Nansen Refugee Award

♦ Abdullahi Mire was named the 2023 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award Global Laureate.

♦ He is a former Somali refugee and journalist.

♦ He has championed the right to education while putting 100,000 books in the hands of refugee children in Kenya.

♦ He will be presented with the award at a ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland on 13 December 2023.

♦ The UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award was established in 1954. It honours individuals, groups and organizations who go above and beyond the call of duty to protect refugees, displaced and stateless people.

♦ Four regional winners were also be named for the 2023 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award: 

♦ Elizabeth Moreno Barco (Americas): a human rights defender who advocates for communities affected by armed internal conflict in Colombia.

♦ Asia Al-Mashreqi (Middle East & North Africa): founder and chairperson of the Sustainable Development Foundation, which has assisted nearly 2 million individuals in Yemen affected by conflict.

♦ Abdullah Habib, Sahat Zia Hero, Salim Khan and Shahida Win (Asia-Pacific): four Rohingya storytellers documenting the experiences of stateless Rohingya refugees.

♦ Lena Grochowska and Władysław Grochowski (Europe): a Polish couple whose hotel chain and foundation provide shelter and training to refugees. 

Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award

♦ Renowned Hollywood actor Michael Douglas was honoured with the prestigious Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Cinema at the 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa on 28 November 2023. 

♦ Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur inaugurated the 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa on 20 November 2023. The IFFI ended on November 28 with an award ceremony.

♦ Iranian actor Pouria Rahimi Sam bagged the Best Actor award for his role in ‘Endless Borders’. 

♦ Kannada actor Rishab Shetty was honoured with the Special Jury Award for his film Kantara.

IFFI 2023 winners list:

♦ Golden Peacock Best Film: ‘Endless Borders’

♦ Best Actor-Male: Pouria Rahimi Sam for ‘Endless Borders’

♦ Best Actor (Female): Melanie Thierry for ‘Party of Fools’

♦ Best Director: Stephan Komandarev for ‘Blaga’s Lessons’

♦ Special Jury Award: Rishab Shetty For ‘Kantara’

♦ Best Debutant Director: Reger Azad Kaya for his Syrian-Arab Republic film ‘When the Seedlings Grow’

♦ Best Web Series: ‘Panchayat Season 2’

♦ Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award: Michael Douglas

GoI was awarded the Special Appreciation Medal

♦ The Ministry of Power, GoI was awarded the Special Appreciation Medal for Excellence in Display, at the India International Trade Fair 2023.

♦ This was held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from November 14 - 27, 2023.

♦ The Ministry received the award for the Power Pavilion set up by it at the 42nd edition of the IITF.

♦ The Pavilion was set up under the umbrella of the Ministry of Power, with NTPC as the nodal agency and with contribution from 11 other PSUs under the Ministry. 

Booker Prize

♦ Irish writer Paul Lynch won the '2023 Booker Prize' for his novel 'Prophet Song' on 27 November 2023. The novel presents a dystopian vision of Ireland in the grips of totalitarianism, something the author describes as an attempt at radical empathy. 'Prophet Song' is his fifth novel. The author received £50,000 and a trophy.

♦ In 2022, Shehan Karunatilaka won the Booker Prize for ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida,’ whose story centres on Sri Lankan civil war. 
 

Ishwak Singh clinched the Best Actor award

♦ Ishwak Singh clinched the Best Actor award at the Stars Asian International Film Festival. He got this award for his performance in the film Berlin. 

♦ The film “Berlin” has not only gained acclaim for Ishwak Singh’s outstanding portrayal but has also enjoyed successful screenings at several film festivals, such as the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and Jio MAMI 2023.
 

Pakistans highest civilian award Nishan-e-Pakistan

♦ Dr. Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin will be conferred Pakistan’s highest civilian award ‘Nishan-e-Pakistan’. Pakistan President Arif Alvi announced this on 23 November 2023. Saifuddin is head of the Mumbai-based Dawoodi Bohra sect of Islam. The Dawoodi Bohra community is spread across over 40 countries, including a sizeable congregation in Pakistan.

♦ Nishan-e-Pakistan or the Grand Cross of the Order of Pakistan is equivalent to Nishan-e-Haider, the highest military gallantry award of Pakistan.

♦ He will be the fourth Indian to receive this award. Morarji Desai was the first Indian to be honoured with Nishan-e-Pakistan, which was conferred on him by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1990. Later thespian Dilip Kumar was given this award in 1998 and Kashmiri separatist leader Ali Geelani was also awarded Nishan-e-Pakistan in 2020.
 

JCB Prize for Literature

♦ Tamil writer Perumal Murugan won the JCB Prize for Literature for his book “Fire Bird”. The book was translated from Tamil by Janani Kannan and published by Penguin Random House India. “Fire Bird” was originally titled “Aalanda Patchi”.

♦ Murugan received the prize money of Rs.25 lakh along with a trophy. Translator Kannan also received an additional Rs.10 lakh for the award.
 

51st International Emmy Awards

♦ Bollywood comedian Vir Das won the International Emmy Award for his stand-up special Vir Das: Landing in the best comedy category. The 51st International Emmy Awards Gala was held at the New York Hilton Midtown on 20 November 2023.  He became the first Indian comedian to win this award. 

♦ Ekta Kapoor bagged the 'International Emmy Directorate Award' at the 51st International Emmy Awards Gala.
 

Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace

♦ The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development 2022 was jointly awarded to the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the Trained Nurses Association of India on 19 November 2023. This prize was established in 1986. This prize is given to people whose work have exemplified Indira’s ideals and causes.

♦ Former Vice-President Hamid Ansari presented the award to Dr. Sharad Kumar Agarwal, president, Indian Medical Association, and Professor (Dr.) Roy K. George, president, Trained Nurses Association of India.
 

Peace Award

♦ Renowned author Salman Rushdie received the inaugural ‘Lifetime Disturbing the Peace Award‘ from the Vaclav Havel Center on 14 November 2023. The Havel Center was established in 2012 as the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and is named for the Czech playwright and dissident who became the last president of Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Communist regime in the late 1980s.  

♦ This center perpetuates Havel's legacy and focuses on advocating for human rights and free expression.
 

Indian rifle shooter Aishwary Pratap Singh

♦ Indian rifle shooter Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar won a gold medal at the Asian Shooting Championships 2023 in Changwon, the Republic of Korea on 1 November 2023.

♦ Aishwary Pratap scored 463.5 in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event final to pick up the gold.

♦ The People’s Republic of China's Tian Jiaming bagged the silver medal with a score of 462.7 while his compatriot Du Linshu settled for the bronze medal with 450.3.

♦ India won both the mixed trap gold medals. Manisha Keer and Prithviraj Tondaiman won the gold by beating Korea 141-136.

♦ The junior mixed trap gold was won by Aadya Tripathi and Shardul Vihan with a total of 131.

British Academy Book Prize

♦ India-born author Nandini Das (49) was named the winner of the 2023 British Academy Book Prize for her book ‘Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire'. 

♦ She will be awarded GBP 25,000 (Rs.25 lakhs) as the winner. 

♦ The British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, previously known as the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize, was established in 2013.

♦ Das is a Professor of English literatre at the University of Oxford.

♦ The winning book is her debut and has been described by critics as the “true origin story of Britain and India told through England's first diplomatic mission to the Mughal courts”.