Current Affairs July 2016 - Awards

News 1 - President presents B.C. Roy National Awards for years 2008, 2009 & 2010

President Pranab Mukherjee presented the Dr B.C. Roy national awards for 2008, 2009 and 2010 at Rashtrapati Bhavan on the occasion of Doctors' Day. The B.C. Roy Awards were instituted by the Medical Council of India in 1976 in memory of the renowned physician and former West Bengal Chief Minister Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy.

The awardees for 2010, 2009, 2008 are:

News 2 - Radhika Menon first woman to be honored with Exceptional Bravery Award at Sea

The 2016 International Maritime Organisation Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea will be honored to Captain Radhika Menon for her role in the dramatic rescue of seven fishermen from a sinking fishing boat in tumultuous seas in the Bay of Bengal. Captain Menon was nominated by the Government of India in IMO, which is United Nations specialized agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping.

Captain Menon is the first woman captain in the Indian Merchant Navy and will be the first woman to receive the IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea.

News 3 - The 2016 Caine Prize honor for South African writer Lidudumalingani Mqombothi

Lidudumalingani Mqombothi from South Africa won '2016 The Caine Prize' for his African Writing on short story Memories We Lost’. As a Caine Prize winner, Lidudumalingani will be allowed to take up a month’s residence at Georgetown University as a Writer-inResidence at the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice.

In addition to a money prize of £10,000, he’ll also be invited to share few words at the Library of Congress and receive invitations to take part in Cape Town’s Open Book Festival, Nairobi’s Storymoja and Nigeria’s Ake Festival.

His winning story, “Memories We Lost,” explains about mental health through the relationship of two sisters in a South African village, one of whom is schizophrenic and the other her protector.

News 4 - The President Awarded 51^st Jnanpith Award to Dr. Raghuveer Chaudhari

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee conferred the 51^st Jnanpith Award on renowned writer, Dr. Raghuveer Chaudhari at an event in New Delhi. Dr. Chaudhari has been an ardent writer of Hindi columns as well, and his literary work has explored varied genre of poetry, prose, novels, and fictions as also commentary on contemporary issues.

Jnanpith award is a ceremony to recall the contributions of Late Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain and Late Smt. Rama Jain, whose efforts in promoting Indian languages and literature and establishing the Bhartiya Jnanpith remain a shining example.

News 5 - Advay Ramesh of Chennai wins the Google Community Impact Award from Asia

The 14-year-old Advay Ramesh from Chennai has bagged the prestigious Google Community Impact Award from Asia. The theme based award is a part of Google Science Fair 2016 and honors a project that makes a practical difference in the innovator's community by addressing an environmental, health or resources challenge.

Advay presented his project on creating ‘FishErmen Lifeline Terminal (FELT)’ to enhance the fishermen safety and productivity using Global Positioning Services (GPS). He won 10,000 US dollars in funding and a yearlong mentorship from Scientific American to further help develop his winning project. He has also been chosen among the Top 20 finalists shortlisted to compete for a Grand Prize worth 50,000 dollars in scholarship.

News 6 - Nigerian Journalist Didi Akinyelure wins the BBC World News Komla Dumor Award

Nigerian journalist Didi Akinyelure has won the second BBC World News Komla Dumor Award for 2016. She is a prime-time news anchor in Nigeria and presents business news for CNBC, which broadcasts across the continent. She is also the second recipient of the award, which was established to honor Komla Dumor, a presenter for BBC World News, who died suddenly aged 41 in 2014.

As part of her award prize, she will start a three-month placement at the BBC in London in September 2016. The first Komla Dumor Award was won by Ugandan news anchor Nancy Kacungira.

News 7 - Kerala Tourism fetched itself two Golds at PATA awards

Kerala Tourism has struck gold at the Pacific Asia Travel Association awards in recognition of its trend setting marketing initiatives.

The two gold medals for 'Marketing Media' are in the categories of 'Travel Advertisement Broadcast Media' and 'E-Newsletter', which were clinched by the successful 'Visit Kerala' television commercial campaign and the popular Kerala Tourism E-Newsletter respectively. Last year, Kerala Tourism was also awarded the PATA Gold in the Heritage and Culture category for the Muziris Heritage Project.

News 8 - A. Kanyakumari becomes the first woman violinist to receive the Sangita Kalanidhi Award

Well known Violinist, A. Kanyakumari, became the first female violinist chosen for the Sangita Kalanidhi award by the Music Academy. She will preside over the 90^th Annual Conference of the Music Academy scheduled from December 15, 2016 to January 1, 2017.

The Sangita Kala Acharya Awards will go to Rudrapatnam brothers, R.N. Thyagarajan and R.N. Tharanathan and K. Venkataramanan. The TTK awards will be conferred on vocalist Nirmala Sundararajan and Thevaram singer M. Kodilingam. The Musicologist Award will go to Rama Kausalya and the Pappa Venkatramaiah Award will go to violinist Sikkil Baskaran. The Nataya Kala Acharaya Award will be conferred to Malavika Sarukkai.

News 9 - Bezwada Wilson, T M Krishna win Ramon Magsaysay Award 2016

Acclaimed Carnatic Musician TM Krishna and Social Activist Bezwada Wilson have made it to the list of the 2016 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees. Other winners are Conchita CarpioMorales from Philippines, Dompet Dhuafa from Indonesia, Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and Vientiane Rescue from Laos.

Krishna has been conferred the award for ‘Ensuring Social Inclusiveness in Culture’. While, Bezwada Wilson is a campaigner and founder of an organization called the Safai Karmachari Andolan and has been instrumental in bringing down the number of manual scavengers.

News 10 - Football Club East Bengal to honor Milkha Singh with the Bharat Gaurav Award

Kolkata's football club, East Bengal, has announced that this year’s Bharat Gaurav award (Pride of India) would be conferred to legendary Athlete Milkha Singh. He will be given an award and a cheque of Rs. 2 lakhs.

Special awards along with a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh each will be given to East Bengal greats Shyam Thapa and Shyamal Ghosh. The trophy for the Best Footballer of the Year will be given to the South Korean Midfielder Do Dong Hyun, who will also receive Rs. 50000. Veteran Sports Reporter Debashish Dutta and Photo Journalist Rony Roy will also be receiving awards for their contribution over the years.

News 11 - Four new writers get the Jananpith 'Navlekhan' award

Four writers were awarded the Bharatiya Jnanpith's 11^th Navlekhan award for the year 2015. These include Amlendu Tiwari and Balram Kawant who 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.

News 12 - Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award to Srinivasan K Swamy

The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) conferred its Lifetime Achievement Award to Mr. Srinivasan K Swamy. He is popularly known as Sundar Swamy. This award is the highest honor to be given to an individual in India for their outstanding contribution to the advertising industry.

Mr. Swamy is the Chairman of the R.K. Swamy Hansa, a diversified Marketing Communications Group. He is also the Vice Chairman of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and a Board Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

News 13 - Former India Football Team Captain Syed Nayeemuddin to be awarded the Mohun Bagan Ratna

Former India Football Team Captain Syed Nayeemuddin will be awarded the prestigious Mohun Bagan Ratna (Jewel) this year. He will also be given a cheque of Rs. 1 lakh. He is the 16^th recipient of the prestigious award.

Nayeemuddin is the only athlete to have been conferred the Arjuna Award and Dronacharya Award by the Government of India for his contribution to football both as a player and a coach. Late Karuna Shankar Bhattacharya award for best footballer for the year 2015-16 was awarded to Haitian striker Sony Norde and Jeje Lalpekhlua for their outstanding performance during the season.

News 14 - Goutam Ghose, Bappi Lahiri honored with Bengal's 'Mahanayak Award'

Music Director Bappi Lahiri and Filmmaker Goutam Ghose have been honored with the 'Mahanayak Award' by the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The award has been conferred to them on the occasion of the 36^th Death Anniversary (24^th July) of Uttam Kumar.

Director–Actor Kaushik Ganguly was also honored with the award for the best director. Paran Bandyopadhyay and Jishu Sengupta received the best actor awards and Sohini Sarkar received the best actress award. Bengali films “Bela Sheshe” and “Shankhachil” were jointly awarded as the best Bengali films of the year.