59TH NATIONAL FILM AWARDS

The Prestigious 59thNational Film Awards were announced in New Delhi on 7 March 2012. The awards were announced by the Chairpersons of the three juries- Rohini Hattangady for feature films, Ramesh Sharma for non feature films and Vijaya Mulay for Best Writing on Cinema category. The Best Actor was given to Girish Kulkarni for film Deool (Marathi) and Best Actress to Vidya Balan for the film The Dirty Picture (Hindi).

BIHARI PURASKAR

The K.K. Birla Foundation has awarded the 21st Bihari Puraskar for 2011 to Arjundeo Charan for his Rajasthani poetry collection “Ghar Tau Ek Nam Hai Bhrosai Rau “. The award carries prize money of Rs.1 lakh, a citation and a plaque.The award, installed in the name of the famous Hindi poet Bihari, is given only to Rajasthaniwriters.Dr. Charanwas born in 1954 in Jodhpur district. An outstanding poet, critic, playwright, and translator, the central theme of Dr. Charan’s poems is the poor condition and constant struggles faced by women in a stridently feudal society.Dr. Charan is a SahityaAkademi awardwinner and is presently the Head of the Rajasthani Language Department at Jayanarayan University, Jodhpur. His works have beentranslated into a number of Indian languages.The “Ghar Tau…“ anthology explores life’s ironies, changing values, and continuing contradictions in Indian social structures.

84TH ACADEMY AWARDS

The 84th Academy Awards ceremony/Oscars was hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The ceremony which took place at theHollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood, California on 26 February 2012 honoured the best films and performances of 2011. The ceremony washosted by BillyCrystalwhomarked his ninth time as host, and produced by Brian Grazer. Academy Awards of Merit were presented in 24 standard competitive categories. Christopher Plummer at 82 became the oldest actor ever towin anAcademyAward, picking up the Best SupportingActor trophy for his role as a senior citizen coming out of the closet in The Beginners. Pakistan got its first Oscar as Sharmeen Obaid- Chinoy received the Oscar for Saving face (Best documentary -short subject) along with Daniel Junge.

54TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS

The 54thAnnualGrammy Awards were held on 12 February 2012, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The death of pop diva Whitney Houston the night before the Grammy awards however cast a sombre mood at the awards. The producers quickly planned a tribute to her in the form of a performance by Jennifer Hudson. Paul McCartney received the Musi Cares Person of the Year award on 10 February 2012, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. British singer Adele, with six nominations, won all six awards, tying Beyoncé srecord for most wins by a female artist in one night. Foo Fighters and Kanye West followed with five and four awards, respectively. The British songstress, Adele swept the awards winning a staggering six golden gramophones for her Album, 21. Adele, who was named best new artist in 2009, is only the second artist in history to take all four major Grammy categories. Christopher Cross attained the feat in 1981with a four-award sweep. Kanye West was the top nominee with seven nods. However West once again had to satisfy himself with rap wins. West captured four awards to add to his 14 previous wins, for best rap/sung collaboration and best rap song (for All of the Lights), best rap performance (for Otis, shared with Jay-Z) and best rap album (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy).

65TH ANNUAL BRITISH ACADEMY FILM AWARDS

The sixty-fifth annual British Academy Film awards, the BAFTA’s was held at the Royal Opera House in London 12 February 2012. Black and white silent movie, The Artist topped won six awards, including best filmand best director. The Silent movie blockbuster also won the best actor award forits star Jean Dujardin, who beat British favourite Gary Oldman. The Artist directed by Michel Hazanavicius is a French-made romance set in Hollywood in the 1920s and 30s. The film tells the story of a star of silent movies whose career is destroyed by the advent of talkies. It had been nominated for 12 awards and walked away with the prizes for best film, leading actor, director, original screenplay, costumes, cinematography and music.

THE NATIONAL TOURISM AWARD 2010-11

The National Tourism Awards 2010-11 were conferred by the President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil on 29 February 2012 in New Delhi. A total of 78 awardees from50 various categories received the award. Three new award categories named; The Best State: Campaign Clean India, Best Heritage City and Best Heritage Walk were also introduced this year. Madhya Pradesh received the National Tourism Award for its effort in developing tourism related infrastructure and programmes in the state. It also received awards for Best Tourism Film and Best Tourism Promotion Publicity Material category. North-Eastern state Sikkim bagged the award for the best among Northeast states and J&K category. It also got the new award under Campaign Clean India. Hyderabad airport received the award in the Best Airport award category. New Delhi railway station named the most tourist friendly rail way station. The Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation also received the National Tourism Awards. The Oberoi Rajvilas emerged the Best Five Star Deluxe hotel while Neemrana Hotel in Alwar bagged the Best Heritage hotel award.

21ST VYAS SAMMAN

Noted Hindi writer Professor Ramdarash Mishrawas selected for the 21st Vyas Samman for his poetry collection Aam Ke Patte published in 2004. Aselection committee headed by Surya prasad Dixit, awell-known writer and former chairperson of Lucknow University’sHindi department, selected the collection for the award. The prize money for Vyas Samman is Rs 2.5 lakh. Professor Mishra, a veteran writer, was born on 15 August 1924, in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district. He served in Delhi University’s Hindi department and retired as professor there. His published works include 16 collections of poetry, 13 novels and 18 short story collections. His notable poetry collections include Pak gai hai dhoop, Path ke Geet, Kandhe par Suraj and Barishmein bheegte bache.His novels- Jal Tootata Hua and Paani ke Prachir received with critical acclaim.The award, instituted by the K.K. Birla Foundation, is given annually for an outstanding literary work in Hindi published during the past 10 years. The award carries a cash purse of Rs. 2.5 lakh. After the Saraswati Samman, which is given for a work chosen from among works in all leading Indian languages, the Vyas Samman is the most prestigious award given by the Foundation.

LATA MANAGESHKAR AWARD

Veteran Hindi film music composer Rajesh Roshan was honoured with the LataManageshkar award by the Madhya Pradesh government on 8 February 2012. The LataManageshkar award for 2010-11 contained Rs two lakh in cash and a scroll of honour. The award was presentedtoRoshanby theStateCulture Minister Laxmikant Sharma.During his career spanning 36 years, he had never before accepted anaward fromany state government.Theawardwasinstituted by the state government in 1984 and since its inception ithas beengiven away to 27 personalities including legends like late Jagjit Singh,AshaBhonsleand Naushad.

V. SHANTARAM LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Veteran environmental filmmaker Mike Pandey was honoured with the prestigious V. Shantaram Life Time Achievement Award at the Mumbai International Film Festival 2012 on 3 February 2012.The awardwas presented by Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayanan. He received the award for his documentaries onwildlife conservation and environment. Mike Pandey is one of India’s foremost wildlife and environmental filmmakers. He hasd won over 300 national and international awards. His list of films include Shores of Silence, The Last Migration, Broken Wings and The Timeless Traveller. The award carries a citation, a trophy and a cash prize of Rs.5 lakh. It was instituted in 1996 in memory of the legendary filmmaker V. Shantaram. The award is given with an objective to recognise themulti-faceted contributions of an Indian for the documentary filmmovement.

GREEN GLOBE AWARD

Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan received a Green Globe for OutstandingEfforts byaCelebrityfor his efforts toward a greener future at the fourth edition of the Panasonic Green Globe FoundationAwards on2 february 2012. He received the award from Hollywood actor and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger. The award is conferred to honour the efforts of organisations and individuals fighting climate change through their work in environment preservation and regeneration. The Terminator star, Schwarzenegger was the guest of honour at the event.

SKOLL AWARD FOR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) and Nidan, an organisation that supports unorganised workers, will be honoured with the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship by the Skoll Foundation in Oxford, England, on March 29. The award carries with it a three-year operating support grant. “Fromthe slums of Bihar to the streets of Delhi, Nidan and NASVI give informal workers more than a voice; they give them ownership of their collectives,” said Skoll Foundation president and CEO Sally Osberg. The award will be accepted on behalf of the organisations by NASVI coordinator and Nidan executive director Arbind Singh. The Skoll Foundation invests in, connects and celebrates social entrepreneurship and the innovators who help them and was instituted in 1999. “They have shown not just entrepreneurial vision but persistence needed to make a lasting change,” said the Skoll Foundation about the award winners.

SCOPUS AWARD

Three IITians are among the eight young scientists who have won the prestigious Scopus award, instituted by the National Academy of Sciences and Elsevier, a leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. Thewinners are Sanjib Senapathi, IIT-Madras; Sagnik Dey, IIT-Delhi; Satyajit Banerjee, IITKanpur; Partha SarathiMukherjee, IISc, Bangalore; Prahladh Harsha, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai; Sundergopal Sridhar, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad; Ritesh Agarwal, P.G. Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh; and S.B. Shivachandra, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Mukteshwar, Uttarakhand. The winners were selected from more than 250 applications received from research institutes and universities across the country. G.D. BIRLA AWARD TapasKumarKundu of Bangalorebased Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research has been selected for the G.D. Birla award for his contributionin biochemistry.The award, instituted by the K.K. Birla Foundation for according recognition to high calibre scientific research undertakenby Indian scientists below the age of 50, carries a purse ofRs1.5 lakh.Mr. Kundu,who has one US and three Indian patents to his credit, has been selected for his contribution in the area of human gene expression and its links to disease and therapeutics.He not only elucidated the mechanism of transcription regulation through the epigeneticmodifications in humans but also used the process to designnewgenerationcancerdiagnostics, aswell as therapeutics for cancer, AIDS and diabetes. Born in 1962,Mr. Kundu did his Masters in Biochemistry at the University of Agricultural Sciences and PhD from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.Hedid hispost-doctoralwork at the National Institute of Genetics in Mishima in Japan and Rockfeller University,NewYork.

SANT GADGE BABA AWARD INITIATED

Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh announced a national award for sanitation and water in the name of Maharashtrian saint Sant Gadge Baba.The Minister toured several villages in Satara district to inspect the work of the Nirmal Gram Yojana for sanitation. The award was constituted in the name of the Saint who strove to serve the society through cleanliness. The award is to honour villages, individuals or organisations working in the field of sanitation and drinking water. Maharashtra’s Sant Gadge Baba Swachta Abhiyan (clean liness scheme) encourages villages to be open defecation-free.Well performing villages are awarded through the Nirmal GramYojana. Out of the 25 lakh villages in India, 25000 are open defecation-free, and out of these, 9000 villages are in Maharashtra alone. Maharashtra has 27900 villages.