♦ Javed Akhtar will be felicitated with the Padmapani Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ajanta-Ellora Film Festival. He is a veteran lyricist and screenwriter. The award ceremony will take place at Rukmini Auditorium in the MGM University campus of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar on January 3, 2024. Akhtar will get a Padmapani memento, citation, and monetary award of Rs.2 lakhs. The Ajanta-Ellora Film Festival, which was previously called Aurangabad International Film Festival (AIFF). This is organized annually by Nath Group, Yashwantrao Chavan Centre, Mumbai, with the support of the governments of Maharashtra and India.
Awards
Indian origin Dr Amritpal Singh Hungin was named to the prestigious Knighthood Award. He is an Emeritus Professor of General Practice at Newcastle University. He was the founding dean of medicine at Durham University and a former president of the British Medical Association.
L.P. Hemanth K. Srinivasulu was honored with the prestigious "Man of the Year-2023" award by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on 28 December 2023. The award recognizes Hemanth's outstanding contributions to trade diplomacy and global economic relations. Hemanth is the Director of the Latin America and Caribbean Trade Council. As the Director, he continues to drive initiatives for trade diplomacy, fostering relationships to promote cooperation on trade matters.
♦ The Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize was awarded to poet-critic Sukrita Paul Kumar. She got this award for her book, 'Salt & Pepper: Selected Poems'. An amount of USD 5,000, a Tagore statue and a certificate for contribution to literature was given to Kumar at the award ceremony. This prize was founded in 2018 by US-based publisher Peter Bundalo, the award is a platform for world peace, literature, art, education and human rights. It also recognises works towards human rights and world peace with the Social Achievement Prize.
♦ Last year, the prize was given to journalist-author Raj Kamal Jha for his novel 'The City and The Sea'.
The SASTRA-Ramanujan Awards for 2022 and 2023 were presented to Yunqing Tang and Ruixiang Zhang at the SASTRA campus in Kumbakonam on 22 December 2023. They are both mathematicians at the University of California in Berkeley.
♦ The SASTRA-Ramanujan Awards, with a commendable cash prize of USD 10,000 and a citation, are presented annually on the birthday of the legendary Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan.
♦ The awards, instituted by SASTRA in 2005, honor individuals under the age of 32 who have made remarkable contributions to the field of mathematics.
♦ Pradip Kumar Das, CMD of Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA) was awarded 'CMD of the Year' at the 13th PSE Excellence Awards. This ceremony was hosted by the Indian Chamber of Commerce in New Delhi. IREDA also emerged as a runner-up in four key categories: "Operational Performance Excellence", "Corporate Governance," "Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability," and "Inclusivity- Contribution of Women and Differently-Abled In".
♦ IREDA is a Government of India Enterprise under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), serves as the nation’s largest pure-play green financing NBFC.
♦ ISRO was awarded the 2023 Leif Erikson Lunar Prize by the Exploration Museum in Iceland's Husavik.
♦ ISRO got this award for its successful Chandrayaan-3 mission.
♦ The Leif Erikson Award is an annual prize given by the Exploration Museum since 2015.
♦ It is named after Leif Erikson - a Norse explorer thought to be the first European to set foot on continental America, almost four centuries before the expedition of Christopher Columbus.
♦ Chandrayaan-3 was India's third mission to the moon, and the second attempt to carry out a soft-landing on the lunar surface.
Posted Date: December 21, 2023♦ Tamil author Rajasekaran (Devibharathi), Telugu writer T. Patanjali Sastry and Malayalam litterateur E.V. Ramakrishnan were among those named for the Sahitya Akademi Awards for the year 2023.
♦ Sahitya Akademi was announced its annual Sahitya Akademi Award 2023 in 24 Languages on 20 December 2023.
♦ Nine books of poetry, six novels, five short story collections, three essays and one literary study have won the Sahitya Akademi Awards this year.
♦ Tamil author Rajasekaran has been chosen for his novel Neervazhi Padooum, Telugu writer Patanjali Sastry for his short story collection 'Rameswaram kakulu marikonni kathalu' and Malayalam litterateur EV Ramakrishnan for his literary study Malayala Novelinte Deshakalangal.
♦ The Award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and an amount of Rs.1,00,000 towards cash content each will be presented to the awardees at the award presentation function which will be held on 12 March 2024 at Kamani Auditorium, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi
Posted Date: December 20, 2023The badminton men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Rankireddy Satwik Sai Raj was honored with Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced the National Sports Awards (NSA) for the year 2023 on 20 December. The awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 9 January 2024.
NSA 2023 Winners List:
♦ Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award winners: Chirag Chandrashekhar Shetty and Rankireddy Satwik Sai Raj (Badminton)
♦ Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2023:
Ojas Pravin Deotale (archery)
Aditi Gopichand Swami (archery)
Murali Sreeshankar (athletics)
Parul Chaudhary (athletics)
Mohameed Hussamuddin (boxing)
R Vaishali (chess)
Mohammed Shami (cricket)
Anush Agarwalla (equestrian)
Divyakriti Singh (equestrian dressage)
Diksha Dagar (golf)
Krishan Bahadur Pathak (hockey)
Sushila Chanu (hockey)
Pawan Kumar (kabaddi)
Ritu Negi (kabaddi)
Nasreen (kho-kho)
Pinki (lawn bowls)
Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (shooting)
Esha Singh (shooting)
Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (squash)
Ayhika Mukherjee (table tennis)
Sunil Kumar (wrestling)
Antim (wrestling)
Naorem Roshibina Devi (wushu)
Sheetal Devi (para archery)
Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy (blind cricket)
Prachi Yadav (para canoeing)
♦ Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games 2023 (Regular Category):
Lalit Kumar (wrestling)
RB Ramesh (chess)
Mahaveer Prasad Saini (para athletics)
Shivendra Singh (hockey)
Ganesh Prabhakar Devrukhkar (mallakhamb)
♦ Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games 2023 (Lifetime Category):
Jaskirat Singh Grewal (Golf)
Bhaskaran E (Kabaddi)
Jayanta Kumar Pushilal (Table Tennis)
♦ Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime achievement in Sports and Games 2023:
Manjusha Kanwar (badminton)
Vineet Kumar Sharma (hockey)
Kavitha Selvaraj (kabaddi)
♦ Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy 2023:
Guru Nanak Dev University - Amritsar (overall winner university)
Lovely Professional University - Punjab (1st runner-up)
Kurukshetra University - Kurukshetra (2nd runner-up)
Posted Date: December 20, 2023♦ Professor Savita Ladage was awarded the prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry’s Nyholm Prize for Education.
♦ She is from Mumbai’s Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
♦ She bagged this award for her contributions to chemistry education.
♦ Ladage will receive a prize of £5000, a medal, and a certificate in acknowledgment of her outstanding work.
Posted Date: December 15, 2023♦ The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament, and Development for 2023 was jointly awarded to Daniel Barenboim and Ali Abu Awwad.
♦ They got this award for their efforts in bringing together the youth and peoples of Israel and the Arab World for a non-violent resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
♦ The International Jury of the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament, and Development chaired by former Chief Justice of India T.S.Thakur announced this on 14 December 2023.
♦ The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament, and Development is a prestigious award presented annually to individuals or organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the promotion of international peace, disarmament, and development.
♦ The award is named after the late Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, and was established in 1986 by the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust.
Posted Date: December 14, 2023Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was honoured with the ‘Diwali Power of One Award 2023’ in the UN Headquarters on 11 December 2023. This award called as ‘Oscars of Diplomacy'.
♦ The other awardees for the year 2023 are the former permanent representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the UN Ambassador Mirsada Colakovic; the former permanent representative of South Korea to the UN Ambassador Kim Sook; and the 72nd UN General Assembly president and EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue Miroslav Lajcak.
♦ The awards are granted to selfless individuals for their help to form a peaceful and secure world for all.
♦ These awards are given by the Diwali Foundation USA.
Veteran actor Kabir Bedi was awarded the “Order of Merit of the Italian Republic” (Merito della Repubblica Italiana) on 11 December 2023. This is the prestigious civilian honour conferred by Italy.
♦ The “Order of Merit of the Italian Republic” stands as a testament to Italy’s appreciation for those who have made outstanding contributions to society, embodying the nation’s values of merit and excellence.
♦ This award was established on March 3, 1951.
♦ Prashant Agrawal was honored with the prestigious National Award for ‘Best Personality- Empowerment of Differently-abled.’ He is the President of Narayan Seva Sansthan. The award was presented by President Draupadi Murmu at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on 5 December 2023. Prashant Agrawal’s recognition stems from his exceptional efforts in leading initiatives aimed at empowering differently-abled individuals.
