Downloaded from: http://www.upscportal.com CURRENT AFFAIRS FOR I.A.S. (PRE.) 2011 Classical Tamil Award for Aska Parpola Y.V. Reddy and nonagenarian artiste Zohra Segal were honoured with the Padma Vibhushan, the country’s • Asko Parpola, leading authority on the Indus script second highest civilian awards at a glittering and Professor Emeritus of Indology in the University ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. of Helsinki, Finland, has been chosen for the Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi Classical Tamil Award for 2009. • Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar’s ‘guru’ Ramakant Achrekar, boxer Vijender Singh, leading actor of • Professor Parpola receive a cash prize of Rs. 10 lakh, a yesteryear Rekha, sound technician and Oscar Award citation and a memento during the World Classical winner Resul Pookutty and car racer Narain Tamil Conference held in Coimbatore in June. Karthikeyan were among those conferred with the Padma Shri. Srimanta award for Borgohain and Sharmila • The Ashoka Hall reverberated with applause as actor • The Assam government has decided to confer the Saif Ali Khan walked up to to receive his Padma Shri coveted Srimanta Sankaradeva Award to noted at the function attended by Vice-President Hamid journalist and writer Homen Borgohain for the year Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other 2007 in recognition of his significant contribution to guests. Painter Akbar Padamsee, former Cabinet journalism and literature and noted actor Sharmila Secretary and a current Planning Commission member Tagore in the fields of art and culture for the year B.K. Chaturvedi, Moosa Raza (civil service), 2008. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would present educationists Anil Bordia and G.P. Chopra were the awards at a function in the city tentatively fixed honoured with the Padma Bhushan. for April 23, said an official release . • Other Padma Bhushan awardees were: cardiologist Padma awards given to Chatwal, Ilaiyaraaja B.M. Hegde, nuclear scientist Bikash Sinha, historian • President Pratibha Patil confers Padma awards in New Bipin Chandra, kathak exponent Kumudini Lakhia, Delhi. The awardees are (PADMA VIBHUSAN): Zohra panchavadya exponent Kuzhur Narayana Marar, Segal, Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman and Dr. Y.V. Reddy versatile artiste Mallika Sarabhai, banker N. Vaghul, (PADMA BHUSHAN): Ilaiyaraaja, Mallika V. Sarabhai, eye specialist Noshir Minoo Shroff, music composer Dr. N.M. Shroff, B.K. Chaturvedi, Sant Singh Chatwal, Shrinivas Khale, sarangi player Ustad Sultan Khan Bipin Chandra and Professor B.M. Hegde (PADMA and ayurveda practitioner E.T. Narayanan Mooss. SHRI) Venu Srinivasan, Resul Pookutty, actor Rekha, • Nemai Ghosh, , music exponent Shobha Raju, R.V. Achrekar, Narayan Karthikeyan and actor Saif Ali environment activist Ranjit Bhargava, TVS Motor Khan. Company Chairman Venu Srinivasan, businessmen Irshad Mirza, Kapil Mohan (trade and industry), • Non-Resident Indian hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal, founder of Nirma Karsanbhai Patel were among those music composer Ilaiyaraaja and businessman Vindi Banga were conferred the Padma Bhushan awards by who received the Padma Shri. President Pratibha Patil. C’wealth award for Rana Dasgupta • Noted mridangam exponent Umayalpuram K. • British-Indian author Rana Dasgupta won the Sivaraman, former Reserve Bank of India Governor Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for 2010 for his epic WWW.UPSCPORTAL.COM Downloaded from: http://www.upscportal.com Award and Prizes tale Solo set in Communist and post-Communist • Artists from 11 countries, including India, the United Bulgaria. Australian Glenda Guest’s Siddon Rock was States, Russia, UK, Italy and the Czech Republic, took adjudged the Best First Book at the award’s grand part in the championship, which was held in Moscow finale ceremony. for the second time. IIFA goes to Sri Lanka • Mr. Pattnaik sends messages to the public through his sculptures by creating awareness campaigns. He • Amitabh Bachchan made an appearance at a glittering also runs a sand art school at the Puri Beach in Orissa. function to mark the media awareness of the 11th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA), held from Ela Bhatt wins Japanese prize June 3 to 5. • Social activist Ela Bhatt (76) received the Niwano • Besides the IIFA function, the event witness a 20-20 Peace Prize for 2010 for her contribution to the uplift match between Hindi film industry stars and Asian of poor women in India. cricketers. • “My story and philosophy can be said in three words – women, work and peace,” she said after receiving • Sri Lanka was chosen from among countries such as the award, which included a certificate, a medal and South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Australia and prize money worth about $2,15,390. South Korea. • She established the Self-Employed Women’s • IIFA started in 2000, with the first ceremony held in Association (SEWA) in 1972. London at the Millennium Dome. With the aim to take • It now has over 1.2 million members. Indian cinema worldwide, the ceremony in the past has been held in countries like Malaysia, Singapore, • In 1974, she formed the SEWA cooperative bank, The Netherlands, UAE, England, Thailand and twice which now reaches out to around three million women. in South Africa. • The Tokyo-based foundation has been awarding the Bengali novel shortlisted for Independent prize every year since 1983, as an initiative to recognise the significant contribution of an individual Foreign Fiction prize to inter-religious understanding and cooperation leading to world peace. Known as a “gentle • Nearly 50 years after it was first written in 1962, Bengali revolutionary”, Ms. Bhatt was also a Rajya Sabha novelist Mani Sankar Mukherjee’s book, member. She has received a number of awards Chowringhee, has been shortlisted for one of the including the Ramon Magsaysay Award and France’s Independent Foreign Fiction prize for 2010 — the first Legion d’honneur. time that an Indian work has accomplished the feat. Thai wins Palme d’Or at Cannes • One of the most popular works in Bengali literature in the 1960s, Chowringhee, is about a myriad of • Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul won the characters that people a popular hotel, Shahjahan, in Palme d’Or top prize at the Cannes film festival for a the city’s Champs-Elysees of the times, as seen from surreal reincarnation tale, Uncle Boonmee who can the eyes of a clerk who works there. recall his past lives. • Spanish actor Javier Bardem, who plays a terminally- Sand artist Pattnaik wins gold in Russia ill hustler in Biutiful by Mexico’s Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, shared the best actor award with Italy’s Elio • Celebrated Indian sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has Germano. won the ‘People’s Choice’ Gold Medal at the second World Sand Sculpture Championship in Moscow for • And France’s Juliette Binoche was named best actress his sculpture of legendary Bollywood actor Raj for her role as an unhappy antiques dealer in Certified Kapoor. copy by Iran’s Abbas Kiarostami. Spelling champ’s victory hat-trick for Indian- • The theme of this year’s championship was ‘World cinema’ and the artists were required to give their Americans vision of famous movies from famous directors with • The Scripps National Spelling Bee in the United States famous actors in their sand creations. was — for the third consecutive year and for the eighth time in the last 11 years — won by an Indian- • Artists from Iceland won the ‘Jury Choice’ and American, Anamika Veeramani of North Royalton, ‘Sculptor Choice’ prizes in the championship. Ohio. WWW.UPSCPORTAL.COM Downloaded from: http://www.upscportal.com CURRENT AFFAIRS FOR I.A.S. (PRE.) 2011 • Anamika won after nine nerve-wracking rounds, • The degree was conferred on him at a traditional, culminating in her correctly spelling ‘stromuhr,’ a formal ceremony presided over by the Duke of device used to measure blood flow velocity. She Edinburgh, Prince Philip, who is also the Chancellor fought her way through earlier rounds successfully of the university. spelling words like ‘foggara,’ ‘osteomyelitis,’ ‘mirin,’ ‘nahcolite,’ ‘epiphysis,’ and, in the penultimate round, Sachin Tendulkar get honorary Group Captain ‘juvia,’ a term for a Brazilian nut. rank of IAF Green award • Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was conferred with the honorary rank of Group Captain of the Indian Air • The former President, A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, presented Force, in pursuance of a provision in the armed forces the Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar-2008 to to grant such ranks to eminent personalities. Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev of Isha Foundation, during World Environment Day function in New Delhi. • The Air Force feels that Tendulkar’s association with it will motivate the younger generation to join it and Orange for Kingsolver serve the country. Till date the Air Force has granted honorary ranks to 21 persons, including noted • A novelist, regarded as a “traitor” by the American industrialists and aviation enthusiasts such as J.R.D. right for her criticism of the country’s foreign policy Tata and Vijaipat Singhania. and her outspoken comments after the 9/11 attacks, is the surprise winner of this year’s Orange Prize for • As per the IAF records, the former ruler of Jawhar, a fiction, Britain’s highly-regarded literary honour for princely state in Bombay presidency, Yashwant Rao women writers . Patangshah Vikramshah Mukane, was the first person • Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna, the story of an to be granted the honorary rank of Flight Lieutenant American writer who becomes a victim of anti- on September 30, 1944. communist McCarthyist witch-hunt, won the £30,000 • The list includes rulers of a number of erstwhile prize beating six contenders including Hilary Mantel’s princely states. J.R.D. Tata was first made an acclaimed Booker prize-winner Wolf Hall. honorary Group Captain in 1948. He was later • Ms. Kingsolver (55), a strong critic of colonialism promoted as Air Commodore in October 1966 and and evangelism, was attacked by the American Right finally made the honorary Air Vice Marshal in 1974.