon: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon received the Legion of Honour from French President Francois Hollande on 17th November for his contributions to tackling climate change.
  
  The South Korean diplomat helped push through the 2015 Paris Agreement, a deal aimed at moving away from fossil fuels to cleaner energies that was signed by almost 200 countries after nearly two decades of negotiations.
  
  It was largely because of your contribution, because many years ago you started putting this topic on all the agendas. The Legion of Honour was established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte and is considered to be one of France's highest civilian awards.
  
• Kalam Ignite Awards: President Pranab Mukherjee on 7th November gave away awards to winners of the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE 2016 Competition in New Delhi. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE 2016 competition -is a national competition of original technological ideas and innovations by children up to class 12 or those out of school up to the age of 17 years. It is organized by National Innovation Foundation every year to promote creativity and originality among children.
  
• Raj Bisaria and Banshi Kaul:Madhya Pradesh government’s prestigious Rashtriya Kalidas Samman will be given to eminent theatre artists Raj Bisaria and Banshi Kaul.
  
  Mr. Bisaria will receive the award for 2015-16 while Mr. Kaul will be given the award for 2016-17. Both the theatre artists are known for long cherished practice, excellence and continuous creative activeness in the country.
  
• Hadi Abdullah: Syrian freelance journalist Hadi Abdullah who unhesitatingly ventured into danger zones, where Western journalists are no longer willing to go, on 8th November won one of the world's top press awards for reporting from some of the most perilous zones in his country's five-year-old war.
  
  Reporters without Borders (RSF) said it is awarding the 29-year-old Syrian, the RSF-TV5 Monde prize, the second year running that the honour has gone to a Syrian. The award will be presented in Strasbourg on 9th November on the sidelines of the World Forum for Democracy, a meeting organised by the Council of Europe. In 2015, the award went to Syrian journalist Zaina Erhaim for her reports from the besieged city of Aleppo. RSF ranks China and Syria 176th and 177th on its assessment of 180 countries for press freedom.
  
• Ramnath Goenka Awards
  Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave away the Ramnath Goenka awards for excellence in journalism on 2nd November in New Delhi. He gave the Awards across 28 categories for exceptional work in print, broadcast and online journalism in English, Hindi and regional languages. The awards were instituted by the Ramnath Goenka Foundation in 2005 to celebrate the legacy of the founder of The Indian Express Group.

AWARDS OCTOBER 2016

AWARDS OCTOBER 2016

• Award for doctors: Two doctors each from the AIIMS and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) in Delhi have been selected for the prestigious Dr BC Roy Award for excellence in the field of medicine. Randeep Guleria, Head of Pulmonology and CS Yadav of department of orthopaedics from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences have been chosen for the award.
  
  Chairman of Board of Management at SGRH DS Rana and Arvind Kumar have also been chosen for the coveted award. The awards will be given by the President in 2017. The Bidhan Chandra Roy Award was instituted in 1976 in the memory of renowned physician and freedom fighter BC Roy by Medical Council of India.
  
• Indian documentary wins at CAM International Film Festival
  Indian Documentary film "Daughters of Mother India", directed by Vibha Bakshi, has won at the 6th CAM International Film Festival in Cairo. The film won the first prize in the documentary section of the festival. The festival was organized by the Arabic Egyptian Society for Culture, Media and Arts (CMA) from October 8-13th.
  
  Daughters of Mother India" portrays India's story of resolve, hope and courage in the fight against gender violence. CAM International Film Festival is organized annually to promote cinema as a means of combating ignorance, poverty and terrorism.
  
  2016 year's edition featured around 92 films from 33 countries in three categories: Short Fiction, Documentary and Animation. India was the Guest of Honor in the Film Festival with 12 entries.
  
• Man booker prize
   Paul Beatty: Paul Beatty’s novel The Sellout, a blistering satire about race in America, won the Man Booker Prize, marking the first time a U.S. writer has won the award. Still, with its outrageous premise and unabashed skewering of racial stereotypes, The Sellout is an audacious choice for the judges, who oversee one of the most prestigious awards in literature.
  
• Award for Yazidi women: Two Yazidi women, who escaped sexual enslavement by Islamic State in Iraq, have won Europe's top human rights award, the Sakharov prize.
  
  Nadia Murad Basee and Lamiya Aji Bashar were among thousands of Yazidi girls and women abducted by IS militants and forced into sexual slavery in 2014. But, both survived and now campaign for the Yazidi community. The freedom of thought prize is awarded annually in memory of Andrei Sakharov, a Soviet scientist and dissident. The two women were nominated by the liberal Alde group in the European Parliament. European Parliament President, Martin Schulz, said it was a very symbolic and significant decision to support these two survivors who came to Europe as refugees.
  
• Oliver Hart, Bengt Holmstrom win Nobel prize in economics
  UK-born Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom of Finland have won the Nobel Economics Prize for work on contract theory.
  
  Judges said their work laid an intellectual foundation for policies in areas such as bankruptcy legislation and political constitutions. The pair will receive 8 million Swedish kroner from the committee. It comes after Nobel prizes for physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry and peace were awarded.
  
  The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that Mr Hart and Mr Holmstrom's work was valuable to the understanding of real-life contracts and institutions. It also said it could identify potential pitfalls in contract design.
  
• 
  Swayam Shikshan Prayog
  An Indian NGO, Swayam Shikshan Prayog, has bagged a UN climate award for 2016. The NGO, which trains women to become clean energy entrepreneurs across Maharashtra and Bihar, is one of the 13 projects to be recognised at the forthcoming UN climate summit in Marrakesh, Morocco, in November.
  
  The UNFCCC, the nodal UN climate body, has applauded the project for building a rural distribution network of 1,100 women entrepreneurs facilitating access to clean energy, water and sanitation products and services in several communities.
  
  Prema Gopalan, co-founder of Swayam Shikshan Prayog, who has worked for 10 years in the clean energy sector, told that many of the women in her NGO hail from the Marathwada drought-hit areas and have attained a new identity as a result of their entrepreneurial work.
  
• Yoshinori Ohsumi wins 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine
  Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi was awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine on 3rd October for discoveries related to the degrading and recycling of cellular components. The Karolinska Institute honoured Ohsumi for "brilliant experiments" in the 1990s on autophagy, the machinery with which cells recycle their content.
  
  Disrupted autophagy has been linked to various diseases, including Parkinson's, diabetes and cancer. Ohsumi's work has led to a better understanding of how the human body adapts to starvation, infection and other conditions.
  
  Though the concept has been known for more than 50 years, its "fundamental importance in physiology and medicine was only recognized after Yoshinori Ohsumi's paradigm-shifting research in the 1990s," Karolinska said in its citation. Ohsumi was born in 1945 in Fukuoka. He is currently a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. It was the 107th award in the medicine category since the first Nobel Prizes were handed out in 1905. The Nobel Prize is worth the equivalent of about $1.224 million Cdn (eight million kronor).
  
• David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz get Nobel in Physics
  British scientists David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz have won the 2016 Nobel Prize in physics. The three, who are affiliated with U.S. universities, were honored for their work on “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.”
  
  The three Laureates’ use of topological concepts in physics was decisive for their discoveries. Topology is a branch of mathematics that describes properties that only change step-wise. Using topology as a tool, they were able to astound the experts. In the early 1970s, Michael Kosterlitz and David Thouless overturned the then current theory that superconductivity or suprafluidity could not occur in thin layers. They demonstrated that superconductivity could occur at low temperatures and also explained the mechanism, phase transition that makes superconductivity disappear at higher temperatures.
  
  In the 1980s, Thouless was able to explain a previous experiment with very thin electrically conducting layers in which conductance was precisely measured as integer steps. He showed that these integers were topological in their nature. At around the same time, Duncan Haldane discovered how topological concepts can be used to understand the properties of chains of small magnets found in some materials.
  
  Nayanjot Lahiri: Nayanjot Lahiri, Professor of History at the Ashoka University, has been awarded the 2016 John F. Richards Prize for her book Ashoka in Ancient India . The book has been critically acclaimed for its riveting account of an emperor who spoke to his people through his edicts; his victories and loss that left a legacy that surpassed him.
  
  The Richards Prize is awarded annually by the American Historical Association (AHA) to the best book in South Asian history. The prize will be awarded at the Association’s 131st Annual Meeting in January, 2017.
  
• Jean-Pierre Sauvage, J Fraser Stoddart and Bernard Feringa win Nobel chemistry prize
  Frenchman Jean-Pierre Sauvage, British-born J Fraser Stoddart and Dutch scientist Bernard Feringa won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing molecular machines.
  
  The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the laureates share the 930,000 US dollars prize for the design and synthesis of molecules with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added.
  
• Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize
  Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize on 7th October for his efforts to end a 52-year-old war with Marxist rebels.
  
  The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Santos had brought one of the longest civil wars in modern history significantly closer to a peaceful solution, but there was still a danger the peace process could collapse.
  The award excluded FARC guerrilla leader Rodrigo Londono, better known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, who signed the peace accord with Santos in Cartagena on September 26.
  Millions have been displaced and many beg on the streets of the capital, while economic potential has been held up in the mostly rural nation.
  
  Santos is the first Latin American to receive the peace prize since indigenous rights campaigner Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala won in 1992, and is the second Colombian laureate after writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who won the literature prize in 1982.
  
  The scion of one of Colombia's most prosperous families, Santos was not thought likely to spearhead a peace process with FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).
  But though he had served as defence minister under hardline ex-president Alvaro Uribe, when the FARC were weakened by a US-backed offensive, Santos used his two terms in office to open negotiations with rebel leadership at four-year-long talks.
  
  His family once owned leading Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, where Santos worked as an editor before turning to politics. He also trained as an economist at the London School of Economics.
  He was finance minister in the 1990s, helping to steer the Andean nation through one of its worst fiscal crises.
  
  The peace talks made bitter enemies of Santos and Uribe, who accused his former protege of betraying FARC victims, and who founded a new right-wing political party and won a Senate seat, in an effort to undermine Santos' peace efforts. The news may anger those Colombians who see Santos' bid for peace with the FARC as selling out the nation as he negotiated terms that they see as an embarrassment.
  But the fact that his rebel foe did not receive the prize alongside him may be a relief to Santos, given the political tension following referendum. On the other hand, it may give Santos the moral upper hand in talks with Uribe.
  
  A joint win may have set back sensitive talks with the opposition as Santos tries to negotiate new terms with the "No" camp and possibly convince the FARC to accept changes to the original accord.
  The "No" vote was a disaster for Santos, who had hoped to turn his focus quickly to other matters including possible talks with the smaller ELN rebel group, tax reform and other economic measures to compensate for a drop in oil income.
  
  The government had hoped peace would lead to a boom in investment by commodities investors, in gold mines, oil and agriculture in Latin America's fourth-largest economy. The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 8 million Swedish crowns ($930,000), will be presented in Oslo on December 10.
  
• Murga' wins first prize at Swachh Bharat Short Film Festival
  Young filmmaker Katyayan Shivpuri, from Maharashtra, won the first prize at the Swachh Bharat Short Film Festival for his work "Murga. Minister of Information and Broadcasting, M Venkaiah Naidu awarded Katyayan with a certificate and a cash prize of Rs 10 lakhs.
  
  The short film promoting the idea of clean India had "Murga" as the metaphor depicting the victims that citizens have made of themselves and of the children by not keeping the surroundings clean.
  The second prize was shared by filmmakers Sudanshu Sharma, KVK Kumar and Akshay Danavale for their films "Nahna Doot," "Chembuku Moodindi" (The Dying Vessel) and "Sarkarmi Rati Wadho." respectively.
  
  The third prize was awarded to six entries. The minister announced that well-known filmmakers like Madhur Bhandarkar, Radhakrishna Jagarlamudi, Prasoon Pandey, Ramesh Sippy and Shoojit Sircar will support the Swachh Bharat initiative by producing films promoting the movement.

AWARDS SEPTEMBER 2016

AWARDS SEPTEMBER 2016

• MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ Award for two Indians
   Two ex IITians Dr Subhash Kot and Dr Manu Prakash, from Bombay and Kanpur respectively, have won the esteemed MacArthur ‘genius grant’ award worth $625,000 ( approximately 4 crores). Both the doctors have received the fellowship for their creativity in their field of interest and both will receive the amount over the course of 5 years.
  
  Dr Subhash Kot studied from IIT Bombay and is a well known theoretical computer scientist at New York University. Under his reign, he solved some of the biggest problems of computer complexity and has developed the Unique Games Conjecture.
  
  Dr Manu, on the other hand, is a pass out from IIT Kanpur is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University. He developed a phenomenal low-cost paper microscope that costs less than 1 USD.
  
  The foldable microscope has been designed on a single sheet of paper and has the potential to promote education and medical facilities in rural areas. Dr Manu has also developed a clock that works using tiny water droplets. Apart from these two, 21 other scientists were also given the fellowship in various fields including science, art and civil rights.
  
• Uttam Singh: Maharashtra government announced the Lata Mangeshkar Award for 2016 to veteran music composer and violin player Uttam Singh. He has worked with music legends like Naushad, Madan Mohan, S D Burman and R D Burman. He teamed up with Jagdish Khanna to compose music for films made in different languages. Singh was the music arranger for films like "Maine Pyar Kiya" and "Hum Apke Hai Kaun".
  
  He was also the music director of "Painter Babu" and "Clerk". After Khanna's demise, Singh started working independently. He has also worked on films like "Dil To Pagal Hai", "Dushman", "Farz" and others.
  
• Narendra Babubhai Patel: He is Indian-origin British obstetrician and member of the UK Parliament. He has been honored by a leading publishing group for his work in the medical profession and for being an incredible role model for social justice, equality and those less fortunate. He was given the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' during the Asian Achievers Awards for his work in the medical profession and public life in Britain over the years.
  
• Emmy Awards
  The People v OJ Simpson" triumphed at the 68th Primetime Emmys, winning five awards including best limited series, while fantasy drama "Game of Thrones" was honored as the best drama for the second consecutive year.
  Veep" was named best comedy series and its star, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, won a record-breaking fifth Emmy as best comedy actress. "The People v OJ Simpson", which is the dramatic retelling of the infamous O J Simpson's murder trial, was honored for its writing and captured several acting awards.
  Courtney B Vance bagged best actor in limited series or movie, Sarah Paulson won best actress and the best supporting actor honor to Sterling K Brown.
  Overall it won 12 Emmys this year, out of 23 total nominations.
  
  Rami Malek has become the first minority actor in 18 years to win the Emmy Award for best leading actor in a drama series. The star, who is of Egyptian heritage, won the prize for his role in the USA Network drama Mr Robot.
  
• Abraham Varghese: An Indian-American physician and author, Abraham Varghese, has been presented with the National Humanities Medal, America's highest humanities award, by President Barack Obama. He was presented with the medal for his contribution in the field of medicine along with several other recipients at a ceremony held at the White House on 22^ndSeptember.
  Currently a professor of medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine, Varghese has authored several acclaimed books.
  
  Started in 1997, the National Humanities Medal honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation's understanding of the human experience, broadened citizens' engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects. As many as 12 medals are awarded each year.
  
• Wildlife awards for Indians: Two Indian forest officials have been selected for the 2016 Clark R. Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Awards that honour individuals engaging in exemplary law enforcement actions to protect wildlife.
  Range officer Sanjay Dutta of Belakoba Forest Range Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and Assistant Conservator Ritesh Sarothiya of Madhya Pradesh State Forest Service have been selected as winners of the Bavin Awards, President Cathy Liss of Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) in Washington, D.C., U.S., said in an email. The U.S.-based Species Survival Network, in cooperation with the AWI, coordinates the presentation of the awards.
  The ceremony will be held on October 3 at the 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Johannesburg, South Africa.
  
  The honour is named in memory of Bavin, the late Chief of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s Division of Law Enforcement. Bavin pioneered the highly effective use of covert investigations and ‘sting’ operations to uncover illegal wildlife trade.
  
• Syrian aid group wins Livelihood award: The White Helmets, a Syrian civil organization of emergency responders in rebel-held areas, on 22^nd September won the Right Livelihood Award, the jury for the Swedish human rights prize announced.
  Also known as the Syria Civil Defence, the group was honored for their outstanding bravery, compassion and humanitarian engagement in rescuing civilians from the destruction of the Syrian civil war.
  Russian activist Svetlana Gannushkina, who has championed the rights of refugees for decades, Egypt’s feminist leader Mozn Hassan, and Cumhuriyet , a leading independent newspaper in Turkey, also shared the prize with the White Helmets.
  
  Swedish-German philatelist Jakob von Uexkull founded the donor-funded prize in 1980 after the Nobel Foundation refused to create awards honouring efforts in the fields of the environment and international development.
  
• Abraham Verghese: Indian-American physician-author Abraham Verghese, whose work has emphasised empathy in medicine, has been selected for the prestigious 2015 National Humanities Medal, the White House has announced.
  
  US President Barack Obama would confer the honour upon Verghese, along with 11 others, and the recipients of 2015 National Medal of Arts at ceremony on September 21.
  
  Currently a professor of medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine Verghese has authored several acclaimed books, including "My Own Country" and "Cutting for Stone".
  
  Inaugurated in 1997, the National Humanities Medal honours individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation's understanding of the human experience, broadened citizens' engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects, according to the National Endowment for the Humanitie website. Up to 12 medals are awarded each year.
  
• Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma conferred with Arjuna Award
  Sports Minister Vijay Goel on 16th September conferred Arjuna Awards on cricketers Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane at a function in New Delhi. Sharma was given the award for 2015 and Rahane for 2016.
  
  Earlier, the two cricketers could not receive the awards from the President Pranab Mukherjee as they were participating in international tournaments.
  
• Two Indo Americans awarded
  Two Indo-American scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have been conferred with prestigious awards for their path-breaking inventions
  
  Nasik-born Ramesh Raskar, an imaging scientist and inventor at MIT, has been awarded the five lakh US Dollars Lemelson-MIT Prize 2016.
  
  Raskar, is the co-inventor of radical imaging solutions including femto-photography -- an ultra-fast imaging system that can see around corners -- low-cost eye-care solutions for the developing world, and a camera that allows users to read pages of a book without opening the cover.
  
  Dinesh Bharadia, researcher at MIT, won the Paul Baran Young Scholar Award of the US-based Marconi Society. A doctorate from Stanford University in April 2015 and a graduate in electrical engineering from IIT Kanpur, Bharadia, has been awarded for his contribution to radio waves. The Marconi young scholar award includes four thousand US Dollars prize. He will receive the award at a ceremony in Mountain View, California, on November 2.
  
• Indian film 'Thithi' wins best film award at BRICS Film Festival
  Indian film Thithi won the best film award at the BRICS Film Festival concluded in New Delhi on 6th September. Best Director Award went to Huo Jianqi of China. South Africa's Thabo Rametsi took home the best Actor award while Russian actor Yulia Peresild was given best actress award.
  
• Rishi Kapoor: Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor was on felicitated at the opening ceremony of the 1st BRICS Film Festival in New Delhi by Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathod and Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh for his and the Kapoor family’s contribution to the field of cinema.
  
  The festival, which is part of the special events planned in the run-up to the 8th BRICS Summit to be held in India, kickstarted here at Siri Fort Auditorium Complex with the screening of National Award-winning filmmaker Jayaraj’s multilingual film “Veeram”.
  
  The festival — which is an initiative announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last BRICS summit that was held in Russia — has a competition section in which 20 films will be screened.
  
  The jury of the festival will include one member from each country. These include journalist, producer and curator of film shows Francis Vogner do Reis from Brazil, Academic Secretary of the National Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences of Russia Kirill Razlogov, professor Hou Keming from Beijing Film Academy, China, member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Xoliswa Sithole from South Africa, and Indian writer, director and actor T.S. Nagabharana.
  
  The films that will be competing from India include magnum opus “Baahubali: The Beginning”, Bengali film “Cinemawala”, Kannada film “Thithi” and Bollywood film “Bajirao Mastani”. The closing ceremony of the festival will focus on the journey of Indian cinema and a cultural performance from China, the host for the next edition of the film festival. The first edition of the BRICS film festival will end on September 6 with the screening of Jackie Chan’s “Skiptrace”.
  
• Coimbatore wins the best corporation Skoch award
  The Coimbatore City Corporation has been adjudged the best among 100 corporations selected from across the country by Skoch, a Gurgaon-based independent group dealing with social economic issues. Coimbatore corporation commissioner K Vijaya Karthikeyan received the best corporation award at the 45th Skoch summit held in Hyderabad on 9th September. Pune was adjudged the second best city corporation while Surat and Vijayawada came third.
  
  The Coimbatore Corporation also won three platinum awards for different projects. In addition, it won seven orders of merits. The Coimbatore corporation won the order of merits for projects like Toilet First (in which a crowd funding application and website were launched to gather funds for constructing toilets for slum dwellers), Ukkadam Lake Restoration, solar lighting for roads and parks, happy child project Smart School with technology enabled learning and no food waste and decentralised solid waste management.
  
  Many officials and members of the NGO accompanied the corporation commissioner and received the award as well. The Trichy City Corporation bagged the Skoch award for best practices in community toilets.

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.

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.

AWARDS JUNE 2016

AWARDS JUNE 2016

• Bajrangi Bhaijaan',‘Bajirao Mastani' bag top honors at IIFA
   The Bollywood titans of 2015-- "Bajrangi Bhaijaan" and "Bajirao Mastani"-- emerged victorious at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards 2016 in Spain with the Salman Khan-starrer winning best picture while Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus taking home best director gong. Bajrangi Bhaijaan Director Kabir Khan.
  
  Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali was honoured with the award by his lead actors-- Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra. The historical romantic saga earned Ranveer the best actor trophy for his portrayal of the great Maratha warrior Peshwa Bajirao.
  
  Deepika who was nominated for two films in the best actress category won the honor for Shoojit Sarkar's "Piku”.
  
• Award for four Indian-Americans
  Google CEO Sunder Pichai, Hari Sreenivasan with PBS NewsHour, Vikram Malhotra with McKinsey and Bharati Mukherjee Award-winning author are four Indian-Americans among 42 US nationals to be honoured with this year's prestigious "Great Immigrants: The Pride of America" award.
  
  42 honourees represent 30 different countries of origin, a wide range of personal immigration stories, and inspiring professional accomplishments.
  
• Sanjay Mittal: The twenty-fifth G. D. Birla Award for Scientific Research for 2015 has been awarded to Prof. Sanjay Mittal from the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
  
  Prof. Mittal’s significant contributions have been in the area of Bluff Body Flows — flows past blunt bodies associated with large unsteady separation and leading to large fluid forces. He was instrumental in establishing the High Performance Computing (HPC) facility at IIT Kanpur and heads the National Wind Tunnel Facility.
  
• Shashi Kant Sharma:Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Shashi Kant Sharma has been conferred honorary professorship by the Nanjing Audit University in China on 25th June. CAG office in a release said, it is the only university which is recognised by the Institute of Internal Auditors.
  
• Ban Ki-moon: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree awarding the Order of Friendship to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
  
   The decoration was awarded to Ban for special merits in strengthening peace, friendship, cooperation and mutual understanding between peoples, the officially published decree said. Among those awarded are Prince Michael of Kent, Oscar Niemeyer, the architect of the Brazilian capital, and former President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge.
  
  The order, set up in 1994, is meant to reward Russian citizens and foreign nationals for outstanding accomplishments in strengthening peace and cooperation with Russia, as well as for charity activities.

AWARDS MAY 2016

AWARDS MAY 2016

• Mohinder Singh Syngle Education and Research Society
  Indian President Pranab Mukherjee presented the Malti Gyan Peeth Puraskar for 2016 at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Speaking on the occasion, the President said the teachers who had been awarded represent the dedicated teachers who are educating and extending learning opportunities to thousands of students in the country. He said from the Vedic era to modern times, under the Guru-Shishya parampara, gurus nourished the minds and intellect of our people.
  
  Mr. Mukherjee said teachers encourage students to be inquisitive and explore new frontiers of knowledge and understanding. The President said a pool of competent and motivated teachers, through their collective efforts, can create a society of strong minds and courageous hearts.
  
  The award is given Mohinder Singh Syngle Education and Research Society for spreading quality education in the rural areas.
  
• Arnab De: An Indian-American scientist has received the prestigious ‘Springer Theses Award’ for his outstanding research on developing transgenic mice to study a critical tumour-suppressor. Arnab De, who has also developed peptide-based prodrugs as therapeutics for diabetes, was nominated by New York’s Columbia University for his PhD thesis which he dedicated to legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and his alma mater Kolkata’s Presidency University.
  
  De, who has also received the ‘Young Investigator Award’ at the American Peptide Symposium, was awarded for developing transgenic mice to study a critical tumour-suppressor A20. The Springer Theses Award is awarded by Springer, a leading global publisher of renowned scientific journals and books, to recognise outstanding PhD research.
  
• Sudarsan Pattnaik: Renowned sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has won gold medal in a world sand art championship in Bulgaria. He has won people's choice prize for his sand sculpture 'Drugs kill Sports'.
  
  Pattnaik said it is an awareness sand sculpture to uphold the sanctity, richness and sports, as an ever cherished saga of entertainment source, in high esteem. The championship was held between May 26 and June 3 in which 10 artists from across the world has participated.
  
  Pattnaik said in his sculpture, he has created the two faces--one is of Lance Armstrong and another of Maria Sharapova, the two iconic players who were mired in the drug controversy, thus bringing bad name for themselves and the entire sports world.
  
• RR Hanchinal: RR Hanchinal, Chairperson of Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority, New Delhi, has been selected for the 6MS Swaminathan Award. A former Vice-Chancellor of University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, he has also been associated with the Indonesian government as an Advisor for field crop research.
  
  The Retired ICAR Employees Association (RICAREA) has instituted the national award since 2005. It is conferred biennially upon Indian scientists who have worked in India in any branch of agriculture to enhance productivity. The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 2 lakh, a medal and a citation. Hanchinal was instrumental in organising the commercial seed industry in West Africa, while serving as a seed production specialist for USAID and ICRISAT.
  
• Indian students win six awards at Intel competition in US
  Indian students have won six awards at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in the US where New Delhi’s Shreyas Kapur was declared the grand winner of the “Google Thinking Big Award.” Organised by Intel Corporation and the Society for Science and the Public in Arizona in May, the Indian team comprising 16 students won a total of $9,500 in three grand awards and three special awards in the fields of biotechnology, medicine, biomedical engineering and mathematics
  
  Kapur from Modern School at Barakhamba Road won the award for the “project that addresses a large and seemingly-impossible problem, by finding an elegant solution with broad impact”. His project titled “Cellphone-based Optometry using Hybrid Images” also won him third position in both the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Biomedical Engineering award.
  
  Arvind Krishna Ranganathan from Ecole Mondiale World School in Mumbai won the second place for his project titled “Deterministic Approach to the Position, Trajectory, and Collision Prediction of Particles within Bounded Two-Dimensional Environments”. Suhani Sachin Jain and Divya Kranthi of Centre Point School in Nagpur won the third award in plant sciences for developing an “Innovative Strategy using Endophytes for Effective Biocontrol of Insect Pests in Cotton”.
  
  Vasudev Malyan of Maharaja Agarsain Public School in Delhi won fourth spot in translational medical science for the development of a “Novel Paper Sensor as a Diagnostic Test for Multiple Sclerosis”. The 16 Indian students were selected to attend ISEF as finalists of the Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science (IRIS) 2016 that featured more than 1,700 young scientists selected from 419 affiliate fairs in 77 countries.
  
  The Intel Foundation also awarded $1,000 grant to each winner’s school and to the affiliated fair they represented.
  
• Sunil Mittal: Bharti Enterprises founder and Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal has received this year's Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award.
  
  The award, presented annually since 1968, is the highest honour the Harvard Business School confers on its alumni who have contributed significantly to their companies and communities while upholding the highest standards and values. On receiving the award, Mittal credited the Harvard Business School's management programme with helping him create Bharti Airtel.
  
• Aditi Krishnakumar: Indian woman author Aditi in Singapore has won the 'Scholastic Asian Book Award' for her 32,000-word manuscript rooted in "love of Indian history"
  
  Aditi Krishnakumar won the Singapore dollar 10,000 award this week for her manuscript "Codex: The Lost Treasure Of The Indus".
  
  Aditi, who submitted her manuscript hours before deadline last September, said she juggles writing with her career in finance and ekes out time at night and on weekends to dream up stories.
  
  The Scholastic Asian Book Award (SABA) is the joint initiative of the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS) and Scholastic Asia.
  
• UR Rao: Former ISRO Chairman UR Rao will become the first Indian to be inducted into the 'International Astronautical Federation (IAF) Hall of Fame'.
   Eminent space scientist Prof UR Rao will be honoured by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) with the 2016 'IAF Hall of Fame Award" for his outstanding contribution to the progress of astronautics within the framework of the IAF activities.
  
  The IAF award is intended to reward personalities for their contributions to the progress of astronautics and the Federation. He will receive the 'IAF Hall of Fame' Award during the 67th International Astronautical Congress in September 2016.
  
• Han Kang: South Korean author, Han Kang, has won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize for her novel 'The Vegetarian'. It tells a story of a wife who decides to become a vegetarian. The decision provokes cruelty from her husband, and from her father, and obsession from her sister’s husband, as the woman, Yeong-hye, dreams obsessively about becoming a tree.
  Han is the first South Korean to win the prize. The writer and her British translator will share the 72,000 Dollar prize money. The book was translated by Deborah Smith.
  
  The novel was picked unanimously by the panel of five judges, beating six other novels including "The Story of the Lost Child" by Italian sensation Elena Ferrante and "A Strangeness in My Mind" by Turkey's Orhan Pamuk. Judging panel chairman Boyd Tonkin said Han Kang's work was unforgettably powerful and original.
  
• Syamantak Payra: A 15-year old Indian-American student has won the prestigious Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award for creating a device for people who cannot walk well through disease or injury.
  Syamantak Payra, a student at Clear Brook High School in Friendswood, Texas, received one of two Intel Foundation Young Scientist Awards worth 50,000 dollars for developing a low cost electronically aided knee brace that allows an individual with a weakened leg to walk more naturally.
  
  Syamantak tested his prototype on two people partially disabled by polio, and it instantly increased their mobility and restored a more natural pace.
  
• Indian-American, Pakistani-American honoured by Obama
  US President Barack Obama has felicitated an Indian-American scientist and a Pakistani- American doctor with the nation's top honors in the field of science, technology and innovation respectively.
  
  Rakesh K Jain of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital was presented with the National Medal of Science for his role in developing novel strategies for manipulating tumors and translating those strategies into improved cancer detection, prevention, and treatment in humans.
  
  Humayun, who is a grandson of personal physician of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation for invention, development, and application of bioelectronics in medicine, including a retinal prosthesis for restoring vision to the blind, thereby significantly improving patients' quality of life.
  
• The National Florence Nightingale Awards were given away by the President Pranab Mukherjee to thirty-five nursing personnel at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan on the occasion of International Nurses Day. The Award carries a cash award of 50 thousand rupees, a certificate, a citation and a medal.
  The International Nurses Day is celebrated all over the world on 12th May every year to commemorate Florence Nightingale's birthday.
  
  President Pranab Mukherjee presented the National Florence Nightingale Awards for the year 2016 to thirty-five nursing personnel at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan on the occasion of International Nurses Day. These awards are being given since 1973. The International Nurses Day is celebrated all over the world on 12th May every year to commemorate Florence Nightingale's birth anniversary.
  
  Florence Nightingale introduced nursing to the world... It is pertinent to note that in the present time, the number of nurses in the country is about 16 lakh 60 thousand and by 2017, according to one estimate, 17 lakh nurses would be required to enable smooth functioning of health services in the country, while by 2022, there will be a requirement of 27 lakh nurses.
  
  Anjali Chandrashekar: A 22-year-old Indian artist is among the three winners of a UN poster competition aimed at raising awareness about nuclear disarmament, with her poster of a peace dove slicing through a nuclear weapon garnering appreciation from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
  
  Anjali Chandrashekar, a New York-based designer and "artivist", won the third prize in UN Poster for Peace contest presented by the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (ODA) to raise awareness of the need for nuclear disarmament.
  
  Titled 'Cutting Barriers through Peace', the poster features a peace dove slicing through a nuclear weapon. Another poster 'Break Free' by the Chennai girl, that shows doves flying out of a bird cage at the top of a nuclear weapon, received an honorable mention.
  
  She received her third-prize certificate from Ban at an award ceremony held here on May 3. Apart from the three winners, nine honorable mentions were chosen from among more than 4,100 entries representing 123 countries.
  
  The young artist was only 10 when she founded 'Picture It', a non-governmental organisation that uses imagery to raise awareness and funds for various health, humanitarian and environmental causes. The first prize went to 38-year-old Ivan Ciro Palomino Huamani from Peru for his 'Spinning Peace', which features a nuclear weapon being unraveled into string which is then used to fly kites and balloons, and to jump rope.
  
  Second place winner, 15-year-old Michelle Li, named her poster 'Peace in our Hands', which features a shadow puppet of a peace dove above a broken nuclear weapon.
  
  The competition was organised to commemorate the anniversary of the very first UN General Assembly resolution adopted in 1946 establishing a Commission to deal with problems related to the discovery of atomic energy.
  
• President gives away National film awards; Manoj Kumar honoured with Dadasaheb Phalke
  President Pranab Mukherjee on 3rd May conferred National film awards for the year 2015 at a glittering ceremony in New Delhi. Veteran Film Actor Manoj Kumar was presented with prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
  
  A total of 21 Awards were given by the President in the Non-Feature film category while 51 awards in the Feature Film category. Three awards were given to Best Writing on Cinema.
  
  In the Feature Film category, the Award for the Best Feature Film was given to Baahubali. The Award for the Best Popular Film providing Wholesome Entertainment was given to Hindi film Bajrangi Bhaijaan. The Award for the Best Film on Social Issues has been given to Nirnayakam.
  
  Best Director Award was conferred on Sanjay Leela Bansali for his Hindi Film Baajirao Mastani. Best Actor Award was given to Amitabh Bachchan for his film Piku and the Award for the Best Actress was conferred on Kangana Ranaut for the film, Tanu weds Manu Returns.
  
  The award for the Best Children's Film was given to Hindi Film Duronto. Master Gaurav Menon was conferred Award for Best Child Artist for Malayalam movie Ben.
  
  The Award for the Best Music direction has been conferred on M Jayachandran for Malayalam movie Ennu Ninte Moideen. Amdavad Ma Famous film got the award for best non feature film. This year National Film Awards included a special award given to the state of Gujarat for being the most film friendly state in the Country.
  
• Agriculture project in Andhra Pradesh wins WSIS 2016 prize
  An agriculture project in Andhra Pradesh meant to collect very specific climate data from farms and give farmers personalised information through SMS has won the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 2016 prize in e-Agriculture category. The prize was announced in Geneva by International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Secretary-General Houlin Zhao on 4th May.
  
  WSIS in a statement said that the project, Harmonized Information of Agriculture, Revenue and Irrigation for a Transformation Agenda - Precision Technology for Agriculture or Harita-Priya, uses wireless sensor networks to collect micro-climatic information from farms. The data is used to create advisories and alerts on irrigation schedules and pests and plant diseases. Based on this state agriculture officers disseminate personalised crop advisories in Telugu language to farmers by way of SMS.
  
  The WSIS Prizes recognize all players in the effort to improve global connectivity, from governments and global ICT (information communication technology) companies to grassroots NGOs leading innovative ICT-oriented projects at the local level. A total of 18 prizes were awarded in categories ranging from international cooperation to information ethics. The prize in the e-Agriculture category was the only one won by an Indian organisation.
  
• Award for LIGO scientists
  A team of scientists, who are working with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (LIGO) experiment, have received a Special Breakthrough Prize in fundamental physics.
  
  The LIGO experiment had discovered the gravitational waves in September 2015. Since 2012, the Breakthrough Prizes have been given for breakthrough achievements in mathematics, physics and the life sciences. Along with each prize also comes a reward of whopping $3 million.
  
  A ceremony will be held in the fall of 2016 in which the laureates will all be recognised, website of the Breakthrough Prize says. The international LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), which involves thousands of scientists and engineers, maintains and operates the LIGO. Two subsets of the LSC will receive the prize of $3 million out of which $1 million will be distributed among the three conceivers of LIGO – Kip Thorne, Ray Weiss and Ron Drever.
  
  The another $2 million will be distributed among 1,012 scientists who helped discover the gravitational waves.
  
  According to the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), Bengaluru, 37 researchers from around India belong to the second subset. Seven, including including Bala Iyer, a notable veteran of gravitational physics research, are from the ICTS itself.