Current Affairs - Awards In News

• French architects and educators Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal were selected as the laureates of the Pritzker Architecture Prize 2021, the highest honour in the field of architecture.
• Anne Lacaton became the first French female architect to win the prize and the 6th woman to receive the prize since it was established in 1979.
• The Prize was established by the Pritzker family of Chicago through their Hyatt Foundation in 1979.

• At the 63rd Grammy Awards on 14th March 2021, Beyoncé made history as she earned her 28th win, making her the show's most-decorated female artist. She surpassed Alison Krauss' previously held record of 27 wins.
• Beyoncé is now tied with Quincy Jones for the second-most Grammy wins, while conductor Georg Stolti holds the record with 31 Grammys.
• This year, Beyoncé received the most nominations with nine, followed by Dua Lipa, Roddy Ricch, and Taylor Swift with six each. Beyoncé also received the most awards with four.

• Colonel B Santosh Babu, the Commanding Officer of 16 Bihar Regiment, who lost his life during the Galwan Valley clash last year, was posthumously awarded with Maha Vir Chakra.
• The Maha Vir Chakra is the second highest military decoration in India, after the Param Vir Chakra, and is awarded for acts of conspicuous gallantry in the presence of the enemy, whether on land, at sea or in the air.

The President of India has approved conferment of 119 Padma Awards including 1 duo case (in a duo case, the Award is counted as one).

• The awards comprise 7 Padma Vibhushan, 10 Padma Bhushan and 102 Padma Shri Awards.
• 29 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 10 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI, 16 posthumous awardees and 1 transgender awardee.

About Padma Awards

Padma Awards - one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The Awards are given in various disciplines/ fields of activities, viz.- art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc.

• The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.
• These awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March/ April every year.
  • ‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service;
  • ‘Padma Bhushan’ for distinguished service of high order; and
  • ‘Padma Shri’ for distinguished service in any field.

List of Awardees

Padma Vibhushan

• Shri Shinzo Abe - Public Affairs - Japan
• Shri S P Balasubramaniam (Posthumous) - Art - Tamil Nadu
• Dr. Belle Monappa Hegde - Medicine - Karnataka
• Shri Narinder Singh Kapany (Posthumous) - Science and Engineering - United States of America
• Maulana Wahiduddin Khan - Others - Spiritualism - Delhi
• Shri B. B. Lal Others - Archaeology - Delhi
• Shri Sudarshan Sahoo - Art - Odisha

Padma Bhushan

• Ms. Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra - Art - Kerala
• Shri Tarun Gogoi (Posthumous) - Public Affairs - Assam
• Shri Chandrashekhar Kambara - Literature and Education - Karnataka
• Ms. Sumitra Mahajan - Public Affairs - Madhya Pradesh
• Shri Nripendra Misra - Civil Service - Uttar Pradesh
• Shri Ram Vilas Paswan (Posthumous) - Public Affairs - Bihar
• Shri Keshubhai Patel (Posthumous)- Public Affairs - Gujarat
• Shri Kalbe Sadiq (Posthumous) Others - Spiritualism- Uttar Pradesh
• Shri Rajnikant Devidas Shroff - Trade and Industry - Maharashtra
• Shri Tarlochan Singh - Public Affairs - Haryana

Padma Shri

Art

• Shri Gulfam Ahmed (Uttar Pradesh)
• Shri Rama Swamy Annavarapu (Andhra Pradesh)
• Shri Subbu Arumugam (Tamil Nadu)
• Ms. Bhuri Bai (Madhya Pradesh)
• Shri Radhe Shyam Barle (Chhattisgarh)
• Shri Biren Kumar Basak (West Bengal)
• Shri Peter Brook (United Kingdom)
• Shri Gopiram Bargayn Burabhakat (Assam)
• Shri Narayan Debnath (West Bengal)
• Ms. Dulari Devi (Bihar)
• Ms. Radhe Devi (Manipur)
• Ms. Purnamasi Jani (Odisha)
• Shri Parshuram Atmaram Gangavane (Maharashtra)
• Matha B. Manjamma Jogati (Karnataka)
• Shri Damodaran Kaithapram (Kerala)
• Shri Maheshbhai & Shri Nareshbhai Kanodia (Duo) * (Posthumous) (Gujarat)
• Shri K Kesavasamy (Puducherry)
• Shri Ghulam Rasool Khan (Jammu and Kashmir)
• Shri Lakha Khan (Rajasthan)
• Shri Vinayak Vishnu Khedekar (Goa)
• Ms. Lajwanti (Punjab)
• Shri Ramachandra Manjhi (Bihar)
• Shri Dulal Manki (Assam)
• Shri Rewben Mashangva (Manipur)
• Shri Kartar Paras Ram Singh (Himachal Pradesh)
• Shri Kartar Singh (Punjab)
• Shri K C Sivasankar (Posthumous) (Tamil Nadu)
• Ms. Nidumolu Sumathi (Andhra Pradesh)
• Shri K K Ramachandra Pulavar (Kerala)
• Shri Kanaka Raju (Telangana)
• Ms. Bombay Jayashri Ramnath (Tamil Nadu)
• Shri Satyaram Reang (Tripura)
• Shri Wayan Dibia (Indonesia)
• Ms. Sanjida Khatun (Bangladesh)

Sports

• Ms. P. Anitha (Tamil Nadu)
• Ms. Mouma Das (West Bengal)
• Ms. Anshu Jamsenpa (Arunachal Pradesh)
• Shri Madhavan Nambiar (Kerala)
• Ms. Sudha Hari Narayan Singh (Uttar Pradesh)
• Shri Virender Singh (Haryana)
• Shri K Y Venkatesh (Karnataka)

Literature and Education

• Shri Prakasarao Asavadi (Andhra Pradesh)
• Shri Dharma Narayan Barma (West Bengal)
• Shri Sujit Chattopadhyay (West Bengal)
• Shri Dadudan Gadhavi (Gujarat)
• Shri Jai Bhagwan Goyal (Haryana)
• Shri Jagadish Chandra Halder (West Bengal)
• Shri Mangal Singh Hazowary (Assam)
• Shri Namdeo C Kamble (Maharashtra)
• Shri Rajat Kumar Kar (Odisha)
• Shri Rangasami Lakshminarayana Kashyap (Karnataka)
• Shri Chandrakant Mehta (Gujarat)
• Ms. Usha Yadav (Uttar Pradesh)
• Shri Chaman Lal Sapru (Posthumous) (Jammu and Kashmir)
• Shri Arjun Singh Shekhawat (Rajasthan)
• Shri Ram Yatna Shukla (Uttar Pradesh)
• Ms. Mridula Sinha (Posthumous) (Bihar)
• Shri Kapil Tiwari (Madhya Pradesh)
• Shri Imran Shah (Assam)
• Shri Balan Putheri (Kerala)
• Shri Nanda Prusty (Odisha)
• Shri Srikant Datar (United States of America)
• Father Vallés (Posthumous), Spain
• Shri Nicholas Kazanas (Greece)
• Literature and Education- Journalism
• Shri Roman Sarmah (Assam)
• Shri Solomon Pappaiah (Tamil Nadu)

Social Work

• Ms. Lakhimi Baruah (Assam)
• Ms. Sangkhumi Bualchhuak (Mizoram)
• Shri Jagdish Chaudhary (Posthumous), Uttar Pradesh
• Shri Tsultrim Chonjor (Ladakh)
• Ms. Shanti Devi (Odisha)
• Chutni Devi (Jharkhand)
• Ms. Prakash Kaur (Punjab)
• Ms. Niru Kumar (Delhi)
• Shri Shyam Sundar Paliwal (Rajasthan)
• Shri Jitender Singh Shunty (Delhi)
• Guru Maa Kamali Soren (West Bengal)
• Shri Marachi Subburaman (Tamil Nadu)
• Ms. Sindhutai Sapkal (Maharashtra)
• Shri Girish Prabhune (Maharashtra)
• Ms. Birubala Rabha (Assam)

Trade & Industry

• Ms. Rajni Bector (Punjab)
• Shri P Subramanian (Posthumous) (Tamil Nadu)
• Ms. Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat (Maharashtra)
• Shri Sridhar Vembu (Tamil Nadu)

Public Affairs

• Bijoya Chakravarty (Assam)
• Col Quazi Sajjad Ali Zahir (Bangladesh)

Science and Engineering

• Shri Rattan Lal (United States of America)

Others-Grassroots Innovation

• Shri Ali Manikfan (Lakshadweep)

Others- Agriculture

• Shri Nanadro B Marak (Meghalaya)
• Shri Prem Chand Sharma (Uttarakhand)
• Ms. Pappammal (Tamil Nadu)
• Shri Chandra Shekhar Singh (Uttar Pradesh)

Medicine

• Dr. Rattan Lal Mittal (Punjab)
• Dr. Chandrakant Sambhaji Pandav (Delhi)
• Dr. J N Pande (Posthumous), Delhi
• Dr. Bhupendra Kumar Singh Sanjay (Uttarakhand)
• Dr. Thiruvengadam Veeraraghavan (Posthumous), Tamil Nadu
• Dr. Dhananjay Diwakar Sagdeo (Kerala)
• Shri Ashok Kumar Sahu (Uttar Pradesh)
• Dr. Krishna Mohan Pathi (Odisha)
• Dr. Dilip Kumar Singh (Bihar)

For the year 2021, (i) Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (in the institutional category) and (ii) Dr. Rajendra Kumar Bhandari (in the Individual category) have been selected for the Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar for their excellent work in Disaster Management.

• Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS) has done commendable work in building community resilience to disasters. It has been working towards disaster readiness, response, and rehabilitation, building local capacities and enabling risk reduction at the community level in different States of India.
• Dr. Rajendra Kumar Bhandari is among the pioneers in India who laid the foundation of scientific studies on geo hazards in general and landslides in particular. He established India’s first laboratory on landslide studies at CSIR-Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), and three other Centres.

About the Award

• To recognize and honour the invaluable contribution and selfless service rendered by individuals and organizations in India in the field of Disaster Management, Government of India has instituted an annual award known as Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar.
• The award is announced every year on 23rd January, the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
• The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 51 lakh and a certificate in case of an institution and Rs. 5 lakh and a certificate in case of an individual.

• Nikhil Srivastava, an Indian mathematician, has been named winner of the prestigious 2021 Michael and Sheila Held Prize along with two others for solving long-standing questions on the Kadison-Singer problem and on Ramanujan graphs.
• Srivastava from the University of California, Berkeley, Adam Marcus, the Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Daniel Alan Spielman from Yale University will receive the 2021 Michael and Sheila Held Prize.
• Srivastava, Marcus and Spielman solved long-standing questions on the Kadison-Singer problem and on Ramanujan graphs, and in the process uncovered a deep new connection between linear algebra, geometry of polynomials, and graph.
• The Michael and Sheila Held Prize is presented annually and honours outstanding, innovative, creative, and influential research in the areas of combinatorial and discrete optimisation, or related parts of computer science, such as the design and analysis of algorithms and complexity theory.
• The prize was established in 2017 by the bequest of Michael and Sheila Held.
• The award is given by National Academy of sciences, USA.

• Renowned Indian Santoor player, Pandit Satish Vyas was conferred with the National Tansen Samman for 2020 by the Madhya Pradesh Government during the Tansen Music Festival held in Gwalior.
• The festival is held every year to pay tributes to one of the greatest musicians in Indian history of classical music, Tansen, who was also one of the nine gems in the court of Mughal emperor Akbar.
• Pandit Vidyadhar Vyas - Hindustani vocalist (Gwalior gharana) was given this award in 2019.

• US President Donald Trump has mainstreamed the QUAD by awarding its original architects Indian Prime Minister NarendraModi, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison with the prestigious Legion of Merit.
  • Narendra Modi: US President Donald Trump presented the prestigious ‘Legion of Merit’award to Prime Minister NarendraModi for his leadership in elevating strategic partnership of the two countries and emergence of India as a global power. India's Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, accepted the award on behalf of the prime minister from the US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien at the White House.
  • Scott Morrison: The Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was also presented the ‘Legion of Merit’ award for his leadership in addressing global challenges and promoting collective security.
  • Shinzo Abe: Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was awarded for his leadership and vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.
• The Legion of Merit, in the highest degree of the Chief Commander, is a prestigious award conferred by the President of the United States, typically upon Heads of State or Heads of Government of other countries.

State Honours to Narendra Modi

• 2016: Order of Abdulaziz Al Saud (Saudi Arabia) - Member Special Class, the highest honour of Saudi Arabia awarded to non-Muslim dignitaries.
• 2016: State Order of Ghazi Amir Amanullah Khan (Afghanistan) - The highest civilian honour of Afghanistan.
• 2018: Grand Collar of the State of Palestine (Palestine) - The highest civilian honour of Palestine.
• 2019: Order of Zayed (United Arab Emirates) - The highest civilian honour of the United Arab Emirates.
• 2019: Order of St. Andrew (Russia) - The highest civilian honour of Russia.
• 2019: Order of the Distinguished Rule of Izzuddin(Maldives) - The highest honour of the Maldives awarded to foreign dignitaries.
• 2019: King Hamad Order of the Renaissance (Bahrain) - Member First Class, the highest civilian honour of Bahrain.
• 2020: Legion of Merit (United States) - Highest degree of Chief Commander of the Legion of Merit.

• A an Indian entrepreneur is among the seven winners of the prestigious "Young Champions of the Earth" 2020 prize given by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to global change-makers using innovative ideas and ambitious action to help solve some of the world's most pressing environmental challenges.
• Vidyut Mohan, an engineer, is the co-founder of "Takachar", a social enterprise enabling farmers to prevent open burning of their waste farm residues and earn extra income by converting them into value-added chemicals like activated carbon on-site.

About Takachar

• Takachar buys rice husks, straw and coconut shells from farmers and turns them into charcoal, saving the debris from the fires, which are also a driver of climate change.

About the Award

• The Young Champions of the Earth prize is awarded every year by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to seven entrepreneurs under the age of 30 with bold ideas for sustainable environmental change.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has decided to launch the 'UNESCO-Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman International Prize'.

• The prize will be launched in the field of ‘creative economy’ starting from November 2021.
• The decision came as Bangladesh is celebrating Rahman’s birth centenary, and also preparing for the country’s 50th independence anniversary.
• Starting November 2021, the dollar 50 thousand award will be given away once in two years for global economic initiatives of the youth.
• UNESCO has declared 2021 as ‘International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development’.

About Mujibur Rahman

• Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the founding father and the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh (1972-75).
• He was given the title of “Bangabandhu” (Friend of Bengal) by the people of Bangladesh.
• His daughter Sheikh Hasina is the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh.