Current Affairs - Awards In News

The 94th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films released between March 1 and December 31, 2021, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 27, 2022.

• During the ceremony, controversy ensued after actor Will Smith walked onstage and slapped comedian Chris Rock in the face. Rock had made a joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

Notable Awards/Awardees

• Best Picture: CODA
• Best Actress: Jessica Chastain – The Eyes of Tammy Faye
• Best Actor: Will Smith – King Richard
• Best Director: Jane Campion – The Power of the Dog

Oscar 2022 & India

• At the 2022 Oscars, Delhi-based filmmaker duo Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh-directed 'Writing with Fire' lost out the Best Documentary Feature honour to 'Summer of Soul' (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)'.
• 'Writing with Fire' is Thomas and Ghosh's debut feature documentary about a newspaper 'Khabar Lahariya' started as a social experiment by an NGO. It's India's only rural newspaper run by Dalit women since 2002, started by Delhi-based NGO Nirantar from Chitrakoot in the Bundelkhand region.
• Previously, in 2009, India's AR Rahman had won the Academy Award for Best Original Score and Best Song ('Jai Ho') in 'Slumdog Millionaire'. The legendary Gulzar also bagged the Best Lyrics honour that same year.

Diébédo Francis Kéré has become the first African and the first black person to be awarded architecture’s highest international honour, the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

• Kéré was born in Burkina Faso, West Africa, and built his architectural practice designing schools and medical facilities that were most often built by local communities with minimal resources and a very careful selection of affordable and sustainable materials. It was this approach that led to his architecture firm receiving global recognition.
• In 2018, Indian architect Balkrishna Vithaldas won this award.

About Pritzker Prize

• The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.”
• Founded in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and his wife Cindy, the award is funded by the Pritzker family and sponsored by the Hyatt Foundation.
• It is considered to be one of the world's premier architecture prizes, and is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) held its annual film awards on 13th March 2022 at London's Royal Albert Hall.

Key Winners

• Best Film: "The Power of the Dog"
• Outstanding British Film: "Belfast"
• Director: Jane Campion, "The Power of the Dog"
• Leading Actor: Will Smith, "King Richard"
• Leading Actress: Joanna Scanlan, "After Love"

In order to acknowledge the efforts undertaken by the State Governments, Union Territory Administrations and various implementation agencies, the Ministry of Tourism has constituted Swadesh Darshan Awards in different categories.

The awards will highlight best practices including achievement of planned objectives, innovative approach, adoption of sustainability principals in planning, design and operations, efficient project monitoring, ability to attract private investments in peripheral development and efforts undertaken to ensure optimal operations and maintenance, etc.

To begin with, the Ministry of Tourism has decided to invite entries under the following categories:-

• i.Best Tourist Interpretation Centre
• ii.Best Log Hut Facility
• iii.Best MICE Facility
• iv.Best Cafeteria
• v.Best Craft Haat/ Souvenir Shop facility
• vi.Best Sound and Light Show
• vii.Best Waterfront Development (Beach/ River/ Lake etc.)

On 25^th January, 2022, on the eve of 73^rd Republic Day, Padma Awards were declared.

• The President has approved conferment of 128 Padma Awards including 2 duo case (in a duo case, the Award is counted as one) - 4 Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 Padma Shri Awards. 34 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 10 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 13 posthumous awardees.

• Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, has been awarded the 2022 Genesis Prize for his “leadership, determination and especially for his willingness to assume great risks” in developing a coronavirus vaccine in record time.
• Pfizer's vaccine was the first to win U.S. approval for emergency use in December 2020.
• The Genesis Prize is a $1 million annual prize awarded to Jewish people who have achieved significant professional success, in recognition of their accomplishments, contributions to humanity, and commitment to Jewish values.
• The prize was inaugurated in 2014 and is run in a partnership between the private Genesis Prize Foundation and the chairman’s office of the Jewish Agency, a nonprofit group that has close ties to the Israeli government.
• The prize is usually awarded in Jerusalem each June at a dinner attended by Israel’s prime minister. But the ceremony has been called off the past two years due to the pandemic.

The 79th Golden Globe Awards honored the best in film and American television of 2021, as chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA).

• The ceremony took place on January 9, 2022.
• Two of the films namely The Power of the Dog and the West Side Story, won the most number of awards with 3 each.

Major Awards

• Best Film (Drama): The Power of the Dog
• Best Film (Musical or Comedy): West Side Story
• Best Actor (Drama): Will Smith for King Richard as Richard Williams
• Best Actress (Drama): Nicole Kidman for Being the Ricardos as Lucille Ball
• Best Director: Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog

On 7th January 2021, the Union Jal Shakti Ministry announced 3rd National Water Awards-2020.

(Image Source: gettyimages.in)

Best State: In the Best State category, Uttar Pradesh has been awarded first prize, followed by Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

Water Statistics in India

• India’s current water requirement is estimated to be around 1,100 billion cubic meters per year, projected to go up to 1,447 billion cubic meters by 2050.
• While India has more than 18% of the world’s population, it has only 4% of world’s renewable water resources.

About the Award

• The first National Water Award was launched by the Jal Shakti Ministry in 2018 to recognize and encourage exemplary work and efforts made by States, Districts, individuals, organizations, etc. across the country in attaining the government’s vision of a ‘Jal Samridh Bharat’.

• This year, IMO council awarded Certificate of Commendation to Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and Master along with crew members of tugboat Ocean Bliss for exceptional and courageous efforts towards rescue operation of M/T New Diamond, which caught fire and was drifting towards the coast, laden with inflammable cargo.
• The rescue team members of the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and the master and crew of tugboat Ocean Bliss, carried out sustained and effective fire- fighting operations and skilfully towed the vessel away from the Sri Lankan coast, thereby preventing loss of life at sea and averted a serious marine pollution incident.

About the IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea

• This annual award was established by IMO to provide international recognition for those who, at the risk of losing their own life, perform acts of exceptional bravery, displaying outstanding courage in attempting to save life at sea or in attempting to prevent or mitigate damage to the marine environment. Such acts of bravery may also involve extraordinary skills in very difficult conditions or any other display of outstanding courage.

Assamese poet Nilmani Phookan and Konkani writer Damodar Mauzo has been conferred with the 56^th and 57th Jnanpith Award respectively.

Damodar Mauzo

• Mauzo is a short story writer, novelist, columnist and screenplay writer.
• Mauzo is the second Konkani writer to receive the highest literary award, after Ravindra Kelekar had won the 42nd Jnanpith award 2006.
• He was awarded Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for his novel ‘Karmelin’.
• He is notable for his novels, such as Karmelin, and Tsunami Simon, and short stories, such as Teresa’s Man and Other Stories from Goa. His books have been translated into several Indian languages. His first collection of short stories was Ganthon, published in 1971.

Nilmani Phookan Jr

• Phookan is the third Assamese writer to receive the Jnanpith. Previous awardees were Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya in 1979 and Mamoni Raisom Goswami in 2000.
• He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1990 and received the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2002.
• Phookan is a poet of renown, having written Surya Henu Nami Ahe Ei Nodiyedi, Gulapi Jamur Lagna, and Kobita. Primarily a poet, he also writes prose and is a pioneering art critic from Assam, with a focus on folklore and folk art.
• He was awarded the 1981 Sahitya Akademi Award in Assamese for his poetry collection, Kavita (Kobita)