Current Affairs February 2019 - Awards

1 - France’s Highest Civilian Honour is Conferred to Old Bengal Priest Father Francois Laborde

The 92 years old, Father Francois Laborde has been awarded with highest civilian award of France, Legion d’Honneur. This award is presented to Father Laborde for his unforgettable work for the specially-abled children in Howrah.

Father Laborde set up an organization, namely Howrah South Point to uplift the most deprived section of the society, specially-abled children.

According to the ambassador of France to India, Alexandre Ziegler, France was happy to present the highest civilian honour award, Legion d’Honneur to Father Laborde.

2 - Manus Island Refugee Behrouz Boochani Won Australian Literary Prize

Refugee of Manus Island, Bahrouz Boochani has been awarded the country’s most valuable literacy award, namely Victorian Premier's Literary Award for his novel, “No friends But the Mountains”. This award includes $1,00,000 prize as well as $25,000 for acquiring first place in the category of non-fiction.

Mr. Boochani had written entire novel from the prison by typing in mobile phone and sent his writings to the translator Omid Tofighian via WhatsApp, in pieces and bits.

The Human Rights Law Centre of Australia has tweeted their congratulations to Boochani. They called this novel "an Australian story that as a nation we cannot be proud of, but it's a story that cannot be ignored".

3 - Uniphore Software Systems conferred with Aegis Graham Bell Award 2019

Samith Ramachandran, Vice President & Head of Products, Uniphore Software Systems received the Aegis Graham Bell Award 2019 for “Innovation in Data Science”. The award is given by Ameya Abhyankar, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Goa.

In addition to this, Senior Marketing Manager of Uniphore Software Systems, Mohammed Nawaz was also present at the award ceremony.

4 - President of India Presented Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards 2017

Honorable President of India, Mr. Ram Nath Kovind has presented the highest recognition award of India for an artist, “Sangeet Natak Akademi” award for 2017 to 42 artists in the ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi.

Awardees in the field of music are Tabla player Yogesh Samsi, Carnatic vocalist M S Sheela, Carnatic veena player Suma Sudhindra, flautist and shehnai player Rajendra Prasanna, Carnatic mridangam player Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan, Madhurani, Carnatic flautist Shashank Subramanyam and Haimanti Sukla for Sugam Sangeet, and Gurnam Singh for Gurbani, Hindustani vocalist Lalith J Rao.

In addition to this, 9 were awarded in the field of dance namely Rama Vaidyanathan for Bharatnatyam, Shobha Koser for Kathak, Madambi Subramanian Namboodiri for Kathakali, IN Oinam Ongbi Dhoni Devi for Manipuri dance, Deepika Reddy for Kuchipudi, Ramkrishna Talukdar for Sattriya, Janmajoy Saibabu for Chhau, and Ashit Desai (composer).

5 - SBI UK Chief conferred with "Freedom of the City of London"

City of London Corporation has presented “Freedom of the City of London” award to UK Chief of State Bank of India (SBI), Mr. Sanjiv Chandra for his contribution in the bilateral relation between UK and India.

Lord Mayor of London, Peter Estlin and Sheriff Vincent Keaveny nominated Mr. Chandra for this award.

6 - Canadian Academy Conferred Deepa Mehta with Lifetime Achievement Award

Vetarian Indo-Canadian filmmaker, Deepa Mehta has been awarded with Lifetime Achievement award by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Ms. Mehta is most famous for her elemental trilogy, “Fire”, “Earth” and “Water”.

Besides, Ms. Mehta previously received Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in 2012. At present, Ms. Mehta is working with Netflix on the web seri “Leila”.

Ms. Mehta was born in India but after her marriage with documentary filmmaker, Paul Saltzman, she moved to Canada.

7 - BAFTA Awards 2019 – “Roma” Film Won Best Picture

Netflix Film “Roma” has won award in 72^nd British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards ceremony, 2019 (BAFTA Awards 2019) which was held on February 10, 2019 in Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom.

Film “Roma” is all about the life of a middle class domestic worker in 1970s residing in Mexico.

This film is semi-autobiographical film of Alfonso Cuaron. It is also selected for Oscar Award and became the first film of Netflix to get selected for such a prestigious award.

8 - Sanjay Subrahmanyam Won Israel’s Million Dollar Dan David Prize

Historian of India, Mr. Sanjay Subrahmanyam has won one of the prestigious awards of Israel. The name of award is Dan David Prize, given in the category of ‘Past time Dimension’ for his eminent work in the field of macro history.

Mr. Subrahmanyam has shared the award in the past category with Professor Kenneth Pomeranz of University of Chicago

According to Mr. Subrahmanyam, when he gets prize money then he donates 10% for the scholarship of graduate and post-graduate researchers.

Note: It is the culture of the Dan David Prize laureates that awardee needs to donate 10 percent of their prize money towards scholarships for graduate or post-graduate researchers in their respective fields to encourage and foster new generations of scholars.

9 - Bradley Cooper Won PETA’s ‘Oscat’ award for A Star is Born

Actor and Director, Bradley Cooper has been awarded with ‘Oscat’ award, presented by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

The award is presented to Mr. Cooper for casting his own dog, Charlie in the film ‘A Star is Born’ rather than casting any trained dog or any animal from other suppliers.

10 - Top Swachhata Excellence Awards 2019 Announced

During the Shehri Samridhi Utsav in New Delhi, Swachhata Excellence Awards 2019 has been presented to the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) cities and municipal corporations of Raigarh, Ambikapur, and Kumbakonam.

Raigarh’s AMRUT and municipal corporation won first prize, Ambikapur won second prize and Kumbakonam won third prize.

Further, as per the statement of Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, Nagar Palika Parishad of Jashpur Nagar, Malappuram Municipality, and Nagar Palika Parishad Surajpur had won the prizes in category of "Statutory Towns".

11 - De Goede, Van Doren Won 2018 FIH Player of the Year Awards

International Hockey Federation Player of the Year Award 2018, presented to the Eva de Goede. She is from Netherlands. She is titled as the female player of the year.

Arthur van Doren of Belgium was titled with the male player of the year for the year of 2018.

The FIH Player of the Year Award have been awarded to the male and female hockey players by the International Hockey Federation. It is established in 1998 and present award to the players every year since then.

12 - Shiv Chhatrapati Awards Given to Uday Deshpande and Smriti Mandhana

Maharashtra Government has presented the Life time achievement Award to Mallakhamb coach, Mr. Uday Deshpande for the year of 2017-18. In addition to this, Ms. Smriti Mandhana has been awarded with "Shiv Chhatrapati award for the players among several others". The awards are presented by the Maharashtra’s Governor, Mr. C. Vidyasagar Rao.

On 17 February, the award event is held at the Gate way of India, Mumbai.

Mr. Deshpande is known for promoting the traditional sport of India, namely Mallakahamb which is a traditional and native sport. In this game, practitioner performs different gymnastic and yoga postures with wrestling grips on an erect pole or a suspended rope.

13 - Rabindranath Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony Awarded by the President

Honorable President of India, Mr. Ram Nath Kovind has presented the Rabindranath Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony to Shri Rajkumar Singhajit Singh. It is given for the year 2014.

However, for the year 2015, it is given to cultural organization of Bangladesh Chhayanaut; and for the year 2016, it is given to Shri Ram Sutar Vanji.

In the year 2012, the Rabindranath Tagore Award was inaugurated by the government, during the commemoration of the 150^th Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore.

14 - Sunil Chhetri awarded the India’s First-ever “Football Ratna”

The professional Indian striker, Sunil Chhetri has been awarded with first ever Football Ratna award by Delhi Football, the State Association (governing the sport in Delhi).

The award has been presented to Mr. Chhetri by the President of Delhi Football, Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran in the award ceremony. The ceremony was held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.

15 - Rajyavardhan Rathore Presented the 7^th National Photography Awards in New Delhi

On February 19, 2019, the 7^th National Photography Awards were presented by Rajyavardhan Rathore in New Delhi. A total of 13 awards were presented for different categories.

Ashok Dilwali won ‘Life Time Achievement Award,’ SL Shanth Kumar won ‘Professional Photographer of the Year Award’, ‘Amateur Photographer of the year award was given to Gurdeep Dhiman,’ Arun Sreedhar, PV SUnderrao, Kailash Mittal, Mihir Singh, Ranita Roy won ‘Special Mention Awards (Professional),’ and V Ravi Kumar, S Neelima, Manish Jaisi, Mahesh Balasaheb Lonkar, Avijit Datta were awarded with ‘Special Mention Awards (Amateur).

16 - Manpreet Singh Honored with AHF's Player of the Year

Indian hockey skipper, Mr. Manpreet Singh has been honored with the Player of the Year Award for 2018 by the Asian Hockey Federation.

In addition to this, women team’s striker, Lalremisiami has been awarded with Rising Player of the Year Award.

Manpreet contributed a lot by leading India’s team to an unbeatable streak at the Asian Champions Trophy at Muscat. He has also won Asian Championship Trophy along with Pakistan.

17 - Apurvi Chandela Won Gold in Women's 10m Air Rifle

Apurvi Chandela has won India’s first medal of International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup 2019.

Apurvi won gold medal for women’s 10-meter air rifle event held at Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi. In addition to this, Apurvi also created the new world record by scoring 251.9 points in the finals.

18 - Oscars Award 2019: Full List of Winners

The 91^st Academy awards (more popular as Oscar award) have been announced at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

The following table illustrates the name of significant winners along with their categories:

19 - India Shines at Oscars, 'Period. End of Sentence' Won Documentary Short Subject

An Indian short film, ‘Period. End of Sentence’ has won the Oscar award for the category of Documentary Short Subject at the 91^st Academy Awards.

This film is based on menstruation and its conditions in the rural areas. This film is directed by the Award winning filmmaker, Rayka Zehtabchi.

20 - Saurabh Chaudhary Won Gold in 10m air Rifle at Shooting World Cup

Sourabh Choudhary has become the second to clinch the gold medal in 10-meter air rifle at International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup 2019.

Sourabh already won gold medals at Youth Olympics and Asian Games. He has attended the top shot in the 10-meter air pistol event of the World Cup.

Sourabh created world record by scoring 245 points to claim the top shot. With this record, he booked his place for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

21 - First Indian-origin Woman to Get Blue Plaque in UK

Indian-origin woman, Late Noor Inayat Khan has become the first Indian woman to get Blue Plaque award at London, United Kingdom.

Noor Inayat Khan was the daughter of Indian Sufi Saint Hazrat Inayat Khan and an agent of Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II.

Spy of Britain, Noor Inayat Khan had been killed in 1944 by the NAZIS at the very young age of 30.

22 - President Presented Gandhi Peace Prize

Honorable President of India, Mr. Ram Nath Kovind presented the Gandhi peace prize for the years 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 at Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi.

The recipient of Gandhi peace prize for the above mentioned years are listed below −

• Mr. Vivekananda Kendra for the year 2015,

• Akshaya Patra foundation and Sulabh International for 2016,

• Ekal Abhiyan Trust for 2017 and

• Yohei Sasakawa for 2018.

Instituted in 1995, Gandhi peace prize was inaugurated for Social, Economic and Political transformation through Non-violence. The prize carries one crore rupees and a citation.

23 - Abhijeet Gupta Won Cannes International Open Trophy

Indian Chess master, Mr. Abhijeet Gupta has been awarded with Cannes International Open trophy.

Abhijeet won the tournament with 7.5 points and also this is his first solo International tournament victory.

24 - PM Modi Presented the National Youth Parliament Awards

Honorable Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi presented the National Youth Parliament Awards to the winners at the Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

The theme of this year award is "Be the Voice of New India". Youth of the age of 18-25 years were invited to participate in the district, state and national level youth parliament.

In this, Shweta Umre of Maharashtra won first prize, Anjankshi MS of Karnataka won second prize and Mamta Kumari of Bihar won third prize.

In addition to this, the best three speakers were awarded with Rs. 2 lakhs for first position, Rs. 1.50 lakhs for second and Rs. 1 lakh for third.

25 - Manu, Saurabh Won 10 m Air Pistol Mixed Team gold

Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker have won the gold medal for the 10-meter Air Pistol Mixed Team event in the ISSF World Cup at Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi.

They scored 483.5 points to finish on the top position. In addition to this, both of them already won gold in ISSF World Cup for Solo Shooting.