UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award

♦ Indian Army Major Radhika Sen was awarded the UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award for 2023 on 30 May 2024. She is an Indian peacekeeper deployed in Congo under the United Nations (U.N.) Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO).  She got this award for her work supporting conflict-affected communities. 

♦ The award recognises the efforts of a military peacekeeper in promoting the principles of the 2000 Security Council resolution, that calls for protecting women and girls from conflict-related sexual violence and sets gender-related responsibilities for the UN.

♦ Sen is the second Indian peacekeeper to receive the honour after Major Suman Gawani, who served with the UN Mission in South Sudan and received the award in 2019.

♦ She was assigned to MONUSCO in 2023 as the Engagement Platoon Commander with the Indian Rapid Deployment Battalion, and completed her tenure in April 2024.

♦ Of the 6,063 Indian personnel in UN peacekeeping operations, 1,954 serve with MONUSCO, 32 of them women.
 

The Economic Times HR World Future Ready Organization Award 2024-25

♦ NHPC was conferred with the prestigious ‘The Economic Times HR World Future Ready Organization Award 2024-25’.

♦ The award has been given to NHPC in recognition of its preparedness in the areas of upskilling of employees, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) interventions, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) initiatives, constant technological upgradations, Employee Engagement processes, robust Corporate Governance strategies etc.

♦ which establish it as a trusted brand amongst all its stakeholders. The award was received by Director (Personnel), NHPC, Uttam Lal along with Executive Director (HR), Lucas Guria and a team of NHPC officers at a glittering Awards Ceremony held in Mumbai.

Indian film All We Imagine as Light

♦ Indian film 'All We Imagine as Light' clinched the prestigious Grand Prix award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. This film was directed by Payal Kapadia.

♦ This film became the first Indian entry in three decades and the first ever by an Indian woman director to secure a spot in the festival’s main competition, let alone win the Grand Prix.

♦ Payal Kapadia had previously won the Golden Eye award at Cannes for her documentary ‘A Night of Knowing Nothing.’

Anasuya Sengupta

♦ Anasuya Sengupta became the first Indian actor to win the Best Actress award at the prestigious 77th Cannes Film Festival.

♦ She received the trophy in the Un Certain Regard segment for her film 'The Shameless'. The movie was written and directed by Bulgarian filmmaker Konstantin Bojanov. 

International Booker Prize 2024

♦ German author Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann won the International Booker Prize 2024 for their novel “Kairos.” The book contains a story of a tangled love affair during the final years of East Germany’s existence. The £50,000 ($64,000) in prize money will be divided between the translator and the author. 

♦ In 2023, "Time Shelter" was awarded the International Booker Prize. Its author was Georgi Gospodinov and translated by Angela Rodel.

The 77th Cannes Film Festival.

♦ Indian short film ‘Sunflowers Were The First Ones To Know’ bagged first prize of La Cinef at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. This was directed by Chidananda S Naik. This movie is based on a local folklore of Karnataka which narrates a tale of an aging woman who steals a rooster. 

♦ This is India's second in five years. Previously Ashmita Guha Neogi won the award for her film CatDog in 2020. 

♦ Mansi Maheshwari's animation film ‘Bunnyhood’ clinched the third prize in the La Cinef competition.

♦ The second prize was jointly awarded to ‘Out of the Widow Through the Wall’ directed by Asya Segalovich from Columbia University, and ‘The Chaos She Left Behind’ created by Nikos Kolioukos from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. 

♦ At the Cannes Film Festival, the first prize winner receives a grant of 15,000 euros, the runner-up gets 11,250 euros, and the third prize recipient is awarded 7,500 euros.

Amal Clooney Womens Empowerment Award

♦ India's Arti (18) received the Amal Clooney Women's Empowerment Award by King Charles III at Buckingham Palace. She is a rickshaw driver from a village in the Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh. She was honoured for inspiring other young girls through her work with the government's Pink E-rickshaw initiative, which provides safe transport for other women with a mission to drive change, quite literally. 

♦ This award was founded by King Charles when he was the Prince of Wales, the Prince's Trust International will now transform into the King's Trust International as it continues its work supporting young people across 20 countries through employment, education and enterprise programmes. The Prince's Trust Women's Empowerment Award recognises the global work of young women who have succeeded against the odds and made a lasting difference to those around them.

The Shaw Prize

♦ An Indian-origin Shrinivas R Kulkarni will be awarded the prestigious Shaw Award for his contributions to astronomy. He got this award for his ground-breaking discoveries about millisecond pulsars, gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and other variable or transient astronomical objects. Srinivas R Kulkarni is the Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science in the divisions of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology. He was also the director of Caltech Optical Observatory from 2006 to 2018.

♦ The other Shaw Prize awardees are Swee Lay Thein and Stuart Orkin, both from the US, who received the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine is awarded in equal shares, and Peter Sarnak, another US scientist who received the Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences.

♦The Shaw Prize consists of three annual prizes: Astronomy, Life Science and Medicine, and Mathematical Sciences, each bearing a monetary award of USD 1.2 million. The Shaw Award, also known as the Noble for the east was established in 2002.

Freedom of the City of London award

♦ Renowned actress Shabana Azmi honoured with 'Freedom of the City of London' award.

♦ She got this award in recognition of her prolific contribution to Indian Cinema and as a compaigner for women's rights.

♦ She has won five National Awards as Best Actress and six Filmfare Awards. 

♦ The Freedom of the City of London award is given to people with significant contributions to public life.

2024 World Food Prize

♦ Two agricultural scientists, Cary Fowler and Geoffrey Hawtin won the 2024 World Food Prize. They will share the $500,000 prize. They got this award for their work to create the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, an ambitious project to protect food crops from extinction. The annual award, which is considered the Nobel Prize for food and agriculture, goes to an individual or individuals who are confronting global hunger by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food.

♦ Cary Fowler currently serves as the U.S. special envoy for global food security, and Geoffrey Hawtin is the founding director and executive board member of the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

♦ The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened in 2008 and now holds 1.25 million seed samples from nearly every country in the world.

♦ The World Food Prize was founded by Norman Borlaug, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his part in the Green Revolution, which dramatically increased crop yields and reduced the threat of starvation in many countries. The food prize will be awarded at the annual Norman E. Borlaug International Dialogue, held Oct. 29-31 in Des Moines.

The Pulitzer Prizes for 2024

♦ The Pulitzer Prizes for 2024 were announced on 7 May 2024. The Columbia University in the USA hosted this 108th Pulitzer Prizes ceremony. 

♦ The awards, presented across 15 journalism categories and eight arts categories encompassing books, music, and theatre, highlight exceptional contributions in public service, investigative reporting, feature photography, and more.

♦ The Public Service award, considered the most esteemed, includes a gold medal, while other winners receive $15,000 in recognition of their exceptional work.

2024 Pulitzer Prize winners:

About the Pulitzer Prize
♦ The Pulitzer Prize was established by Joseph Pulitzer, a newspaper owner who, in 1904, provided funds for the foundation of the Pulitzer Prize as an incentive for excellence in journalism, arts, and culture. He donated money to the Faculty of Journalism at Columbia University to administer the prizes. The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in 1917, and they continue to recognize outstanding achievements in these fields annually.

Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize

♦ Palestinian journalists covering Gaza have been named winners of the 2024 UNESCO/ Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.

♦ The winners were chosen upon the recommendation of an international jury of media professionals.

♦ The UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Prize is given annually, as a “tribute to the courage of journalists facing difficult and dangerous circumstances,” according to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. This was established in 1997.

Whitley Gold Award 2024

♦ Dr. Purnima Devi Barman was conferred with the prestigious Whitley Gold Award 2024. This award was given by the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN). She is a wildlife biologist from Assam. This award is considered as the  ‘Green Oscar’. Purnima received this award for her conservation efforts of the endangered Greater Adjutant Stork and its wetland habitat.

♦ Purnima won the GBP 1,00,000 Whitley Gold Award from the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN). The WFN supports grassroots conservation leaders from around the world.

♦ The first Indians to get the Whitley Gold Award were Archana Godbole and Brad Norman in 2007.

♦ Whitley Gold Award 2024 wimmers list