Gallantry awards

♦ President Droupadi Murmu has approved Gallantry awards to 80 Armed Forces personnel, including 12 posthumous. These include six Kirti Chakras, including three posthumous, 16 Shaurya Chakras, including two posthumous, 53 Sena Medals, including seven posthumous, one Nao Sena Medal (Gallantry) and four Vayu Sena Medals (Gallantry).
♦ The President also approved 311 defence decorations for Armed Forces and other personnel. These include 31 Param Vishisht Seva Medals, four Uttam Yudh Seva Medals, two Bar to Ati Vishisht Seva Medals, 59 Ati Vishisht Seva Medals, 10 Yudh Seva Medals, and 130 Vishisht Seva Medals, among others.
 

ICC Mens T20I Cricketer of the Year

Indian batter Suryakumar Yadav clinched the ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year 2023 award on 24 January 2024. This was his second successive award in the category. Yadav enjoyed a sensational 2023 season in T20 International cricket, averaging 48.86 with a strike rate of 155.95 in 17 innings. His tally of 733 runs included two centuries and five half-centuries.
 

Polly Umrigar Award

Shubman Gill clinched the Polly Umrigar Award for the year 2022-23 at the BCCI Awards held in Hyderabad. He was also named the Best International Cricketer in the men's category. 

♦ Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri, Farokh Engineer, and Colonel CK Nayadu received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

♦ Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah took home the special honour for his heroics in the 2021-2022 season.

♦ Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Shami were declared the winners of the Polly Umrigar Award for the 2021-21 and 2019-2020 seasons.
 

Bharat Ratna

♦ Former Bihar Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur will be awarded Bharat Ratna posthumously. The Rashtrapati Bhavan announced this on 23 Jaanuary 2024. He served as Chief Minister from December 1970 to June 1971 and from December 1977 to April 1979. Karpoori Thakur died on February 17, 1988. 

♦ Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award in the country. It has been granted to 49 individuals so far, with 17 posthumously. Instituted in 1954, this award is open to anyone, regardless of race, occupation, position, or gender.
 

Bal Puraskar awards

Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar (PMRBP) was 2024 announced on 19 January 2024. PMRBP is given to children with exceptional abilities and outstanding achievements.  

♦ The awards are given to children in the age group 5 – 18 years for their excellence in seven categories for Bravery, Art & Culture, Environment, Innovation, Science & Technology, Social Service and Sports that deserve national recognition. Each awardee of PMRBP is given a medal, certificate and a citation booklet.

♦ The awards will be conferred by the President of India at a ceremonial function to be held at Vigyan Bhawan on 22nd January, 2024.
PRADHAN MANTRI RASHTRIYA BAL PURASKAR-2024

Wings India Awards

Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, Karnataka has been recognized as the Best Airport of the Year at the prestigious Wings India Awards 2024.

♦ The award ceremony was held in Hyderabad on 18th January 2024. 

♦ The airport was recognized with the ‘25 MPPA Traffic Award’ in the Airports category for handling more than 25 million passengers annually.
 

Swachh Survekshan 2023 awards

♦ President Droupadi Murmu presented the 'Swachh Survekshan -2023 awards' at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on 11 January 2024. Indore and Surat received the cleanest cities award of the country in the Cleanliness Survey-2023, in the category of more than one lakh population. Indore was received this award for the 7th consecutive time. Navi Mumbai got the third position in the same category.  in the presence of Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and other officials. 

♦ Sasvad in Maharashtra, Patan in Chhattisgarh, and Lonavala in Maharashtra bagged the top three positions in the cleanest cities in the category of population of below one lakh population.

♦ Meanwhile, Maharashtra got the first prize for cleanliness in the state category, Madhya Pradesh got second and Chhattisgarh got the award of third cleanest state. Varanasi and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh clinched the top spots as the Cleanest Ganga Towns.
 

National Sports and Adventure Awards

♦ President Droupadi Murmu presented the National Sports and Adventure Awards 2023 at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan on 9 January 2024. 

♦ The Khel Ratna awardees get a cash prize of Rs. 25 lakh, and the Arjuna and Dronacharya awardees get a Rs. 15 lakh cash prize.

♦ The National Sports Awards ceremony is usually held on August 29 every year to commemorate the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand. However, it was deferred last year because of the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, which ran from September 23 to October 8.
 

Golden Globes 2024

'Oppenheimer' film director Christopher Nolan won the Best Director Award at the Golden Globes 2024. The 81st edition of the Golden Globes was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on 8 January 2024. This film bagged the Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Picture- Drama awards. 

List of winners:

Best Motion Picture (Drama) - Oppenheimer

Best Motion Picture(Musical/Comedy) - Poor Things

Best Director - Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)

Best Actress (Drama) - Lily Gladstone ( Killers of the Flower Moon)

Best Actor (Drama) - Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)

Best Actress (Musical/Comedy) - Emma Stone (Poor Things)

Best Actor (Musical/Comedy)- Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers)

Best Supporting Actor- Robert Downey Jr (Oppenheimer)

Best Supporting Actress- Da'Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)

Best Animated Film - The Boy and the Heron

Best Non-English Language Film - Anatomy Of A Fall (France)

Best Original Score- Ludwig Goransson (Oppenheimer)

Best Original Song- "What Was I Made For?" (Barbie)

Cinematic and Box Office Achievement - Barbie
 

Five Lok Sabha members were selected for the Sansad Ratna Awards

♦ Five Lok Sabha members were selected for the Sansad Ratna Awards 2024. The BJP’s Sukanta Majumdar, and Sudheer Gupta; the Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Eknath Shinde; the NCP’s Amol Ramsing Kolhe, and the Congress’ Kuldeep Rai Sharma are selected for the Sansad Ratna Awards. The awards are to be presented at a function in Delhi on 17 February. 

♦ The Sansad Ratna Awards are presented annually to the top-performing parliamentarians, based on their performance, while the Sansad Maha Ratna Awards are presented once in five years for consistency in performance during the term of the Lok Sabha.

♦ Chennai-based non-profit charitable trust Prime Point Foundation instituted these honours at the instance of former president of India APJ Abdul Kalam, who himself inaugurated the first award event in 2010 in Chennai.
 

M.S. Swaminathan Award

♦ Prof. B.R. Kamboj was honoured with the prestigious M.S. Swaminathan Award in recognition of his contributions as a scientist and extension specialist in the field of agronomy.

♦ Currently, he is the Vice Chancellor of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University. 

♦ A special committee, constituted for the M.S. Swaminathan Award, selected Prof. B.R. Kamboj for his excellent achievements in the field of education, research, technology development and extension in agricultural science.

♦ Kamboj has published about 300 research papers and articles in national and international journals, books and technical magazines.