Current Affairs May 2018 - Awards

1 - Legendary Singer Asha Bhosle honoured with PC Chandra Puraskaar

Legendary singer Asha Bhosle was honoured with 26^th PC Chandra Puraskaar for her contribution in the field of Indian music. In a career spanning over seven decades, Asha Bhosle is known for her breathtaking range and versatility.

The PC Chandra Puraskaar recognises people from various walks-of-life, who have achieved phenomenal success in their fields. The previous recipients of the awards are Manna De (1993), Sunil M Gavaskar (1995), Gulzaar (1997), Sourav Ganguly (2011) to name a few.

2 - President of India presented 65^th National Film Awards

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, presented the 65^th National Film Awards.

The key winners are:

3 - Nobel Prize in literature 2018 cancelled

The Swedish Academy has announced that it would not hand out the Nobel Prize in Literature this year following allegations of sexual misconduct, financial malpractice and repeated leaks. The Academy will announce two laureates in 2019 instead.

The honour has not been awarded at all on seven occasions since its launch in 1901. Awarding of the 2018 Nobel prizes in other categories would not be affected.

4 - Nisha Bhalla honored with 'WEF 2018' Award

46 years old Mumbai coach ‘Nisha Bhalla’ was honored with 'Excellent Woman of Excellence' award at Annual Women Economic Forum (WEF) 2018 Awards. She was honored for her spiritual service.Nisha Bhalla provides coaching for holistic courses at her institute 'Sai Institute of Kosmic Sciences' in Mumbai. Prior to this award, she has received numerous national level awards.

An associate of ALL Ladies League, the Women Economic Forum (WEF) is a global conference to foster empowering conversations and connections among women committed to foster constructive change in ALL walks of life.

5 - Prof Muhammad Yunus honored with KISS Humanitarian Award 2018

Prof. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, Bangladesh was conferred with the 11^th KISS Humanitarian Award. Prof. Yunus is the second Nobel Prize awardee to get the KISS Humanitarian Award after Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet.The KISS Humanitarian Award was instituted in 2008 by the founder of KIIT and KISS Dr Achyuta Samanta to honour and recognise individuals with an exceptionally high contribution to the society in various fields related to social issues.

The other prominent individuals who have received the prestigious award are lbina Du Boisrouvray (FXB International), Switzerland (2015) and Hollywood actor Ashley Judd (2016).

6 - National Geoscience Awards

Shri Ram NathKovind, Hon’ble President of India conferred the National Geoscience Awards for the year 2017(11 nos.) in New Delhi. Eleven National Geoscience Awards for the year 2017 were conferred by the President on 22 geoscientists for their outstanding contributions in nine different fields of geosciences. Dr.ShibSankarGanguli, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur received the Young Scientist Award – 2017 for his meritorious contributions in the field of Applied Geoscience.

Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Hon’ble Minister of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Mines applauded the awardees for their innovation and research in the fields of Geosciences.

7 - Lata Mangeshkar honored with Swara Mauli award

Veteran melody queen singer Lata Mangeshkar was honoured with the Swara Mauli title by spiritual guru Vidya Narsimha Bharati Swami .Lata Mangeshkar has experience of almost a decade and has received many such honors. Jagatguru Shankaracharya had earlier honoured Lata Mangeshkar with Swara Bharati award.

Lata Mageshkar has also received Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of India and three national awards. She is the second vocalist, after MS Subbulakshmi to receive Bharat Ratna. Lata Mangeshkar has sung songs in more than 1000 films and over thirty-six regional Indian languages and foreign languages.

8 - Veteran journalist Mark Tully received Mumbai Press Club's RedInk Award 2018

The RedInk Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism for 2018 was bestowed on veteran journalist Sir William Mark Tully. The Lifetime Achievement Award for Mark Tully is the recognition of his long and outstanding contribution to Indian journalism. Over several decades Mark Tully came to personify BBC’s timely and truthful delivery of news in the subcontinent. Tully was a front-running reporter for all major news breaks in South Asia. He worked with the BBC for a period of 30 years.

The RedInk Award for ‘Journalist of the Year’ was awarded to Faye D’Souza, executive editor of Mirror Now channel.

9 - Anindita honored with Jayadev Rashtriya Yuva Puraskar 2018

UK-based Kathak dancer Anindita Anaam received Jayadev Rashtriya Yuva Puraskar 2018 for her talent and her outstanding contribution to the field of art. The award ceremony was held at Bhubaneshwar, Odisha during four-day Jayadev International dance festival.

Anindita has experience of working as a Kathak instructor in Wisconsin with an aim to popularise the classical dance form globally. She is also famous for her way of blending two dance forms like jazz and ballet with classical form.

10 - Actress Sridevi honoured at Cannes film festival

Famous Bollywood actress Sridevi was honored with the Reginald F. Lewis Film Icon Award at the Cannes Film Festival.It was given to salute the women of the film industry who left impact on world of cinema. Filmmaker Subhash Ghai and producer Namrata Goyal received the award on behalf of late actress Sridevi.

Sridevi was an Indian actress and film producer who starred in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada films. She was known as Indian cinema's first female superstar. She received National Film Award, two Filmfare Awards and three South Filmfare Awards.

11 - India’s Jagriti Yatra bagged charity award in UK

Jagriti Yatra, is an Indian charity that organizes series of worldwide charities. It recently organized 15-day train journeys around India to understand and build the India of smaller towns and villages through enterprise that has won an award in London. 15 day journey highlights the importance of building the India of smaller towns and villages through enterprise.The Cleft Lip and Palate Association won the Charity of the Year award for helping those affected by cleft lip and palate.

Asian Voice Charity Awards are organised by Britains oldest Asian diaspora publication Asian Voice and Europes first charity ’Charity Clarity’.

12 - NMDC bagged S&P PLATTS Global Metals Award 2018 under CSR category

NMDC Limited has bagged the prestigious S&P Global PLATTS Global Metals Award 2018 in corporate social responsibility (CSR) category at London. NMDC is the largest iron ore mining company in India. This is the first time since inception of this award that an Indian Company bagged an award in this category.S&P Global Platts is the leading independent provider of information, benchmark prices and analytics for the energy and commodities markets.

The S&P Global Platts Global Metals Award recognizes top performers – industry leaders and innovators. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Award recognizes the organization that best demonstrates leadership.

13 - DRDO Awards – 2016 & 2017 presented by Raksha Mantri Nirmala Sitharaman

Raksha Mantri Smt Nirmala Sitharaman gave away the DRDO Awards- 2016 & 2017 to various DRDO scientists for their outstanding contributions, while commemorating the National Technology Day.

14 - Japanese director won Cannes' top award

Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda won the top prize, the Palme d'Or, in the 71^st Cannes Film Festival. Kore-eda is only the second Asian Palme d'Or winner this millennium (after Thailand's Apichatpong Weerasethakul for 'Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives', 2010).

The Best Director prize went to Poland's Pawel Pawlikowski for the wonderfully well-crafted black-and-white 'Cold War', a 1950s story of impossible love between a music composer and a gifted singer, two strong-willed individuals from dissimilar backgrounds drawn to each other amid disruptions caused by history.

15 - CSIR won the Clarivate Analytics India Innovation Award 2018

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research has been awarded the Clarivate Analytics India Innovation Award 2018 in the Government Research Organizations Category. IIT Bombay has won the award in the Academic Institutions category. The award places IIT Bombay among the top 12 innovators in India.

CSIR has a dynamic network of 38 national laboratories, 39 outreach centres, 3 Innovation Complexes and 5 units. According to the SCImago Institutions Ranking World Report 2017, CSIR has been ranked 9^thin the world amongst the 1207 government institutions, with an overall global ranking of 75 in the world, covering 5250 institutions.

16 - Nari Shakti Puraskar 2017 presented to the INSV Tarini Team

The Six-member all-women team comprising of Lt Commander Vartika Joshi, Lt Commander Pratibha Jamwal, Lt Commander Swathi Patarpalli, Lt Aishwarya Bodapatti, Lt SH Vijaya Devi and Lt Payal Gupta have received the Nari Shakti Puraskar 2017.

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, had conferred the Nari Shakti Puraskars on International Women’s Day (08^th March 2018) in Rashtrapati Bhavan. As the INSV Tarini team was sailing then, the award could not be presented to the team.

17 - Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve won India Biodiversity Award 2018

The Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh has won the India Biodiversity Award 2018 in the “Conservation of wildlife species” category conferred by the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) and presented by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change.

The tribal members of the Bugun community of Singchung Village joined hands with the Forest Department to launch the Singchung Bugun Community Reserve (SBVCR) — a 17 square kilometre hotspot for biodiversity in January 2017.