Current Affairs - Awards In News

Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), a constituent unit of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) under Department of School Education and Literacy (DOSEL), MoE, Government of India has been awarded with the UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICT in Education for the year 2021.

• The Ministry of Education through 'PM eVidya' scheme (started in May 2020) imparted learning across digital, online, and on-air platforms for minimum learning losses.
• Established in 2005 with the support of the Kingdom of Bahrain, the prize rewards individuals and organisations that are implementing outstanding projects and promoting the creative use of technologies to enhance learning, teaching and overall educational performance in the digital age.
• “Digital Educational Programme” implemented by Ubongo from the United Republic of Tanzania also won this award for 2021.

SEEDS (Sustainable Ecological & Environmental Development Society), South Asia’s foremost non-profit organisation working in the field of disaster risk reduction and climate change was awarded the United Nations Sasakawa Award 2022 for Disaster Risk Reduction at the 7th Session of Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) 2022 held in Bali, Indonesia.

• SEEDS was among the six laureates of the 2022 United Nations Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction who have been recognised for initiatives which protect vulnerable communities from disaster risk.

About the Award

• The United Nations Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction was created more than 30 years ago and is jointly organised by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Nippon Foundation.
• The central theme for the Sasakawa Award 2022 was “Building resilience through a multi-hazard approach.”

About SEEDS

• SEEDS (Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society) is a not-for-profit organisation that enables community resilience through practical solutions in the areas of disaster readiness, response and rehabilitation.
• SEEDS is also India’s first agency to be verified on the parameters of the global Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) – an international certification system for quality and accountability in humanitarian response.
• SEEDS has been awarded with the most prestigious annual Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan 2021 by the Government of India acknowledging the invaluable contribution and selfless service rendered by individuals and organisations in India in the field of Disaster Management.

Indian writer Geetanjali Shree and American translator Daisy Rockwell won the International Booker Prize 2022 for “Tomb of Sand”.

• Originally written in Hindi – (‘Ret Samadhi’), it’s the first book in any Indian language to win the International Booker Prize.
• Shree was the first Indian to get nominated to the International Booker Prize.
• Shree is also the first Hindi novelist to achieve this feat.
• The 50,000-pound ($63,000) prize money will be split between New Delhi-based Shree and Rockwell.
• The book tells the story of an octogenarian widow who dares to cast off convention and confront the ghosts of her experiences during the subcontinent’s tumultuous 1947 partition into India and Pakistan.
• The International Booker Prize is awarded every year to a translated work of fiction published in the U.K. or Ireland. It is run alongside the Booker Prize for English-language fiction.

Cynthia Rosenzweig, a senior research scientist and head of the Climate Impacts Group at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, received the 2022 World Food Prize from the World Food Prize Foundation on May 5, 2022.

• Rosenzweig was selected for the award for her research to understand the relationship between climate and food systems and forecast how both will change in the future.
• The World Food Prize is conceived as the "Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture" with a mission to elevate innovations and inspire action to sustainably increase the quality, quantity and availability of food for all.
• The inaugural award was presented in 1987 to M. S. Swaminathan from India.

The British broadcaster Sir David Attenborough has been accorded the Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award for his dedication to research, documentation, and advocacy for the protection of nature and its restoration.

• The UN Environment Programme’s Champions of the Earth award is the UN's highest environmental honor. It is given in four categories: Policy leadership, Inspiration and action, Entrepreneurial vision, and Science and innovation.

Every year, to encourage equal participation in ICT technologies, International Girls in ICT Day is celebrated on April 28.

• For girls and young women to thrive in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers, they need safe and reliable access to the internet and digital tools. That’s why, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) - the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies – ICTs has identified “Access and Safety” as the theme for Girls in ICT 2022.

The annual World Day for Safety and Health at Work on 28 April promotes the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases globally.

• It is an awareness-raising campaign intended to focus international attention on the magnitude of the problem and on how promoting and creating a safety and health culture can help reduce the number of work-related deaths and injuries.
• The World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2022 focuses on enhancing social dialogue towards a culture of safety and health.

• Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu conferred the International Gandhi Award for Leprosy, 2021 to Dr. Bhushan Kumar of Chandigarh and Sahyog Kushtha Yagna Trust, Gujarat.
• The annual award was instituted by Gandhi Memorial Leprosy Foundation.
• Both Dr. Bhushan Kumar and Sahyog Kushtha Yagna Trust have been working diligently to raise awareness about leprosy and in providing care to those afflicted with it.

One of the most prestigious literary awards ‘Saraswati Samman’ for the year 2021 will be conferred on poet and litterateur Prof Ramdarash Mishra for his collection of poems ‘Mein to Yahan Hun’.

• In ‘Mein to Yahan Hun’, the poet brings to the fore different aspects of inner life, societal concerns, communalism, corruption, human perspectives, exploitation of the Dalits, disquieting urban cities, exuberance of the seasons and climatic concerns.
• Born in Dumri village in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district, Mishra has excelled in different branches of Hindi literature.
• In 1991, poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan was the first to receive this award.
• In 2020, Sharankumar Limbale, a Marathi language author, poet and literary critic was given this award for his novel "Sanatan".

About the Award

• The Saraswati Samman is an annual award instituted by KK Birla Foundation in 1991.
• It is given for outstanding literary works (prose or poetry) in any of the 22 languages of India listed in Schedule VIII of the Constitution of India.
• It is given to an Indian citizen and his works published within the last 10 years.

• The renowned Belgian hydrologist Wilfried Brutsaert was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize 2022 for his groundbreaking work to quantify environmental evaporation, helping to make accurate predictions of the impact that climate change has on local rainfall patterns and water sources.
• The Stockholm Water Prize is the world’s most prestigious water award. It is often described as the Nobel Prize of water.
• Since 1991, the Stockholm Water Prize has been awarded to people and organizations for extraordinary water-related achievements.
• The Prize is awarded by SIWI in cooperation with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and presented by H.M King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, who is the official patron of the Prize.