AWARDS/HONOURS
SUGATHAKUMARI SELECTED FOR SARASWATI SAMMAN 2012
Sugathakumari, the Malayalam poetess in the third week of March 2013 was chosen for the Saraswati Samman 2012 for the poetry collection Manalezhuthu, which means The Writing on the Sand in English. The Saraswati Samman is constituted by K. K. Birla Foundation.
79-year-old Sugathakumari was selected for Saraswati Samman by the 13 member jury. The head of this jury was former Chief Justice of India R. C. Lahoti. The jury considered works of the artists published in 22 different languages from 2002 to 2011. Saraswati Samman is awarded annually for outstanding literary
work in any Indian language in past 10 years.
The following points can be noted about Sugathakumari.
• Sugathakumari has 15 volumes of poetry credited to her.
• She also has six collections of prose. Her career spans over a duration of five decades.
• The themes of her poems revolve around moral alertness, emotional empathy as well as humanist sensitivity. Her poems also include social themes such as women oppression, failures of the ideals which inspired India as well as ecological crisis.
• Sugathakumari is also the passionate environmentalist.
• She was also the head of Kerala's State Women's Commission.
• Manalezhuthu, the poetry collection for which she was chosen, is actually a collection of 27 different poems. This was published in 2006. The poetry collection is said to be a representation of best of contemporary Malayalam poetry.
FIVE WRITERS HONOURED WITH SAARC LITERATURE AWARD 2013
SAARC Literature Award was presented to five writers at Agra during the two days SAARC Festival of Literature on March 10, 2013. A poet-diplomat from India Abhay K. was among the five writers to be honoured with the prestigious Literature Award.
Other writers to be honoured with this award were Farheen Chaudhary (Pakistan), Abdul Khaliq Rashid (Afghanistan), Suman Pokhrel (Nepal) and novelist Daya Dissanayake (Sri Lanka).
The award is annually presented to the eminent writers of the South Asian region for their contribution in the promotion of literature through their writings as well as literary initiatives. The SAARC Literature Festival 2013 focussed on environment, literature and cultural connectivity. The First-Ever SAARC Writers Conference was organized in April 2000.
ARUN JAITLEY, KARAN SINGH AND AHARAD YADAV SELECTED FOR OUTSTANDING PARLIAMENTARIAN AWARD
The Parliamentary Award Committee selected BJP leader Arun Jaitley, Congress MP Karan Singh and JD(U) MP Sharad Yadav for Outstanding Parliamentarian
Award for 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively.
Arun Jaitley and Karan Singh are the members of Rajya Sabha from Gujarat and Delhi respectively. Sharad Yadav, on the other hand is a member of Lok Sabha from Madhepura, Bihar. The Award Committee which was headed by the Speaker of Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar, recommended these names, which were accepted by executive Committee of the Indian Parliamentary Group of March 6, 2013.
It may be added here that Outstanding Parliamentarian Award was instituted by the Indian Parliamentary Group in 1994.
This award is conferred every year on the outstanding parliamentarian, who is recommended by award committee as well as approved by executive committee of the Indian Parliamentary Group.
PRESIDENT OF INDIA CONFERRED WITH THE LIBERATION WAR HONOUR AWARD BY BANGLADESH
The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee was on March 4, 2013 conferred with the Liberation War Honour Award by the President of Bangladesh, Zillur Rahman. The award was conferred upon him for his contribution to 1971 war. The award was given away to Pranab Mukherjee for contributions to the Liberation War. Earlier, the top most honour of Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Freedom Honour was conferred upon former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi posthumously in 2011 for contributing towards creation of Bangladesh. Liberation War Honour Awards is the second highest honour of Bangladesh.
US STATE DEPARTMENT AWARDED WOMEN OF COURAGE AWARD TO DELHI GANGRAPE VICTIM
The US State Department awarded one of the 2013 International Women of Courage Awards to 23-year-old paramedical student who was gangraped in a moving bus in New Delhi on December 16, 2012. She died after just two weeks in Singapore after being raped in the capital. The award would be given away posthumously on March 8, 2013. Popularly the paramedical student is also called Nirbhaya. The Secretary of State John Kerry will give away the US awards. The ceremony will also be attended by the First Lady Michelle Obama.
The other women who will also receive the award are:
TSERING WOESER, the Tibetan blogger and activist,
Elena Milashina and Razan Zeitunah, the Russian journalist and rights activists.
HARIRAM MEENA SELECTED FOR THE BIHARI PURASKAR FOR 2012
Rajasthani author Hariram Meena was selected for the Bihari Puraskar for 2012 for Hindi novel Dhooni Tape Teer.
The novel was published in 2008. Dhooni Tape Teer is a novel based on the deaths of tribal people in Banswara in Rajasthan on November 17, 1913.
• The Bihari Puraskar is selected annually by a panel, which at present is headed by Nand Kishore Acharya. Bihari Puraskar was instituted by K.K.Birla Foundation in 1991.
• It is given on a yearly basis to the Rajasthani writers for their literary works in Rajasthani or Hindi published in last 10 years.
• The award includes a citation along with a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh.
• Hariram Meena was born on May 1, 1952 in Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan.
• Various publications have been credited to his name and these include one novel, two anthologies and one travelogue.
ABEL PRIZE FOR BELGIAN PIERRE DELIGNE
The Norwegian Academy of Science Pierre Deligne winner of the 2013 Abel Prize. Belgian mathematician Pierre Deligne, who is regarded as one of the most
celebrated mathematicians of the 20th century, has been chosen for this year's prestigious Abel Prize in Mathematics.
The 69-year-old professor emeritus of the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, is being awarded for his "seminal contributions to algebraic geometry and for their transformative impact on number theory, representation theory and related fields."
President of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters (which instituted this award in 2002) Kristi Strom Bull announced the award at the academy in Oslo on Wednesday. The Abel Prize is considered equivalent to the Nobel Prize, which is not awarded in the field of mathematics. It carries a cash award of 6 million Norwegian krone (about € 800,000 or $ 1 million). The prize will be given by his Majesty King Harald V of Norway at an award ceremony in Oslo on May 21.
The prize, which was given for the first time in 2003, recognises contributions of extraordinary depth and influence in mathematical sciences. In awarding the prize to Professor Deligne, the committee noted : "Deligne's powerful concepts, ideas, results and methods continue to influence the development of algebraic geometry as well as mathematics as a whole."
S. VENKATA MOHAN WINS THE NATIONAL BIO-SCIENCE AWARD FOR 2012
S. Venkata Mohan a scientist of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, on March 19, 2013 won the National Bioscience Award for 2012 in Hyderabad. S. Venkata Mohan who is from the Bioengineering and environmental centre of the Institute won the prize for his contributions towards developing technologies for production of clean bio-fuels from waste. The National Bio-science Award which is also called by N-BIOS Prize is an honour of high importance conferred by the Federal Government of India to the select young Indian bio-scientists of less than 45 years of age. The award is given every year for distinctive contributions made towards the development of state of art in basic and applied areas of biological sciences through demonstrated activity in the form of publication in reputed journals and or patents. The award recognizes research and development work carried out in India during the last 5 years of the career.
The award is considered almost equivalent to the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize given by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India.
TOYO ITO DECLARED THE WINNER OF 2013 PRITZKER ARCHITECTURE PRIZE
Toro Ito Declared Architecture Prize Toyo Ito, the Japanese architect was declared as the winner of 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize on March 18, 2013. The Pritzker Architecture Prize is said to be the most prestigious and richest award of architecture. Often, this prize is also referred as the Nobel Prize
of Architecture.
71-year-old Toyo Ito is the sixth Japanese architect to win this prize. Others who won the prize include late Kenzo Tange, the designer of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (in 1987), Fumihiko Maki (in 1993), Tadao Ando, the designer of Church of the Light (in 1995) and team of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (in 2010).
He will win 100000 US Dollars as well as a bronze medal at the official Pritzker ceremony will take place on May 29, 2013 at John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.
• Toyo Ito was born in Seoul to the Japanese parents.
• He has a career spanning over duration of 50 years. His initial focus was on the minimalist residences. Later, his projects included Mikimoto in the glitzy Omotesando, flagship stores for Tod's and Ginza districts.
• He is best renowned for Sendai Mediatheque, the public library as well as art gallery which was completed in 2001.
• His notable creation also includes Municipal Funeral Hall in Gifu in Japan, arch-filled Tama Art University library in suburban Tokyo as well as White 0 residence in Marbella in Chile.
NAVNEET KAUR DHILLON CROWNED POND'S FEMINA MISS INDIA 2013
Navneet Kaur Dhillon was crowned Pond's Femina Miss India 2013 on March 24, 2013 in the grand finale of 50th edition of the beauty pageant in Mumbai.
20-year-old Navneet Kaur belongs to Punjab and is a media student at present. Navneet Kaur was also given the title Miss Glowing Skin. Sobhita Dhulipala and Zoya Afroz were the first and second runners-up respectively. The trio of Navneet Kaur, Sobhita Dhulipala and Zoya Afroz were selected from a total of 23 finalists. The winner of Femina Miss India will now go for international contest Miss Universe. The first and second runners-up will compete in Miss World and Miss Asia Pacific respectively.
The judges of the ceremony were choreographer Shiamak Dawar, filmmaker Karan Johar, actors John Abraham, Chitrangda Singh and Asin Thottumkal, cricketer Yuvraj Singh and fashion designer Ritu Kumar. Auditions for the beauty pageant were held in Chandigarh, Delhi, Indore, Kolkata, Pune, Goa and Bangalore. The semi-finalists were Gail Nicole Da Silva, Navneet Kaur Dhillon, VijayaSharma, Zoya Afroz, Apurva Lonkar, Sagarika Chhetri, Srishti Rana, Swati Kain, Anukriti Gusain and Sobhita Dhulipala.
Karan Johar crowned Sobhita Dhulipala as Femina Miss Itimes Digital Diva. She also received Rs. 1 lakh.
ANIL ANANTHASWAMI WINS INAUGRAL PHYSICS JOURNALISM PRIZE
The London based Indian origin writer, Anil Ananthaswamy won inaugural Physics Journalism Prize for the article Hip Hip Array on February 28, 2013 in central London. The Physics Journalism Prize is cosponsored by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Institute of Physics (IOP). The article written by Anil Ananthaswamy, Hip Hip Array lays emphasis on Square km Array which is an international project for building and designing largest radio telescope.
