Current Affairs April 2016 - Awards

News 1 - Jailed Egyptian author-journalist Ahmed Naji to receive the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award

Imprisoned Egyptian author and journalist, Ahmed Naji, is being awarded the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award, presented by PEN America at Pen America's annual Literary Gala on 16 May 2016 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Harry Potter creator, J.K. Rowling will be honoured with the 2016 PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award for engendering a love of literature among children worldwide.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha and LeeAnne Walters will accept the 2016 PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award for their brave efforts to expose the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Additionally, the gala will applaud its Publisher Honoree, Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch, for his leadership in the fight against censorship.

News 2 - Ranveer Singh honoured as 'Maharashtrian of The Year'

Actor Ranveer Singh will be honoured as ‘Maharashtrian of The Year’ for his role of Maratha warrior Peshwa Bajirao II in “Bajirao Mastani”.

The award is given to those individuals who have positively influenced the Brand Maharashtra. The jury members to choose the awardee for this year included former Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Former Union Minister Praful Patel, eminent lawyer Ujjwal Nikam, social activist Medha Patkar, businessman Harsh Goenka, veteran journalist Ayaz Memon, filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar and others.

News 3 - PM Modi conferred Saudi Arabia’s highest civilian award

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred the King Abdulaziz Sash honor – the highest civilian honor of Saudi Arabia by King Salman bin Abdulaziz at the Royal Court, Riyadh. The prestigious award is awarded to citizens of Saudi Arabia and foreigners for meritorious service to the Kingdom.

The other prominent recipients of this award in the past include Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, British Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

News 4 - President Pranab Mukherjee presented the National Geoscience Awards 2014

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee conferred the National Geoscience Awards 2014 (NGA2014) at the Cultural Centre, Rashtrapati Bhavan. The award carries a cash prize and a certificate.

Prof. A. K. Singhvi, Honorary Professor, PRL Ahmadabad received the Award for Excellence for his outstanding contributions in the field of Quaternary Geology and Dr. Indra Kumar Sen, Assistant professor, IIT, Kanpur received the Young Scientist Award for his contributions in the field of geochemical evolution of earth. Besides them, thirty-one geoscientists received the award, as individuals or team, for their meritorious contributions in twelve fields of geosciences.

News 5 - Mother Teresa conferred with the Founders Award in UK

Mother Teresa was posthumously conferred with the UK's prestigious Founders Award 2016.

The Founders Award at the 6^th Asian Awards takes place in the UK to recognize and reward exemplary achievement within the global Asian community across 14 categories that include business, philanthropy, entertainment, culture and sport. The Asian awards was launched in 2010 by Paul Sagoo, entrepreneur and founder of the Lemon group.

News 6 - Azerbaijani journalist, Khadija Ismayilova awarded the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize 2016

Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative journalist from Azerbaijan, has been chosen to receive the 2016 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in recognition of her outstanding contribution to press freedom in difficult circumstances. The $25,000 Prize will be awarded during the celebration of World Press Freedom Day, 3 May, hosted by Finland this year.

The award is named in the honor of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist and honors a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and, or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world.

News 7 - Priyanka Chopra to be awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Film Foundation Award 2016

Priyanka Chopra will be awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Film Foundation’s best actress of the year award for the second time for her performance in “Bajirao Mastani”. She had earlier received it for 'Most Memorable Performance' for the 2011 film Saath Khoon Maaf. The Dadasaheb Film Foundation will honor the actress on the occasion of 147^th Dadasaheb Phalke Jayanti in Mumbai on April 24^th 2016.

She has also received the Padma Shri in 2016. She also became the first South Asian actor to win People's Choice Awards (Favourite actress) for her role as FBI agent in American TV show Quantico.

News 8 - IIT - Kharagpur wins the National IP Award

The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur has won the National Intellectual Property (IP) Award in the academic institutes category for its ‘100 patents drive’ initiative. The IP Portal simplifies the process of patent filing by students as well as professors who have done some extensive research within the institute. The award carries an amount of Rs. 1,00,000, a citation and a memento.

The Indian Intellectual Property Office (IIPO) under the aegis of Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry bestows National Intellectual Property Awards annually to outstanding innovators, organizations and companies in the fields of patents, designs, and trademarks on the occasion of World IP Day.

News 9 - Aishwarya Rai Bachchan won the Global Indian of the Year award

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan won the Global Indian of the Year 2016 award. She was honoured at the NRI of the Year award function held in Mumbai. The actress dedicated the award to her daughter Aaradhya. This NRI of the Year Award recognizes outstanding achievements of the Indian diaspora globally.

Sania Mirza was also honoured at the NRI of the Year Award 2016. Altogether 17 individuals were awarded under different categories like entrepreneur, professional, academics, arts & culture, philanthropy, special jury award, global icon of the year and India’s global icon award.

News 10 - President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Padma Awards 2016

President Pranab Mukherjee conferred 5 Padma Vibhushan, 11 Padma Bhushan and 40 Padma Shri awards from the remaining of the Padma Awards on 12 April 2016 at a Civil Investiture Ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

News 11 - Ex-Army Chief JJ Singh received the highest French civilian honor

Former army chief Gen. (Retd) JJ Singh was conferred with the highest French civilian distinction, Officer of the Legion of Honor (Officier de l Ordre national de la Legion d Honneur) in recognition of his "stellar role" in modernizing the Indian Army and initiating robust exchanges between the Indian and French armies leading to "unprecedented" levels of cooperation and inter- operability and creation of enduring ties and promotion of mutual understanding between the two countries.

It is the highest civilian award given by the French Republic for outstanding service to France, regardless of the nationality of the recipients.

News 12 - Viswanathan Anand receives the Hridaynath Mangeshkar Award 2016

Viswanathan Anand was conferred with the Hridaynath Award by the Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao for his contributions to the game of Chess in India by becoming five-time world chess champion. The honor comprises a cash award of Rs. 2 lakhs and a memento. He joined the elite list in the likes of Lata Mangeshkar, Babasaheb Purandare, Asha Bhosle, Amitabh Bachchan, Hariprasad Chaurasia and AR Rahman to have received this award.

Anand became India's first grandmaster in 1988. He held the FIDE World Chess Championship title from 2000 to 2002 and became the undisputed world champion in 2007.

News 13 - Padma Sachdev gets the Saraswati Samman 2015

Author and poet Padma Sachdev was chosen for the prestigious Saraswati Samman for 2015 for her autobiography titled Chitt-Chete, written in Dogri language and published in 2007 from among five works that were shortlisted from 22 works in as many languages published between the years 2005-2014. The award carries an award money of Rs. 15 lakh, a citation and a plaque.

She has 60 books to her credit. She has been a recipient of Sahitya Akademi in 1971 for her book of poetry 'Meri Kavita Mere Geet'. She has also received the Padma Shri, the Indian fourth highest civilian award in 2001, and the Kabir Samman for poetry for the year 2007-2008, given by the Government of Madhya Pradesh.

News 14 - Lifetime Achievement Award for T. N. Ninan

The Mumbai Press Club has bestowed the Redink Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism on T. N. Ninan, Chairman & Editorial Director of Business Standard. The award is a part of the RedInk Awards for Excellence in Journalism. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes Mr. Ninan's extensive contribution to business journalism through good editorial leadership he provided over the years to a host of publications.

RedInk 'Journalist of the Year' Award has been given to TV anchor and NDTV India's senior Executive Editor, Ravish Kumar, for his consistent and down to earth reporting on politics and issues that concern the common man.

News 15 - President of India presents Hindi Sevi Samman Awards

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee presented the Hindi Sevi Samman Awards for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 today (April 19, 2016) at a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan in the presence of Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Minister of Human Resource Development and other dignitaries.

These Awards were instituted by Central Hindi Institute, Agra in 1989. 14 scholars receive this award in seven different categories every year for their contribution in the field of Hindi language and literature.

News 16 - President honors Chinese Professor Ge Fuping with the George Grierson prize for promoting Hindi

President Pranab Mukherjee honoured the Chinese professor Ge Fuping with the George Grierson prize for the efforts made by him towards promotion of Hindi language abroad. Apart from him, Alka Dunputh (from Mauritius) and Shichiro Soma (from Japan) were also given the George Grierson award by the President.

These awards were instituted by Central Hindi Institute, Agra in 1989. 14 scholars receive this award in seven different categories every year for their contribution in the field of Hindi language and literature.

News 17 - 2016 Pulitzer Prizes Announced

The winners of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize, which also marks the 100^th awarding of the Pulitzer Prizes, were announced on 18^th April.

The Associated Press won the gold medal in public service for its investigation series entitled "Seafood from Slaves" about the Southeast Asian fishing industry. The series helped secure the freedom for more than 2,000 slaves. It is the 52^nd Pulitzer won by the AP.

News 18 - Cyprus honors Indian diplomat Amitav Banerji

Amitav Banerji, 63, an Indian diplomat in the UK, has been conferred with Commander of the Order of Merit, one of the highest awards of Cyprus, for his work in a number of senior roles within the Commonwealth Secretariat for over two decades. The award was presented to him at a ceremony at the Cyprus High Commission.

He joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1975 and served in different capacities for 15 years. From August 1990 to May 2015, he served in a series of roles at the Commonwealth Secretariat including Head of the Secretary General's Office. During the last six years, he served as a Political Director.

News 19 - Radhika Apte won the best actress award at Tribeca Film Fest 2016

Bollywood actress Radhika Apte won the best actress award in an international narrative feature at the Tribeca Film Festival 2016. She won the award for her role in Clean Shaven, a part of Madly, directed by Anurag Kashyap. Madly is a mixture of six short stories, directed by different directors. The movie also stars Satyadeep Misra.

"This award goes to an actress who has conveyed bravery and emotional depth in different relationships around her." said the jury on her selection. The award was given by Jean Reno.

News 20 - Manoj Bajpayee to be honoured with Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 'Aligarh'

Actor Manoj Bajpayee will be honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in the Best Actor category (Critics’ Choice) for his performance in the movie “Aligarh”. This award is scheduled to be presented to him on the 1^st of May, 2016.

Manoj Bajpayee had played the role of a Professor 'Ramchandra Siras' in this movie. On the work front, the actor will next be seen as a traffic constable in the upcoming film “Traffic”.

News 21 - IIT scholar, K Ashok Kumar, won the International Award on Plant Nutrition

Mr. K Ashok Kumar, a food engineering research scholar from IIT Kharagpur, won the prestigious International Plant Nutrition Scholar Award given by the US-based International Plant Nutrition Institute. The award carries a cash prize of USD 2,000 and a recognition certificate.

The research will help application of organic fertilizer such as vermicompost in the right amount and time, to the rice crop. It will help the yield of rice-chickpea cropping system to increase by 10 per cent.

News 22 - Sudarsan Pattnaik won the gold medal at Sculpture Championship in Moscow

Sand Artist, Sudarsan Pattnaik won the gold medal at 9^th Moscow Sand Sculpture Championship, “The magical world of sand” 2016, in Russia. He won the championship for best composition ‘Mahatma Gandhi – World Peace’, a 15ft high sand sculpture.

Around 20 sand artists from different countries participated at the championship. Mr. Pattnaik has participated in more than 50 international sand sculpture championships.

News 23 - Pakistan’s Swat activist Tabassum Adnan wins Nelson Mandela Award 2016

Ms. Tabassum Adnan, a women's rights activist from Swat valley received the Nelson Mandela – Graça Machel Innovation Award 2016 in Bogota, Colombia for the individual activist category on the concluding day of the International Civil Society Week (ICSW) held from April 25-28.

Ms. Tabassum Adnan, a victim of child marriage, launched her NGO, Khwendo Jirga, or Sister’s Council, a women-only Jirga where women meet weekly to discuss issues such as honor killings, acid attacks and swara — the practice of giving women as compensation for crimes.

News 24 - Highest civilian honor to two Indians by Mongolia at the 60th Anniversary of Indo-Mongolian diplomatic relations

Mongolia conferred its highest civilian award, ‘the North Star’, on two Indian scholars Lokesh Chandra, president of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), and Mansura Haider, former academic adviser at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), who are experts on that country.

It was presented by the Mongolian Foreign Minister Lundeg Purevsuren. This year is being the 60^th Anniversary of Indo-Mongolian diplomatic relations and India is Mongolia's spiritual neighbor.