1st Sept to 15 th Sept AWARDS & HONOURS An Indian-origin Sikh migrant driver in Australia, Tejinder Pal Singh, was named ‘Australian of the Day’ for feeding the homeless in Darwin for the past three years. President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Gandhi Peace Prize for the year 2014 on Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar received the award on behalf of the organization. The award, instituted in 1995 by Union Government as a part of the 125th birth anniversary celebration of Mahatma Gandhi, is awarded annually to individuals and institutions for their contributions towards social, economic and political transformation through non-violence and other Gandhian methods. Bollywood actor Anupam Kher was conferred with the Honoured Guest of Texas award for his contribution to the cinema and the world of art. Indian-American Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri was selected for the prestigious 2014 National Humanities Medal. The first National Humanities Medal was awarded in 1996. Since then, there have been 175 recipients, 163 individuals and 12 organisations, including this year's. Jhumpa is an Indian-American author who was born as Nilanjana Sudeshna but goes by her nickname (or in Bengali her "Daak naam") Jhumpa. Her debut short story collection 'Interpreter of Maladies' won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and her book 'The Lowland' was a nominee for the Man Booker Prize. She is currently a professor of creative writing at Princeton University. The Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), London conferred G Satheesh Reddy, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, with the Society's 2015 Silver Medal for work contributing to major advances or contributions in aerospace. RAeS is the world's only professional body dedicated to the entire aerospace community. Established in 1866 to further the art, science and engineering of aeronautics, the Society has been at the forefront of aerospace ever since. The Royal Aeronautical Society has been honouring outstanding achievers in the global aerospace industry since 1909, when Wilbur and Orville Wright came to London to receive the Society's first Gold Medal. Haryana Government won the Skoch Order-of-Merit national award for implementing 6 e-Governance and IT initiatives in the state. Haryana Government has notified 163 e-Governance services which would be delivered to the citizens at their doorsteps with a view to provide time-bound and hassle-free services. The Skoch Order-of- Merit national award is bestowed upon top performing government organisations and private organisations working with the government. It is given by Skoch Consultancy Services Private Limited, a strategy and management consulting firm founded in 1997, and recognises the best practices and governance models that aim for excellent and efficient implementation of programmes and services delivery. India won the top UNESCO prize 'Award of Excellence' 2015 for the remarkable conservation efforts of the majestic Sree Vadakkunnathan Temple in Kerala. The Award of Excellence for the conservation of Sree Vadakkunnathan Temple, Thrissur, won this year's top prize in the Asia Pacific Heritage Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was announced as one of the winners of the United Nations Champions of the Earth award in recognition of her country's initiatives to address climate change. UNEP noted that Bangladesh is one of the world's most populated countries, with over 159 million people. It is also one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The award cited among other initiatives, the progressive Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan of 2009, which made the South Asian nation the first developing country to frame such a coordinated action plan. Bangladesh is also the first country to set up its own Climate Change Trust Fund, supported by nearly USD 300 million of domestic resources from 2009-2012. The award also noted that the Bangladesh government currently earmarks 6 to 7 per cent of its annual budget - some USD 1 billion - on climate change adaptation, with only 25 per cent of this coming from international donors. BUSINESS & CORPORATE Bazmi Husain was appointed as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of ABB India Ltd. with effect from January 2016, reporting to ABB’s CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. Currently, Hussain is working as Managing Director of ABB in India. The World Federation of Exchanges (WEF) announced that the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has the highest number of listed companies in the world - a total number of 5689 companies were listed with the BSE by the end of June 2015. However, out of 5689, only one company was a foreign company. Shanghai stock exchange of China (having 1070 companies) was at the top in terms of value of share trading. BSE was established in 1855 and is considered as the oldest exchange in Asia. State-run BSNL announced to offer a minimum broadband speed of 2 mega bit per second (Mbps) from October 1 onwards to its customers, at no extra cost. The company currently offers a minimum speed of 512 Kbps and the move is part of its efforts for revival. BSNL is losing customers in mobile as well as landline to private operators. The company lost about 1.78 crore wireless and over 20 lakh wireline subscribers between March 2014 and March 2015. The losses for the firm stood at Rs 7,600 crore. Rakesh Sharma took over as Managing Director and CEO of Bengaluru-headquartered Canara Bank. Before being appointed by the Government to head Canara Bank, Sharma was the MD and CEO of Lakshmi Vilas Bank since March 2014, where, in a short span of 18 months, he helped the private sector lender excel in all parameters. Canara Bank reported a 41 per cent drop in net profit for the April-June quarter at D479 crore over corresponding the period last year on higher provisioning. Ratan Tata backed online automobile classifieds portal, Cardekho.com is acquiring Times Internet owned auto portal Zigwheels. In September 2014, CarDekho had acquired IbiboGroup’s Gaadi.com, for an undisclosed amount. With this new acquisition, Jaipur based GirnarSoft, the parent company can now count CarDekho.com, BikeDekho.com, PriceDekho.com, Gaadi.com, and soon Zigwheels under its unbrella, to compete with the likes of Cartrade.com and Carwale.com, as well as with multi-category classifieds sites, such as Quikr and Olx. Zigwheels’ traffic is estimated at 8 million monthly visits while CarDekho registers around 25 million monthly visits along with Gaadi.com. CarDekho is also planning to double its workforce by hiring 1,000 more people this year. It was founded by brothers Amit and Anurag Jain, both IIT-Delhi alumni, and the company had received its first institutional round in 2013 by Sequoia Capital. Doha Bank announced its tie up with the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group to generate business opportunities in the Gulf Cooperation Council nations and India. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Doha Bank has a robust presence in the financial services, telecom, infrastructure, entertainment, power, healthcare, and defence industries. The scope of the partnership will strengthen Doha Bank’s presence in India and the bank’s strategic role in trade finance, banking, and financial services across the region and in creating business opportunities between GCC and India. Dr Reddys Laboratories and US-based medical nutrition company PanTheryx announced a multi-country supply and licensing agreement. According to a press release issued by PanTheryx, the agreement grants Dr Reddys the exclusive rights to market and distribute PanTheryxs nutritional intervention, DiaResQ, for infectious diarrhea in India, Nepal, Russia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Jamaica, and select LATAM markets. Dr Reddys will market the product in India and Nepal under the "Reliqua" brand. DiaResQ helps promote intestinal repair and boost natural immune defenses, resulting in the restoration of normal digestive function. Reddys Co-chairman and CEO G V Prasad said this innovative product will address a significant unmet need in the area of diarrhea. Seven Indians featured in Forbes Asia's ninth Heroes of Philanthropy list, highlighting most noteworthy contributions to philanthropy from 13 countries across Asia Pacific. Of them, four are co-founders of Infosys, one of India's largest information technology (IT) services company. Kerala-born entrepreneur Sunny Varkey, who in June pledged about half of his USD 2.25 billion dollar fortune to charity as part of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet-led Giving Pledge initiative, topped the list of philanthropists in the region. Dubai-based Varkey is founder of GEMS Education, a chain of 70 private schools in 14 counties. Infosys co-founders Senapathy Gopalakrishnan, Nandan Nilekani and S D Shibulal featured on the list for their individual contributions to the health and education sectors. Another Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy's son Rohan was on the list for donating a whopping USD 5.2 million to Harvard University Press for promoting ancient Indian literary classics. The other two Indian philanthropists were brothers Suresh Ramakrishnan and Mahesh Ramakrishnan, both London-based entrepreneurs and founders of Whitcomb & Shaftesbury Tailors on London's Saville Row. The brothers donated USD 3 million for training of more than 4,000 people in tailoring across India. Beneficiaries include the 2004 tsunami victims and "ill-fated" women. Vinod Dasari was appointed as President of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the apex Industry body representing leading vehicle and vehicular engine manufacturers in India.. Dasari is the Managing Director of Ashok Leyland. A milestone was achieved at Port Blair’s Veer Savarkar International Airport after a Kolkata flight of budget carrier SpiceJet made the first ever night landing by a civil airliner at the airport.