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Home , Abdul Rashid Khan, Ajay (actor), Akhtarul Wasey, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Anjali Menon, Anvita Abbi

June 2012

• Aung San Suu Kyi has finally received her honourary degree from Oxford University. The leader of 's opposition is being honoured on 20 june at the university's Encaenia ceremony, in which it presents honourary degrees to distinguished people.Suu Kyi, who is making her first visits outside of her native country in 24 years, was awarded the honourary in civil law in 1993 but was unable to collect it under house arrest in Myanmar.She studied philosophy, politics and economics at St. Hugh's College in Oxford between 1964 and 1967.

• of and of has been invited to receive the

International Peace award 2011 at a function to be organized at the House of Lords in the UK on June 12.While individual letter of invitation has been sent to both of them, the citation released by the Gandhi Foundation on its website reads that the duo have been selected for the international peace award for their humanitarian work and their practice of non-violence. The Foundation honours individuals or groups annually based on their work in the field of promoting or practising Gandhian philosophy. Hazaribag-based Bulu Imam has been selected for the award in the wake of his non- violent approach in protesting coal mining and environmental damage to Upper Damodar Valley (Karnapura) because of open cast coal mines. • Israeli scientist Daniel Hillel won the World Food Prize 2012 on 13 June 2012. The work and motivation of Daniel

Hillel built the bridge between the divisions and to promote peace and understanding in the Middle East by advancing a breakthrough achievement. His works contributed to agriculture-dominated economies. He applied the method of micro-irrigation, which maximizes the efficiency of water usage in agriculture. World Food Prize is an international award. This award recognizes the importance of water for agricultural purposes. Dr. Hillel will be formally presented with the cash prize of 250000 dollar award in October 2012 at United States. The World Food Prize award is chaired by M.S. Swaminathan. He is Indian agricultural scientist Professor and the first World Food Prize laureate. • was conferred upon the Wisden Outstanding Achievement award for completing a century of

100 international hundreds, in on 11 June 2012. Tendulkar was presented a trophy at an event organised by FidelisWorld. Tendulakar achieved the incredible feat while playing against in the Asia Cup in March 2012. He has total 49 One-Day International centuries and 51 Test centuries to his credit.

July 2012

• Vandana Shiva to receive Fukuoka Prize in this year: The Government of Japan on 23 July 2012 decided to honour renowned Indian Environmentalist Vandana Shiva with Fukuoka Prize 2012. She enlightens people about the ideas for the love of nature. She is the director of The Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology. Dr. Shiva is the founder of Navdanya, an NGO which was established in the year 1991. She commenced her work in the field of conservation of traditionally used seeds, organic farming and fair trade. In 1993, she had received Right Livelihood Award that is known as the Alternative Nobel Prize. Fukuoka Prize is the prestigious award and given to those people who contribute to the academy, arts and culture in Asia. Earlier, Shankar, , Romila Thapar and Ashis Nandy were the famous personalities who were honoured by this award. She penned several books including, Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability and Peace, The Violence of the Green Revolution, Monocultures of the Mind: Perspectives on Biodiversity and Biotechnology, and Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Survival in India. She also set up an international college for sustainable living in the year 2001.

• Magasaysay award for TN activist : Indian social activist Kulandei Francis, who gave up being a priest to devote himself entirely to social work in , is among the six individuals from across Asia who has been chosen for the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Awards for 2012. Kulandei Francis is being recognised for "his visionary zeal, his profound faith in community energies, and his sustained programmes in pursuing the holistic economic empowerment of thousands of women and their families in rural India. The others chosen for the prizes, announced by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) in Manila today, are Ms Chen Shu-Chu from , Mr Romulo Davide from the Phillipines, Ms Syeda of Bangladesh, Mr Yang Saing Koma of and Mr Ambrosius Ruwindrijarto from . Established in 1957, the Award is Asia's highest honor and is widely regarded as the region's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. It celebrates the memory and leadership example of the third Philippine President, and is given every year to individuals or organizations in Asia who manifest the same sense of selfless service that ruled the life of the late and beloved Filipino leader. • Vedula Sarma gets US Prez award: US President has named four Indian-American scientists among 96 researchers as recipients of the prestigious presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers on 23, July. The awards bestowed on Sridevi Vedula Sarma, Pawan Sinha, Parag A. Pathak and Biju Parekkadan is the highest honour given by the US Government to science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Established in 1996, the awardees are selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, or community outreach • Sand artist won double Gold medal at Spain: Indian Sand Artist Sudarshan Pattnaik(Orissa) won People's Choice Gold Medal Award in Moscow on 18 July 2012. It was the Second World Sand Sculpture Championship. He sculpted the copy of the face of The Showman of the Millennium , while the theme of the competition was WORLD CINEMA. Sudarshan Pattnaik had also won World Championship 2008. He had also won his first Prize in Copenhagen Sand Sculpture Championship in Denmark. He also won two gold medals and a trophy in Solo International Sand Sculpture contest 2012. • Manipal University has bagged the Golden Peacock Environment Management Award for 2012. conferred the award at the 14th World Congress on environment management in on 8 july. Dr Ramdas M Pai, chairman, Manipal Education and Medical Group earlier had received Golden Peacock Lifetime Achievement Award for 2011 in recognition of his contribution in fields of education and healthcare on January 22, 2012.A jury chaired by Justice PN Bhagwati, former CJI and member, UN Human Rights Commission selected Manipal University for the award. • Tata Sons chairman has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the prestigious Rockefeller

Foundation in New york on 27 june for innovation in philanthropy.Tata was honored by the foundation for incorporating public good into the business model of the Tata Group.

Aug 2012

• Aditi , a Delhi based scientist, won the prestigious Award in Field Research and

Application. Mukherjee was picked for the award for her work in transforming access to water for thousands of farmers in West . The award will be formally presented to Mukherji on 17 October 2012 in Des Moines, Iowa, US. Mukherji, 37, is a senior researcher at the Delhi office of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). The international award is conferred by the World Food Prize Foundation, which was started by Norman Borlogue, the father of Green Revolution in India. The award carries 10000 dollar cash prize. The Borlaug Award is restricted to scientists under 40.

• The Castrol awards for cricketing excellence honoured the players, as , who bagged the lifetime achievement award, and Unmukt Chand, who topped the ‘Junior cricketer’ category. The other awards are- Indian cricketer of the year — M.S. Dhoni, special award for- . Test-cricketer-of-the-year award - , while the limited-over category honours went to Suresh Raina and Sachin Tendulkar took the batsman-of-the-year trophy and the best bowler award - R. Ashwin. Other awards: Performance in the World Cup: Yuvraj Singh; 100th hundred: Tendulkar; Extraordinary double century in ODIs: ; Performance under pressure: (World Cup final); Stand-out performance under pressure: . • Physics professor of Johns Hopkins University, Charles L Bennett, was awarded with the Gruber Cosmology Prize

2012 in Beijing at the opening ceremony of the 28th Conference of the International Astronomical Union on 22 August 2012. This award was given to him acknowledging his immense contribution to the world of physics. Bennett, a prominent physicist, led a 26-member team that worked on NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. The findings of the study helped astronomers refine their understanding of the age, shape and makeup of the universe. • Dr PKB Patnaik has bagged the Damien-Dutton Award for 2012. He is now working as the State Leprosy Officer ,

Odisha. Dr Patnaik has been selected for the award in recognition of his more than 25 years of concern and dedication to the victims of leprosy in India and for his direct involvement in making the multi-drug therapy available to the people affected by leprosy and goal to eliminate leprosy from the State, which has been achieved. The Damien-Dutton Society for Leprosy AID INC was founded in the year 1944 by the Staff Sgt Howard E Crouch, Medical Corps US Army.Dr Patnaik is also Honorary Secretary, Hind Kustha Nivaran Sangh, State Branch appointed by the Governor since 1996. • In a rare honour, eminent litterateur, Padmabhushan award winner, Professor ’s(81) name figured in the list of civilian honours announced by on the eve of its Independence Day. Prof. Narang has been conferred Sitara-i- Imtiaz (Star of Excellence), the third highest civilian honour bestowed by the nation.The legendary writer ( Nishan-i-Imtiaz ), maestro ( Nishan-i- Imtiaz ) and eminent poet Josh Malihabadi ( Hilal-i-Imtiaz ) are also figured in the list of award winners. In the past, former Prime Minister and matinee idol have been bestowed Pakistan's highest civilian honour, Nishan-i-Imtiaz .The investiture ceremony will take place in Pakistan on March 23, 2013, Pakistan's Republic Day. • Ashok Sen, an Indian physicist currently on the faculty of an -based research institute has become a proud recipient of USD three million (about Rs 16.75 ) cash prize instituted by Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner for researchers in the discipline. , a professor in Physics faculty of the Harishchandra Research Institute, situated at the city outskirts and funded by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), received the news on, that he was selected for the inaugural group of nine recipients of the Fundamental Physics Prize this year when he was abroad last week. Sen, 56, who is known for his research on the 'String Theory', is an alumni of the prestigious Presidency College at and IIT- Kanpur. He has been associated with premier US-based institutes like Fermilab and Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre, besides the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research at . Sen had received the in 2001, besides being honoured with a number of prizes like the International Centre for Theoretical Physics Prize (1989), S S Bhatnagar Award (1994). He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1998. Yuri Milner is said to have himself studied Physics at the under-graduate level before dropping out of college and making billions by investing in companies like Facebook. According to the Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation's website, Sen was chosen "for uncovering striking evidence of strong-weak duality in certain super- symmetric string theories and gauge theories, opening the path for the realisation that all string theories are different limits of the same underlying theory". • A -based development organisation, Hand in Hand India, is among the five winners of this year’s World

Environment Day Challengeorganised by the UN for inspiring environmental action. Hand in Hand India brought together over 500 volunteers to create a colourful 10,000 square foot rangoli carpet depicting 10 environmental themes. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) had challenged people across the world to pledge an environmental activity in connection with this year’s World Environment Day, which was observed on June 5. • Renowned social worker D.R. Mehta was selected for the 20th National Sadbhavna Award on 4

August. Congress treasurer , who is member secretary of Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award Committee, said in a statement that the award was given to Mehta for "his outstanding contribution towards the promotion of communal harmony, peace and goodwill". The award, given on the birth anniversary of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, carries a citation and a cash award of Rs.5 lakh. Mehta is founder of Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS), a Jaipur-based NGO that helps the physically challenged, particularly the poor, by providing devices such as artificial limbs and callipers. Former recipients of the award include , Ustad , , Dutt, S.N. Subbarao and Dilip Kumar. • India born internationally acclaimed NRI Heart Surgeon and Research Scientist from the famed Harvard University, Dr

Mukesh Hariawala, has been unanimously selected by the National Healthcare jury to be honored with the prestigious 'India's Most Admired Surgeon 2012 Award'. The glittering ceremony to be held at Mumbai's Hilton Hotel on 21st September, will have in attendance top dignitaries from government, celluloid personalities, industrialists and eminent public figures, led by Governor Shri K. Sankaranarayanan,

Sept 2012

• Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on 19 september has received prestigious Congressional Gold

Medal, a rare honour bestowed to any foreign leader by the US administration.The National League for Democracy leader also met President Barack Obama on a day when the US lifted additional sanctions on Myanmar. In her Congressional Gold Medal acceptance speech Suu Kyi said it has always been her opinion that democracy offers the best balance between freedom and security for all of them.

• Noted Tamil scholar A A Manavalan was on 18 september,in , conferred with the prestigious

Samman for his work 'Irama Kathaiyum Iramayakalyum', a comparative study of epic Ramayana written in 48 languages.Corporate Affairs and Power Minister M presented a citation plaque, a memento and a cheque of Rs 7.5 lakh to Manavalan at a function organised by K K Birla Foundation. • Liberty Medal awarded to Muhammad Ali, the Champion :

The boxing Champion, Muhammad Ali who retired from the game in the year 1981 was honored with Liberty Medal in Philadelphia on 13 September 2012. The boxer who has been battling with Parkinson disease for the past 30 years was awarded with the honor for his contribution towards the humanitarian causes like religious freedom and civil rights. National Constitution Center of the United States administers the Liberty Medal and presents the honor of this medal to the leaders who fight in pursuit of freedom. Muhammad Ali, who was born as Cassius Marcellus Clay changed his name to be Muhammad Ali after converting himself into Isalm in the year 1964. He won the world heavyweight title three times and is nicknamed as The Greatest. In the year 1999, BBC crowned Ali, with the title; Sports Personality of the Century and Sports illustrated crowned him with the title of Sportsman of the century • Renowned poet and film-maker has been nominated for the 27th Award for National

Integration. Congress President will give away the 27th Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration to the 75-year-old lyricist and writer in recognition of his yeoman work in promoting and preserving spirit of national integration in the country.The Award consists of a citation and cash of Rs 5 lakh. Before Gulzar, some of the other film personalities, who received the award are director , lyricist , music composer A R and writer Mahashweta Devi. The award instituted in the name of late Indira Gandhi is given in recognition to outstanding contribution to this cause by individuals or institutions. Former Presidents A P J Abdul Kalam and , Late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, late Chief Minister Beant Singh, the former head of Ramkrishna Math and Mission Swami Ranganathananda, musician M S Subulakshmi, , P N Haksar, Acharya Shree Tulsi Ji, Bishambar Nath Paride and are among the other awardees. • , the grand old man of Indian theatre has been conferred France’s highest cultural award for his contribution in nurturing and presenting modern theatre in India and preserving the treasures of photography and other art forms for posterity. Alkazi, was awarded Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) on 28 September, in New Delhi by the French government who hailed him as “the universal man” for his patronage of fine arts and culture. French Ambassador to India Francois Richier recalled Alkazi’s association with France and his contribution in preserving and enduring the bonds between the two countries through his works and through the Alkazi Foundation of the Arts. The award is given to writers, filmmakers, musicians and other artists and persons who have distinguished themselves in the field of art, culture and literature or for their contribution to the influence of arts in France and throughout the world. • Afghan human rights activist and former Minister Sima Samar (55) on 28 September won the Swedish Right

Livelihood Award .A medical doctor by training, Ms. Samar fled to Pakistan in 1984. She returned in 2001 to become the first Minister of Women’s Affairs and in 2002 was named the head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, which she still leads. Ms. Samar shares the award with American political theorist Gene Sharp (84) and an organisation campaigning for an end to British arms exports. • Pieta the South Korean Film won Golden Lion Venice Top Prize:

The Golden Lion Prize for best movie was given to the South Korean Movie, Pieta directed by Kim Ki-duk at the 69th Venice Film Festival on 8 September 2012. The Master by Paul Thomas Anderson walked off with two major awards namely, Special Jury Award and Best for Joaquin Phoenix. Pieta is the brutal story about a debt collector with a habit of crippling those, who were unable to pay his debt. The brutality stops at a certain point of time, when he meets a woman who claims to be his mother. • Ten scientists bag India Citation Awards

Ten senior scientists, including theoretical physicists and and environmental scientist Vinod Kumar Garg, were on 12 September honoured with the India Citation Awards instituted by Thomson Reuters. The other awardees are Anunay Samanta (physical chemistry and photochemistry), Murali Sastry (nanobiotechnology), Rabin Banerjee and (both theoretical physics and cosmology), (applied physics and materials science, computational methods). Sarit Kumar Das (mechanical engineering, heat transfer) Velayutham Murugesan

(physical, organic and environmental chemistry) were also among the awardees. The awardees were selected on the basis of their highly cited research papers written over a decade between 2002-2011. Indian scientists who had previously been recognised at Thomson Reuters awards in 2004, 2006 and 2009 were not considered for selection. While Samanta is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of , Sastry is the Director of India Innovation Centre of DSM India Private Limited. Banerjee is a Senior Professor, Department of Theoretical Sciences, S N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences. Trivedi teaches Theoretical Physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. While Das is the Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT-Madras, Padmanabhan is a Research Scientist at Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). Waghmare is the Professor, Theoretical Science Unit, Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR). Sahni is a Professor at IUCAA. Murugesan is the Professor of Chemistry (Eminence) at Anna University and Garg is an Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, • Liberty Medal awarded to Muhammad Ali, the Boxing Champion :

The boxing Champion, Muhammad Ali who retired from the game in the year 1981 was honored with Liberty Medal in Philadelphia on 13 September 2012. The boxer who has been battling with Parkinson disease for the past 30 years was awarded with the honor for his contribution towards the humanitarian causes like religious freedom and civil rights. National Constitution Center of the United States administers the Liberty Medal and presents the honor of this medal to the leaders who fight in pursuit of freedom. Muhammad Ali, who was born as Cassius Marcellus Clay changed his name to be Muhammad Ali after converting himself into Isalm in the year 1964. He won the world heavyweight title three times and is nicknamed as The Greatest. In the year 1999, BBC crowned Ali, with the title; Sports Personality serious of the Century and Sports illustrated crowned him with the title of Sportsman of the century. • State Literacy Mission Authority (SLMA) received three National Level Awards for its excellent work in the State. The Authority has received awards for its work in Vizianagaram district and one gram panchayat P Yeleru of Anantapur district. Andhra Pradesh is the only State which received the Saakshar Bharat Award in the entire Country. The Awards comprising a trophy and a certificate which will be given by the Vice- Hamid Ansari on the occasion of International Literacy Day to be celebrated on September 8 at in . The National Literacy Mission Authority has instituted Saakshar Bharat Awards to encourage the institutions working in the field of the literacy and Skill Development and the awards are presented on International Literacy Day on 8th of September every year. In Andhra Pradesh, Saakshar Bharat programme is being implemented in 19 districts where female literacy is less than 50 per cent. The overall literacy rate of Andhra Pradesh is 67.44 per cent as per 2011 census. Under Saakshar Bharat Programme, so far 37 lakh non-literates were enrolled and about 33 lakh non-literates were made literate. Thus, the literacy rate among adults in the age group of 15+ above will be around 72 per cent which is nearer to the National Average. • Author Siddhartha Deb has been named among the winners of the 2012 PENAwards, considered the most comprehensive literary awards programme in the US, for his non-fiction work on India, which is described as a "gripping analysis" of the country and an "important book" of current times. Deb's book The Beautiful and the Damned: A Portrait of the New India won the PEN Open Book Award, which carries a $5000 cash reward "for an exceptional work of literature by an author of colour. "Deb's book chronicles varying lives in contemporary India, including that of highly paid call centre workers, an entertainment mogul and the tragedy of the farmer suicides. • K.C Abraham, the Managing Director of Kunnath Pharmaceuticals and the producer of world famous Musli Power X-tra has won the Switzerland Business Excellence Award 2012 on 8 September 2012 at Zurich, Switzerland. He got shortlisted for the award because of his visionary leadership skill, hard working nature and dedication. • The University of Petroleum and Energy Studies on 5 September 2012, on the occasion of teacher’s day felicitated Dr. AN

Purohit with siksha ratna award. Dr. Purohit is a former vice-chancellor of HNB Garhwal University. Dr Purohit has widely worked in the Himalayan belt, particularly in , on specific subject of plant physiology, ecophysiology of trees and the environment.He was awarded Padmashree in 1997 by the President.

Oct 2012

• Lionel Messi, the Barcelonean forward footballer on 29 October 2012 won Golden Boot Award. Messi won the award in recognition to his record 50 goals scored in the Europe’s domestic football league in the last session. To win the award he scored 4 more goals than Cristiano Ronaldo, the Spanish league star. This is the second Golden Boot award for Messi, as he won his first Golden Boot Award in the year 2010 after scoring 34 goals during Argentina International to help Barcelona win the league title. He is also in the list of the favorites to win the 2012 Ballon d’Or for the World’s best player.

• Famous Lyricist and well known poet Gulzar on 31 October 2012 awarded with Indira Gandhi National

Integration Award by congress President Sonia Gandhi. The award was given on the eve of 28th death anniversary of the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was assassinated on 31 October 1984.Earlier, Gulzar was awarded Award in 2002 and the in 2004 for his contribution to the arts. • The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on 29 September 2012 awarded the Japan International

Cooperation Agency (JICA) President Award for 2012 for its outstanding contribution to the development of human resources, society and economy of India and also for promoting mutual understanding between India and Japan.It is the ninth edition of the JICA awards which in the past has been given mostly to Japanese organisation such as research institutions, non-government organisations and medical organisations. JICA and DMRC have been associated since the beginning of the Delhi Metro construction in 1998 in the National Capital Region. • Indian Oil's Mathura Refinery was awarded the Platinum Award in the 13th Annual Greentech Environment

Awards. The award was felicitated on 31 October 2012.Mathura Refinery was awarded in regard to the company's outstanding achievements and contribution to apt implementation of environmental friendly technologies and methodologies.Greentech Awards is a key component that values the need of environmental management in business sustainability. • Indian Oil's Mathura Refinery was awarded the Platinum Award in the 13th Annual Greentech Environment

Awards. The award was felicitated on 31 October 2012. Mathura Refinery was awarded in regard to the company's outstanding achievements and contribution to apt implementation of environmental friendly technologies and methodologies. Greentech Awards is a key component that values the need of environmental management in business sustainability. • The directorial venture “”, has been named as the best film at the film festival held in

Labassa. The festival, that was partnered with Indian High commission and organized by Fiji National University and Film Fiji, had opened with the screening of Kahaani.While Raj Kumar Hirani received the ‘Best Director’ award for 3 Idiots, a special Jury Best Film award went to Kumavatara. • Prof. Raghavan was honored with the 2012 Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source Software during the inaugural session of theFOSS4G-India 2012 conference held in Hyderabad, India. The award was presented by Ravi Kumar and Vundavallu Aruna Kumar, Member of Parliament. Venkatesh's dedication to FOSS4G and his community work around the world, promoting open source geospatial, is second to none. He has been involved in OSGeo since the foundation was formed in 2006. The Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source Software is awarded annually by OSGeo to individuals who have demonstrated leadership in the GFOSS community. Recipients of the award will have contributed significantly through their activities to advance open source ideals in the geospatial realm. Sol Katz was an early pioneer of GFOSS and left behind a large body of work in the form of applications, format specifications, and utilities. In the early 80's, Sol assisted in the development of a public domain GIS package called MOSS (Map Overlay and Statistical System). This software was arguably the first open source GIS software in the world. • India’s leading strategic thinker and analyst Brahma Chellaney has won the 2012 Asia Society Bernard Schwartz

Book Award for his recently published “Water: Asia’s New Battleground” book. Chellaney will be honoured and presented with a $20,000 prize at a special event to be held at Asia Society’s headquarters in New York City on January 23. Established in 2009, the Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Book Award is the only award that recognises non-fiction books for their outstanding contributions to the understanding of contemporary Asia or US-Asia relations, as well as potential policy impacts relating to the region. • Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy has been conferred with the 2012 Hoover Medal in recognition of his philanthropic activities in India.Former US Presidents Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower and James Earl Carter are among some of the prominent recipients of this annual award established in 1930 to recognise great, unselfish and non-technical services by the engineers to humanity.Murthy was awarded with the award on October 2 at the Global Humanitarian Technology Conference in Seattle.The 70th recipient of the award, Murthy was recognised for establishing a foundation that forges outstanding improvements in healthcare, social rehabilitation, rural uplift and education following his formation of Infosys, an innovative company that provides business consulting, technology, and engineering services in over 30 countries.In 2008, former Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had received this award. • Musa Sayeed’s Valley of Saints bagged the special jury award in the international competition section at the 14th Mumbai Film

Festival that concluded on 25 October. Mr. Sayeed dedicated the film to the people of Kashmir who inspired him to make the movie. Veteran actor

Waheeda Rehman was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award. In the international competition category for first feature films, the award went to Aquí Y Alla (Here And There) directed by Antonio Mendes Esparza. It also won the award for best direction. The jury award for technical excellence went to Pankaj Kumar for Ship of Theseus directed by Anand Gandhi.In the newly introduced competition section for Indian feature films, directed by bagged the best film award, while Shahid , directed by Hansal Mehta, based on the real-life story of lawyer and human rights activist Shahid Azmi who was killed in Mumbai, was the runner-up.Another special jury award was given to Manjeet Singh for Mumbai Cha Raja . The Mumbai Young Critics chose Beasts of the Southern Wild , directed by Benh Zeitlin, as the best film, while Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt was selected winner of the Audience Choice Award. • Narendra Kumar the IPS officer who was brutally killed by illegal mining mafia in and many other

Security Personnel who had laid down their life for fighting against Maoists and anti Social element on 20 October 2012 was awarded with Singham Bravery Awards. The awards were handed over to the family members of the police officers by reel life 'Singham' Devgan,who is also the brand ambassador of Maharashtra police ,actor Sunil Shetty and former CRPF Director General K Kumar. Besides Narendra Kumar, the award was posthumously presented to Surinder Singh, Narinder Singh Singh, Prakash S , K C Meena, Tanveer Singh and .Marking the occasion, and Rohit Shetty, were also bestowed with 'Pride of Nation' awards.The Singham Bravery Award was organised by the All India Anti Terrorist Front (AIATF) and were held on the occasion of National Police Day 2012 to felicitate those who had risked - some had even sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. • President Felicitates Medical Officer Major Surendra Poonia for Winning Seven Medals at 33rd World Medical Games. The President of India Shri felicitated Major Dr. Surendra Poonia, VSM at Rashtrapati Bhavan on October 6, 2012 for winning seven medals (two Gold Medals and five Silver Medals) at 33rd World Medical and Health Games held in Antalya, Turkey from July 7 to 15, 2012. Major Poonia won two gold medals in Powerlifting and 800 meters race and five Silver medals in 400 meters race, 1500 meters race, 5000 meters race, cross country race and Pentathlon. This year Major Poonia was awarded by ‘Vishisht Seva Medal’ by the President of India for his outstanding performance in sports for year 2011. He is also a qualified paratrooper (123 jumps) and has served in Para Special forces earlier in J&K and in . • Charu Udaya, Vinayak Bagare, Keertan Kumar and Sanjay Kumar on 18 October, received the India

Biodiversity awards for sustained efforts to conserve forests and natural resources at the global biodiversity summit. They represented Pir Jahania Jungle Suraksha Samithi, Odisha; Shankarpur Village Gram Panchayat, Maharashtra; Van Utthan Sansthan from and the Periyar Reserve, , respectively. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is partnering the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests in supporting these awards. The award carries Rs one lakh, a citation and recognises good practices in India, from community-run institutions, local self-governance bodies, joint forest management committees and protected area management agencies. Veerle Vandeweerd, UNDP Director, Environment and Energy Group, New York, told that at the ceremony, UNDP currently works in 146 countries, managing 512 projects on ecosystems and biodiversity with $1.6 billion in funding from the Global Environment Facility and other sources and co-financing of $3.5 billion. • British Writer Hilary Mantel on 16 October 2012 won the prestigious literary prize, the Booker Prize for her novel “Bring up the Bodies”, the second in a historical trilogy set during the reign of King Henry VIII. Hilary Mantel had earlier won the Booker prize in 2009 for "Wolf Hall," the first novel in the trilogy. Hilary Mantel is the third author to win the prize twice, alongside South-African-born J.M. Coetzee and Australian Peter Carey. With this she also became the first British author, and the first woman, to achieve a double Booker Prize. The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. • Ltd’s (RIL) SEZ refinery at Jamnagar has won the ‘Globe of Honour Award’ for excellence in environmental management. The award is given by the British Safety Council, . This is the first time that a Reliance Industries’ manufacturing site has been bestowed with such a coveted award. The award will be presented at a celebratory luncheon at Mansion House in the City of London on November 23. The British Safety Council is a global health, safety and environmental charity. For over 50 years, the British Safety Council has been a champion of workplace health and safety. • Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley of America were awarded the Nobel economics prize on 15 October 2012 for their work in market design and matching theory. The award was cited to the economist by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the 8 million crown ($1.2 million) prize, called their work an outstanding example of economic engineering. The two economists were working independently on the same research project. Lloyd Shapley used game theory to study matching models, and Alvin Roth built on them to make real-world changes to existing markets, including school choice and organ transplants, Alvin Roth is a professor at Harvard and Lloyd Shapley teaches at the in Los Angeles • Mo Yan, the Chinese writer won 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature on 11 October 2012. The Swedish Academy of

Stockholm praised the Chinese writer for the writer called his hallucinatory realism. The writer combines the folk stories, modern events and the history in his works. He is the first Chinese writer in the 111 years of Nobel history to become a Nobel Prize winner. Before him, Gao Xingjiana a French citizen born in won a Nobel in literature in 2000.Mo Yan will receive the prize medal and the prize amount of more than 1 million $ on 10 December 2012, the death anniversary of the prize founder, Alfred Nobel. • Max India founder and Vodafone Chairman has been given this year's Golden Peacock Award for personal leadership and his contribution to society. Eric Pickles, Former Prime Minister of Sweden and Co-Chair of the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development, presented the award at the third 'Global Conference on Sustainability' in London on 11 October. • The Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR) has won the coveted U.N.-India Biodiversity Governance award instituted by the

Government of India and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the best managed protected area of the country. The award was announced at the venue of the Conference of Parties to Convention on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad on 17 October. Sanjayankumar, deputy director of the reserve, and Hydros Meeran, chairman of the Periyar East Eco Development Committees’ Confederation, received the award. The award carries a purse of Rs.50, 000 and a citation. • The PTR, first tiger reserve in the State, is home to 35 . The reserve, which is spread over an area of 925 sq km, is also one of the best known eco-tourism centres of the country which is visited by around seven lakh people annually. The park supports a wide range of wildlife, including tigers and elephants. It is also one of the elephant reserves of the country. The reserve had earlier bagged recognition as one of the best tiger reserves of the State. The National Tiger Conservation Authority had bestowed the best tourism regulated park award on the PTR last year. • 11th Economist Crossword Book Award was declared on 18 October 2012 at Mumbai. The Folded Earth and A Free Man- a nonfiction book, written by Anuradha Roy and Aman Sethi respectively were declared among winners of the 11th Economist Crossword Book Award. The Folded Earth was declared winner in English Indian Fiction Category, whereas, A Free Man won the award in the English Non-Fiction Category for 2011. • Few more books that won awards in different categories were English Translation by Arunava Sinha of a book on short stories,

17 written by Anita Agnihotri and The Araya Woman written by Naayan and Translated by Catherine Thankamma were declared joint winners of the award for Indian Language Translation and the Incredible Banker written by Ravi Subramanian fetched the Popular Award • Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, renowned Burmese opposition leader and chairperson of the

National League for Democracy in Burma, received an honorary doctorate from the University of San Francisco on 29 september,2012 in recognition for her years of extraordinary work giving voice to the marginalized and strength for the oppressed. In December 2007, the University honored the Buddhist monks of Burma at a commencement ceremony with an honorary doctorate for their courage, compassion, and commitment in seeking to protect the human and democratic rights of the Burmese people in the face of a harshly brutal military dictatorship. It was this proven commitment to social justice that led the local Burmese community to select USF as the venue location for this historic visit by the 67-year- old Nobel laureate, who spent 15 years under house arrest for opposing military rule. This trip to the United States marks her first return since she worked at the United Nations in New York City from 1969 to 1971. • The Government of Spain has conferred on 11 October, the Great Cross of Civil merit on Dr. ,

Minister of New and Renewable Energy. This is the highest possible honour accorded by the Spanish Government to somebody who is not or Government. Dr. Abdullah has been honoured for his efforts to promote sustainable economic development through the promotion of renewable energy. The honour was received by Dr. Abdullah from Mr. Gustavo de Aristegui, the ambassador of Spain in a function in the Spanish Embassy. Dr. Abdullah thanked the Spanish Government for conferring this honour on him. He accepted it on behalf of the people of India and hoped that one day he would be able to see his vision of every India household electrified become a reality. Spain is the 4th largest producer of wind generated power and is top-ranked worldwide in terms of photovoltaic solar power capacity. The Solar Platform of Almeria (PSA), run under the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness is considered one of the largest and best R&D facilities for Concentrating Solar Power Technologies (CSP Technologies). The Order of Spanish Civil Merit was created by Queen Isabel II in the XIX century to honour Spaniards and foreign citizens with exceptional qualities who have performed great services for their communities and contributed to a better understanding between nations. • 11 exceptional personalities including, Flutist , santoor player , sarod player and Manipuri dance guru Singhajit Singh were conferred the prestigious Sangeet Natak

Akademi Fellowships by President Pranab Mukherjee on 9 October in New Delhi. They receive a purse of money of Rs.3 lakh and a citation. Other fellows include mridangam player Umayalpuram Kasiviswanatha Sivaraman, ( artist), Padma Subrahmanyam (Bharatnatyam dancer), Chandrasekhar Basavanneppa Kambara ( poet, playwright and folklorist) and Manipuri theatre personality . Currently, the has 40 living fellows. Altogether, 36 artists received the Akademi awards for their contribution to performing arts and music. • The European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize-2012. In this regard the Norwegian Nobel Committee praised the 27- nation EU for rebuilding after World War Two and for its role in spreading stability to former communist countries after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989."The union and its forerunners have for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe," Nobel Committee president Thorbjoern Jagland said in Oslo. The prize, worth $1.2 million, will be presented in Oslo on December 10.Giving the award to an organization is not unprecedented. Something called the International Peace Bureau won all the way back in 1910, and other past recipients include the International Red Cross, Doctors With Borders, and UNICEF. • Chinese writer Mo Yan won the 2012 Nobel prize for literature on 11 October, for works which combine "hallucinatory realism" with folk tales, history and contemporary life grounded in his native land. The prize, awarded by the Swedish Academy, is worth 8 million kronas ($1.2 million).Mo, who grew up in Gaomi in Shandong province in the northeast of the country and whose parents were farmers, sets his works mainly in China. • Two Chennai-based auto component makers, Lucas-TVS and Rane (Madras), have bagged the Deming Grand

Prize for quality excellence. The coveted prize (originally established as the Japan Quality Medal) is given by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers. Lucas-TVS and Rane (Madras) now join an elite group of 25 companies worldwide, including three companies from India (Wabco TVS, M&M Farm Equipment and Rane TRW), which have won this honour for excellence in total quality management (TQM). The Deming Grand Prize is given to companies for TQM approach in business processes with a focus on customer orientation, improvement and employee involvement. Lucas-TVS, which make auto electricals, launched the TQM movement in 1998; it secured the Deming Application Prize in 2004 for its TQM commitment and appreciation. The Deming Grand Prize is the next higher level of award. Rane (Madras), which makes steering and suspension systems, had earlier won the Deming Application Prize in 2007. • The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2012 to Serge

Haroche, College de France and Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, France and David J. Wineland, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and University of Colorado Boulder, CO, USA "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems". Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland have independently invented and developed methods for measuring and manipulating individual particles while preserving their quantum-mechanical nature, in ways that were previously thought unattainable. • The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has on 8 October, decided to awardThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or

Medicine 2012 jointly to John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent. The Nobel Prize recognizes two scientists who discovered that mature, specialised cells can be reprogrammed to become immature cells capable of developing into all tissues of the body. Their findings have revolutionised our understanding of how cells and organisms develop. John B. Gurdon discovered in 1962 that the specialisation of cells is reversible. Shinya Yamanaka discovered more than 40 years later, in 2006, how intact mature cells in mice could be reprogrammed to become immature stem cells. Surprisingly, by introducing only a few genes, he could reprogram mature cells to become pluripotent stem cells, i.e. immature cells that are able to develop into all types of cells in the body. These groundbreaking discoveries have completely changed our view of the development and cellular specialisation. • The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2012 to Robert J.

Lefkowitz Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA and Brian K. KobilkaStanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA “for studies of G-protein–coupled receptors". Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka are awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for groundbreaking discoveries that reveal the inner workings of an important family of such receptors: G-protein–coupled receptors. The Prize amount of SEK 8 million, to be shared equally between the Laureates.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, is an independent organization whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines. • 2011 winners list:

The Nandi Awards for the year 2011 was announced 13 October by the chairman of the jury committee, cinematographer S Gopal Reddy. While Mahesh

Babu won the Best Actor (Male) for his act in the superhit , Nayanthara walked away with the Best Actor (Female) for her role as Sita in Sri Rama Rajyam, which also won the Best Film award. 's came second. N Shankar won the Best Director for the film, Jai Bolo , which also won the Sarojini Devi Award for a Film on National Integration. Gaddar was adjudged the Best Singer for his rendition of Poru Telangana in the critically acclaimed film. While Manchu was declared the Best Actor in a Negative Role for , and Reddy were declared the Best Supporting for their roles in Dookudu and Inkennalu respectively. . • Complete List of Nandi Awards - 2011

1. Best Film - Sri Rama Rajyam Second Best Film - Rajanna Third Best Film - Virodhi 2. Best Director - N Shankar (Jai Bolo Telangana) 3. Best Actor - (Dookudu) 4. Best Actress - Nayanthara (Sri Rama Rajyam) 5. Best Supporting Actor - Prakash Raj (Dookudu) 6. Best Supporting Actress - Sujatha Reddy (Inkennallu) 7. Best Character Actor - Gandhi (Rajanna) 8. Best Comedian (Actor ) - M S Narayana (Dookudu) 9. Best Comedian (Actress) - Ratnasagar (Karalu Miriyalu) 10. Best Villain - Lakshmi Manchu (Anaganaga O Dheerudu) 11. Best Cinematographer - Raju (Sri Rama Rajyam) 12. Best Music Director - Ilayaraja (Sri Rama Rajyam) 13. Best Editor - M R Varma (Dookudu) 14. Best Art Director - S Ravinder (Rajanna) 15. Best Screenplay - (Dookudu) 16. Best Story Writer - Raj Madiraju (Rushi) 17. Best Dialogues - (Virodhi) • President Pranab Mukherjee on 5 October participated in the occasion of thepresentation of Federation of Indian

Export Organisation’s Niryat Shree and Niryat Bandhu awards ceremony in New Delhi. He urged exporters to focus on products of high export intensity, which currently have low penetration abroad, and said India had been a part of global efforts to restore growth and reform financial systems. The President gave away 52 awards — 46 Niryat Shree Awards to exporters for their performance in 12 categories, which cover agriculture, plantation products; chemicals, drugs, pharma and allied products; engineering; gems and jewellery, handicrafts, carpets; textiles, leather, service providers; and 6 Niryat Bandhu Awards to Export Promotion Councils and Banks for their support to the exporting community. Among the Niryat Shree awardees who were presented a gold trophy was MIOT Hospitals Limited for being the highest foreign exchange earner in the country among all service providers. The award was received by company chairperson Mallika Mohandas. Reliance Industries too was awarded a gold trophy for earning the highest foreign exchange. PC Jewellers was awarded a silver trophy in the Gems and Jewellery category. In the Niryat Bandhu category for banks, the winners were Canara Bank (gold trophy) followed by Bank of India (silver) and Punjab National Bank (bronze). • ISRO Scientist Tessy Thomas Conferred with Award:

President Pranab Mukherjee on 1 October 2012 conferred the prestigious Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award 2012 to ISRO scientist Tessy Thomas at an award function in Rashtrapati Bhawan. The award was given on the eve of Birth anniversary of Former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shashtri. Tessy Thomas 48 years old is the Key Scientist for Agni-V in Defence Research and Development Organisation Hyderabad. She is the first woman scientist to head a missile project in India. Tessy Thomas was an associate Project director (mission) for Agni-I, II and III systems. She was associated with the Agni Programme since their developmental stages. She has designed the guidance scheme for long-range missile systems, which is used in all Agni missiles. Presently, she is the Project Director of Agni -IV, which is a major project with state of the art technologies. The Agni-IV was successfully flight tested on 15th November, 2011.

Nov 2012

• AP Genco on 29 November, has bagged ‘India Power Award’ of the Council of Power Utilities again for 2011-12 for overall performance in generation activity during the year. This is the fourth time that the utility, which has an installed capacity of 8,924 MW, bagged this award in the past five years. The award was presented to APGenco MD K. Vijayanand at a function in Delhi.

• Coromandel International Ltd has conferred the ‘Borlaug Award’ for 2012 on two Indian Agriculture Research

Institute (IARI) scientists. The award has been given to K.V. Prabhu and Singh for their contribution to basmati rice research and development. A five-member jury headed by M.S. Swaminathan, Father of the Green Revolution in India, has named these scientists for the award. Coromandel has instituted the award in 1972 to honour Nobel Laureate Norman E. Borlaug. The award is given in recognition of outstanding research and contribution in the field of agriculture, environment and extension by Indian scientists. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh, a gold medal and a citation. , Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, presented the award to the winners in New Delhi on November 28. • Tumkur University() will confer Honorary Distinguished Professorship on His Holiness The Dalai

Lama on 27th November 2012during the inauguration of International Conference on YOGA IN EDUCATION at Tumkur University.Dalailama will inaugurate the international conference on November 27 and deliver a talk on “Human approach to World Peace”. Besides, Tumkur University and Sara Jey Monastic University will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). • Gaddar presented Midde Ramulu Award

- Midde Ramulu Award for 2011 was presented to the balladeer Gaddar in Vemulawada in Karimnagar district on 25 November. The award was instituted to perpetuate the memory of internationally acclaimed Oggu artist Midde Ramulu by his family. At an impressive function in C Narayana Reddy Kalamandir at Vemulawada, Gaddar received the award. Speaking on the occasion, Gaddar said he never accepted awards but made an exception in this case as he felt it privilege to receive such an award named after internationally renowned artist. • ‘Anhey Ghore Da Daan’ got Golden Peacock Award at IFFI Panaji: Punjabi film 'Anhey Ghore Da Daan' (Alms for a

Blind Horse) won the Golden Peacock award for best film at the 43rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Panaji on 30 November. The National Film Development Corporation movie (NFDC), adapted from a novel by and directed by Gurvinder Singh, was one of the 15 films in the international competition section vying for a cash prize of Rs four million. The Silver Peacock award for best director went to Kyu-hwan Jeon for South Korean film 'The Weight'. Anjali Patil won the best actress Silver Peacock for her role in Tamil-Sinhalese film 'With You Without You' while Marcin Dorocinski was named the best actor for Polish film 'Rose'. A special jury Silver Peacock award was given to Lucy Mulloy for Spanish film 'Una Noche'. Filmmaker was given a special peacock and a Centenary Film Award for her new Hollywood movie, 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist', which was the 11-day festival's closing film. • The President of India Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and

Development on H.E. Mr. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, former President of the Federative Republic of Brazil at a function organized in Rashtrapati Bhavan on November 22, 2012. The President described former President of Brazil as an outstanding champion of the developing world.

The Prize has been awarded to His Excellency President Lula of Brazil for his outstanding contribution to the cause of eliminating hunger and promoting inclusive growth in Brazil, for his advocacy of stronger ties among the developing economies and for his signal contribution to the cause of the India-Brazil partnership. The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development is awarded annually to a person or organization without any distinction of nationality, race or religion, in recognition of creative efforts towards enlarging the scope of freedom and enriching the human spirit. It consists of an award of Rs. 2.5 million and a trophy with a citation. Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust and Prime Minister Dr. also addressed the gathering on the occasion. • The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee on 23rd November, 2012 gave away Rashtrakavi Ramdhari Singh

‘Dinkar’ Sahitya Ratna Samman to 21 prominent writers and social workers at a function organized in Rashtrapati Bhavan. On the occasion, the President recalled the contribution of Shri Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ in the freedom struggle and his service to literature. He also called upon the Indian writers to bring international laurels to the country through their writings. • Malala Yousafzai, on 19 November 2012 was awarded by World Peace and Prosperity Foundation for her bravery and commitment to education for girls in adverse conditions in Swat, Pakistan.She was shot in the head by Taliban, and had become the face of Pakistan’s struggle against the Taliban. She is now being treated and on the road to recovery at a Queen Elizabeth Hospital, England. The Deputy High

Commissioner of Pakistan to the UK, S Zulfiqar Gardezi received the award on her behalf at the Cholmondeley Room of the House of Lords.The other recipients of award included a Bishop of London, a distinguished British Muslim Psychiatrist, a distinguished Turkish academic and MP, and eight year old Josh Altman, European Chess Bronze medalist. On 9 October 2012 Malala Yousafzai, was shot in the head and neck by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) while she was returning home. She was attacked for speaking up against the Taliban and advocating girls' education. • Indian-born, Autar Kaw, a University of South Florida (USF) mechanical engineering professor has been named a 2012

US Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. This annual award is conferred on exceptional academicians for their ability to engage and influence students. According to USF news and a press statement, Kaw, who was an early adopter of new technologies and social media to teach complex mathematical calculations, was feted on November 15, 2012 in events at the National Press Club and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. He is one of four professors - selected from more than 300 nominees - to receive the award that is considered the nation's highest honor for undergraduate teaching. Kaw was selected in the category of Outstanding Doctoral and Research Universities Professor of the Year.Kaw, who has been associated with USF for over 25 years was lauded for his innovative work in using technology and social media to reach tens of thousands of students around the world studying to be engineers.Kaw has dedicated his career to eliminating one of the most significant obstacles to engineering students being successful by providing students everywhere free access to supplemental lessons.Kaw is a fellow in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a member of the American Society of Engineering Education. In 2011, he was awarded the National Outstanding Teaching Medal from the American Society for Engineering Education. A prolific writer, he has authored four text books and scores of academic articles.Born in India, Kaw received his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India, Pilani and his master's and PhD in Engineering Mechanics from Clemson University • The has named President of Liberia as the recipient of the 2012

Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development.The announcement of the Prize came on November 19, the birth anniversary of the late , Indira Gandhi, who was assassinated 28 years ago, in 1984. The 2012 Prize was awarded to President Sirleaf, an international jury said, “for serving as an example and an inspiration to many a woman in Africa and beyond; for ensuring the return of peace, democracy, development, security and order in Liberia; and for her strong interest in the consolidation and improvement of Liberia’s relations with India since her first election as President in 2005 and her re-election in 2011.” • Hyderabad based social activist, Dr Syed Mazher Hussain, has been selected by the Association for Communal

Harmony in Asia (ACHA), for the ACHA South Asian Peace Star Award for 2012, according to Pritam K. Rohilla, Executive Director of ACHA. A press release 19 November said that, Dr Syed Mazher Hussain, is an indefatigable campaigner for peace within his own society as well as between societies of South Asia. The association, based in USA, honours persons for their work, in fostering peace, communal harmony and human rights, particularly in South Asia, biennially. Dr Hussain, who is the executive director of Hyderabad-based Confederation of Voluntary Associations (COVA), is also a member of many national international organisations, working in the fields of communal harmony, community empowerment, disaster-relief projects and Nuclear Disarmament etc. Currently he is working on setting up the Center for Peoples Foreign Policy in South Asia and the International Center for Applied Peace Studies. The other activists selected for the award are, Lajja Shankar Herdenia from , Pramod Sharma from and Sheema Kermani of Pakistan. Eminent communal harmony and human rights personalities, Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, Dr. Ram Puniyani, Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi, and Jatin Desai, were some of the recipients of ACHA award in the previous years • Jnanpith awardee and noted writer Dr C Narayana Reddy has been selected for the Potti Sriramulu Telugu

University’s Visishta Puraskar award for the year 2012. Reddy will be presented the ward during the university’s foundation day celebrations at Hyderabad on December 2. Speaking to the media on 22 November Telugu varsity vice-chancellor Prof. Elluri Siva Reddy said the award carries a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and a citation, adding that the cash award, which was Rs 50,000 earlier, has been increased to Rs 1 lakh this time. He also announced that 12 more eminent Telugu personalities from various fields like literature and fine arts will also be conferred with the Potti Sriramulu Telugu University Pratibha Puraskar on the occasion. Each award carries a cash prize of Rs 50,000 and a citation. Deputy Chief minister C Damodara Raja Narasimha will present all the awards during the 27th Foundation Day celebrartions of the university on December 2, said Elluri Siva Reddy. It may be noted that the Potti Sriramulu Telugu University Visishta Puraskar award was introduced by Dr C Narayana Reddy in 1991 when he was the vice- chancellor of the Telugu varsity. • The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari presented the “ for 2010” to eminent Urdu scholar Prof. Gopi Chand Narang for his outstanding work ‘Urdu Ghazal aur Hindustani Zehan wa Tehzeeb” at a function organized by Bhartiya Jnanpith in New Delhi on 12 november. Ansari said that Prof. Narang revived Urdu language in our country through his writings and he is one of the foremost theorist, literary critic and Urdu scholar of our country. His perceptive writings have helped Urdu criticism becoming more contemporary. It is befitting that his long academic life of excellence has been felicitated by conferring the Moortidevi award on him. • The year 2012 winner of one of the biggest awards in international education isMadhav Chavan - who has provided an education for millions of impoverished families in India. Dr Chavan has won the WISE Prize, which has been likened to a "Nobel prize for education". The award, announced on 13 November, at the WISE summit in Qatar, recognises his education work in the slums of Mumbai. The international award, which comes with a prize of $500,000 (£314,000), recognises Dr Chavan's efforts to provide lessons in literacy and numeracy for disadvantaged children and adults in India. • Renowned literary critic and educator Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak was awarded the prestigious Kyoto Prize in Kyoto on 12 November.Instituted by the Inamori Foundation, the prize honours those who have contributed significantly to the scientific, cultural and spiritual betterment of mankind.Ms. Spivak, professor at Columbia University in the U.S., won the award in the Arts and Philosophy category for her “deep thinking on humanities against intellectual colonialism in relation to globalisation”. U.S. computer scientist Ivan Sutherland, regarded as a father of computer graphics, won the Advanced Technology Prize while Japanese molecular biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi was awarded the Basic Sciences Prize.Each laureate received a diploma, a 20K gold Kyoto Prize medal and a cash gift of ¥50 million ($630,000). • Dr.Bhuma Vengamma- Director and Vice-Chancellor of Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS),

Tirupati, has been nominated as a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, in recognition of her outstanding academic contribution and research work.The college that has an impressive membership of 10,000 fellows and has members in 91 countries covering 56 medical specialties, recognised her efforts in taking medicine to the community level, as Dr. Vengamma is known for having conducted camps for epilepsy patients regularly since 1999, in which an average of 450 patients are treated every month. • Minister for Information, Public Relations, Cinematography and Film Division Corporation D K Aruna on 12 November announced Nandi television film awards for 68 wings in nine categories for the year 2011. She announced that Naa Bhoomi of Doordarshan Kendra (DDK), produced by Sailaja and directed by S S Sai, had been selected as the first best tele film. The film gets the Golden Nandi. She said that the producer would get Golden Nandi award with a cash prize of Rs 30,000. Jogini of DDK, produced and directed by V V Rao and M Rambabu respectively, had been selected as the second best tele film and the film producer would get silver Nandi for it. K Vinod Kumar of HMTV was selected as ‘best male TV news anchor’ and S Lakshmi Kalyani of TV-5 as ‘best female TV news reader’. Announcing the awards, Aruna said that the government constituted Nandi Television Film Awards Committee for the selection for television films produced and telecast during the year 2011. She said that the committee, headed by television actor Vinod Bala and other members, viewed all the entries and gave their recommendations. She said that the committee had formulated well laid out modalities and schedules for screening. She said that the committee received 128 entries and selected the best for the awards. . • Awards

Tele Films- Naa Bhoomi (DDK), First and Jogini (DDK), Second. TV Features - Adurs (ETV)- First and Brahmamokate (SVBC)- Second. TV Mega Serials- Nayana (SVBC), First and Pancha Tantram (ETV), Second. TV Daily Serials- Pasupu Kunkuma (Zee TV), First and Mamatala Kovela (Gemini TV), Second. T V Children’s Films - Cheyutha Nivvandi (Gemini TV),First and Shankar (DDK), Second, TV Documentary Films- Keshlapur Nagoba Jatara (SVBC),First and Kavita Kalanidhi Kapilavai Lingamurthy (DDK), Second.

TV Social Relevant Films-O Chitteemma Katha (TV-5), First and Kalushya Nivarana-Mana Bhadhyatha (DDK),Second. T V Educational Films- Telugu Prasasthi (RTV), First and Bharthuhari-Enugu Laxmana Kavi (SIET). Individual Awards and Technicians – Best Director-G Anila Kumar for Manasu Mamata (ETV), Achyut Award for Best Leading Actor to Subhaleka for Manasu Mamata (ETV), Best Leading Actress to R Pallavi for Bharyamani (ETV), Best Supporting Actor to K for Aadadhe Aadharam (ETV), Best Supporting Actress to Madhumani for Jogini (DDK), Best Comedian Actor to Ramajan for Chudu Chudu Thamasha (ETV), Best Comedian Actress to Srilakshmi for Nene Mee Alludu (ETV), Best Villain to Lavanya Lahari for Anthapuram (ETV), Best Child Actor to Master Chandra for Pasupu Kunkuma (Zee TV), Best Child Actress to Baby Anusha and Baby P Divija for Anna Chellellu (Maa TV), Best First Film of a director to K Sambasiva Rao for Adugu (TV-1), Best Screenplay Writer to P Bhavani Prasad for Dharani (DDK). Best Story Writer to late CH Suman for Mamatha (ETV). • Andhra Pradesh has bagged four NABARD awards (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) for Rural

Innovation at a function held in New Delhi recently. Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram presented awards to the winners. In academic and research institutions category, LV Prasad Eye Institute of Hyderabad received an award for developing an in-house software called

Electronic Medical Record (EMR). It contains digitised case papers of 85,000 patients that have been networked, enabling easy access to doctors and students. In NGO/Trust category, Society for Energy, Environment and Development (SEED) head professor M Ramakrishna Rao who integrated solar energy applications with food processing technologies using solar dryers was awarded. Smart Aqua Solutions was adjudged as winner for developing water and waste water treatment and purification system on the concept of ‘Community Water Centre’. The runner up was Ch Mallesham of Nalgonda district who developed ‘Asu Machine’ which automated the process of spreading 10.5 km of silk thread around 41 steel pins for making a Pochampally saree in one and half hour. • Tapeswaram laddu enters Guinness World Records.

The Laddu that was displayed at the Pushkar Ghat during Ganesh Chathurthi, celebrated by Rajahmundry Ganesh Utsava Committee, won the Guinness World Record for the heaviest Laddu. It had been prepared by the Bhaktanjaneya Sweets organisation at Tapeswaram that is famous for its Madata Khaja, a typical Andhra sweet. The Laddu weighing 6,559 kg was prepared on the order of the Utsav Committee that was established by late former minister Jakkampudi Rammohan Rao and displayed during the Ganesh festival. • The President Pranab Mukhrji presented Dr. Durgabai Awards for Women’s Development for the years 2005, 2006 and 2007 on November 5, 2012 at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The President of India called for concerted efforts by Government, private and voluntary sectors for the development of the weaker and vulnerable sections of our society. The eighth Award for 2005 was jointly given to Mizoram Hmeithai (Widows) Association and People’s Forum, . The Mizoram Hmeithai (Widows) Association has been working to bring succour and relief to thousands of widows and destitute women and hundreds of abandoned orphan children. The People’s Forum, Bhubaneswar was awarded for its landmark services in the rescue and rehabilitation of hundreds of mentally ill women and for its exemplary work with women in distress. The ninth Award for the year 2006 was awarded to Sumangali Seva Ashram of . The main activities of the Sumangali Seva Ashram are care, education and development of deserted, orphan and needy children and socio-economic opportunities for development of women. Snehalaya of Ahmednagar was awarded the tenth Award for the year 2007 for its landmark work in the rehabilitation of women of red light areas and other destitute women. • The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee on 9 November, conferred 20 Shilp Guru Awards, 18 Sant

Awards along with 74 National Awards to master craftspersons and master weavers at a function in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion, President Pranab Mukherjee congratulated all the awardees for their “contribution in preserving, promoting and enriching the traditional and cultural heritage of our country.” Shilp Guru awards are conferred to legendary master craftspersons of Handicrafts whose work and dedication have contributed not only to the preservation of rich and diverse craft heritage of the country, but also to the resurgence of handicrafts sector as a whole. Each Award consists of one mounted gold coin, one shawl, Certificate and a Tamrapatra. In addition, financial assistance to the extent of Rs. 6 lakh is also given to each selected Awardee to innovate and create five new products of high level of excellence, high aesthetic value and high quality befitting the stature of the Guru. Sant Kabir Award is conferred on such outstanding weaver who has made valuable contribution in keeping alive the handloom heritage and also for his dedication in building up the linkages between the past, present and future through dissemination of knowledge on traditional skills and designs. Each Sant Kabir Award consists of one mounted gold coin, one shawl, certificate and a Tamrapatra. In addition, financial assistance to the extent of Rs. 6 lakh is also given to each selected awardee to innovate and create ten new products of high level of excellence, high aesthetic value and high quality. National Awards to Master Craftspersons and master weavers were introduced in 1965 and the award comprises of a cash prize of Rs.1 lakh, a certificate, Tamrapatra and an Angavastram. • Indian Oil's Mathura Refinery was awarded the Platinum Award in the 13th Annual Greentech Environment

Awards. The award was felicitated on 31 October 2012.Mathura Refinery was awarded in regard to the company's outstanding achievements and contribution to apt implementation of environmental friendly technologies and methodologies.Greentech Awards is a key component that values the need of environmental management in business sustainability. • Cisco Systems on 7 November, awarded George P. Johnson (GPJ), the number one ranked event and experience agency, its prestigious Innovation Award for design and activation of the brand's experiential activities worldwide . GPJ representatives were on hand at Cisco's Annual Supplier Days to accept the award held at the technology leaders' headquarters in San Jose. • Dr Charnjit Singh Atwal, Speaker of Punjab Legislative Assembly, has been presented with Asian Guild's

'Special International Award' for contribution to primary education in his state. Lord Tarsem King, Chairman of the Asian Guild presented the award to Atwal, a former Deputy Speaker of the , at the Asian Guild Annual Awards Dinner 2012 at the House of Lords ,London.

The citation said that Atwal's project 'Adopt a Primary school Teacher' is now a success story in Punjab and it is now being adopted by other states of India. The Asian Guild's 'European Airline Award 2012' went Dr Temel Kotil, CEO & President of Turkish Airlines. The Asian Guild's "Food Award 2012" was bagged by Tony Deep Wouhra, MBE, Chairman East End Food Plc and the Asian Guild's "Enterprise and Innovation in Industries Award 2012" went to Stewart Towe, Group Managing Director and chairman of Hadley Industries Holdings Ltd who helped the company to grow from 1 million pounds annual turnover in 1970s to over 100 million pounds annual turnover in 2012. Lord King announced that "The Film School in UK" would be started as a tribute to the famous producer, director of movies who passed away late last month. Yash Chopra was the first Fellow of the Asian Guild. • Dr Lokeswara Rao from Star Hospitals in Hyderabad had been nominated to the prestigious Techno College

Award for his immense contribution in the development of an innovative and a breakthrough technique for bypass surgery .A new surgical technique in coronary artery bypass grafting surgery which reduces sterna wound infection using modified pedicle bilateral internal thoracic artery harvest technique and the patented device MASP (mammary artery surgical platform) has been developed by Dr Lokeswara Rao Sajja. Currently Dr Rao is working as a Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon in Star Hospitals.Having recognized for his immense contributions in the development of a breakthrough device and operating technique for bypass surgery,Dr Rao’s name has been confirmed nominated for the prestigious award of EACTS for the year 2012. Dr Rao is expected to leave to Spain to participate in the 26th Annual meeting of the European Association of Cardio Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) which is to be held in Barcelona from 27 to 31 October. Dr Sajja is also expected to give a paper presentation on “Analysis of thirty-day outcomes of off-pump versus on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting: a large cohort study” which is the only scientific study conducted from India that is being discussed in the prestigious forum.Every year the Techno-College in Barcelona in Spain invites applications from surgeons, engineers, innovators, researchers and scientists active in the field of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery to apply for The Techno-College Innovation Award. Techno College Innovation Award of European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery is awarded annually to one of the surgeons, engineers, innovators, researchers and scientists active in the field of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.The main aim of this award is to recognize and promote technological breakthroughs in all areas related to thoracic and cardiovascular research in particular for new surgical methods or devices. Innovations can be in the form of patents, inventions, new products, ideas or services. • Banker and New York based- author Ruchir Sharma was awarded the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award for his Breakout Nations: In Pursuit of the Next Economic Miracles at the Mumbai Litfest on 5 November. The authors shortlisted included Nilanjana Roy (The Wildings), Shah (The King in Exile), Sudheendra Kulkarni (Music of the Spinning Wheel), Naresh Fernandes (Mahal Foxtrot), Ruchir Sharma (Breakout Nations) and Aman Sethi (A Free Man) whose books were all introduced by journalist and jury member Dileep Padgaonkar. Mr. Sharma is the Managing Director and Head of the Emerging Markets Equity team at Morgan Stanley Investment Management and has been a long-time contributing editor with Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The New York Times and Foreign Affairs. Mr. Sharma has also been writing a regular column on global financial markets since 1991. • National level NSCI Safety Awards, 2011 for organisations in manufacturing, construction and MSME sectors were on 7 November presented by the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Govt. of India, K. Suresh in New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion Mr. Suresh lauded the role of National Safety Council (NSC) for maintaining and implementing effective occupational safety & health management systems. National Safety Council (NSC), an autonomous organisation in the field of Occupational Safety and Health, set up by the MOL&E, has been operating the awards scheme since 1998. These Awards are given to recognize factories, construction sites and MSMEs for establishing and implementing effective occupational safety & health management systems and achieving outstanding performance during the assessment period. The assessment period for the Award year 2011 for the organisations in manufacturing & MSME sectors was three years, from 2008 to 2010 and for construction establishments one year – 2010. In manufacturing sector, the 1st level award, Sarva Shreshtha Suraksha Puraskar, which carries a Golden Trophy and Certificate is won by the Kakrapar Atomic Power Stationof Nuclear Power Corporation Ltd. located at Anumala, Tapi, under Group C of the awards scheme covering Power Generation – Thermal/Hydel/Nuclear Power Plants of the awards scheme. The construction division of Lanco Infratech Ltd, Pathadih, Korba, Chhatisgarh has bagged the Sarva Shreshtha Suraksha Puraskar in the construction sector for their project – Lanco Amarkantak Power Ltd; Unit 3 & 4. In MSME sector Nobel Synthetics Pvt. Ltd, Navi Mumbai is the winner of the Sarva Shreshtha Suraksha Puraskar. • , founder of Super 30, a free coaching centre which trains children from poor families for entry into the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology, has added another feather to his cap. People magazine of the Time magazine group carries, in the Indian edition's latest issue, a detailed feature on the work of Anand Kumar, listing him as a "People's Hero". The magazine usually features celebrities and film stars. This is a rare occasion when a teacher has been profiled. The People magazine feature details how Anand Kumar, working almost alone for over a decade, has helped 263 children from poor families to make it into the prestigious IITs. Time magazine has earlier described Super 30 as the "best of Asia", while Newsweek had listed the school as one of the world's four innovative schools. Europe's Focus magazine paid tribute to Kumar's ability to unleash hidden talent, while London's Monocle listed him among the 20 top teachers of the world.Discovery Channel, which made an hour-long documentary on Anand Kumar and Super 30, described it as a "revolutionary experiment to bring about social change". Only days ago, the University of Tokyo had entered into an agreement with Super 30, to sponsor the studies of one child from the school at the university. • Former Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of India, Babu was Posthumously awarded with the” Friends of Liberation War Honour” by the Government of Bangladesh for his contribution in the 1971 War. The award was received by Babuji's grandson, Anshul Avijit at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka. Anshul Avijit, is a journalist and academician and also the son of Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar.Babu Jagjivan Ram as the Defence Minister of India in 1971, helped in liberation of Bangladesh. He assured that the war for liberation of Bangladesh ended in the remarkably short time of 13 days. • The Aishwarya Rai on 1 November 2012 was conferred with the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters

(Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by the French Ambassador to India François Richier. She was conferred with the award for the contributions made by her to Indian and World Cinema and the developments in Indo-French cooperation in art, culture and the most important one, Cinema. Late , Nandita Das, , Shahrukh Khan, and Upamanyu Chatterjee are few more Indians who had been conferred with this prestigious French award. • Veteran Bollywood actress was Awarded with an Honorary Doctorate of Arts for her outstanding contribution to Indian cinema by the Edinburgh Napier University. At present, she is a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF that is working for literacy, maternal health and AIDS-related issues and is also an active spokesperson for Indian Children Child Rights and YOU (CRY). The University stressed its strong links with India and Indian Culture and pointed out that to promote and establish a relationship with Indian culture, philosophy, education, art and literature it has created a Scottish Center for Tagore Studies (ScoTs), which highlights the legacy of the first Asian, who won a Nobel Prize for Literature in the Year 1913. This study center is first of its kind in . • , was awarded as the ‘Best Television Host’ for the popular game show ‘Kaun Banega

Crorepati’ by People’s Choice Award of Colors Television channel. Amitabh is presently hosting Season 6 of , which is being aired on Sony channel. The first appearance of Amitabh Bachchan on Indian television is marked with Kaun Banega Crorepati,(KBC) which first aired in the year 2000.Amitabh Bachchan, the 70-year-old Indian Bollywood megastar had previously won the Indian Telly Awards, BIG Television Awards, The Global Indian Film and TV Honours among major award by television channel.

Dec 2012

• The General Council of Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi on 21 December 2012 declared N. Rajam, T.H. Vinayakram and as the three eminent personalities in the field of Arts, as Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellows (Akademi Ratna). 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 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.Nine Artists were also selected for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards in the field of Dance and they are Vijay Shankar (), Priyadarsini Govind (), 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 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.Nandini Ramani and Arun Kakade would be awarded with the Akademi Award 2012 for their Overall Contribution/Scholarship in Performing Arts.The Akademi Award has been conferred on people since 1952 and the Akademi Fellow honour has been conferred since 1954.

• Renowned Oriya novelist, on 27 December 2012 selected for the prestigious for the year 2011 for her contribution to the field of . Pratibha Ray is the first Oriya woman and fourth Oriya writer to get the coveted award. Earlier (1973), (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. Ray's Shilapadma in 1983 won her the Orissa Sahitya Academy Award, 1985, while (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. • Emirati poet 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.Ghanem was awarded the accolade in recognition of his creative literary and translation works, both in 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. • Booker-nominated Jeet Thayil and Bengali novelist Subrata Mukhopadhyaya were among 24 authors selected for this year's(2012) Sahitya Akademi Awards,which was dominated by poets. Twelve of the 24 awards went to works of poets, which included K Sachitandandan ( - 'Marannu Vacha Vazhikal'), late Bal 'Bhaura' (Dogri - 'Tim-Tim Karde Tare') and Makhan Lal Kanwal (Kashmiri - 'Yath Aangnaz Manz'). Thayil, whose novel 'Narcopolis' was shortlisted for Booker Prize, was selected for his poetry collection 'These Errors are Correct' in English category. The Akademi said 12 books of poetry, six short story collections, four novels and one each of autobiography and criticism were selected for the awards this year, two of them posthumously. Among the poets, other winners are Guneswar Musahary (Bodo -- Boro Khonthai), Chandrakant Devtale (Hindi -- Pathar Fenk Raha Hoon), H S Shivaprakash (Kannada -- Mabbina Haage Kabniveyassi), Kashinath Shamba Lolienkar (Konkani -- Kavyasutra) and Darsan Buttar (Punjabi -- Maha Kambani). Aaidan Singh Bhatti (Rajasthani -- Aankh Hinye Ra Hariyal Sapana), Ramji Thakkura ( - Laghupadhyaprhbandhatrayi) and Krishna Kumar Toor (Urdu -- Ghurfa-I-) are the other poets who were selected for the award. Assamese writer Chandana Goswami was selected for her novel 'Patkair Ioare More Desh' while Mukhopadhyaya was selected for his fiction 'Birasan'. Other novelists are Jodha C Sanasam (Manipuri -- Mathou Kanba DNA) and D Selvaraj (Tamil -- Thol). In Gujarati, Chandrakant Topiwala's critical study 'Gujarati Sakshibhasya' was selected for the award while in Maithili Shefalika Verma's autobiography 'Kist-Kist Jeewan' won the award. Six short story collections also won the award. Jayant Pawar's Marathi collection 'Phoenixchya Rakhetun Uthala Mor', Uday Thulung's Ekantvas (Nepali), Gourahari Das's Kanta O' Anyanya Galpa (Odia), Gangadhar Hansda's Banchaw Akan Goj Hor (Santali), Late Indra Vaswani's Miteea Khaan Miteea Taaeen (Sindi) and Peddibhotla Subbaramaiah Peddibhotia Subbaramaiah Kathalu Vol 1 (Telugu) were the winners in this category. • Organisers of the Recording Academy announced on 13 December 2012 thatPandit , 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.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. • Bollywood superstar has received the BrandLaureate Legendary Award on 13 december, for his contribution to the Hindi film industry, and for being India's foremost brand ambassador in .The BrandLaureate Legendary Award has been earlier given to the likes of former South African president , Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus, Indian Ratan Tata, late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Facebook CEO Marck Zuckerburg and F1 ace Michael Schumacher.The 47-year-old was in Malaysia to attend the birthday party of Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohammad. The actor was honoured by the Asia Pacific Brands Foundation, and received the award from Robert Loh, founder of Lord's Tailor, KK Johan, president, The BrandLaureate, and Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohammad. • Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has been selected for the K Karunakaran Foundation award for excellence in administration. The award, instituted in memory of veteran Congress leader and former Kerala Chief minister K Karunakaran, carries Rs 1 lakh and citation. The award would be presented to Chidambaram by Vice- President Hamid Ansari at the Constitution Club in New Delhi on December 13. • 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 Project was headed by A P Frank Noronha, DG, DAVP.The Kerala Chief Minister's website (www.keralacm.gov.in) has bagged the Icon of Excellence Web Ratna gold medal award .P T Chacko, Press Secretary to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, received the award from Communication and IT Minister .The award was given to honour the initiatives taken by Oomen Chandy to leverage the use of ICT to seek the active participation of the public in the process of governance, says the reportBihar received the Silver Icon Web Ratna Award 2012 for its public grievance redressal website. 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. • Renowned film actress and Bharatanatyam exponent has been selected for the prestigious

Bharat Muni Samman this year for outstanding contribution to the field of art and culture.Named after the author of Natyashastra Bharat Muni, the award has been instituted by organisation Kalingayana Touryatrikam.The award is to be presented to Hema Malini for her contribution towards promotion of Indian arts and entertainment on December 18, the concluding day of the three-day Bharat Muni Festival scheduled to be held in Bhubaneswar.Hema Malini, 64, will be the fifth recipient of the award. The earlier recipients are Thankamani Kutty, Pandit , Pandit and Ratan Thiyam. • The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, presented the 11 National Energy Conservation Awards – 2012 to

Indian Railways, the highest ever by any Indian industry, for the remarkable achievements by its Zonal Railways in Energy Conservation initiatives during the year 2012, at a function in New Delhi on 14 december.In order to intensify the energy conservation initiatives, Ministry of Power has instituted “National Energy Conservation Award” which is given on National Energy Conservation Day on December 14 every year. These awards are given to 11 major category (like Railways, hospitals, office buildings, industry, power plant etc.) covering 35 different subsectors of large and medium scale industries mainly on the basis of improvement in specific energy and energy conservation initiatives. Chairman, Railway Board, Vinay Mittal, Member Electrical, Kul Bhushan and other Railway officials were present among others on the occasion.Awards for the above including Railways category are decided by ‘Award Evaluation Committee’ under Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) based on approved evaluation criteria. • Two $3,000,000 special physics prizes have been awarded to Stephen Hawking and to seven scientists who led the effort to discover a Higgs-like particle at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation, backed by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner announced the awards on 11 December, saying that Hawking is honored for his discovery of Hawking radiation from black holes “and his deep contributions to quantum gravity and quantum aspects of the early universe,” and that the prize money for the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, is being shared among a scientist who administered the building of the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider and six physicists who directed two teams of 3,000 scientists each.The $3 million Fundamental Physics Prize is awarded annually by the nonprofit Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation to recognize “transformative advances in the field.” The Foundation said the seven were being honored “for their leadership role in the scientific endeavor that led to the discovery of the new Higgs-like particle by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.” They will share the $3 million prize equally. • Noted classical singers have been conferred on 15 december,with the prestigious

National Tansen Samman for 2011-12. The award, which carries Rs 2 lakh in cash and a citation, was presented to the vocalist-brothers by Mayor Samiksha Gupta at the Tansen Samaroh . Speaking on the occasion, Rajan said though he was a recipient of Padma Bhushan, the country's third highest civilian award, it was a big honour to get the Tansen Samman as it is considered a prestigious prize in the the music world. The Tansen Samaroh is being organised from December 14 to 17 by the Madhyapradesh State Government's Ustad Alauddin Khan Sangeet Evam Kala Akademi and Madhya Pradesh Sanskriti Parishad. Rajan-Sajan's father Prasad Mishra is one of the past recipients of the Madhya Pradesh Government-sponsored award. • Mo Yan awarded 2012 Nobel Prize for literature

Chinese writer Mo Yan was awarded 2012 Nobel Prize for literature at Stockholm Concert Hall 10 December. The Nobel Prize Award Ceremony for 2012 started with the Swedish royal anthem "The King's Song." Mo Yan, dressed in black tailcoat, went slowly up to his seat on the stage with the other Nobel Prize winners. Marcus Storch, chairman of the Board of Nobel Foundation first addressed the ceremony and welcomed the winners for attending the ceremony in Sweden. King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf awarded Mo Yan the Nobel diploma, medal and a document confirming the prize amount after a representative of the Nobel Prize jury in literature introduced the achievement of Mo Yan in literature. Thereafter, the orchestra presented a part of the "Aladdin Suite" called "Chinese Dance". 2012 Nobel Prize laureates in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology, Medicine and Economics also received their awards from the King. Since 1901, the Nobel Prizes have been traditionally presented to the laureates Dec 10, the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel. • Rcognising the role it played in promoting India as a tourism destination, especially Puducherry and Munnar (Kerala), the film Life of Pi has been given two awards by the tourism ministry. Announcing the awards on 1 december, tourism minister said these would be given Ang Lee, director of the film Life of Pi and Yann Martel, writer of the Booker prize winning book of the same name. The minister expressed hope that this will go a long way in encouraging film producers from abroad to shoot films in India. Every year, the ministry recognises various stakeholders, including film makers and writers for their contribution in promoting India tourism by conferring the national tourism awards.The ministry has identified 'film tourism' as a niche tourism product and has requested state governments and union territory administrations to recognise the potential of film tourism and constitute special bodies/cells to facilitate filming in their respective states/union territories.In February this year, the ministry had signed a MoU with ministry of information & broadcasting as a major initiative to promote the 'Incredible India' campaign and had made Indian cinema a sub brand of the campaign at various international film festivals. • President of India Pranab Mukherjee will give away awards for cooperative excellence on 8 december. National

Cooperative Development Corporation has been conferring “NCDC Award for Cooperative Excellence” once every two years since 2002 to the best Primary Society from each State/UT. The award consists of Rs.50,000/- as cash prize, trophy and a certificate of citation. In addition, from this year onwards, NCDC has also instituted three National Level Awards for Primary Cooperative Societies, one each from cooperatively developed States, cooperatively under-developed States and cooperatively least developed States. The National Award consists of Rs.1.00 lakh as cash prize, trophy and a certificate of citation. National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) is a statutory Corporation set up under an Act of Parliament in 1963 to plan, promote and finance programmes through cooperatives for the production, processing, marketing, storage, export and import of agricultural produce and other notified services. This year’s recipients of National Level Awards are Dakhin Rampur Gaon Panchayat Samabay Samity Ltd., Distt. Kamrup, under Cooperatively Least Developed States category; Mulukanoor Women’s Cooperative Dairy Vishwandapuri, Distt. Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh under Cooperatively Under-developed States category; and Samarth Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Ltd., Ankushnagar, Distt. Jalna, Maharashtra under Cooperatively Developed States category. Besides these, 24 other cooperatives from different states of the country are the winners of State Level Awards. • Seven men and women and six organisations were honoured with the 12 th NCPEDP-Shell Keller Awards 2012 on

2 December, for their contributions towards improving the lives of disabled persons or serving as role models and a source of inspiration for everyone. The International Day of People with Disability is celebrated on December 3. Among the winners in the category for “Role Model Disabled Persons” were Abdul Sajeed Ali, president, Chaitanya Vikulangula Hakkula Vedika; Ketan Kothari, Regional Programme Development Advisor, Social Inclusion, Sight Savers (Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind); Radhika Chand, assistant, Art and Craft Department for Special Section, Vasant Valley School; and Sangeeta Gala, chairperson, National Foundation of Deaf Women.Abdul Sajeed Ali was awarded for his efforts to ensure that the Andhra Pradesh government provided employment for the disabled under the 100-days' job guarantee scheme. Ketan Kothari is credited with ushering in systemic changes to help visually-impaired people have access to the printed word. Radhika Chand, a person with Down Syndrome is an artist and school teacher. Sangeeta Gala, who is hearing-impaired, is an associate director to filmmaker . • The awardees in the category of “Role Model Supporters” were Ishita Sanyal, Founder and Director, Turning Point, for promoting employment of mentally-ill people, and R. Hari, General Manager (Human Resources), for making his company, Lemon Tree Hotels Pvt. Ltd, an inclusive workplace. This category of awards is given to non-disabled persons from within the disability sector or outside who have contributed substantially to the cause of promoting employment opportunities for disabled people over an extended period of time. • Five organisations have been awarded the “Role Model Companies/ NGOs/ Institutions” category award. They are Aegis Ltd.,

EuroAble (An Eureka Forbes Initiative), Lemon Tree Hotels Pvt. Ltd., Sun ITES Consulting Pvt. Ltd., Wipro Ltd. These five organisations have been credited with sharing the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People’s vision on disabled rights and “through their policies and practices demonstrated their belief in equal rights and gainful employment for persons with disabilities”. Accenture Services Pvt. Ltd. has been awarded a special mention in this category.The awards, instituted in 1999, were presented by External Affairs Minister .

Jan 2013-04-29

• An Indian-origin woman, named Krishna Arora is all set to figure in the prestigious list of people who have received the Order of Australia Medal (OAM).85-year old Krishna Arora, who has been running a community service was selected for this year's awards for her contribution to the Indian community. Arora, also popularly known as 'Auntieji', runs a hotline tele service offering cooking tips. She has also been teaching Asian cooking to Australians for two years at one of the Community Centre in suburb of Victoria. The other Indian-origin women who had earlier received the honour include Joyce Westrip (2000), Mala Mehta (2006) and Vettath Rajkumar (2009). In November last year, iconic Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was also conferred with the prestigious award.

• , scientist and Vice-Chancellor of , has been selected for the prestigious

Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Award for 2012 for his outstanding contribution to life sciences, particularly in establishing DNA fingerprinting as a tool of both fundamental research and crime detection, and for trying to unravel the puzzle of human evolution in relation to the Andaman-Nicobar tribes.Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Trust Founder P. Murthy stated in a press release that the award would be presented by Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar at a function to be held in Tenali, A.P on February 16. On the occasion, Dr. Lalji Singh would deliver the 21st Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Lecture on the theme Mystery of Our Origins.He joins the galaxy of awardees such as Rajendra Pawar, V. Shanta, V.K. Saraswat, T. Ramasami, A. Sivathanu Pillai, Nori Dattatreyudu, , G. Madhavan Nair, , V. K. Aatre, R. Chidambaram, R.A. Mashelkar, J. S. Bajaj, K. Kasturi Rangan, , S.Z. Qasim, M.G.K. Menon and M. S. Swaminathan, to mention a few.He was earlier Director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad. The award was instituted in 1986 to honour persons who made significant contributions to the development of science and technology, in commemoration of the distinguished scientist and renowned leather technologist Dr. Nayudamma. • U.S President Barack Obama on 2 February presented the prestigious National Medal of Technology and

Innovation to eminent Indian American Rangaswamy Srinivasan for his groundbreaking work with laser. Rangaswamy received the award along with Samuel Blum and James Wynne, for the pioneering discovery of excimer laser ablative photodecomposition of human and animal tissue, laying the foundation for PRK and LASIK laser refractive surgical techniques that have revolutionised vision enhancement. At a glittering function held on 2 February at the White House, Obama presented National Medal of Science to 12 eminent scientists while 10 extraordinary inventors received 2011National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honors bestowed by the United States Government upon scientists, engineers, and inventors. Established by statute in 1980, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation was first awarded in 1985 and is administered for the White House by the US Department of Commerce Patent and Trademark Office. In 1981, Srinivasan discovered that an ultraviolet excimer laser could etch living tissue in a precise manner with no thermal damage to the surrounding area. He named the phenomenon Ablative Photodecomposition (APD), which later revolutionized eye surgery. Inducted into the US Inventor Hall of Fame in 2002, Srinivasan has spent 30 years at IBMs T J Watson Research Center. He received both bachelors and masters degrees in science from the , in 1949 and 1950. He earned doctorate in physical chemistry at the University of Southern California in 1956. He currently holds 21 US patents. • The Visakhapatnam district of A.P. has bagged the prestigious award in recognition of effective and successful implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh gave the award to District Collector V Seshadri at a function held in Krishi Bhavan in New Delhi on 3 february. Various awards were given in seven categories to different States andVisakhapatnam has been selected from Andhra Pradesh in the area of MGNREGS. The scheme is aimed at providing work for 100 days to agriculture workers. One Ramanamma, a Dalit woman from Ramachandrapalem village of Kotavuratla mandal, who had completed 100 days of work, was one among three Dalits who had aired their opinion about this welfare programme. Union Minister and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi were present at the function. • A Taiwanese tycoon with business interests in mainland China said on 29 January, he is funding what local media call Asia's Nobel Prizes for outstanding achievements in natural and social sciences. Ruentex Group head Samuel Yin announced the establishment of the Tang Prize Foundation with an initial endowment of $103 million. The 618-907 AD Tang Dynasty is revered by Chinese for its cultural and scientific achievements. The prizes will be awarded every other year to international leaders in biopharmaceutical science, sustainable development, the study of China and the rule of law. Yin said he decided on those fields because the 118-year-old Nobels do not cover them, and they have intrinsic importance for humanity. The prizes will be awarded starting next year. Winners will receive $1.7 million, compared to $1.2 million that comes with a Nobel Prize. The Tang Prize winners will be nominated and screened by special committees set up by the Academia Sinica, Taiwan's most prestigious research organization. • Senior Indian diplomat D. Bala Venkatesh Varma, a key member of the negotiating team that saw the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal through from the first agreement of July 2005 down to the Additional Protocol in 2010, was given the first S.K. Singh award “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen India's position in the global nuclear order” by UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi at a high- profile function held in New Delhi on 4 January. The award for excellence in the is named after the former foreign secretary and Governor, Shailendra Kumar Singh, a diplomat widely respected within the IFS community for his acumen, professionalism and leadership. Mr. Varma was selected as the first recipient of the prestigious award by a top-drawer jury consisting of Vice President Hamid Ansari, National Security Adviser , Foreign Secretary , Ms Gandhi and Congress M.P. . • 58th Idea Awards were given away on 20 January 2013 at YRF Studio, Andheri. At the 58th Idea Filmfare

Awards, Barfi!, the much-acclaimed film grabbed seven awards while, Kahaani bagged five awards. The award for the Best Actor was given to for his deaf-mute performance in Barfi! , on the other hand was adjudged as the Best Actress for Kahaani. Barfi!was awarded with the Best Film award, while Kahaani’s director Sujoy Ghoshwon the Black Lady for the Best Director. The lifetime achievement awardwas given away to Yash Chopra posthumously. Yash Chopra’s wife Pamela collected this award on his behalf. The other awards are- o Critics’ Award for Best Actor: for Paan Singh Tomar (Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia) o Critics’ Award for Best Film: Gangs of Wasseypur (Director: Anurag Singh Kashyap ) o Critics’ Award for Best Actor (Female): Richa Chadda for Gangs of Wasseypur o Best Lyricist: Gulzar for Challa (: Director Yash Chopra) o Best Music Director: Pritam for Barfi! o Best Background Score: Pritam for Barfi! o Best Production Design: Rajat Podar for Barfi! o Best Playback (Female): Shalmali Kholgade for the song ‘Pareshaan’ o Best Playback (Male): Ayushmann Khurrana for the song ‘Pani da Rang’ o Lifetime Achievement Award -Yash Chopra o Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female): Anushka Sharma (Jab Tak Hai Jaan) o Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male): Annu Kapoor (Vicky Donor)

• Charles Wright, professor emeritus of the English department’s Creative writing programme in the University of Virginia’s college of Arts and Sciences, has won the 2013 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry. Wright taught at U.Va. for almost 30 years, retiring in 2011, and is one of America’s most celebrated poets. The Bollingen Prize in American Poetry is among the most prestigious prizes given to American writers. Established by Paul Mellon in 1949, it is awarded biennially by the Yale University Library to an American poet for the best book published during the previous two years or for lifetime achievement in poetry. The prize includes a cash award of $150,000.The judges awarded Wright the Bollingen Prize for his 2011 book, “Bye-and-Bye: Selected Late Poems,” describing it as “an extended meditation in which we sense ‘splinters of the divine’ in the phenomena and cyclic changes of the natural world, and in the elusive reaches of memory, myth, and history.”

• President has approved the conferment of 108 Padma Awards. These comprise 4 , 24

Padma Bhushan and 80 Padma Shri Awards. 24 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 11 persons in the category of Foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and Posthumous awardees. Padma Awards, the country’s highest civilian awards, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The awards are announced on Republic Day every year. The awards are conferred by the President of India at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhawan sometime around March/ April.

Padma Vibhushan Discipline State/ Domicile

Shri

Shri S. Haider Raza

Prof. Science and Engineering Uttar Pradesh

Prof. Science and Engineering Karnataka •

Padma Bhushan Discipline State/ Domicile

Dr. Ramanaidu Daggubati Andhra Pradesh

Smt. Sreeramamurthy Janaki Tamil Nadu

Dr. (Smt.) Maharashtra

Smt. Sharmila Tagore Dr. (Smt.)

Shri Abdul

Late Maharashtra

Late Jaspal Singh Bhatti

Shri Shivajirao Girdhar Patil Public Affairs Maharashtra

Dr. Apathukatha Sivathanu Pillai Science and Engineering

Dr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat Science and Engineering

Dr. Ashoke Sen Science and EngineeringUttar Pradesh

Dr. B.N. Suresh Science and EngineeringKarnataka

Prof. Satya N. Atluri Science and Engineering

Prof. Jogesh Chandra Pati Science and Engineering

Shri Ramamurthy Thyagarajan Trade and Industry Tamil Nadu

Shri Adi Burjor Godrej Trade and Industry Maharashtra

Dr. Nandkishore Shamrao Laud Medicine Maharashtra

Shri Literature & Education Maharashtra

Prof. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Literature & Education

Shri Civil Service Madhya Pradesh

Dr. Civil Service

Shri Rahul Dravid Karnataka

Ms. H. Mangte Chungneijang •

Padma Shri Discipline State/ Domicile

Shri Andhra Pradesh

Swami G.C.D. Bharti alias Bharati Bandhu Chhattisgarh

Ms. B. Jayashree Karnataka

Smt. Sridevi Kapoor Maharashtra

Shri Shri Maharashtra

Shri Vishwanath Dinkar Patekar alias Nana Maharashtra Patekar

Shri Rekandar Nageswara Rao alias Surabhi Andhra Pradesh

Shri Lakshmi Narayana Sathiraju Tamil Nadu

Smt. Jaymala Shiledar Maharashtra

Shri Suresh Dattatray Talwalkar Maharashtra

Shri P. Madhavan Nair alias

Shri Apurba Kishore Bir Maharashtra

Shri Borbayan

Smt. Hilda Mit Lepcha Sikkim

Smt. Maharashtra

Shri Ghulam Mohammad Saznawaz and Kashmir

Shri Ramesh Gopaldas Sippy Maharashtra

Ms. Mahrukh Tarapor Maharashtra

Shri Jammu & Kashmir

Shri Puran Das Baul West Bengal

Shri Jammu & Kashmir

Shri

Shri S. Shakir Ali Rajasthan

Sh. S.K.M Maeilanandhan Social Work Tamil Nadu

Ms. Social Work Maharashtra

Ms. Social Work Gujarat

Ms. Social Work Bangladesh

Late Dr. Ram Krishan Social Work Uttar Pradesh

Late Social Work

Prof. Science and EngineeringMaharashtra

Shri Science and Engineering Prof. Science and EngineeringUttar Pradesh

Prof. (Dr.) Science and EngineeringWest Bengal

Prof. Deepak B. Phatak Science and EngineeringMaharashtra

Dr. Mudundi Ramakrishna Raju Science and EngineeringAndhra Pradesh

Prof. Ajay K. Sood Science and EngineeringKarnataka

Prof. Krishnaswamy Vijayraghavan Science and EngineeringKarnataka

Dr. Science and EngineeringUttar Pradesh

Dr. Jayaraman Gowrishankar Science and EngineeringAndhra Pradesh

Prof. Sharad Pandurang Kale Science and EngineeringMaharashtra

Smt. Trade and Industry

Ms. Trade and Industry Tamil Nadu

Shri Trade and Industry

Shri Trade and Industry Maharashtra

Ms. Trade and Industry Maharashtra

Dr. Sudarshan K. Aggarwal Medicine

Dr. C. Venkata S. Ram alias Chitta Venkata Medicine Andhra Pradesh Sundara Ram

Dr. Medicine Maharashtra

Dr. Medicine

Prof. (Dr.) T.V. Devarajan Medicine Tamil Nadu

Prof. (Dr.) Medicine Uttar Pradesh

Dr. Medicine

Dr. Medicine

Dr. Ganesh Kumar Mani Medicine

Dr. Medicine Maharashtra

Dr. Medicine Maharashtra

Prof. Medicine Uttar Pradesh

Dr. Medicine Prof. (Capt.) Dr. Mohammad Sharaf-e-AlamLiterature & Education

Dr. Radhika Herzberger Literature & EducationAndhra Pradesh

Shri J. Malsawma Literature & EducationMizoram

Shri Literature & EducationGujarat

Dr. Literature & Education

Prof. Literature & Education

Prof. Literature & Education

Shri Literature & EducationMadhya Pradesh

Shri Surender Kumar Sharma Literature & Education

Dr. Literature & Education

Late Shaukat Riaz Kapoor Alias Salik Literature & EducationWest Bengal Lakhnawi

Prof. Literature & Education

Shri Literature & Education

Smt. Jharkhand

Shri Haryana

Shri Hosanagara Nagarajegowda Girisha Karnataka

Subedar Major Vijay Kumar Himachal Pradesh

Shri Ngangom Maharashtra

Naib Subedar Rajasthan

Ms. Ritu Kumar Fashion Designing

Dr. Ravindra Singh Bisht Archaeology Uttar Pradesh •

• Major Abup J Manjali of the Rashtriya Rifles has been awarded the Kirti Chakra on this Republic Day for the exhibition of exceptional valor in counter- terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir. Manjali is the only soldier to be awarded the second- highest peacetime gallantry award Kirti Chakra on this Republic Day. Major Abup J Manjali of the Rashtriya Rifles was selected for the award of Kirti Chakra for his extraordinary bravery efforts in counter- terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir. Major Manjali will be awarded on 26 January 2013. Shaurya Chakra, on the other hand, is being given away to Major Sandeep Kumar of 13 Sikh Regiment for his bravery act in Northeast area. • Noted Indian scientist Dr CNR Rao has been conferred with China's top science award for his important contributions in boosting China-India scientific cooperation. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on 24 January, gave its 2012 Award for International Scientific Cooperation to three scientists from India, Germany, and Russia. Rao, 79, founder of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research ( JNCASR), Bangalore, shared the 2012 award with Herbert Jaeckle of Germany's Max Planck Society and Russian space physicist GA Zherebtsov. The awards are given every year by the CAS, which is China's top academic and research institution for natural sciences. It has so far honoured 17 international scientists for their contributions in China-foreign research cooperation, since the prize was instituted in 2007.Rao has won various prestigious awards. He is currently the head of the scientific advisory council to the Indian Prime Minister. • The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 15 January, presented the lifetime achievement awards for the scientists in the field of Atomic energy to R.B. Grover, who played a key role in negotiating the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, K. Balaramamoorthy, who developed non-destructive testing techniques, mathematician R. Balasubramanian, and S.K. Sikka, a key player in the nuclear tests of 1974 and 1998. Presenting the lifetime achievement awards of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to four of its veteran scientists at a brief ceremony at his residence, Dr. Singh noted that the Department worked in “one of the most complex, sophisticated and challenging areas of science, technology and engineering.” He appreciated its scientists for working with unfailing commitment, dedication and skill, despite decades of facing international technology denial regimes. He urged the DAE to ensure that it continued to attract the best scientific minds among the younger generations and expressed hope that its scientists would continue to be guided by the basic goal of directing scientific activities to bring about an improvement in people’s quality of life .Dr. Singh paid special tributes to nuclear scientist and Principal Scientific Advisor to the government, R. Chidamabaram for “guiding India’s atomic energy programme with such great distinction” and said his [Dr. Chidambaram’s] life and work were a source of inspiration for all scientists and technologies in the country. • President Pranab Mukherjee on 15 January, presented Krishi Karman Awards to eight States for their achievements in food grains production in 2011-12. Ten States were given commendation awards. Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur and received the awards for special contribution to total food grains production. received the award for contribution to production and productivity of rice, Haryana for wheat, Jharkhand for pulses and Uttar Pradesh for coarse cereals. Punjab, Uttarakhand, Assam, West Bengal, Tripura, Rajasthan, Gujarat, , Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh received commendation awards. The awards were received by Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Manipur and Agriculture Ministers/ Agriculture Secretaries of other States. For the first time one female and one male farmer from the eight award winning States were also given awards for their outstanding performance. Krishi Karman Awards were instituted in 2010-11 for recognizing the meritorious efforts of States in food grain production. The awards are given to best performing States in two broad sets, one for the total food grain production and the other for individual food grain crops of rice, wheat, pulses and coarse cereals. States for total food grains category are further divided into three categories based on total food grain production capacity of the State. • London-based Indian researcher Mahaveer Golechha has been selected for a prestigious award for his work on a drug to cure Alzheimer’s. The 27-year-old will be travelling in the month of February to San Francisco to receive the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s ‘Young Investigator Scholarship Award’ at the 7th Annual Drug Discovery for Neurodegeneration Conference .He has been recognised for his outstanding research on ‘naringin’, a bioflavonoid found in grape fruits and citrus fruits. In his study, he found that naringin possesses significant “anti-Alzheimer activity” and will form the basis of further research to develop as a cure for the degenerative disease related to old age, which worsens as its progresses and eventually leads to death. Alzheimer’s is a common form of dementia afflicting millions around the world and has no known cure at present. It is estimated that by 2025 at least 34 million people worldwide will be affected by the disease. Mahaveer is currently pursuing a Master’s in Health Policy, Planning and Financing at the London School of Economics (LSE) and was recently elected director of external relations of the LSE Students’ Union India Society. • Golden Globe Awards 2013: Argo Won Best Picture and Best Director Awards.

In the prestigious Golden Globe Awards 2013, the hostage-crisis movie Argothrashed Lincoln to bag best picture as well as best director awards on

13 January 2013. Les Miserables, on the other hand won the awards in best musical or comedy category with the actors Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman winning one trophy each. The award-winning movie Argo is actually inspired by 1979 crisis US diplomats in Iran. In the category of Best Drama, other nominees were Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty as well as Life of Pi. Lincoln which was leading the race with a total of seven nominations took away just the trophy of best actor which was awarded to Daniel Day-Lewis for his role as the 16 President of US. However, the film might have better opportunities at Oscars where it is running first with 12 nominations. The Golden Globe Awards 2013 also did not stand with Life of Pi and the film only took home a single award, the best original score by Mychael Danna. List of Golden Globe Awards 2013 Winners: o Best Motion Picture-Drama: Argo o Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy: Les Miserables o Best performance by an actor in a motion picture – Drama: Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln) o Best performance by an actress in a motion picture – Drama: Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) o Best performance by an actor in a motion picture- Musical or Comedy: Hugh Jackman (Les Misérables) o Best performance by an actress in a motion picture- Musical or Comedy: Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings

Playbook) o Best Director: Ben Affleck (Argo) o Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz o Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway o Best Television Series (Drama): Homeland o Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series (Drama): Claire Danes (Homeland) o Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series (Drama): Damian Lewis (Homeland) o Best Screenplay: Adele - 'Skyfall' (Skyfall) o Best Television Series (Comedy or Musical): Girls o Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series (Comedy or Musical): Lena Dunham (Girls) o Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series (Comedy or Musical): Don Cheadle (House of Lies) o Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television: Game Change o Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television: Julianne Moore (Game

Change) o Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television: Kevin Costner (Hatfields &

McCoys) o Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:

Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey) o Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:

Ed Harris (Game Change) o Best Original Score: Life of Pi o Best Animated Feature Film: Brave

The other winners at the Golden Globe Awards 2013 were as follows: o Best Foreign Language Film: Amour (Austria, Les Films Du Losange, X Filme Creative Pool, Wega Film; Sony

Pictures Classics) o Best Animated Feature Film: Brave o Best Original Song: Skyfall, Adele from Skyfall o Best Original Score: Mychael Danna, Life of Pi • Malala Yousafzai, 15, the schoolgirl from Pakistan shot by Taliban for campaigning girls’ education, on 9 January

2013 received France's Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women's Freedom in Paris. Malala’s father Ziaudin Yousafzai received the honour on her behalf. The award is accompanied with 2.5 million Rupees honorarium. In the first week of January 2013, Malala Yousafzai got released from the

British hospital. She is waiting for the reconstructive surgery to be performed on the skull. Malala was shot by the Taliban in her head after her school bus drove through Mingora town of Swat Valley of Pakistan. • Renault Duster was awarded the Car of the Year Award 2013 by the automotive magazine Autocar India at the annual awards night on 9 January 2013 in Mumbai. Autocar India gave away 22 awards in all, in the two-wheeler as well as four-wheeler segment. Renault Duster grabbed three awards in all and these were SUV of the year 2013 viewer’s choice car of the year 2013 and overall Autocar car of the year 2013. In the meanwhile, Mahindra and Mahindra were awarded with the Manufacturer of the Year Award 2013 and Bajaj KTM 200 Duke bagged the Autocar Bike of the Year 2013 and viewers’ choice Bike of the Year 2013. • Ireland’s prestigious Tipperary International Peace Prize for 2012 was awarded on 3 January 2013 to Malala

Yousafzai the teenage schoolgirl from Pakistan, who was shot by Taliban’s Gunman in October 2012.Malala, would be conferred with the award for her bravery, courage and determination to speak and support the cause of access to equal education for every child. With this award, Malala became the second Pakistani National to win the award. Before this, Lt. Benazir Bhutto was awarded with the same award in 2007. Malala was one among the five nominees, which included Sonia Gandhi, the Party President and , the U.S. Secretary of State. • Well-known filmmaker Shyam Benegal has been chosen for the 8th annual (ANR) national award by the ANR International foundation on 3 January at Hyderabad. The award carries a prize of Rs 5 lakh. Hemamalini, K Balachander, Lata Mangeshkar, Vyjayantimala Bali, , and Anand among others were recipients of this award earlier. • Professor Joseph Stiglitz , Noble Laureate in Economics received the degree of Doctor of Science from Andhra

Pradesh Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan at the University of Hyderabad on 4 January. • Muthunayagam and Saraswat to be awarded with 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 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. • Scientist Venkatesh Mannar honoured with 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. • Dr. P.R. Swarup conferred with EPC World Awards 2012 for Outstanding Contribution to HRD

Dr. P.R. Swarup, Director General, Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC) has been conferred with the EPC world Awards 2012 under the category Special Achievement Awards in the field of Human Resource Development for the Indian Construction & Infrastructure Industry. The award ceremony was held on 15th December 2012 at hotel The Ashok, New Delhi. EPC World Media Group has been presenting the award for the past three years to recognize the qualitative & quantitative performance, innovation and strategic initiatives of the companies, individuals & projects in the field of Infrastructure & Construction sector in India. • Ireland’s prestigious Tipperary International Peace Prize for 2012 awarded to Malala

Ireland’s prestigious Tipperary International Peace Prize for 2012 was awarded on 3 January 2013 to Malala Yousafzai the teenage schoolgirl from Pakistan, who was shot by Taliban’s Gunman in October 2012. Malala would be conferred with the award for her bravery, courage and determination to speak and support the cause of access to equal education for every child. With this award, Malala became the second Pakistani National to win the award. Before this, Lt. Benazir Bhutto was awarded with the same award in 2007. Malala was one among the five nominees, which included Sonia Gandhi, the Indian National Congress Party President and Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State.

Feb 2013-04-29

• Indian scientist Sugata Mitra was awarded the million-dollar TED Prize on 26 February 2013 for pursuing his idea for building the schools in the Internet. TED Prize is actually awarded to the extraordinary people who have creative as well as bold ideas for global change. Sugata Mitra is a researcher who started inspiring the children across the world to arouse curiosity in them. In 1999, Sugata along with his colleagues installed the Internet-connected computer in New Delhi and left it with the hidden camera. Eventually, the slum kids started learning English as well as searched the Internet for various Science and other topics. Sugata performed these experiments for 13 years, which eventually earned him 1 million US dollars TED Prize. TED Prize was first introduced in 2005.

• B Surender Mohan, CMD, NLC (Neyveli Lignite Corporation) was conferred with the CEO with HR

Orientation Award on 17 February 2013 at the World HRD Congress 2013 in Mumbai. Neyveli Lignite Corporation Limited is a Navratna Government of India Enterprise. World HRD Congress is actually the largest meeting of the HR professionals from the world which brings together global personalities. World HRD Congress is held annually and the purpose of the meeting is to honour best CEOs who implement as well as innovate the new techniques in HR arena. The World HRD Congress 2013 was held at Hotel Taj Lands End, Mumbai. 170 HR professionals from USA, South America, India and England participated in this meeting. B Surender Mohan was chosen for this award by Jury and Council of Board Members of World HRD Congress 2013. • Information Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh, P. Vijaya Babu was conferred with Narla-Deveneni puraskaram at a function held at Guntur on 28 February. With an experience of over 25 years in main stream journalism, Mr. Vijaya Babu has been chosen for the ‘puraskaram’ for his contribution to the field of journalism. The award was instituted in memory of former Editor of Andhra Prabha and Andhra Jyothi Narla Venkateswara Rao and Deveneni Subba Rao. From this year, Annamaya Seva Samithi has been entrusted with the task of presenting the award. The previous recipients of the award were Turlapati Kutumba Rao, Ch. Raghavachari, Harihara Priya, Sankara Narayana and senior journalist from Tenali B.L Narayana. • Bollywood actor was honoured by Herb J. Wesson, Jr, President Los Angeles City Council and Tom

Labonge, Council Member 4th District with a City Proclamation at Los Angeles City Hall on February 26 in Los Angeles, California.It may be known that the actor’s performances in films like Bend It Like Beckham and went on to do Bride & Prejudice, The Mistress of Spices, American Blend, Hope and a Little Sugar, Midnight’s Children and TV series ER has been appreciated and been an inspiration for other actors. • Vishwaroop, CEO, NTPC SAIL Power Company (NSPCL) has been conferred with “Exemplary Leader Award” by World HRD Congress “Global HR Excellence Awards” held in Mumbai on 25 February. Vishwaroop has been honored for his contribution to the Power Sector. NTPC SAIL Power Company (NSPCL) is the joint venture between NTPC Limited and SAIL for generating power for the steel plants in India. • The 85th Academy Awards (Oscars) ceremony took place on 24 February 2013. The annual Academy Awards were presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The Oscars 2013 ceremony was held at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. The main winners of the Oscars 2013 were Life of Pi, with four awards; Argo with three awards; Les Miserables with three awards. Some of the key awards are -

List of the awardees of 85th Academy Awards: o Best Picture: Argo o Best Actor in a Leading Role: Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln o Best Actress in a Leading Role: Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook o Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained o Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables o Best Animated Feature Film: Brave o Best Cinematography: Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi o Best Costume Design: Anna Karenina o Best Directing: Ang Lee for Life of Pi o Best Documentary Feature: Searching for Sugar Man o Best Documentary Short: Inocente o Best Film Editing: William Goldenberg for Argo o Best Foreign Language Film: Amour (Austria) o Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell for Les Misérables o Best Music-Original Score: Mychael Danna for Life of Pi o Best Music-Original Song: Skyfall from Skyfall (Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth) o Best Production Design: Rick Carter (Production Design); Jim Erickson (Set Decoration) for Lincoln o Best Visual Effects: Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott for Life of Pi o Best Writing-Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio for Argo o Best Writing-Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained • Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar legend was honoured with the posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy award. His daughter sitarist Anoushka Shankar accepted the award on his behalf on 9 February 2013 ahead of the Grammy’s show that took place in Los Angeles on 10 February 2013. Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones attended the pre-Grammy ceremony at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre for accepting the honour which was given to their deceased father. Pandit Ravi Shankar died on 11 December 2012 at 92 years of age. Pandit Ravi Shankar was in the list of seven other artistes named for Lifetime Achievement Award honourees. The Indian sitar legend also won best world music album Grammy for the Living Room Sessions Part 1. Pandit Ravi Shankar’s daughter Anoushka Shankar was also nominated in this category for album Traveller. • The Romanian film Child's Pose has picked up the coveted Golden Bear prize for best film at the 63rd Berlin film festival. The film, directed by Calin Peter Netzer, tells the story of a wealthy mother who uses her connections to try and stop her son from going to jail. US filmmaker David Gordon Green won best director at the festival for his comic road movie Prince Avalanche, while best actress went to Chile's Paulina Garcia for her role as a Santiago divorcee in Gloria.The biggest surprise at the Berlin awards ceremony was the best actor prize going to Nazif Mujic, a Bosnian Roma who had never acted before and had to be talked into playing himself in a drama based on his real-life ordeal. • Michael Clarke, the Australian cricket captain won the fourth Allan Border Medal in Melbourne on 4 February

2013. 31-year old Clarke had won the medal earlier in 2005, 2009 and 2012. Apart from Clarke, the only other player to win this medal four times is Captain Ricky Ponting. Michael Clarke also won the Test cricketer of the year award for the second consecutive time after he scored 1080 runs in nine tests from 25 February 2012 to January 28 2013.Allan Border Medal is a prestigious award given away in the Australian cricket. It was first awarded in 2000. The Allan Border Medal is named after the former captain of Australia, Allan Border.

Mar 2013-04-29

• Renowned space scientist Prof U R Rao has been inducted into the highly coveted "Satellite Hall of Fame",

Washington, by the Society of Satellite Professionals International. Rao, a former Indian Space Research Organization Chairman and Department of Space Secretary, is the first Indian Space Scientist to be inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame, joining the select group of about 50 Hall of Fame members. He was conferred the honor at a function attended by over 1,000 distinguished guests consisting of Space Scientists, Industry leaders, Administrators and Professionals on March 19, 2013 at Washington, an ISRO release said.

• NTPC Limited, India’s largest power utility has been awarded as the most Efficient Maharatna-in

Manufacturing for the year 2012 by a leading Stock Magazine at the 4th DSIJ Award held in New Delhi on 26 March. The Award was received by I.J. Kapoor, Director (Commercial), NTPC from , Union Minister of Civil Aviation. • The 2nd National Photo Awards- 2011-12 were conferred on 28 March by the Speaker, Lok Sabha, Ms. Meira

Kumar to eminent photojournalists at a function held in Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. The Lifetime Achievement Awards were given to eminent photographers i Pranlal Patel, T.S. Nagarajan and T.N.A. Perumal. Pranlal Patel, 104 years of age, has been the primary school teacher, who was inclined to photography as an amateur photographer but gradually the passion turned into profession. He captured the memories of our struggle for independence through his photographs. His pictures celebrate the glory of black and white. His photographs are not merely a collection of unmatched skills but also repository of social and historical values of time. The second recipient T.S. Nagarajan, is an eminent photojournalist whose works have been exhibited and published widely in India and abroad. He has held exhibitions of his works all over the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, in 1982. He is a specialist in black and white photography, and has won several awards including the PATA Gold Award in 1987. The third recipient, T.N.A. Perumal is the doyen of wildlife photography in India. He embraced bird photography as passionate profession in 1960 and was awarded the artiste FIAP in Nature Photography in 1963 and Excellence FIAP in 1968. He won associate ship of Royal Photographic Society of United Kingdom in 1977 and Fellowship of Royal Photographic Society of United Kingdom in 1978 and Master photographer of the Federation del’Art photographique of France in 1983. He is recognized as the father of India Photography. He is a member of Mysore Photographic Society and life member of Federation of Indian Photography. He has more than 1500 acceptances in national and international salons and has over 200 awards and merit certificates to his credit. In the Professional Category, the ‘Best Professional Photographer of the Year 2011-12’ has been given to Salil Bera, who has earned fame in the field of wildlife photography. He has also won Honorary mention at UNEP Photo Competition in Japan in 2005. The award of ‘Professional Photographer of the Year 2011-12 on Green India: Environmental Stories’ has been given to Pankaj Sharma.The award of ‘Professional Photographer of the Year 2011-12 on ‘Open Category’ was given to Anil Risal Singh. In the Amateur Category, the ‘Best Amateur Photographer of the Year 2011-12’ has been given to Subhash Jirange.’The Best Amateur Photographer of the Year 2011-12 on Life and Landscape of India’ was given to Sudip Roychoudhury.‘The Best Amateur Photographer of the Year 2011-12 on Fine Arts’ was given to Debashish Ghosh Ray. • The Competition Commission of India (CCI) was nominated for the Global Competition Review (GCR) Awards

2013 in the category Agency of the Year-Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa in the last week of March 2013 . This is the first time that CCI was nominated for internationally acclaimed award. Other agencies that were nominated in Agency of the Year-Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa category include Pakistan’s Competition Commission, Turkey’s Competition Authority and Japan’s Fair Trade Commission. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) was established by the Government of India with effect from 14 October 2003. The primary aim of Competition Commission of India (CCI) is to eliminate the practices which have adverse effect on competition. Its aim is to protect the consumers’ interests and make sure that there is freedom of trade in Indian markets. The purpose of CCI is to give opinion on competition issues, create public awareness as well as impart training on the competition issues. • News Television Awards 2013: Vineet Jain Conferred With Contribution to News Television Award

Vineet Jain, the Managing Director of Times Group was conferred with the Contribution to News Television Award 2013 by the Indiantelevision.com at the Sixth News Television Awards on 25 March 2013 at Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi. He was awarded for his initiative to bring Times of India group in the television industry. It is worth noticing that group made its presence in the television broadcasting with channels such as Zoom, ET and Times Now. Executive President of the Times Group, Rahul Kansal accepted this award on behalf of Vineet Jain. • Other awardees were as follows

1. Best Business News Programme (English): We Mean Business (NDTV Profit) 2. Best Business News Programme (Hindi): Auto Expo () 3. Best Crime Show (Hindi): Vardaat - Mhujhe Bhulana Mat (Aaj Tak) 4. Best Current Affairs Feature (English): Ground Zero Gujarat (CNN-IBN) 5. Best Current Affairs Feature (Hindi): Ayodhya Ko Kuchh Kehna Hai (Aaj Tak) 6. Best Sports News Show (Marathi): Khel Majha - Fight Back Yuvi (ABP Majha) 7. Best Auto Show (Hindi): Top Drive (IBN7) 8. Best Show on Social/Environment Awareness / Social Development Campaign (Telugu): Bathuku Bandi (Vanitha TV) 9. Best News Documentary - Limited episodes (English): Ground Zero Gujarat (CNN-IBN) 10. Best Entertainment Feature (Hindi): Jai Jawan (NDTV India) 11. Best Public Debate Show (English): Question Time Didi (CNN-IBN) 12. Best TV News Presenter: (CNN-IBN) 13. Best Young TV Journalist (Below 24 years of age): Sonal Mehrotra (NDTV 24x7) 14. Special Award for News Cinematographer: Prakasam (CNN-IBN) 15. Special Award for Contribution to News Television: Vineet Jain (Times Group) 16. Best TV News Reporter (Marathi): Alka Dhupkar (IBN Lokmat) 17. Best TV News Reporter (Telugu): Krishna Mohan (TV9) 18. Best TV News Reporter (English): Anubha Bhonsle (CNN-IBN) and (NDTV 24x7) 19. Best TV News Reporter (Hindi): Sharad Sharma (NDTV India) 20. Special Awards for Innovation and Leadership in App Development: NDTV 21. Special Awards for Most Extensive Social Media TV News Brand: NDTV 22. Special Awards for Best News Channel Website: IBN Live

23. Best News Talk Show (English): We the People (NDTV 24x7) 24. Best News Talk Show (Hindi): Zindagi Live - Gujarat Riots (IBN7) 25. Best TV News Anchor (Marathi): Dnyanada Arvind Chavan (ABP Majha) 26. Best TV News Anchor (Telugu): Yashoda Mithra (V6 News) 27. Best TV News Anchor (Hindi): Sweta Singh (Aaj Tak)

• Superstar Amitabh Bachchan has been chosen for NTR National Film Award for the year-2011. The award carries a cash component of Rs 5 lakh besides a memento and a citation. A committee comprising Telugu film personalities Tammareddi Bharadwaja, M Balayya and K C Sekhar Babu chose Amitabh Bachchan for the NT Rama Rao National Film Award for 2011 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema, official sources here said. The Committee also chose film director Shyam Benegal for the B N Reddy National Award that carries a reward of Rs 2 lakh, a citation and a memento. Previous recipients of the award include Akkineni Nageswara Rao, a contemporary of late NTR, Bollywood great Dilip Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, thespian , music maestro Ilaiyaraja, Kannada actor Raj Kumar, director and actress among others.Telugu movie stalwart and former MP has been chosen for prestigious Raghupati Venkaiah Memorial Award that also carries Rs 2 lakh. Telugu film producer and studio owner G Adiseshagiri Rao has been chosen for the Nagireddy-Chakrapani National Film Award. Andhra Pradesh government gives this award, instituted in 1996 in the name of Telugu film legend and former Chief Minister of the state, every year to an outstanding film personality. The awards will be presented on Ugadi, the Telugu New Year's Day, in Hyderabad on April 11.

• Toyo Ito(71), the Japanese architect was declared as the winner of 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize on 18

March 2013. The Pritzker Architecture Prize is said to be the most prestigious and richest award of architecture.Often, this prize is also referred as the Nobel Prize of Architecture. Toyo Ito is the sixth Japanese architect to win this prize. He will win 100000 US Dollars as well as a bronze medal at the official Pritzker ceremony will take place on 29 May 2013 at John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. • The 60th were announced on 18 March 2013. The artists who gave benchmark performances in acting and film making in the year 2012 were rewarded in the National Film Awards 2013. • The list of winners chosen by the jury in National Film Awards 2013 is as follows: 1. Best Feature Film - Paan Singh Tomar (Hindi) 2. Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director - Chittagong (Hindi); and 101 Chodiyangal

(Malayalam) 3. Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment - Vicky Donor (Hindi); (Malayalam) 4. Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration - Thanichallanjan (Malayalam)

5. Best Film on Social Issues: Spirit (Malayalam) 6. Best Children's Film - Dekh Indian Circus (Hindi) 7. Best Film on Environment and Conservation/preservation: Black Forest (Malayalam) 8. Best Animation Film - Delhi Safari (Hindi) 9. Best Direction - Dhag (Marathi) Dir: Shivaji Lotan Patil 10. Best Actor - Paan Singh Tomar (Hindi) Actors: Irrfaan, Vikram Gokhale 11. Best Actress - Dhag (Marathi) Actress: Usha Jadhav

12. Best Supporting Actor - Vicky Donor (Hindi) Actor: Anu Kapoor 13. Best Supporting Actress - Vicky Donor (Hindi) Dolly Ahluwalia; Thanichallanjan (Malayalam) Kalpana 14. Best Child Artist - Dekh Indian Circus (Hindi), Actor: Virendra Pratap; 101 Chodiyangal, Actor: Minon 15. Best Male Playback Singer - Chittagong (Hindi) Singer: , Bolo Na (Rajat Kamal medal and Rs 50,000) 16. Best Female Playback Singer - Samhita (Marathi) Singer: Aarti Anklekar Tikekar, Palakein Naa Moondon 17. Best Cinematography - Ko: YAD, Cameraman: Sudheer Palsane

18. Best Screenplay - Screenplay Writer (Original) Kahani (Hindi) Sujoy Ghosh, Screenplay writer (Adapted) Oh My God (Hindi) Bhavesh Mandalia, and Dialogues Ustaad Hotel (Malayalam) Anjali Menon 19. Best Audiography - Location Sound Recordist Annayum Rasoolam (Malayalam) Radhakrishnan S; Sound Designer, Shabdo (Bengali) Anirban Sengupta, Dipankar Chaki; Re-recordist of final mixed track Gangs of Wasseypur (Hindi) Alok De, Sinoy Joseph, Shreejesh Nair 20. Best Editing - Kahaani (Hindi) Namrata Rao 21. Best Production Design - (Tamil) Boontawee Thor Taweepasas, Lalgudi N Ilayaraja 22. Best Costume Designer - Paradesi (Tamil) Poornima Ramaswamy 23. Best Make-up Artist - Vazakkuenn 18/9 (Tamil) Raja 24. Best Music Direction - Songs: Samhita (Marathi) Shailender Barve; Kaliyachan (Malayalam) Biji Bal 25. Best Lyrics - Chittagong (Hindi) , Bolo Na 26. Special Jury Award - Chitrangada (Bengali) ; Kahaani (Hindi) Gangs of Wasseypur (Hindi) Dekh Indian Circus (Hindi) 27. Best Special Effects - (Telugu) Makuta VFX 28. Best Choreogrpahy - Vishwaroopam (Tamil) Pandit Birju Maharaj

• The National Film Awards are most prominent awards given away to the film fraternity. These awards were established in

1954. Annually, the national panel is appointed by Government of India which selects the winner. The awards are presented by the President of India in the official ceremony.

• (79), the Malayalam poetess in the third week of March 2013was chosen for the Saraswati Samman

2012 for the poetry collection Manalezhuthu, which means The Writing on the Sand in English. The Saraswati Samman is constituted by K. K. Birla Foundation. Saraswati Samman is awarded annually for outstanding literary work in any Indian language in past 10 years. Sugathakumari has 15 volumes of poetry credited to her. Sugathakumari is also the passionate environmentalist. She was also the head of Kerala’s State Women’s Commission. • Navneet Kaur Dhillon(20) was crowned Pond’s Femina Miss India 2013 on 24 March 2013 in the grand finale of 50th edition of the beauty pageant in Mumbai. Navneet Kaur belongs to Punjab and is a media student at present. Navneet Kaur was also given the title Miss Glowing Skin. Sobhita Dhulipala and Zoya Afroz were the first and second runners-up respectively. The trio of Navneet Kaur, Sobhita Dhulipala and Zoya Afroz were selected from a total of 23 finalists from India. • The London based Indian origin writer, Anil Ananthaswamy won inaugural Physics Journalism Prize for the article Hip Hip Array on 28 February 2013 in central London. The Physics Journalism Prize is co-sponsored by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Institute of Physics (IOP). The article written by Anil Ananthaswamy, Hip Hip Array lays emphasis on Square Kilometre Array which is an international project for building and designing largest radio telescope. The purpose of the prize is to inspire physicists by encouraging the journalists for tackling the complex topics. • NRI entrepreneur Kartar Lalvani has been conferred with the Healthcare Businessman of the Year Award

2013 at the Asian Business Awards ceremony held in London on 23 March. The founder-chairman of Vitabiotics, UK's largest supplier of minerals and vitamin supplements to the retail trade received the honour from UK's Home Secretary Theresa May. Amit Bhatia, chief of the Swordfish group of companies and son-in-law of steel tycoon , was declared the Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013. The Lifetime Achievement Award 2013 went to Indian-origin entrepreneur Sudhir Choudhrie. Asian Business Awards 2013 were the 16th edition of Asian Business Awards. The event celebrates the acumen, achievement and excellence of the Asian business. The event encapsulates diversity as well as range of Asian businesses in UK. • S. Venkata Mohan a scientist of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), on 19 March 2013 won the

National Bioscience Award for 2012 in Hyderabad. S. Venkata Mohan who is from the Bioengineering and environmental centre of the Institute won the prize for his contributions towards developing technologies for production of clean bio-fuels from waste. The National Bio-science Award which is also called by N-BIOS Prize is an honour of high importance conferred by the Federal Government of India to the select young Indian bio- scientists of less than 45 years of age. The award is given every year for distinctive contributions made towards the development of state of art in basic and applied areas of biological sciences through demonstrated activity in the form of publication in reputed journals and or patents. The award recognizes research and development work carried out in India during the last 5 years of the career. • Madhya Pradesh on bagged two national tourism awards one for the best civic management of a tourist destination and other for the most innovative and unique tourism project in the 23rd National Tourism Award. Madhya Pradesh which is known for tourism hotspots received the awards from President Pranab Mukherjee at a function held for National Tourism Awards 2011-12 in New Delhi, at Vigyan Bhawan. The state received the award in category-‘B’ city for Municipal Council of Mandu in Dhar district. It also got another award for most innovative and unique tourism project-Air Taxi. The state has pioneered in the country to launch the first intra-state Air Taxi services through MPSTDC, in a joint venture with M/s Ventura Air connect Pvt Ltd. • The Union ministry of social justice and empowerment for the first time instituted national awards in order to recognize the efforts and encourage excellence in the field of prevention of Alcoholism and Drug abuse and rehabilitation of its victims. The awards shall be conferred on the awardees in a function to be held in New Delhi on the 26 June every year, which has been declared as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. The Awards are open to all Indian Institutions, Organizations including Gram Panchayats and Individuals without any distinction or discrimination on grounds of religion, race, sex, caste or creed. Even a former addict, who has done outstanding work in the field of awareness generation or de-addiction or rehabilitation will be recognized and awarded. In the country the problem of drug abuse and the substance abuse is on the increase and it has been felt that the victims who are falling prey to this problem are youth in the country. In some of the states the problem has become very serious like Punjab, Manipur and some of the other states. Therefore apart from the government lot of NGOs are involved in the prevention of drug abuse and alcoholism. • Dr. Prakash Kumar, Principal Scientist, seismology group, CSIR- National Geophysical Research Institute was selected for the National Geo-science Award-2011 in the Applied Geophysics category for his contribution in seismology and geodynamics. He has published papers on seismological mapping of Lithospheric-Asthenospheric boundary using converted waves, a state-of-the-art seismological approach. He earlier received the CSIR Young Scientist award. Dr.V. Vijaya Rao, Chief Scientist of controlled seismic studies group of NGRI received the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for his significant research contributions in geophysics. • Tan Twan Eng on 14 March 2013 was announced as a winner of the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize. With this, he became the first Malaysian author to win the most prestigious literary prize of Asia. Tan Twan Eng won the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize for his novel The Garden of Evening Mists. This is only a second time that the prize has been given to the novel written originally in English. The previous winners had won the award as English translations. The Man Asian Literary Prize laid its foundation in 2007. The literary award is given annually to best novel by an Asian writer. The novel can be written in English or translated into English. It should have been published in previous year. The winner is given 30000 US Dollars. The translator, if exists, is given 5000 US Dollars. The submissions for the best novels are invited by the jury through publishers in any country. • The Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Prof. K.V. Thomas on 14 March 2013 announced Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Awardsfor the year 2011.The Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Awards are given every year by Bureau of Indian Standards for encouraging the service as well as manufacturing organizations so that they strive for excellence. These awards give recognition to those who are considered as the leaders of quality movement in the country. The Best of All Award was given to DAV ACC Senior Secondary Public School, Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh for excellence service standards. In a category called Large Scale Manufacturing Industry, Nokia Siemens Networks Private Limited, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu was given the award for excellence in quality standards. In the Large Scale Service Industry category, R Systems International Limited, Noida, and Uttar Pradesh won the award. In the Small Scale Manufacturing Industry category, the award was bagged by Technocrat Connectivity Systems (Private) Limited, Rudrapur, Uttarakhand. • At the 5th CIDC Vishwakarma Award 2013, Tapas Kumar Lahiry- the chairman-cum-managing director

(CMD) of Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) and Bharat Cooking Coal Limited (BCCL) won the Achievement award for Public Officer on 7 March 2013 in New Delhi. At the function organized by Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC), Lahiry received this award. Lahiry is a mining engineer as well as administrator with leadership qualities. BCCL’s turnover is 6952 crore Rupees with a profitability of 1093.69 crore Rupees in 2010-11. Lahiry has also remained associated with mining industry of America, China and Australia. CIDC Vishwakarma Awards are held annually for recognising the achievements as well as work of the organisations and individuals. • SAARC Literature Award was presented to five writers at during the two days SAARC Festival of Literature on

10 March 2013. A poet-diplomat from India Abhay K was among the five writers to be honoured with the prestigious Literature Award. Other writers to be honoured with this award were Farheen Chaudhary (Pakistan), Abdul Khaliq Rashid (Afghanistan), Suman Pokhrel () and novelist Daya Dissanayake (). The award is annually presented to the eminent writers of the South Asian region for their contribution in the promotion of literature through their writings as well as literary initiatives. The SAARC Literature Festival 2013 focused on environment, literature and cultural connectivity. The First-Ever SAARC Writers Conference was organized in April 2000. • The President of India Pranab Mukherjee was conferred with the Liberation War Honour Award by the

President of Bangladesh Zillur Rahman on 4 March, 2013. The award was conferred upon him for his contribution to 1971 war.Earlier, this top most honour of Bangladesh was conferred upon former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi posthumously in 2011 for contributing towards creation of Bangladesh. • The Parliamentary Award Committee selected BJP leader , Congress MP Karan Singh and JD(U)

MP for Outstanding Parliamentarian Award for 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively. Arun Jaitley and Karan Singh are the members of from Gujarat and Delhi respectively. While Sharad Yadav is a member of Lok Sabha from Madhepura, Bihar. The Award Committee which was headed by the Speaker of Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar recommended these names, which were accepted by executive committee of the Indian Parliamentary Group on 6 March 2013. Outstanding Parliamentarian Award was instituted by the Indian Parliamentary Group in 1994. • Public Sector Units (PSUs) like ONGC, SAIL and IOC will be among the seven state-owned units to be conferred the SCOPE

Meritorious Awards 2011-12 next month. Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), which is an apex body of PSUs , on 6 March, announced the names of awardees of ‘SCOPE Meritorious Awards’ in specialized fields. “These awards, which are highly prestigious in areas of economy and other segments like corporate governance, would be distributed next month,” SCOPE Executive Director, U D Choubey said in a statement. CPSEs, which would be awarded, have been selected for performing well in various fields like corporate governance, corporate social responsibility (CSR), environment and sustainable development, and human resource development (HRD). Neyveli Lignite Corp Ltd would receive an award for environmental excellence and sustainable development, while Indian Oil Corporation would be awarded for corporate governance. ONGC would be awarded for doing good job in the area of CSR and SAIL in HRD. • Nirbhaya, the Delhi gang-rape victim, has been honoured with a US "woman of courage" award posthumously for "inspiring people to work together to end violence against women in India and around the world."US first lady joined secretary of stateJohn Kerry as he praised the determination and courage of "a woman known simply as Nirbhaya - braveheart, fearless" at the State Department presentation ceremony on 8 March on International Women's Day.Besides Nirbhaya, eight other women were give the annual award recognizing women around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women's rights and empowerment, often at great personal risk. They are Malalai Bahaduri, first sergeant, Afghan National Interdiction Unit ( Afghanistan); Julieta Castellanos, rector, National Autonomous University of Honduras (Honduras); Josephine Obiajulu Odumakin, president, Campaign for Democracy (Nigeria); Elena Milashina, journalist, human rights activist ( Russia); Fartuun Adan, executive director, Elman Peace and Human Rights Centre ( Somalia); Tsering Woeser (Wei Se), Tibetan author, poet, blogger (China); Razan Zeitunah, human rights lawyer and founder, Local Coordination Committees ( Syria) and Ta Phong Tan, blogger ( ). • Indian Ministry of Tourism’s new film Find What You Seek received first prize at the 11th Golden City Gate Tourism

Media Awards Ceremony held inBerlin on 8 March 2013.The Golden City Gate is an international film, print and media contest for the tourism industry. The Awards ceremony is held every year at ITB Berlin, the world’s leading travel trade show. Union Minister for Tourism K Chiranjeevi had launched the new campaign Find What You Seek,the second phase of Incredible India Campaign at WTM 2012 in November 2012 along with the new Domestic Campaign “Go Beyond”. By launching new campaign, the Ministry of Tourism has made a paradigm shift by shifting the focus from destinations and products to consumers (travelers). The new campaign emphasizes that there is something for every traveler in India and every traveler can find what he or she is seeking while travelling in our incredible country. Domestic campaign Go Beyond urges travelers to travel beyond the obvious, the known destinations to the lesser known destinations. • The results of the ABP News Best City Awards Survey were announced at a glittering ceremony on 6 March on New

Delhi. The ABP News-Ipsos Best City Research and Rewards running for the first time is the only consumer validated survey and celebrates the best of

India’s cities and acts as a benchmark for excellence. List of winners of the ABP News-IPSOS Best City Survey and Awards 2013 1. Best City 2013 -Public Transport:

2. Best City 2013-Power Availability: Mumbai 3. Best City 2013-Affordable Housing: Madurai 4. Best City 2013-Roads: Delhi 5. Best City 2013-Law & Order: Rajkot

6. Best Tourist Friendly City 2013: Nasik 7. Best Green City 2013: Nagpur

8. Best City for Health Care Services 2013: Nagpur 9. Best City for Primary Education 2013: Delhi 10. Best City-Women Safety 2013: Rajkot

11. Best City-Efficient Traffic Management 2013: 12. Best City-Cleanliness and Sanitation 2013: Rajkot 13. Best City to Live in 2013: Nagpur • As a tribute to the Delhi gang rape victim, the government on 8 March in New Delhi, bestowed the Rani Laxmi

Bai - Stree Shakti award to 'spirit of Nirbhaya', a pseudonym given to her. The award, presented on the International Women's Day by President Pranab Mukherjee, was received by the mother of the 23-year-old paramedical student at a function where her father and two younger brothers were also present. The citation of the award to the spirit of Nirbhaya said that it was in acknowledgement of the contribution of thousands of men, women, boys and girls who turned the dark hour into a momentous cry for justice and freedom for all women from violence. Mukherjee also lauded the work of five other winners of the Stree Shakti awards. The Rani Rudramma Devi award was given to Assamese social worker Pranita Talukdar, Mata Jijabai award to artist Sonika Agarwal, Kannagi award to Guramma H Sankina of Karnataka, Rani Gidinliu Zeliang award to Keralite social worker Omana T K and Devi Ahilyabai Holkar award to Olga D'Mello from Maharashtra. • SAARC Literature Award was presented to five writers at Agra during the two days SAARC Festival of Literature on 10

March 2013. A poet-diplomat from India Abhay K was among the five writers to be honored with the prestigious Literature Award. Other writers to be honored with this award were Farheen Chaudhary (Pakistan), Abdul Khaliq Rashid (Afghanistan), Suman Pokhrel (Nepal) and novelist Daya Dissanayake (Sri Lanka). SAARC Literature Awards annually presented to the eminent writers of the South Asian region for their contribution in the promotion of literature through their writings as well as literary initiatives. The SAARC Literature Festival 2013 focused on environment, literature and cultural connectivity. The First-Ever SAARC Writers Conference was organized in April 2000.

April 2013-04-29

• Legendary actor, Krishan Sikand, 93, on 12 April 2013 was awarded with Bollywood’s highest honour in

Indian Cinema Dada Saheb Phalke Award 2012. He is the 44th Dada Saheb Phalke Award Winner. He gave a different and unique frame to the negative and character roles of Indian Cinema with his impressive performances. Pran served Bollywood for a career span of more than six decades in more than 350 films and is known for his brilliant performances in films like Ram Aur Shyam, Purab aur Paschim, Karz, Zanjeer and Amar Akbar Anthony and many more. In 2001 he was awarded with India’s third highest civilian award Padma Bhushan. In his career span, he received four film fare awards. In 2010 he was named among the Top 25 Asian Actors of All times by CNN. The award is conferred by the Government of India for outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian Cinema. The award consists of a Swarn Kamal, a cash prize of Rs.10 lakhs and a shawl.

• NTPC has been awarded as Business Leader in the Power Sector at the NDTV Business Leadership Awards held in New Delhi on 9 april. The award was presented by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India in the presence of Dr to Arup Roy Choudhury, CMD, NTPC. India’s top business leaders were awarded on the occasion. • Chairman of the Awards Jury of the ICSI (Institute of Company Secretaries of India) and former

Justice M. N. Venkatachaliah in New Delhi on 5 April, presented the ‘ICSI National Awards for Excellence in Corporate Governance -2012’ to two ‘Best Governed Companies’:1) Indian Oil Corporation Limited; and 2) HCL Technologies Limited. The Awards were presented during the ongoing 2nd CSIA International Corporate Governance Conference. The Company Secretaries of the awardee companies, Raju Ranganathan, Company Secretary, Indian Oil Corporation Limited; and Manish Anand, Company Secretary, HCL Technologies Limited were also honored for their contribution in adhering to good corporate governance practices. ICSI Life Time Achievement Award for the year 2012 was presented to Deepak S. Parekh, Chairman, Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd for translating excellence in Corporate Governance into reality. • In recognition of its strong fundamentals and dynamic growth model, J & K Bank won the prestigious FE (Financial

Express) India’s Best Banks Award for 2012-13.It Ranked as No. 1 in ‘Best Old Private Sector Bank’ category. It got 3rd in the overall banking industry in terms of ‘Profitability’ and 1st in terms of ‘Profitability’ in the category of ‘Old private sector banks’.

Jan 2013-04-29 • An Indian-origin woman, named Krishna Arora is all set to figure in the prestigious list of people who have received the Order of Australia Medal (OAM).85-year old Krishna Arora, who has been running a community service was selected for this year's awards for her contribution to the Indian community. Arora, also popularly known as 'Auntieji', runs a hotline tele service offering cooking tips. She has also been teaching Asian cooking to Australians for two years at one of the Community Centre in Western suburb of Victoria. The other Indian-origin women who had earlier received the honour include Joyce Westrip (2000), Mala Mehta (2006) and Vettath Rajkumar (2009). In November last year, iconic Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was also conferred with the prestigious award.

• Lalji Singh, scientist and Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, has been selected for the prestigious

Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Award for 2012 for his outstanding contribution to life sciences, particularly in establishing DNA fingerprinting as a tool of both fundamental research and crime detection, and for trying to unravel the puzzle of human evolution in relation to the Andaman-Nicobar tribes.Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Trust Founder P. Vishnu Murthy stated in a press release that the award would be presented by Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar at a function to be held in Tenali, A.P on February 16. On the occasion, Dr. Lalji Singh would deliver the 21st Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Lecture on the theme Mystery of Our Origins.He joins the galaxy of awardees such as Rajendra Pawar, V. Shanta, V.K. Saraswat, T. Ramasami, A. Sivathanu Pillai, Nori Dattatreyudu, Sam Pitroda, G. Madhavan Nair, Kota Harinarayana, V. K. Aatre, R. Chidambaram, R.A. Mashelkar, J. S. Bajaj, K. Kasturi Rangan, Verghese Kurien, S.Z. Qasim, M.G.K. Menon and M. S. Swaminathan, to mention a few.He was earlier Director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad. The award was instituted in 1986 to honour persons who made significant contributions to the development of science and technology, in commemoration of the distinguished scientist and renowned leather technologist Dr. Nayudamma. • U.S President Barack Obama on 2 February presented the prestigious National Medal of Technology and

Innovation to eminent Indian American Rangaswamy Srinivasan for his groundbreaking work with laser. Rangaswamy received the award along with Samuel Blum and James Wynne, for the pioneering discovery of excimer laser ablative photodecomposition of human and animal tissue, laying the foundation for PRK and LASIK laser refractive surgical techniques that have revolutionised vision enhancement. At a glittering function held on 2 February at the White House, Obama presented National Medal of Science to 12 eminent scientists while 10 extraordinary inventors received 2011National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honors bestowed by the United States Government upon scientists, engineers, and inventors. Established by statute in 1980, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation was first awarded in 1985 and is administered for the White House by the US Department of Commerce Patent and Trademark Office. In 1981, Srinivasan discovered that an ultraviolet excimer laser could etch living tissue in a precise manner with no thermal damage to the surrounding area. He named the phenomenon Ablative Photodecomposition (APD), which later revolutionized eye surgery. Inducted into the US Inventor Hall of Fame in 2002, Srinivasan has spent 30 years at IBMs T J Watson Research Center. He received both bachelors and masters degrees in science from the University of Madras, in 1949 and 1950. He earned doctorate in physical chemistry at the University of Southern California in 1956. He currently holds 21 US patents. • The Visakhapatnam district of A.P. has bagged the prestigious award in recognition of effective and successful implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh gave the award to District Collector V Seshadri at a function held in Krishi Bhavan in New Delhi on 3 february. Various awards were given in seven categories to different States andVisakhapatnam has been selected from Andhra Pradesh in the area of MGNREGS. The scheme is aimed at providing work for 100 days to agriculture workers. One Ramanamma, a Dalit woman from Ramachandrapalem village of Kotavuratla mandal, who had completed 100 days of work, was one among three Dalits who had aired their opinion about this welfare programme. Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi were present at the function. • A Taiwanese tycoon with business interests in mainland China said on 29 January, he is funding what local media call Asia's Nobel Prizes for outstanding achievements in natural and social sciences. Ruentex Group head Samuel Yin announced the establishment of the Tang Prize Foundation with an initial endowment of $103 million. The 618-907 AD Tang Dynasty is revered by Chinese for its cultural and scientific achievements. The prizes will be awarded every other year to international leaders in biopharmaceutical science, sustainable development, the study of China and the rule of law. Yin said he decided on those fields because the 118-year-old Nobels do not cover them, and they have intrinsic importance for humanity. The prizes will be awarded starting next year. Winners will receive $1.7 million, compared to $1.2 million that comes with a Nobel Prize. The Tang Prize winners will be nominated and screened by special committees set up by the Academia Sinica, Taiwan's most prestigious research organization. • Senior Indian diplomat D. Bala Venkatesh Varma, a key member of the negotiating team that saw the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal through from the first agreement of July 2005 down to the Additional Protocol in 2010, was given the first S.K. Singh award “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen India's position in the global nuclear order” by UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi at a high- profile function held in New Delhi on 4 January. The award for excellence in the Indian Foreign Service is named after the former foreign secretary and Governor, Shailendra Kumar Singh, a diplomat widely respected within the IFS community for his acumen, professionalism and leadership. Mr. Varma was selected as the first recipient of the prestigious award by a top-drawer jury consisting of Vice President Hamid Ansari, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai, Ms Gandhi and Congress M.P. Rahul Gandhi. • 58th Idea were given away on 20 January 2013 at YRF Studio, Andheri. At the 58th Idea Filmfare

Awards, Barfi!, the much-acclaimed film grabbed seven awards while, Kahaani bagged five awards. The award for the Best Actor was given to Ranbir Kapoor for his deaf-mute performance in Barfi! Vidya Balan, on the other hand was adjudged as the Best Actress for Kahaani. Barfi!was awarded with the Best Film award, while Kahaani’s director Sujoy Ghoshwon the Black Lady for the Best Director. The lifetime achievement awardwas given away to Yash Chopra posthumously. Yash Chopra’s wife Pamela collected this award on his behalf. The other awards are- o Critics’ Award for Best Actor: Irrfan Khan for Paan Singh Tomar (Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia) o Critics’ Award for Best Film: Gangs of Wasseypur (Director: Anurag Singh Kashyap ) o Critics’ Award for Best Actor (Female): Richa Chadda for Gangs of Wasseypur o Best Lyricist: Gulzar for Challa (Jab Tak Hai Jaan: Director Yash Chopra) o Best Music Director: Pritam for Barfi! o Best Background Score: Pritam for Barfi! o Best Production Design: Rajat Podar for Barfi! o Best Playback (Female): Shalmali Kholgade for the song ‘Pareshaan’ o Best Playback (Male): Ayushmann Khurrana for the song ‘Pani da Rang’ o Lifetime Achievement Award -Yash Chopra o Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female): Anushka Sharma (Jab Tak Hai Jaan) o Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male): Annu Kapoor (Vicky Donor)

• Charles Wright, professor emeritus of the English department’s Creative writing programme in the University of Virginia’s college of Arts and Sciences, has won the 2013 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry. Wright taught at U.Va. for almost 30 years, retiring in 2011, and is one of America’s most celebrated poets. The Bollingen Prize in American Poetry is among the most prestigious prizes given to American writers. Established by Paul Mellon in 1949, it is awarded biennially by the Yale University Library to an American poet for the best book published during the previous two years or for lifetime achievement in poetry. The prize includes a cash award of $150,000.The judges awarded Wright the Bollingen Prize for his 2011 book, “Bye-and-Bye: Selected Late Poems,” describing it as “an extended meditation in which we sense ‘splinters of the divine’ in the phenomena and cyclic changes of the natural world, and in the elusive reaches of memory, myth, and history.”

• President has approved the conferment of 108 Padma Awards. These comprise 4 Padma Vibhushan, 24

Padma Bhushan and 80 Padma Shri Awards. 24 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 11 persons in the category of Foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and Posthumous awardees. Padma Awards, the country’s highest civilian awards, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The awards are announced on Republic Day every year. The awards are conferred by the President of India at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhawan sometime around March/ April.

Padma Vibhushan Discipline State/ Domicile

Shri Raghunath Mohapatra

Shri S. Haider Raza Prof. Yash Pal Science and Engineering Uttar Pradesh

Prof. Roddam Narasimha Science and Engineering Karnataka •

Padma Bhushan Discipline State/ Domicile

Dr. Ramanaidu Daggubati Andhra Pradesh

Smt. Sreeramamurthy Janaki Tamil Nadu

Dr. (Smt.) Kanak Rele Maharashtra

Smt. Sharmila Tagore

Dr. (Smt.) Saroja Vaidyanathan

Shri West Bengal

Late Rajesh Khanna Maharashtra

Late Jaspal Singh Bhatti

Shri Shivajirao Girdhar Patil Public Affairs Maharashtra

Dr. Apathukatha Sivathanu Pillai Science and Engineering

Dr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat Science and Engineering

Dr. Ashoke Sen Science and EngineeringUttar Pradesh

Dr. B.N. Suresh Science and EngineeringKarnataka

Prof. Satya N. Atluri Science and Engineering

Prof. Jogesh Chandra Pati Science and Engineering

Shri Ramamurthy Thyagarajan Trade and Industry Tamil Nadu

Shri Adi Burjor Godrej Trade and Industry Maharashtra

Dr. Nandkishore Shamrao Laud Medicine Maharashtra

Shri Mangesh Padgaonkar Literature & Education Maharashtra

Prof. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Literature & Education

Shri Hemendra Singh Panwar Civil Service Madhya Pradesh

Dr. Maharaj Kishan Bhan Civil Service

Shri Rahul Dravid Karnataka Ms. H. Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom Manipur •

Padma Shri Discipline State/ Domicile

Shri Gajam Anjaiah Andhra Pradesh

Swami G.C.D. Bharti alias Bharati Bandhu Chhattisgarh

Ms. B. Jayashree Karnataka

Smt. Sridevi Kapoor Maharashtra

Shri Kailash Chandra Meher

Shri Brahmdeo Ram Pandit Maharashtra

Shri Vishwanath Dinkar Patekar alias Nana Maharashtra Patekar

Shri Rekandar Nageswara Rao alias Surabhi Andhra Pradesh

Shri Lakshmi Narayana Sathiraju Tamil Nadu

Smt. Jaymala Shiledar Maharashtra

Shri Suresh Dattatray Talwalkar Maharashtra

Shri P. Madhavan Nair alias Madhu

Shri Apurba Kishore Bir Maharashtra

Shri Ghanakanta Bora Borbayan

Smt. Hilda Mit Lepcha Sikkim

Smt. Sudha Malhotra Maharashtra

Shri Ghulam Mohammad Saznawaz Jammu and Kashmir

Shri Ramesh Gopaldas Sippy Maharashtra

Ms. Mahrukh Tarapor Maharashtra

Shri Balwant Thakur Jammu & Kashmir

Shri Puran Das Baul West Bengal

Shri Rajendra Tikku Jammu & Kashmir

Shri Pablo Bartholomew Shri S. Shakir Ali Rajasthan

Sh. S.K.M Maeilanandhan Social Work Tamil Nadu

Ms. Nileema Mishra Social Work Maharashtra

Ms. Reema Nanavati Social Work Gujarat

Ms. Jharna Dhara Chowdhury Social Work Bangladesh

Late Dr. Ram Krishan Social Work Uttar Pradesh

Late Manju Bharat Ram Social Work

Prof. Mustansir Barma Science and EngineeringMaharashtra

Shri Avinash Chander Science and Engineering

Prof. Sanjay Govind Dhande Science and EngineeringUttar Pradesh

Prof. (Dr.) Sankar Kumar Pal Science and EngineeringWest Bengal

Prof. Deepak B. Phatak Science and EngineeringMaharashtra

Dr. Mudundi Ramakrishna Raju Science and EngineeringAndhra Pradesh

Prof. Ajay K. Sood Science and EngineeringKarnataka

Prof. Krishnaswamy Vijayraghavan Science and EngineeringKarnataka

Dr. Manindra Agrawal Science and EngineeringUttar Pradesh

Dr. Jayaraman Gowrishankar Science and EngineeringAndhra Pradesh

Prof. Sharad Pandurang Kale Science and EngineeringMaharashtra

Smt. Vandana Luthra Trade and Industry

Ms. Rajshree Pathy Trade and Industry Tamil Nadu

Shri Hemendra Prasad Barooah Trade and Industry

Shri Milind Kamble Trade and Industry Maharashtra

Ms. Kalpana Saroj Trade and Industry Maharashtra

Dr. Sudarshan K. Aggarwal Medicine

Dr. C. Venkata S. Ram alias Chitta Venkata Medicine Andhra Pradesh Sundara Ram

Dr. Rajendra Achyut Badwe Medicine Maharashtra

Dr. Taraprasad Das Medicine Prof. (Dr.) T.V. Devarajan Medicine Tamil Nadu

Prof. (Dr.) Saroj Chooramani Gopal Medicine Uttar Pradesh

Dr. Pramod Kumar Julka Medicine

Dr. Medicine

Dr. Ganesh Kumar Mani Medicine

Dr. Amit Prabhakar Maydeo Medicine Maharashtra

Dr. Sundaram Natarajan Medicine Maharashtra

Prof. Krishna Chandra Chunekar Medicine Uttar Pradesh

Dr. Vishwa Kumar Gupta Medicine

Prof. (Capt.) Dr. Mohammad Sharaf-e-AlamLiterature & Education

Dr. Radhika Herzberger Literature & EducationAndhra Pradesh

Shri J. Malsawma Literature & EducationMizoram

Shri Devendra Patel Literature & EducationGujarat

Dr. Rama Kant Shukla Literature & Education

Prof. Akhtarul Wasey Literature & Education

Prof. Anvita Abbi Literature & Education

Shri Nida Fazli Literature & EducationMadhya Pradesh

Shri Surender Kumar Sharma Literature & Education

Dr. Jagdish Prasad Singh Literature & Education

Late Shaukat Riaz Kapoor Alias Salik Literature & EducationWest Bengal Lakhnawi

Prof. Noboru Karashima Literature & Education

Shri Christopher Pinney Literature & Education

Smt. Premlata Agrawal Jharkhand

Shri Yogeshwar Dutt Haryana

Shri Hosanagara Nagarajegowda Girisha Karnataka

Subedar Major Vijay Kumar Himachal Pradesh

Shri Ngangom Dingko Singh Maharashtra Naib Subedar Bajrang Lal Takhar Rajasthan

Ms. Ritu Kumar Fashion Designing

Dr. Ravindra Singh Bisht Archaeology Uttar Pradesh •

• Major Abup J Manjali of the Rashtriya Rifles has been awarded the Kirti Chakra on this Republic Day for the exhibition of exceptional valor in counter- terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir. Manjali is the only soldier to be awarded the second- highest peacetime gallantry award Kirti Chakra on this Republic Day. Major Abup J Manjali of the Rashtriya Rifles was selected for the award of Kirti Chakra for his extraordinary bravery efforts in counter- terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir. Major Manjali will be awarded on 26 January 2013. Shaurya Chakra, on the other hand, is being given away to Major Sandeep Kumar of 13 Sikh Regiment for his bravery act in Northeast area. • Noted Indian scientist Dr CNR Rao has been conferred with China's top science award for his important contributions in boosting China-India scientific cooperation. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on 24 January, gave its 2012 Award for International Scientific Cooperation to three scientists from India, Germany, and Russia. Rao, 79, founder of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research ( JNCASR), Bangalore, shared the 2012 award with Herbert Jaeckle of Germany's Max Planck Society and Russian space physicist GA Zherebtsov. The awards are given every year by the CAS, which is China's top academic and research institution for natural sciences. It has so far honoured 17 international scientists for their contributions in China-foreign research cooperation, since the prize was instituted in 2007.Rao has won various prestigious awards. He is currently the head of the scientific advisory council to the Indian Prime Minister. • The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 15 January, presented the lifetime achievement awards for the scientists in the field of Atomic energy to R.B. Grover, who played a key role in negotiating the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, K. Balaramamoorthy, who developed non-destructive testing techniques, mathematician R. Balasubramanian, and S.K. Sikka, a key player in the nuclear tests of 1974 and 1998. Presenting the lifetime achievement awards of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to four of its veteran scientists at a brief ceremony at his residence, Dr. Singh noted that the Department worked in “one of the most complex, sophisticated and challenging areas of science, technology and engineering.” He appreciated its scientists for working with unfailing commitment, dedication and skill, despite decades of facing international technology denial regimes. He urged the DAE to ensure that it continued to attract the best scientific minds among the younger generations and expressed hope that its scientists would continue to be guided by the basic goal of directing scientific activities to bring about an improvement in people’s quality of life .Dr. Singh paid special tributes to nuclear scientist and Principal Scientific Advisor to the government, R. Chidamabaram for “guiding India’s atomic energy programme with such great distinction” and said his [Dr. Chidambaram’s] life and work were a source of inspiration for all scientists and technologies in the country. • President Pranab Mukherjee on 15 January, presented Krishi Karman Awards to eight States for their achievements in food grains production in 2011-12. Ten States were given commendation awards. Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur and Nagaland received the awards for special contribution to total food grains production. Bihar received the award for contribution to production and productivity of rice, Haryana for wheat, Jharkhand for pulses and Uttar Pradesh for coarse cereals. Punjab, Uttarakhand, Assam, West Bengal, Tripura, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh received commendation awards. The awards were received by Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Manipur and Agriculture Ministers/ Agriculture Secretaries of other States. For the first time one female and one male farmer from the eight award winning States were also given awards for their outstanding performance. Krishi Karman Awards were instituted in 2010-11 for recognizing the meritorious efforts of States in food grain production. The awards are given to best performing States in two broad sets, one for the total food grain production and the other for individual food grain crops of rice, wheat, pulses and coarse cereals. States for total food grains category are further divided into three categories based on total food grain production capacity of the State. • London-based Indian researcher Mahaveer Golechha has been selected for a prestigious award for his work on a drug to cure Alzheimer’s. The 27-year-old will be travelling in the month of February to San Francisco to receive the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s ‘Young Investigator Scholarship Award’ at the 7th Annual Drug Discovery for Neurodegeneration Conference .He has been recognised for his outstanding research on ‘naringin’, a bioflavonoid found in grape fruits and citrus fruits. In his study, he found that naringin possesses significant “anti-Alzheimer activity” and will form the basis of further research to develop as a cure for the degenerative disease related to old age, which worsens as its progresses and eventually leads to death. Alzheimer’s is a common form of dementia afflicting millions around the world and has no known cure at present. It is estimated that by 2025 at least 34 million people worldwide will be affected by the disease. Mahaveer is currently pursuing a Master’s in Health Policy, Planning and Financing at the London School of Economics (LSE) and was recently elected director of external relations of the LSE Students’ Union India Society. • Golden Globe Awards 2013: Argo Won Best Picture and Best Director Awards.

In the prestigious Golden Globe Awards 2013, the hostage-crisis movie Argothrashed Lincoln to bag best picture as well as best director awards on 13 January 2013. Les Miserables, on the other hand won the awards in best musical or comedy category with the actors Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman winning one trophy each. The award-winning movie Argo is actually inspired by 1979 crisis US diplomats in Iran. In the category of Best Drama, other nominees were Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty as well as Life of Pi. Lincoln which was leading the race with a total of seven nominations took away just the trophy of best actor which was awarded to Daniel Day-Lewis for his role as the 16 President of US. However, the film might have better opportunities at Oscars where it is running first with 12 nominations. The Golden Globe Awards 2013 also did not stand with Life of Pi and the film only took home a single award, the best original score by Mychael Danna. List of Golden Globe Awards 2013 Winners: o Best Motion Picture-Drama: Argo o Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy: Les Miserables o Best performance by an actor in a motion picture – Drama: Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln) o Best performance by an actress in a motion picture – Drama: Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) o Best performance by an actor in a motion picture- Musical or Comedy: Hugh Jackman (Les Misérables) o Best performance by an actress in a motion picture- Musical or Comedy: Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings

Playbook) o Best Director: Ben Affleck (Argo) o Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz o Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway o Best Television Series (Drama): Homeland o Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series (Drama): Claire Danes (Homeland) o Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series (Drama): Damian Lewis (Homeland) o Best Screenplay: Adele - 'Skyfall' (Skyfall) o Best Television Series (Comedy or Musical): Girls o Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series (Comedy or Musical): Lena Dunham (Girls) o Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series (Comedy or Musical): Don Cheadle (House of Lies) o Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television: Game Change o Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television: Julianne Moore (Game

Change) o Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television: Kevin Costner (Hatfields &

McCoys) o Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:

Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey) o Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:

Ed Harris (Game Change) o Best Original Score: Life of Pi o Best Animated Feature Film: Brave

The other winners at the Golden Globe Awards 2013 were as follows: o Best Foreign Language Film: Amour (Austria, Les Films Du Losange, X Filme Creative Pool, Wega Film; Sony

Pictures Classics) o Best Animated Feature Film: Brave o Best Original Song: Skyfall, Adele from Skyfall o Best Original Score: Mychael Danna, Life of Pi • Malala Yousafzai, 15, the schoolgirl from Pakistan shot by Taliban for campaigning girls’ education, on 9 January

2013 received France's Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women's Freedom in Paris. Malala’s father Ziaudin Yousafzai received the honour on her behalf. The award is accompanied with 2.5 million Rupees honorarium. In the first week of January 2013, Malala Yousafzai got released from the British hospital. She is waiting for the reconstructive surgery to be performed on the skull. Malala was shot by the Taliban in her head after her school bus drove through Mingora town of Swat Valley of Pakistan. • Renault Duster was awarded the Car of the Year Award 2013 by the automotive magazine Autocar India at the annual awards night on 9 January 2013 in Mumbai. Autocar India gave away 22 awards in all, in the two-wheeler as well as four-wheeler segment. Renault Duster grabbed three awards in all and these were SUV of the year 2013 viewer’s choice car of the year 2013 and overall Autocar car of the year 2013. In the meanwhile, Mahindra and Mahindra were awarded with the Manufacturer of the Year Award 2013 and Bajaj KTM 200 Duke bagged the Autocar Bike of the Year 2013 and viewers’ choice Bike of the Year 2013. • Ireland’s prestigious Tipperary International Peace Prize for 2012 was awarded on 3 January 2013 to Malala

Yousafzai the teenage schoolgirl from Pakistan, who was shot by Taliban’s Gunman in October 2012.Malala, would be conferred with the award for her bravery, courage and determination to speak and support the cause of access to equal education for every child. With this award, Malala became the second Pakistani National to win the award. Before this, Lt. Benazir Bhutto was awarded with the same award in 2007. Malala was one among the five nominees, which included Sonia Gandhi, the Indian National Congress Party President and Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State. • Well-known filmmaker Shyam Benegal has been chosen for the 8th annual Akkineni Nageswara Rao (ANR) national award by the ANR International foundation on 3 January at Hyderabad. The award carries a prize of Rs 5 lakh. Hemamalini, K Balachander, Lata Mangeshkar, Vyjayantimala Bali, Anjali Devi, Shabana Azmi and among others were recipients of this award earlier. • Professor Joseph Stiglitz , Noble Laureate in Economics received the degree of Doctor of Science from Andhra

Pradesh Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan at the University of Hyderabad on 4 January. • Muthunayagam and Saraswat to be awarded with 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 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. • Scientist Venkatesh Mannar honoured with 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. • Dr. P.R. Swarup conferred with EPC World Awards 2012 for Outstanding Contribution to HRD

Dr. P.R. Swarup, Director General, Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC) has been conferred with the EPC world Awards 2012 under the category Special Achievement Awards in the field of Human Resource Development for the Indian Construction & Infrastructure Industry. The award ceremony was held on 15th December 2012 at hotel The Ashok, New Delhi. EPC World Media Group has been presenting the award for the past three years to recognize the qualitative & quantitative performance, innovation and strategic initiatives of the companies, individuals & projects in the field of Infrastructure & Construction sector in India. • Ireland’s prestigious Tipperary International Peace Prize for 2012 awarded to Malala

Ireland’s prestigious Tipperary International Peace Prize for 2012 was awarded on 3 January 2013 to Malala Yousafzai the teenage schoolgirl from Pakistan, who was shot by Taliban’s Gunman in October 2012. Malala would be conferred with the award for her bravery, courage and determination to speak and support the cause of access to equal education for every child. With this award, Malala became the second Pakistani National to win the award. Before this, Lt. Benazir Bhutto was awarded with the same award in 2007. Malala was one among the five nominees, which included Sonia Gandhi, the Indian National Congress Party President and Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State.

Feb 2013-04-29 • Indian scientist Sugata Mitra was awarded the million-dollar TED Prize on 26 February 2013 for pursuing his idea for building the schools in the Internet. TED Prize is actually awarded to the extraordinary people who have creative as well as bold ideas for global change. Sugata Mitra is a researcher who started inspiring the children across the world to arouse curiosity in them. In 1999, Sugata along with his colleagues installed the Internet-connected computer in New Delhi and left it with the hidden camera. Eventually, the slum kids started learning English as well as searched the Internet for various Science and other topics. Sugata performed these experiments for 13 years, which eventually earned him 1 million US dollars TED Prize. TED Prize was first introduced in 2005.

• B Surender Mohan, CMD, NLC (Neyveli Lignite Corporation) was conferred with the CEO with HR

Orientation Award on 17 February 2013 at the World HRD Congress 2013 in Mumbai. Neyveli Lignite Corporation Limited is a Navratna Government of India Enterprise. World HRD Congress is actually the largest meeting of the HR professionals from the world which brings together global personalities. World HRD Congress is held annually and the purpose of the meeting is to honour best CEOs who implement as well as innovate the new techniques in HR arena. The World HRD Congress 2013 was held at Hotel Taj Lands End, Mumbai. 170 HR professionals from USA, South America, India and England participated in this meeting. B Surender Mohan was chosen for this award by Jury and Council of Board Members of World HRD Congress 2013. • Information Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh, P. Vijaya Babu was conferred with Narla-Deveneni puraskaram at a function held at Guntur on 28 February. With an experience of over 25 years in main stream journalism, Mr. Vijaya Babu has been chosen for the ‘puraskaram’ for his contribution to the field of journalism. The award was instituted in memory of former Editor of Andhra Prabha and Andhra Jyothi Narla Venkateswara Rao and Deveneni Subba Rao. From this year, Annamaya Seva Samithi has been entrusted with the task of presenting the award. The previous recipients of the award were Turlapati Kutumba Rao, Ch. Raghavachari, Harihara Priya, Sankara Narayana and senior journalist from Tenali B.L Narayana. • Bollywood actor Anupam Kher was honoured by Herb J. Wesson, Jr, President Los Angeles City Council and Tom

Labonge, Council Member 4th District with a City Proclamation at Los Angeles City Hall on February 26 in Los Angeles, California.It may be known that the actor’s performances in films like Bend It Like Beckham and went on to do Bride & Prejudice, The Mistress of Spices, American Blend, Hope and a Little Sugar, Midnight’s Children and TV series ER has been appreciated and been an inspiration for other actors. • Vishwaroop, CEO, NTPC SAIL Power Company (NSPCL) has been conferred with “Exemplary Leader Award” by World HRD Congress “Global HR Excellence Awards” held in Mumbai on 25 February. Vishwaroop has been honored for his contribution to the Power Sector. NTPC SAIL Power Company (NSPCL) is the joint venture between NTPC Limited and SAIL for generating power for the steel plants in India. • The 85th Academy Awards (Oscars) ceremony took place on 24 February 2013. The annual Academy Awards were presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The Oscars 2013 ceremony was held at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. The main winners of the Oscars 2013 were Life of Pi, with four awards; Argo with three awards; Les Miserables with three awards. Some of the key awards are -

List of the awardees of 85th Academy Awards: o Best Picture: Argo o Best Actor in a Leading Role: Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln o Best Actress in a Leading Role: Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook o Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained o Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables o Best Animated Feature Film: Brave o Best Cinematography: Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi o Best Costume Design: Anna Karenina o Best Directing: Ang Lee for Life of Pi o Best Documentary Feature: Searching for Sugar Man o Best Documentary Short: Inocente o Best Film Editing: William Goldenberg for Argo o Best Foreign Language Film: Amour (Austria) o Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell for Les Misérables o Best Music-Original Score: Mychael Danna for Life of Pi o Best Music-Original Song: Skyfall from Skyfall (Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth) o Best Production Design: Rick Carter (Production Design); Jim Erickson (Set Decoration) for Lincoln o Best Visual Effects: Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott for Life of Pi o Best Writing-Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio for Argo o Best Writing-Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained • Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar legend was honoured with the posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy award. His daughter sitarist Anoushka Shankar accepted the award on his behalf on 9 February 2013 ahead of the Grammy’s show that took place in Los Angeles on 10 February 2013. Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones attended the pre-Grammy ceremony at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre for accepting the honour which was given to their deceased father. Pandit Ravi Shankar died on 11 December 2012 at 92 years of age. Pandit Ravi Shankar was in the list of seven other artistes named for Lifetime Achievement Award honourees. The Indian sitar legend also won best world music album Grammy for the Living Room Sessions Part 1. Pandit Ravi Shankar’s daughter Anoushka Shankar was also nominated in this category for album Traveller. • The Romanian film Child's Pose has picked up the coveted Golden Bear prize for best film at the 63rd Berlin film festival. The film, directed by Calin Peter Netzer, tells the story of a wealthy mother who uses her connections to try and stop her son from going to jail. US filmmaker David Gordon Green won best director at the festival for his comic road movie Prince Avalanche, while best actress went to Chile's Paulina Garcia for her role as a Santiago divorcee in Gloria.The biggest surprise at the Berlin awards ceremony was the best actor prize going to Nazif Mujic, a Bosnian Roma who had never acted before and had to be talked into playing himself in a drama based on his real-life ordeal. • Michael Clarke, the Australian cricket captain won the fourth Allan Border Medal in Melbourne on 4 February

2013. 31-year old Clarke had won the medal earlier in 2005, 2009 and 2012. Apart from Clarke, the only other player to win this medal four times is Captain Ricky Ponting. Michael Clarke also won the Test cricketer of the year award for the second consecutive time after he scored 1080 runs in nine tests from 25 February 2012 to January 28 2013.Allan Border Medal is a prestigious award given away in the Australian cricket. It was first awarded in 2000. The Allan Border Medal is named after the former captain of Australia, Allan Border.

Mar 2013-04-29

• Renowned space scientist Prof U R Rao has been inducted into the highly coveted "Satellite Hall of Fame",

Washington, by the Society of Satellite Professionals International. Rao, a former Indian Space Research Organization Chairman and Department of Space Secretary, is the first Indian Space Scientist to be inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame, joining the select group of about 50 Hall of Fame members. He was conferred the honor at a function attended by over 1,000 distinguished guests consisting of Space Scientists, Industry leaders, Administrators and Professionals on March 19, 2013 at Washington, an ISRO release said.

• NTPC Limited, India’s largest power utility has been awarded as the most Efficient Maharatna-in

Manufacturing for the year 2012 by a leading Stock Magazine at the 4th DSIJ Award held in New Delhi on 26 March. The Award was received by I.J. Kapoor, Director (Commercial), NTPC from Ajit Singh, Union Minister of Civil Aviation. • The 2nd National Photo Awards- 2011-12 were conferred on 28 March by the Speaker, Lok Sabha, Ms. Meira

Kumar to eminent photojournalists at a function held in Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. The Lifetime Achievement Awards were given to eminent photographers i Pranlal Patel, T.S. Nagarajan and T.N.A. Perumal. Pranlal Patel, 104 years of age, has been the primary school teacher, who was inclined to photography as an amateur photographer but gradually the passion turned into profession. He captured the memories of our struggle for independence through his photographs. His pictures celebrate the glory of black and white. His photographs are not merely a collection of unmatched skills but also repository of social and historical values of time. The second recipient T.S. Nagarajan, is an eminent photojournalist whose works have been exhibited and published widely in India and abroad. He has held exhibitions of his works all over the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, in 1982. He is a specialist in black and white photography, and has won several awards including the PATA Gold Award in 1987. The third recipient, T.N.A. Perumal is the doyen of wildlife photography in India. He embraced bird photography as passionate profession in 1960 and was awarded the artiste FIAP in Nature Photography in 1963 and Excellence FIAP in 1968. He won associate ship of Royal Photographic Society of United Kingdom in 1977 and Fellowship of Royal Photographic Society of United Kingdom in 1978 and Master photographer of the Federation del’Art photographique of France in 1983. He is recognized as the father of India Photography. He is a member of Mysore Photographic Society and life member of Federation of Indian Photography. He has more than 1500 acceptances in national and international salons and has over 200 awards and merit certificates to his credit. In the Professional Category, the ‘Best Professional Photographer of the Year 2011-12’ has been given to Salil Bera, who has earned fame in the field of wildlife photography. He has also won Honorary mention at UNEP Photo Competition in Japan in 2005. The award of ‘Professional Photographer of the Year 2011-12 on Green India: Environmental Stories’ has been given to Pankaj Sharma.The award of ‘Professional Photographer of the Year 2011-12 on ‘Open Category’ was given to Anil Risal Singh. In the Amateur Category, the ‘Best Amateur Photographer of the Year 2011-12’ has been given to Subhash Jirange.’The Best Amateur Photographer of the Year 2011-12 on Life and Landscape of India’ was given to Sudip Roychoudhury.‘The Best Amateur Photographer of the Year 2011-12 on Fine Arts’ was given to Debashish Ghosh Ray. • The Competition Commission of India (CCI) was nominated for the Global Competition Review (GCR) Awards

2013 in the category Agency of the Year-Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa in the last week of March 2013 . This is the first time that CCI was nominated for internationally acclaimed award. Other agencies that were nominated in Agency of the Year-Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa category include Pakistan’s Competition Commission, Turkey’s Competition Authority and Japan’s Fair Trade Commission. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) was established by the Government of India with effect from 14 October 2003. The primary aim of Competition Commission of India (CCI) is to eliminate the practices which have adverse effect on competition. Its aim is to protect the consumers’ interests and make sure that there is freedom of trade in Indian markets. The purpose of CCI is to give opinion on competition issues, create public awareness as well as impart training on the competition issues. • News Television Awards 2013: Vineet Jain Conferred With Contribution to News Television Award

Vineet Jain, the Managing Director of Times Group was conferred with the Contribution to News Television Award 2013 by the Indiantelevision.com at the Sixth News Television Awards on 25 March 2013 at Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi. He was awarded for his initiative to bring Times of India group in the television industry. It is worth noticing that the Times of India group made its presence in the television broadcasting with channels such as Zoom, ET and Times Now. Executive President of the Times Group, Rahul Kansal accepted this award on behalf of Vineet Jain. • Other awardees were as follows

1. Best Business News Programme (English): We Mean Business (NDTV Profit) 2. Best Business News Programme (Hindi): Auto Expo (Aaj Tak) 3. Best Crime Show (Hindi): Vardaat - Mhujhe Bhulana Mat (Aaj Tak) 4. Best Current Affairs Feature (English): Ground Zero Gujarat (CNN-IBN) 5. Best Current Affairs Feature (Hindi): Ayodhya Ko Kuchh Kehna Hai (Aaj Tak) 6. Best Sports News Show (Marathi): Khel Majha - Fight Back Yuvi (ABP Majha) 7. Best Auto Show (Hindi): Top Drive (IBN7) 8. Best Show on Social/Environment Awareness / Social Development Campaign (Telugu): Bathuku Bandi (Vanitha TV)

9. Best News Documentary - Limited episodes (English): Ground Zero Gujarat (CNN-IBN) 10. Best Entertainment Feature (Hindi): Jai Jawan (NDTV India) 11. Best Public Debate Show (English): Question Time Didi (CNN-IBN) 12. Best TV News Presenter: Rajdeep Sardesai (CNN-IBN) 13. Best Young TV Journalist (Below 24 years of age): Sonal Mehrotra (NDTV 24x7) 14. Special Award for News Cinematographer: Prakasam (CNN-IBN) 15. Special Award for Contribution to News Television: Vineet Jain (Times Group) 16. Best TV News Reporter (Marathi): Alka Dhupkar (IBN Lokmat) 17. Best TV News Reporter (Telugu): Krishna Mohan (TV9) 18. Best TV News Reporter (English): Anubha Bhonsle (CNN-IBN) and Barkha Dutt (NDTV 24x7) 19. Best TV News Reporter (Hindi): Sharad Sharma (NDTV India) 20. Special Awards for Innovation and Leadership in App Development: NDTV 21. Special Awards for Most Extensive Social Media TV News Brand: NDTV 22. Special Awards for Best News Channel Website: IBN Live 23. Best News Talk Show (English): We the People (NDTV 24x7) 24. Best News Talk Show (Hindi): Zindagi Live - Gujarat Riots (IBN7) 25. Best TV News Anchor (Marathi): Dnyanada Arvind Chavan (ABP Majha) 26. Best TV News Anchor (Telugu): Yashoda Mithra (V6 News) 27. Best TV News Anchor (Hindi): Sweta Singh (Aaj Tak)

• Superstar Amitabh Bachchan has been chosen for NTR National Film Award for the year-2011. The award carries a cash component of Rs 5 lakh besides a memento and a citation. A committee comprising Telugu film personalities Tammareddi Bharadwaja, M Balayya and K C Sekhar Babu chose Amitabh Bachchan for the NT Rama Rao National Film Award for 2011 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema, official sources here said. The Committee also chose film director Shyam Benegal for the B N Reddy National Award that carries a reward of Rs 2 lakh, a citation and a memento. Previous recipients of the award include Akkineni Nageswara Rao, a contemporary of late NTR, Bollywood great Dilip Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, thespian Sivaji Ganesan, music maestro Ilaiyaraja, Kannada actor Raj Kumar, director Hrishikesh Mukherjee and actress Waheeda Rehman among others.Telugu movie stalwart and former MP Kaikala Satyanarayana has been chosen for prestigious Raghupati Venkaiah Memorial Award that also carries Rs 2 lakh. Telugu film producer and studio owner G Adiseshagiri Rao has been chosen for the Nagireddy-Chakrapani National Film Award. Andhra Pradesh government gives this award, instituted in 1996 in the name of Telugu film legend and former Chief Minister of the state, every year to an outstanding film personality. The awards will be presented on Ugadi, the Telugu New Year's Day, in Hyderabad on April 11.

• Toyo Ito(71), the Japanese architect was declared as the winner of 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize on 18

March 2013. The Pritzker Architecture Prize is said to be the most prestigious and richest award of architecture.Often, this prize is also referred as the Nobel Prize of Architecture. Toyo Ito is the sixth Japanese architect to win this prize. He will win 100000 US Dollars as well as a bronze medal at the official Pritzker ceremony will take place on 29 May 2013 at John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. • The 60th National Film Awards were announced on 18 March 2013. The artists who gave benchmark performances in acting and film making in the year 2012 were rewarded in the National Film Awards 2013. • The list of winners chosen by the jury in National Film Awards 2013 is as follows: 1. Best Feature Film - Paan Singh Tomar (Hindi) 2. Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director - Chittagong (Hindi); and 101 Chodiyangal

(Malayalam) 3. Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment - Vicky Donor (Hindi); Ustad Hotel (Malayalam) 4. Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration - Thanichallanjan (Malayalam)

5. Best Film on Social Issues: Spirit (Malayalam) 6. Best Children's Film - Dekh Indian Circus (Hindi) 7. Best Film on Environment and Conservation/preservation: Black Forest (Malayalam) 8. Best Animation Film - Delhi Safari (Hindi) 9. Best Direction - Dhag (Marathi) Dir: Shivaji Lotan Patil 10. Best Actor - Paan Singh Tomar (Hindi) Actors: Irrfaan, Vikram Gokhale 11. Best Actress - Dhag (Marathi) Actress: Usha Jadhav

12. Best Supporting Actor - Vicky Donor (Hindi) Actor: Anu Kapoor 13. Best Supporting Actress - Vicky Donor (Hindi) Dolly Ahluwalia; Thanichallanjan (Malayalam) Kalpana 14. Best Child Artist - Dekh Indian Circus (Hindi), Actor: Virendra Pratap; 101 Chodiyangal, Actor: Minon 15. Best Male Playback Singer - Chittagong (Hindi) Singer: Shankar Mahadevan, Bolo Na (Rajat Kamal medal and Rs 50,000) 16. Best Female Playback Singer - Samhita (Marathi) Singer: Aarti Anklekar Tikekar, Palakein Naa Moondon 17. Best Cinematography - Ko: YAD, Cameraman: Sudheer Palsane 18. Best Screenplay - Screenplay Writer (Original) Kahani (Hindi) Sujoy Ghosh, Screenplay writer (Adapted) Oh My God (Hindi) Bhavesh Mandalia, Umesh Shukla and Dialogues Ustaad Hotel (Malayalam) Anjali Menon 19. Best Audiography - Location Sound Recordist Annayum Rasoolam (Malayalam) Radhakrishnan S; Sound Designer, Shabdo (Bengali) Anirban Sengupta, Dipankar Chaki; Re-recordist of final mixed track Gangs of Wasseypur (Hindi) Alok De, Sinoy Joseph, Shreejesh Nair 20. Best Editing - Kahaani (Hindi) Namrata Rao 21. Best Production Design - Vishwaroopam (Tamil) Boontawee Thor Taweepasas, Lalgudi N Ilayaraja 22. Best Costume Designer - Paradesi (Tamil) Poornima Ramaswamy 23. Best Make-up Artist - Vazakkuenn 18/9 (Tamil) Raja 24. Best Music Direction - Songs: Samhita (Marathi) Shailender Barve; Kaliyachan (Malayalam) Biji Bal 25. Best Lyrics - Chittagong (Hindi) Prasoon Joshi, Bolo Na 26. Special Jury Award - Chitrangada (Bengali) Rituparno Ghosh; Kahaani (Hindi) Gangs of Wasseypur (Hindi) Dekh Indian Circus (Hindi) Nawazuddin Siddiqui 27. Best Special Effects - Eega (Telugu) Makuta VFX 28. Best Choreogrpahy - Vishwaroopam (Tamil) Pandit Birju Maharaj

• The National Film Awards are most prominent awards given away to the film fraternity. These awards were established in

1954. Annually, the national panel is appointed by Government of India which selects the winner. The awards are presented by the President of India in the official ceremony.

• Sugathakumari(79), the Malayalam poetess in the third week of March 2013was chosen for the Saraswati Samman

2012 for the poetry collection Manalezhuthu, which means The Writing on the Sand in English. The Saraswati Samman is constituted by K. K. Birla Foundation. Saraswati Samman is awarded annually for outstanding literary work in any Indian language in past 10 years. Sugathakumari has 15 volumes of poetry credited to her. Sugathakumari is also the passionate environmentalist. She was also the head of Kerala’s State Women’s Commission. • Navneet Kaur Dhillon(20) was crowned Pond’s Femina Miss India 2013 on 24 March 2013 in the grand finale of 50th edition of the beauty pageant in Mumbai. Navneet Kaur belongs to Punjab and is a media student at present. Navneet Kaur was also given the title Miss Glowing Skin. Sobhita Dhulipala and Zoya Afroz were the first and second runners-up respectively. The trio of Navneet Kaur, Sobhita Dhulipala and Zoya Afroz were selected from a total of 23 finalists from India. • The London based Indian origin writer, Anil Ananthaswamy won inaugural Physics Journalism Prize for the article Hip Hip Array on 28 February 2013 in central London. The Physics Journalism Prize is co-sponsored by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Institute of Physics (IOP). The article written by Anil Ananthaswamy, Hip Hip Array lays emphasis on Square Kilometre Array which is an international project for building and designing largest radio telescope. The purpose of the prize is to inspire physicists by encouraging the journalists for tackling the complex topics. • NRI entrepreneur Kartar Lalvani has been conferred with the Healthcare Businessman of the Year Award

2013 at the Asian Business Awards ceremony held in London on 23 March. The founder-chairman of Vitabiotics, UK's largest supplier of minerals and vitamin supplements to the retail trade received the honour from UK's Home Secretary Theresa May. Amit Bhatia, chief of the Swordfish group of companies and son-in-law of steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, was declared the Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013. The Lifetime Achievement Award 2013 went to Indian-origin entrepreneur Sudhir Choudhrie. Asian Business Awards 2013 were the 16th edition of Asian Business Awards. The event celebrates the acumen, achievement and excellence of the Asian business. The event encapsulates diversity as well as range of Asian businesses in UK. • S. Venkata Mohan a scientist of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), on 19 March 2013 won the

National Bioscience Award for 2012 in Hyderabad. S. Venkata Mohan who is from the Bioengineering and environmental centre of the Institute won the prize for his contributions towards developing technologies for production of clean bio-fuels from waste. The National Bio-science Award which is also called by N-BIOS Prize is an honour of high importance conferred by the Federal Government of India to the select young Indian bio- scientists of less than 45 years of age. The award is given every year for distinctive contributions made towards the development of state of art in basic and applied areas of biological sciences through demonstrated activity in the form of publication in reputed journals and or patents. The award recognizes research and development work carried out in India during the last 5 years of the career. • Madhya Pradesh on bagged two national tourism awards one for the best civic management of a tourist destination and other for the most innovative and unique tourism project in the 23rd National Tourism Award. Madhya Pradesh which is known for tourism hotspots received the awards from President Pranab Mukherjee at a function held for National Tourism Awards 2011-12 in New Delhi, at Vigyan Bhawan. The state received the award in category-‘B’ city for Municipal Council of Mandu in Dhar district. It also got another award for most innovative and unique tourism project-Air Taxi. The state has pioneered in the country to launch the first intra-state Air Taxi services through MPSTDC, in a joint venture with M/s Ventura Air connect Pvt Ltd. • The Union ministry of social justice and empowerment for the first time instituted national awards in order to recognize the efforts and encourage excellence in the field of prevention of Alcoholism and Drug abuse and rehabilitation of its victims. The awards shall be conferred on the awardees in a function to be held in New Delhi on the 26 June every year, which has been declared as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. The Awards are open to all Indian Institutions, Organizations including Gram Panchayats and Individuals without any distinction or discrimination on grounds of religion, race, sex, caste or creed. Even a former addict, who has done outstanding work in the field of awareness generation or de-addiction or rehabilitation will be recognized and awarded. In the country the problem of drug abuse and the substance abuse is on the increase and it has been felt that the victims who are falling prey to this problem are youth in the country. In some of the states the problem has become very serious like Punjab, Manipur and some of the other states. Therefore apart from the government lot of NGOs are involved in the prevention of drug abuse and alcoholism. • Dr. Prakash Kumar, Principal Scientist, seismology group, CSIR- National Geophysical Research Institute was selected for the National Geo-science Award-2011 in the Applied Geophysics category for his contribution in seismology and geodynamics. He has published papers on seismological mapping of Lithospheric-Asthenospheric boundary using converted waves, a state-of-the-art seismological approach. He earlier received the CSIR Young Scientist award. Dr.V. Vijaya Rao, Chief Scientist of controlled seismic studies group of NGRI received the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for his significant research contributions in geophysics. • Tan Twan Eng on 14 March 2013 was announced as a winner of the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize. With this, he became the first Malaysian author to win the most prestigious literary prize of Asia. Tan Twan Eng won the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize for his novel The Garden of Evening Mists. This is only a second time that the prize has been given to the novel written originally in English. The previous winners had won the award as English translations. The Man Asian Literary Prize laid its foundation in 2007. The literary award is given annually to best novel by an Asian writer. The novel can be written in English or translated into English. It should have been published in previous year. The winner is given 30000 US Dollars. The translator, if exists, is given 5000 US Dollars. The submissions for the best novels are invited by the jury through publishers in any country. • The Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Prof. K.V. Thomas on 14 March 2013 announced Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Awardsfor the year 2011.The Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Awards are given every year by Bureau of Indian Standards for encouraging the service as well as manufacturing organizations so that they strive for excellence. These awards give recognition to those who are considered as the leaders of quality movement in the country. The Best of All Award was given to DAV ACC Senior Secondary Public School, Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh for excellence service standards. In a category called Large Scale Manufacturing Industry, Nokia Siemens Networks Private Limited, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu was given the award for excellence in quality standards. In the Large Scale Service Industry category, R Systems International Limited, Noida, and Uttar Pradesh won the award. In the Small Scale Manufacturing Industry category, the award was bagged by Technocrat Connectivity Systems (Private) Limited, Rudrapur, Uttarakhand. • At the 5th CIDC Vishwakarma Award 2013, Tapas Kumar Lahiry- the chairman-cum-managing director

(CMD) of Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) and Bharat Cooking Coal Limited (BCCL) won the Achievement award for Public Officer on 7 March 2013 in New Delhi. At the function organized by Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC), Lahiry received this award. Lahiry is a mining engineer as well as administrator with leadership qualities. BCCL’s turnover is 6952 crore Rupees with a profitability of 1093.69 crore Rupees in 2010-11. Lahiry has also remained associated with mining industry of America, China and Australia. CIDC Vishwakarma Awards are held annually for recognising the achievements as well as work of the organisations and individuals. • SAARC Literature Award was presented to five writers at Agra during the two days SAARC Festival of Literature on

10 March 2013. A poet-diplomat from India Abhay K was among the five writers to be honoured with the prestigious Literature Award. Other writers to be honoured with this award were Farheen Chaudhary (Pakistan), Abdul Khaliq Rashid (Afghanistan), Suman Pokhrel (Nepal) and novelist Daya Dissanayake (Sri Lanka). The award is annually presented to the eminent writers of the South Asian region for their contribution in the promotion of literature through their writings as well as literary initiatives. The SAARC Literature Festival 2013 focused on environment, literature and cultural connectivity. The First-Ever SAARC Writers Conference was organized in April 2000. • The President of India Pranab Mukherjee was conferred with the Liberation War Honour Award by the

President of Bangladesh Zillur Rahman on 4 March, 2013. The award was conferred upon him for his contribution to 1971 war.Earlier, this top most honour of Bangladesh was conferred upon former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi posthumously in 2011 for contributing towards creation of Bangladesh. • The Parliamentary Award Committee selected BJP leader Arun Jaitley, Congress MP Karan Singh and JD(U)

MP Sharad Yadav for Outstanding Parliamentarian Award for 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively. Arun Jaitley and Karan Singh are the members of Rajya Sabha from Gujarat and Delhi respectively. While Sharad Yadav is a member of Lok Sabha from Madhepura, Bihar. The Award Committee which was headed by the Speaker of Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar recommended these names, which were accepted by executive committee of the Indian Parliamentary Group on 6 March 2013. Outstanding Parliamentarian Award was instituted by the Indian Parliamentary Group in 1994. • Public Sector Units (PSUs) like ONGC, SAIL and IOC will be among the seven state-owned units to be conferred the SCOPE

Meritorious Awards 2011-12 next month. Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), which is an apex body of PSUs , on 6 March, announced the names of awardees of ‘SCOPE Meritorious Awards’ in specialized fields. “These awards, which are highly prestigious in areas of economy and other segments like corporate governance, would be distributed next month,” SCOPE Executive Director, U D Choubey said in a statement. CPSEs, which would be awarded, have been selected for performing well in various fields like corporate governance, corporate social responsibility (CSR), environment and sustainable development, and human resource development (HRD). Neyveli Lignite Corp Ltd would receive an award for environmental excellence and sustainable development, while Indian Oil Corporation would be awarded for corporate governance. ONGC would be awarded for doing good job in the area of CSR and SAIL in HRD. • Nirbhaya, the Delhi gang-rape victim, has been honoured with a US "woman of courage" award posthumously for "inspiring people to work together to end violence against women in India and around the world."US first lady Michelle Obama joined secretary of stateJohn Kerry as he praised the determination and courage of "a woman known simply as Nirbhaya - braveheart, fearless" at the State Department presentation ceremony on 8 March on International Women's Day.Besides Nirbhaya, eight other women were give the annual award recognizing women around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women's rights and empowerment, often at great personal risk. They are Malalai Bahaduri, first sergeant, Afghan National Interdiction Unit ( Afghanistan); Julieta Castellanos, rector, National Autonomous University of Honduras (Honduras); Josephine Obiajulu Odumakin, president, Campaign for Democracy (Nigeria); Elena Milashina, journalist, human rights activist ( Russia); Fartuun Adan, executive director, Elman Peace and

Human Rights Centre ( Somalia); Tsering Woeser (Wei Se), Tibetan author, poet, blogger (China); Razan Zeitunah, human rights lawyer and founder, Local Coordination Committees ( Syria) and Ta Phong Tan, blogger ( Vietnam). • Indian Ministry of Tourism’s new film Find What You Seek received first prize at the 11th Golden City Gate Tourism

Media Awards Ceremony held inBerlin on 8 March 2013.The Golden City Gate is an international film, print and media contest for the tourism industry. The Awards ceremony is held every year at ITB Berlin, the world’s leading travel trade show. Union Minister for Tourism K Chiranjeevi had launched the new campaign Find What You Seek,the second phase of Incredible India Campaign at WTM 2012 in November 2012 along with the new Domestic Campaign “Go Beyond”. By launching new campaign, the Ministry of Tourism has made a paradigm shift by shifting the focus from destinations and products to consumers (travelers). The new campaign emphasizes that there is something for every traveler in India and every traveler can find what he or she is seeking while travelling in our incredible country. Domestic campaign Go Beyond urges travelers to travel beyond the obvious, the known destinations to the lesser known destinations. • The results of the ABP News Best City Awards Survey were announced at a glittering ceremony on 6 March on New

Delhi. The ABP News-Ipsos Best City Research and Rewards running for the first time is the only consumer validated survey and celebrates the best of India’s cities and acts as a benchmark for excellence. List of winners of the ABP News-IPSOS Best City Survey and Awards 2013 1. Best City 2013 -Public Transport: Nagpur

2. Best City 2013-Power Availability: Mumbai 3. Best City 2013-Affordable Housing: Madurai 4. Best City 2013-Roads: Delhi 5. Best City 2013-Law & Order: Rajkot

6. Best Tourist Friendly City 2013: Nasik 7. Best Green City 2013: Nagpur

8. Best City for Health Care Services 2013: Nagpur 9. Best City for Primary Education 2013: Delhi 10. Best City-Women Safety 2013: Rajkot

11. Best City-Efficient Traffic Management 2013: Pune 12. Best City-Cleanliness and Sanitation 2013: Rajkot 13. Best City to Live in 2013: Nagpur • As a tribute to the Delhi gang rape victim, the government on 8 March in New Delhi, bestowed the Rani Laxmi

Bai - Stree Shakti award to 'spirit of Nirbhaya', a pseudonym given to her. The award, presented on the International Women's Day by President Pranab Mukherjee, was received by the mother of the 23-year-old paramedical student at a function where her father and two younger brothers were also present. The citation of the award to the spirit of Nirbhaya said that it was in acknowledgement of the contribution of thousands of men, women, boys and girls who turned the dark hour into a momentous cry for justice and freedom for all women from violence. Mukherjee also lauded the work of five other winners of the Stree Shakti awards. The Rani Rudramma Devi award was given to Assamese social worker Pranita Talukdar, Mata Jijabai award to artist Sonika Agarwal, Kannagi award to Guramma H Sankina of Karnataka, Rani Gidinliu Zeliang award to Keralite social worker Omana T K and Devi Ahilyabai Holkar award to Olga D'Mello from Maharashtra. • SAARC Literature Award was presented to five writers at Agra during the two days SAARC Festival of Literature on 10

March 2013. A poet-diplomat from India Abhay K was among the five writers to be honored with the prestigious Literature Award. Other writers to be honored with this award were Farheen Chaudhary (Pakistan), Abdul Khaliq Rashid (Afghanistan), Suman Pokhrel (Nepal) and novelist Daya Dissanayake (Sri Lanka). SAARC Literature Awards annually presented to the eminent writers of the South Asian region for their contribution in the promotion of literature through their writings as well as literary initiatives. The SAARC Literature Festival 2013 focused on environment, literature and cultural connectivity. The First-Ever SAARC Writers Conference was organized in April 2000.

April 2013-04-29

• Legendary actor, Pran Krishan Sikand, 93, on 12 April 2013 was awarded with Bollywood’s highest honour in

Indian Cinema Dada Saheb Phalke Award 2012. He is the 44th Dada Saheb Phalke Award Winner. He gave a different and unique frame to the negative and character roles of Indian Cinema with his impressive performances. Pran served Bollywood for a career span of more than six decades in more than 350 films and is known for his brilliant performances in films like Ram Aur Shyam, Purab aur Paschim, Karz, Zanjeer and Amar Akbar Anthony and many more. In 2001 he was awarded with India’s third highest civilian award Padma Bhushan. In his career span, he received four film fare awards. In 2010 he was named among the Top 25 Asian Actors of All times by CNN. The award is conferred by the Government of India for outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian Cinema. The award consists of a Swarn Kamal, a cash prize of Rs.10 lakhs and a shawl.

• NTPC has been awarded as Business Leader in the Power Sector at the NDTV Business Leadership Awards held in New Delhi on 9 april. The award was presented by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India in the presence of Dr Prannoy Roy to Arup Roy Choudhury, CMD, NTPC. India’s top business leaders were awarded on the occasion. • Chairman of the Awards Jury of the ICSI (Institute of Company Secretaries of India) and former Chief Justice of India

Justice M. N. Venkatachaliah in New Delhi on 5 April, presented the ‘ICSI National Awards for Excellence in Corporate Governance -2012’ to two ‘Best Governed Companies’:1) Indian Oil Corporation Limited; and 2) HCL Technologies Limited. The Awards were presented during the ongoing 2nd CSIA International Corporate Governance Conference. The Company Secretaries of the awardee companies, Raju Ranganathan, Company Secretary, Indian Oil Corporation Limited; and Manish Anand, Company Secretary, HCL Technologies Limited were also honored for their contribution in adhering to good corporate governance practices. ICSI Life Time Achievement Award for the year 2012 was presented to Deepak S. Parekh, Chairman, Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd for translating excellence in Corporate Governance into reality. • In recognition of its strong fundamentals and dynamic growth model, J & K Bank won the prestigious FE (Financial

Express) India’s Best Banks Award for 2012-13.It Ranked as No. 1 in ‘Best Old Private Sector Bank’ category. It got 3rd in the overall banking industry in terms of ‘Profitability’ and 1st in terms of ‘Profitability’ in the category of ‘Old private sector banks’.