2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize

♦ Mumbai's Sanjana Thakur won the 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize in London on 27 June 2024. She got a prize money of GBP 5,000. A total of 7,359 have participated in this competition worldwide.

♦ Sanjana’s story entitled ‘Aishwarya Rai’ takes its name from the famed Bollywood actress to reimagine and reverse the traditional adoption story.

♦ The literary magazine ‘Granta’ has published all the regional winning stories of the 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

Nelson Mandela Lifetime Achievement Award

♦ Film-maker Vinod Ganatra received the prestigious ‘Nelson Mandela Lifetime Achievement Award’ of South Africa for his contribution to films. He has become the first Indian to be conferred this award. He was honoured this award at the 7th Nelson Mandela Children’s Film Festival, for his immense contributions to the world of cinema for kids.

♦ Ganatra has bagged 36 national and international awards, including the ‘Janakinath Gaur Award’ from Doordarshan for his children’s programme, ‘Baingan Raja.’ He became the only Indian filmmaker to receive the ‘Liv Ullmann Peace Prize’, in Chicago, for his Gujarati film, ‘Harun-Arun’

Risk Manager of the Year Award 2024

♦ The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has won the “Risk Manager of the Year Award 2024” by Central Banking, a leading publication based in London, UK.

♦ This accolade recognizes RBI’s exemplary strides in enhancing its risk culture and awareness, affirming its pivotal role in safeguarding the stability of the Indian financial system. The award was received by Executive Director Manoranjan Mishra on behalf of the RBI.

Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for Telugu

♦ Ramesh Karthik Naik (26) was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for Telugu on 15 June 2024. He is from the tribal thanda of Vivek Nagar in Jakranpally mandal of Nizamabad district. Naik is the first tribal author from Telangana to receive this honour for his short story collection “Dhavlo“ (Song of Lament, 2021). The Sahitya Akademi announced the names of 23 writers Yuva Puraskar. 

♦ The other winners of the Yuva Puraskar are Nayanjyoti Sarma (Assamese), Sutapa Chakraborty (Bengali), Self Made Rani Baro (Bodo), Heena Choudhary (Dogri), Rinku Rathod (Gujarati), Shruti B.R. (Kannada), Mohd Ashraf Ziya (Kashmiri), Adwait Salgaonkar (Konkani), Rinki Jha Rishika (Maithili), Shyamkrishnan R. (Malayalam), Waikhom Chingkheinganba (Manipuri), Devidas Saudagar (Marathi), Suraj Chapagain (Nepali), Sanjay Kumar Panda (Odia), Randhir (Punjabi), Sonali Sutar (Rajasthani), Anjan Karmakar (Santali), Geeta Pradeep Rupani (Sindhi), Lokesh Raghuraman (Tamil) and Javed Amber Misbahi (Urdu). Yuva Puraskar awardees will receive a casket containing an engraved copper plaque and a cheque of Rs.50,000.

♦ The National Academy of Letters also announced the names of 24 winners of the Bal Sahitya Puraskar for 2024. The winners are - Ranju Hazarika (Assamese), Dipanwita Roy (Bengali), Birgin Jekova Machahary (Bodo), Bishan Singh 'Dardi' (Dogri), Gira Pinakin Bhatt (Gujarati), Krishnamurthy Biligere (Kannada), Muzaffar Hussain Dilbar (Kashmiri), Harsha Sadguru Shetye (Konkani), Narayangee (Maithili), Unni Ammayambalam (Malayalam), Kshetrimayun Subadani (Manipuri), Bharat Sasane (Marathi), Basanta Thapa (Nepali), Manas Ranjan Samal (Odia), Kuldeep Singh Deep (Punjabi), Prahlad Singh 'Jhorda' (Rajasthani), Harshdev Madhav (Sanskrit), Dugal Tudu (Santali), Lal Hotchandani 'Lachaar' (Sindhi), Yuva Vasuki (Tamil), P. Chandrashekhar Azad (Telugu) and Shamsul Islam Farooqi (Urdu).

♦ The winners of the Bal Sahitya Puraskar will receive a casket containing an engraved copper plaque and a cheque of Rs.50,000.

EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2024

♦ Vellayan Subbiah was named the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2024. He is the Executive Vice-Chairman of Tube Investments of India (TII) and Chairman of Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Co Ltd.

♦ Subbiah is the fourth Indian to receive this coveted award. Earlier it was given to NR Narayana Murthy (2003), Uday Kotak (2014) and Kiran Majumdar Shaw (2020). With this award, India has become the only country among EY regions to win the global entrepreneurship award four times.

♦ He was earlier awarded the EY Entrepreneur of the Year for India in 2023. 

♦ Subbiah was selected from among nearly 5,000 program participants that included 51 winners across 47 countries and jurisdictions competing for the global title.

♦ In 2024, this award was given based on four criteria: entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth and impact.

Best Conduct of Business Regulator award

♦ The Asian Banker has given the 'Best Conduct of Business Regulator' award to SEBI in Asia Pacific for enhancing the regulatory framework for securities markets in India. The award was received by SEBI's Whole Time Member Kamlesh Chandra Varshney in a ceremony held in Hong Kong.

♦ The Asian Banker creates platforms to build a greater sense of community amongst players in the financial services industry, from traditional banks and digital disruptors to fintechs and platform players. It also publishes rankings and ratings of institutions, people and processes to establish high standards in the delivery of finance products and solutions.

Golden Wings award

♦ Sub-Lieutenant Anamika B Rajeev received the prestigious "Golden Wings" award at a naval air station in Tamil Nadu's Arakkonam. She became the Indian Navy's first woman helicopter pilot to receive this award. 

♦ A total of 21 officers were awarded the prestigious ‘Golden Wings’ by Vice Admiral Rajesh Pendharkar, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command. 

♦ In another feat, Lt Jamyang Tsewang, the first commissioned naval officer from Ladakh, also successfully graduated as a qualified helicopter pilot, according to the Indian Navy.

UNs WSIS 2024 “Champion” Award

♦ Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) awarded UN’s WSIS 2024 “Champion” Award for the project “Mobile-Enabled Disaster Resilience through Cell Broadcast emergency Alerting”, recognised under AI, C-7, E-environemnt, in the category of 'Benefits in all aspects of life - E-environment”. 

♦ The C-DOT’s mobile–enabled Cell Broadcast Emergency Alerting Platform is an end-to-end solutions for near real time delivery of life-saving emergency information to mobile phones through cellular networks. 

♦ Two AI Startups – DeepVision Tech and Nayancom- from India, selected by C-DOT through a selection process, also showcased their innovative solutions along with C-DOT.
 

The All India Tennis Association (AITA)

♦ The All India Tennis Association (AITA) has announced the Dilip Bose award for lifetime achievement to coach Nar Singh. The award along with a cash prize of Rs.50,000 will be presented during the 11th National coaches workshop to be held at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana in Pune.

♦ The secretary general of AITA, Anil Dhupar, announced a new lifetime achievement award for women coaches. The first award would be presented to Rohini Lokhande (69) who was a member of the national team along with Kiran Bedi, Nirupama Mankad, Susan Das and Udaya Kumar, before she took to coaching at a young age. Rohini was the first woman tennis coach to qualify from the National Institute of Sports. 

Annual Hindi Sahitya Bharati Award

♦ Krishna Prakash was honored with the prestigious Annual Hindi Sahitya Bharati Award. He is renowned as the head of Mumbai Police’s elite counter-terrorism unit, Force One. The recognition was bestowed during the Sab Me Ram Shashwat Shri Ram multicultural festival in Mumbai. 

♦ The Hindi Sahitya Bharati initiative was born out of the realization that bringing together intellectuals on a common platform can significantly enhance cultural and literary efforts. After extensive discussions and consensus among scholars, the name Hindi Sahitya Bharati was chosen to represent the initiative, reflecting the deep cultural and spiritual ethos of Indian society and aiming to propagate the values of universal brotherhood and harmony through Hindi literature.

♦ Krishna Prakash is a two-time Guinness World Record holder who will achieve his third this June for initiating the maximum number of letters through postcards to Lord Ram, enabling the common man’s direct connection with the divine.