February 2013

Sahitya Akademi Award

Jeet Thayil - nominated to Booker Prize 2012, Subrata Mukhopadhyay - the Bengali novelist, K Satchidanandan - the Malayalam poet and HS Shivaprakash - the noted Kannada writer are among the 24 authors, who were chosen for the Prestigious Sahitya Akademi Awards 2012 on 20 December 2012 by the Sahitya Akademi - India’s National Academy for Letters. Six short stories, twelve books of poetry, four novels along with an autobiography and criticism have been chosen for being awarded. The works were chosen after the recommendation of the Jury members who represented from 24 Indian languages and then the Executive Board of the Akademi approved the selected candidates for the award to be presented this year.

The nominations were done in the chairmanship of Dr. Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari, who also is the acting President of the Sahitya Akademi. Jeet Thayil was chosen and awarded for his poetry collection in English - These Errors are Correct. Marannu Vecha Vasthukal the poetic creation of Satchidanandan helped him to be nominated for the award whereas the Novel Birasan helped Subrata Mukhopadyay in winning the nomination for the award.

About Sahitya Akademi Award

Sahitya Akademi Award the literary honour in India is annually conferred to the writers for their outstanding works in the field of literature by Sahitya Akademi, the National Academy of Letters in India. The award is conferred for the works done in 24 major languages of India including English as quoted in Sahitya Akademi. The Sahitya Akademi Award had been into existence since the year of its inception in 1954 and was conferred for the first time for meritorious literature published in India in the year 1955. Since day of inception the prize amount of the Sahitya Akademi has been changed constantly and it followed like 5000 rupees since inception which was enhanced to 10000 rupees from 1983, 25000 rupees from 1988, 40000 from 2001 rupees, 50000 rupees from 2003 and is now 100000 rupees from 2009.

2011 Jnanpith Award

Renowned Oriya novelist, Pratibha Ray on 27 December 2012 selected for the prestigious Jnanpith award for the year 2011 for her contribution to the field of Indian literature. Pratibha Ray is the first Oriya woman and fourth Oriya writer to get the coveted award. Earlier Gopinath Mohanty (1973), Sachidananda Routray (1986) and Sitakant Mohapatra (1993) were conferred the honour. The award carries a cash prize of 7 lakh rupees, a citation and a bronze statuette of Godess Saraswati.

About Pratibha Ray

• Pratibha Ray was born in Alabol, a village in Jagatsingpur district of Odisha.

•  Ray’s literary journey started at nine, she received recognition as a writer with her first novel Barsa Basanta Baishakha in 1974 followed by Aranya, 1977, Nishidha Prithivi, 1978, Parichya, 1979, Aparichita, 1979 (a film was made and won Best Film-Story award from the state government),Punyatoya, 1979, Meghamedura, 1980, Ashabari, 1980,Ayamarambha, 1981, Nilatrishna, 1981, Samudrara Swara, 1982.

•  Ray’s Shilapadma in 1983 won her the Orissa Sahitya Academy Award, 1985, while Yajnaseni (1984) got her the Moorti Devi Award in 1991 and Sarala Award in 1990.

•  Ray has 20 novels, 24 short stories, 10 travelogues, two poetry collections and a number of essays to her credit.

•  Ray’s writings have been translated into English, other foreign languages as also a number of other Indian languages.

•  Other renowned works of the eminent writer include Yjnaseni (1985), which won Jnanpith Trust’s Moorti Devi Award in 1991, Mahamoh (1997), Shilapadma (1983), Uttarmarg (1988), Magnamari (2003), among others.

• She described Odisha’s first Jnanpith awardee (1973) Gopinath Mohanty as her role model and favourite among Oriya novelists. Pratibha Ray is one of the most widely read Oriya novelists and short story writers. Her novels and stories are deeply and persuasively grounded in the great tradition of story-telling.

Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships and Akademi Awards

The General Council of Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, New Delhi on 21 December 2012 in a meet elected and declared N. Rajam, T.H. Vinayakram and Ratan Thiyam as the three eminent personalities in the field of Arts, as Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellows (Akademi Ratna). This fellowship is the rare and most prestigious honour, restricted to a limited number of people at a given pint of time. At present, there exist only 40 fellows of the Sangeet Natak Akademi. Thirty Six persons from field of Music, Theater, Puppetry and Dance were also elected by the General Council of the Akademi for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) 2012. Nine eminent artists are from the field of Music and they are Mysore M. Nagaraja, (Violin) and K.V. Prasad (Mridangam) for Carnatic Instrumental Music, Sabir Khan (Tabla) and Bahauddin Dagar (Rudra Veena) for Hindustani Instrumental Music, O.S. Thyagarajan for Carnatic Vocal Music, Rajashekhar Mansur and Ajay Pohankar for Hindustani Vocal Music, Illayaraja for Creative and Experimental Music and Bhai Balbir Singh Ragi (Gurbani) for other major traditions of music.

February 2013

Nine Artists were also selected for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards in the field of Dance and they are Vijay Shankar (Kathak), Priyadarsini Govind (Bharatanatyam), Vedantam Ramalinga Sastry (Kuchipudi), Painkulam Damodara Chakyar (Kutiyattam), Vazhengada Vijayan (Kathakali),Sharmila Biswas (Odissi), Jai Narayan Samal (Chhau), Jwala Prasad (Music for Dance) and Aditi Mangaldas (Creative & Experimental Dance). Eight artists from the Theatre world were also selected for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards 2012 namely Tripurari Sharma and Waman Kendre for Direction, Arjun Deo Charan for Playwriting, Parvesh Sethi, Murari Roychoudhury for Theatre Music, Nirmal Rishi and Purisai Kannappa Sambandan for Acting and Ghulam Rasool Bhagat for Major Traditions of Theatre (Bhand Pather).

Eight more artists were selected for making the contributions in other folk/traditional/dance/tribal music/ theatre and puppetry for the Akademi Awards and their names are Goru Channabasappa for Folk Music (Karnataka), Kinaram Nath Oja for Suknani Ojapali (Assam), Prem Singh Dehati for Folk Theatre (Haryana), Sulochana Chavan for Lavani (Maharashtra), Mattannur Sankaran Kutty Marar for Thayambaka (Kerala), Govind Ram Nirmalkar for Nacha (Chhattisgarh), Heera Das Negi for Mask Making (Himachal Pradesh) and Prafulla Karmakar for Traditional Puppetry (West Bengal). Nandini Ramani and Arun Kakade would be awarded with the Akademi Award 2012 for their Overall Contribution/Scholarship in Performing Arts.

Akademi Award

The Akademi Award has been conferred on people since 1952 and the Akademi Fellow honour has been conferred since 1954. The honour and the award is the symbol of highest standards of excellence and achievements on national level and also recognises sustained work of the individual and his/her contribution to the practice and appreciation of arts via scholarship, teaching and performance. Akademi Fellowship carries a prize amount of three lakh rupees and the Akademi Awards carry a prize amount of one lakh rupees, besides Tamrapatra and Angavastram.

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award 2013

Organisers of the Recording Academy announced on 13 December 2012 that Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar maestro would be honoured with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously. Pandit Ravi Shankar would become first Indian to receive the prestigious award. The award would be presented at 55th Grammy Awards ceremony on 10 February 2013 in Los Angeles.

Pandit Ravi Shankar is a three-time Grammy Award winner. Pandit Ravi Shankar, 92 had passed away on 11 December 2012 after heart-valve replacement surgery in California. The organisers had decided to honour Pandit Ravi Shankar before his dismissal and he was also notified about this personally. Ravi Shankar is said to be a pioneer for introducing Indian music to Western world. The most well-known Sitar player of not just India, but the world, he is also said to be ambassador of the international music. For the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, Shankar’s The Living Room Sessions Part 1, which was released in April, has been nominated for the category of Best World Music Album. It is important to note here that his daughter Anoushka Shankar has also been nominated in this category for the albumTraveller. Shankar performed for the last time on 4 November 2012 in California with his daughter Anoushka Shankar. Apart from Pandit Ravi Shankar, others who would be receiving the lifetime achievement Grammy award are Temptations, Carole King, Patti Page, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Glenn Gould and Charlie Haden.

Other honours received by Pandit Ravi Shankar

• Apart from being three times Grammy Award winner, Ravi Shankar has also been honoured with over 14 honourary doctorates from across the world.

•  He was honoured with Bharat Ratna, the highest honour of India.

•  Other honours include Polar Music Prize from Sweden which is also referred as the Nobel Prize for Music, Praemium Imperiale from Japan, Commandeur de la Legion d’Honneur, which is the highest French civilian award, Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire awarded by Queen Elizabeth.

National Tourism Awards

Life of Pi was given two National Tourism Awards by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India on 8 December 2012 recognizing the impact it has had in promoting India as a tourism destination, especially Puducherry and Munnar (Kerala). These Awards will be given to Ang Lee, Director of the film ‘Life of Pi’ and Yann Martel, writer of the book of the same name. The Ministry of Tourism identified Film Tourism as a Niche Tourism product. It has requested the State Governments and Union Territory Administrations to recognize the potential of Film Tourism and constitute special bodies/cells to facilitate filming in their respective States/Union Territories. In February 2012 the Ministry of Tourism signed a MoU with Ministry of Information & Broadcasting as a major initiative to promote the Incredible India campaign and Cinemas of India as a sub brand of Incredible India at various international film festivals and markets abroad.

The MoU is expected to enhance t he reach of Incredible India through the Medium of Cinema, develop synergy between tourism and film industry and provide a platform for enabling partnerships between the Indian and global film industry. The MoU also provided an impetus to frame policies and guidelines for facilitating shooting of International films in India and promote India as a filming destination, both for international and domestic film producers. Another key objective of the MoU is to initiate dialogue with State Governments and UTs for development of locations for film shootings. As per the MoU, the Ministry of Tourism would provide budgetary support for identified film festivals, markets and events. The Ministry would facilitate publicity through the available content based on existing audio visual material and print designs. The joint participation of the two Ministries would cover the Cannes Film Festival and Market, IFFI Goa including the Film Festival and Film Bazaar and European Film Market at Berlin.

Bharat Muni Samman

Famous Bollywood actress and Bharatanatyam exponent Hema Malini had been selected for the prestigious Bharat Muni Samman of year 2012 for her outstanding contribution to the field of art and culture. Bharat Muni Samman is named after the author of Natyashastra Bharat Muni and has been instituted by Bhubaneswar-based organisation Kalingayana Touryatrikam.

The award is going to be presented to Hema Malini on 18 December 2012 for her outstanding contribution towards promotion of Indian arts and entertainment which is also marked by the concluding day of the three-day Bharat Muni Festival scheduled to be held in Bhubaneshwar. Hema Malini is 64 years old and she would be the fifth recipient of the award. The earlier recipients are Thankamani Kutty, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Pandit Jasraj and Ratan Thiyam. Hema Malini was also awarded with Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian award in year 2000.

February 2013

Aryabhatta Award by the ASI

The Astronautical Society of India (ASI) in the last week of December 2012 announced names of former secretary of the Department of Ocean Development, Dr. A.E. Muthunayagam and Dr. V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister for prestigious Aryabhatta Award for the year 2010 and 2011 respectively. The two have been selected for the achievement in rocketry. Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy an associate Director of Research Centre Imarat Hyderabad and P. Kunhikrishnan of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Thiruvananthapuram would receive ASI Awards for rocket and rocket related technologies for the year 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Dr. A.E. Muthunayagam

• Served as a director for the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, ISRO

• He served the Department of Atomic Energy as head of a committee to look into safety issues related to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu in 2011

Dr. V.K. Saraswat

• Director-general of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and was an architect for the interceptor missile Agni and Prithvi programme

G. Satheesh Reddy

•  He is a specialist in navigation system and is the person who developed Avionics, with ring laser gyroscope based navigation system as well as the fibre-optic gyroscope-based inertial navigation system

P. Kunhikrishnan

• He has served as a Mission Director for different Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)

Tagore Peace Prize

Emirati poet and translator Shihab Ghanem became the first Emirati and Arab to win the Tagore Peace Prize. Tagore Peace Prize is instituted by the Indian government to commemorate the birth anniversary of India’s poet, philosopher and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Shihab Ghanem is officially going to receive the Tagore award by the Asiatic society in a ceremony to be held in Kolkata on 6 May 2012. Ghanem was awarded the accolade in recognition of his creative literary and translation works, both in Arabic and English, and for promoting human understanding and values of love and peace Tagore had advocated. The award is given to one person every two years. Ghanem was chosen due to the promotion of the human values of love and peace via his poetic works. Ghanem had written 31 Arabic poems and 36 English poems and had published 45 books mainly in Arabic verse.

Awards and Honours won by Shihab Ghanem

•  Rashid Award for Scientific Excellence in 1989

•  1st prize for poetry in the UAE in 1984

•  Book prize from the Ruler of Sharjah for poetry translation in 2003 and 2007.

Best Administrator in India Award

Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on 20 December 2012 awarded with the Best Administrator in India Award instituted by K. Karunakaran Foundation. The award was presented to him by Vice President of India, M. Hamid Ansari.

The award is given to him for his role in evolving indian economy as Finance Minister in the late 1990s when he presented what was widely called a dream budget which gave a road map for economic reforms in India and lowered income and corporate tax rates.

After the consequences of the horrific Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, the tenure as Home Minister of P. Chidambaram was marked by his constant efforts at streamlining and modernizing national security apparatus of the nation which did provide a sense of security and calm to a traumatized and angry population.

As a Minister in the Union Government, P. Chidambaram had held the important portfolios like Finance, Home and Commerce. He has won admiration for his vision, articulation, diligence and determination.

P. Chidambaram is second recipient of the Best Administrator in India Award. Earlier in year 2011 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented the Best Administrator in India Award 2011 of the K Karunakaran Foundation to former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on 21 December 2011. The award carries a purse of 1 lakh rupees, citation and a memento.

Nobel Peace Prize 2012

The Nobel Peace Prize 2012 was awarded to the European Union (EU) leaders on 10 December 2012 at Oslo, Norway. The award was given to the European Union leaders for the efforts in promotion of peace as well as human rights. The award was given despite criticisms from some. Around 20 European government leaders which included French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel as well as the Italian Premier Mario Monti, attended this ceremony in Oslo, the capital city of Norway. It is important to note that Norway, which is a country rich in oil, has rejected joining EU twice.

Thorbjorn Jagland, the head of Nobel Committee hailed EU on the grounds that it brought peace after years of war. The Nobel diplomas as well as medals were handed over to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the EU Parliament Martin Schulz as well as EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy at a ceremony initially at the City Hall of Oslo. The ceremony was attended by international dignitaries, heads of state as well as royalty. The prize came this year despite protests. Protests are being organised because of the debt crisis being faced by countries which use Euro currency. This has triggered tensions in union, leading to soaring unemployment. EU institutions as well as the member countries were criticised for their slow reactions to this crisis which kept going for 3 years.

Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize is awarded on 10 December always in Oslo. 10 December is the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death which happened back in 1896. Ceremonies like these were also held in Swedish capital for Nobel laureates in literature, physics, chemistry and medicine.

Order of Canada Award

Venkatesh Mannar a Channai-born Scientist of Indian Origin and President, Micronutrient Initiative, Canada was awarded with Canada’s Highest Civilian Award – the Order of Canada in the last week of December 2012. Mannar, a Graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and a post graduate in chemical engineering from Northwestern University, US, was honoured with the award for his forty years long contribution working towards reduction of debilitating micronutrient deficiencies among the worlds most vulnerable.

Micronutrient Initiative

The not-for-profit organization, Micronutrient Initiative is dedicated towards ensuring the world’s most vulnerable, the children and the women mainly in the developing countries get a proper amount of minerals and vitamins (supplements) that they require for survival and it tries to thrive the same through food fortification programme. The organization works for identifying, development, implementation and monitoring the cost effective solutions for hidden hunger. The Support offered by Canada to the organization allows it to improve lives of more than 500 million people in 70 different countries, annually. All this is being done through different programs of the organization and they are child health, child survival, growth and development, and women’s and newborn survival and health programs.

About Order of Canada Award

The Order of Canada instituted by Queen Elizabeth II in the year 1967 is a Canadian National Order and is the second highest honour of merit in the Country. It is placed next to Order of Merit. The order is given to people with lifetime outstanding achievements and their dedication towards the community and service to the nation and people in Canadian Society in all the sectors.

Queen’s 2013 New Year Honours

London’s Olympic champions on 29 December 2012 had been generously rewarded for their exploits in a special New Year Honours list, with Bradley Wiggins and Ben Ainslie receiving knighthoods. Bradley Wiggins with his historic Tour de France triumph is the first British cyclist to be awarded with the honors. He had won a fourth Olympic gold medal and first on the road. On the other hand Ben Ainslie became the most successful Olympic sailor of all time with his fourth successive gold. Along with Bradley Wiggins and Ben Ainslie, inspiring British Cycling performance director Dave Brailsford is also knighted as he once again masterminded a stunning medal haul as well as leading Team Sky to a one-two in the Tour de France. The fourth knighthood went to David Tanner, the performance director for British Rowing, who also overseen a record medal pull as Britain’s rowers won four golds and nine medals in all. Four Olympic stars are made CBEs, including the king and queen of British athletics, Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis, after they lit up the Olympic Stadium. London was the a final performance or effort for cyclist Victoria Pendleton, who added a second Olympic gold and is made a CBE after playing a trailblazing role for women sprinters on the track. Rower Katherine Grainger receives the same honour in the year she finally made it gold with Anna Watkins in the double sculls following three successive silvers. Three of Britain’s double gold medallists have been awarded OBEs - dressage star Charlotte Dujardin and cycling couple Jason Kenny and Laura Trott - along with tennis’ Andy Murray, who was both a gold medallist and a grand slam winner in 2012.Long jumper Greg Rutherford, another gold medal winner in the Olympic Stadium on that Super Saturday, has been given an MBE. Also honoured with MBEs are 51-year-old three-day eventer Mary King, who won team silver in London, and gymnast Louis Smith, now a three-time Olympic medalist.

About New Year Honour

The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, where New Year’s Day, 1 January, is marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth Realms also mark this day in this way. The awards are presented by or in the name of the reigning monarch British honours are published in supplements to the London Gazette. Honours have been awarded at New Year since at least 1890, in which year a list of Queen Victoria’s awards was published by the London Gazette on 2 January.

February 2013

Web Ratna Award-2012

Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) was conferred the prestigious Web Ratna 2012, Golden Icon Award for Innovative use of Technology. The DAVP Website (http:/davp.nic.in/) has enabled a complete change from the manual mode to the online mode where the media plans are made and released for the end users. The website with several user friendly features is the only advertising agency in the country which releases its designs, Release orders, payments online. The DAVP website has added a great deal of transparency to the entire system in its billing as well as other procedures which have not only helped the organisation but also its stakeholders. DAVP also keeps as much information as possible on the website for public scrutiny and information. The entire chain has contributed a great deal of efficiency to the DAVP’s operation and vastly improved the satisfaction levels of the client ministries as well as newspapers, channels and other agencies. The Project was headed by A P Frank Noronha, DG, DAVP.

The Web Ratna Awards

The Web Ratna awards, constituted by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, acknowledges exemplary initiatives/practices in the realm of e-governance. In order to promote more innovative e-governance initiatives, the Web Ratna Awards have been instituted under the ambit of the National Portal of India.

Nominees for Padma Awards

High-level committee met on 26 December 2012 to shortlist the nominees of prestigious Padma awards. Rajesh Khanna, singer Kailash Kher as well as director of much-acclaimed movie Sholay’, Ramesh Sippy might be honoured with the prestigious awards on 26 January 2013. Rajesh Khanna, who died on 18 July 2012, was shortlisted for highest category of Padma awards- Padma Vibhushan. Ramesh Sippy and Kailesh Kher were shortlisted for the award of Padma Shri. The high-level committee that shortlisted the nominees of the award included cabinet secretary Ajit Seth, home secretary R K Singh, scientist Anil Kakodkar, principal secretary to the PM Pulok Chatterjee as well as actor Ratna Pathak Shah. Awardees’ names would be declared on 25 January 2013 after PM Manmohan Singh’s approval. Rajesh Khanna, Kailash Kher and Ramesh Sippy were shortlisted after recommendations from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Usually, the Padma awards are not conferred after the death of an individual, but Rajesh Khanna was considered by the Government as highly deserving candidate for Padma Vibhushan. This would make an exception to the Padma awards. Similar exceptions were made earlier when singer and music director Bhupen Hazarika was conferred with the prestigious Padma Vibhushan posthumously in 2012. It is quite ironical that Rajesh Khannna had never received Padma award during his lifetime, while a lot of his colleagues had achieved the honour in various years.

Brand Laureate Legendary Award

47 Years old Bollywood Actor Shah Rukh Khan on 13 December 2012 awarded with the prestigious BrandLaureate Legendary Award in Malaysia. The award was given by the Malaysia-based Asia Pacific Brands Foundation for his contributions to the Bollywood film industry and as India’s foremost brand ambassador.

The BrandLaureate Legendary Award had been earlier given to well known personality like those to Nelson Mandela, Nobel Laureate recipient Mohammad Yunus, Ratan Tata, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg, Michael Schumacher and more.  Earlier in 2008 Shah Rukh was conferred with the prestigious Malaysian title of Datuk by the governor of Malaysia’s southern state of Malacca for promoting tourism through his movies in that region. Malaysian title of Datuk is equivalent of the British Knighthood, the highest awards given to an individual in the UK. Shah Rukh Khan went to Malaysia to attend Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohammad’s birthday. The BrandLaureate award is the sobriquet for the APBF Brand Excellence Awards.

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