Current Affairs - Awards In News

• The legendary santoor maestro and music composer Pandit Bhajan Sopori from Jammu & Kashmir has been awarded the National Kalidas Samman 2020 by the Government of Madhya Pradesh for his enormous contribution to Hindustani Classical Music (Santoor).
• He belongs to the fabled Sopori Sufiana Gharana of Kashmir, the exclusive traditional Santoor family of the country with its roots spanning over more than 300 years.
• Among many awards, he is bestowed with Padma Shri, and Sangeet Natak Academy Award.

• The Assam government has decided to confer the state’s highest civilian award, ‘Asom Baibav,’ on Ratan Naval Tata, for his contributions towards furthering cancer care in the state.

• The Assam Cabinet had in September 2021 decided to change the nomenclature of the state’s highest civilian awards, to be given in various fields every year. Subsequently, the name of the Asom Ratna award has been changed to “Asom Baibhav”, “Asom Bibhushan” to “Asom Saurav” and “Assam Shree” to “Asom Gaurav”.

• Delhi’s Nizamuddin Basti has received two awards at the Unesco Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation this year.
• The conservation initiative at Nizamuddin bagged the Award of Excellence and Special Recognition for Sustainable Development Award.
• The conservation efforts include the restoration of over 20 historic monuments clustered around the 14th century mausoleum of Sufi Saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya.

Golden Peacock (Best Film)

• Ring Wandering (Japan) by Masakazu Kaneko

Silver Peacock

• Best Director: Vaclav Kadrnka for ‘Saving One Who Was Dead’ (Czech Republic)
• IFFI Best Actor Award (Male): Jitendra Joshi for Godavari (India)
• IFFI Best Actor Award (Female): Ángela Molina for ‘Charlotte’ (Paraguay)

Other Awards

• Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award: Martin Scorsese (American filmmaker) and István Szabo (Hungarian filmmaker)
• Indian Film Personality of the Year: Hema Malini and Prasoon Joshi

The 6th edition of the BRICS Film Festival was held alongside 52^nd India International Film Festival (IFFI) from 20-28 November at Goa.

Major Awards

• Best Film: South African Film ‘Barakat’ by Director Amy Jephta and Russian Film ‘The Sun above Me Never Sets’ by Director Lyubov Borisova shared the Best Film Award.
• Best Director: Brazilian filmmaker Lúcia Murat was awarded Best Director for her documentary ‘Ana’.
• Best Actor (Male): Indian actor Dhanush won Best Actor (Male) for his role in ‘Asuran’.
• Best Actor (Female): Brazilian actor Lara Boldorini was honoured with Best Actor (Female) for her role in ‘On Wheels’.

Pratham, a civil society organisation dedicated to improving the quality of education among underprivileged children in India and across the world, has been selected for the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2021.

Awarded for

• Pratham was awarded for its pioneering work over more than a quarter century in seeking to ensure that every child has access to quality education, for its innovative use of digital technology to deliver education, for its programmes to provide skills to young adults, for its regular evaluation of the quality of education, and for its timely response in enabling children to learn during the COVID-19 related school closures.

Chair of the Jury

• Former Chief Justice of India, Justice T.S. Thakur was the chair of the international jury of the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development.

Last Recipient

• Sir David Frederick Attenborough, an English broadcaster, natural historian and author was the last recipient (2019).

About Pratham

• Set up in 1995 in Mumbai by Dr. Madhav Chavan and Ms. Farida Lambay, Pratham started work in Mumbai slums, setting up community based “Balwadis” or pre-schools and offering remedial education for students lagging behind their grade level curriculum.
• Its Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), based on surveying 6,00,000 rural Indian children, is now used as a model to assess education outcomes and learning deficiencies in 14 countries over three continents.

About the Award

• The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development, is accorded annually by Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust to individuals or organisations in recognition of creative efforts toward promoting international peace, development and a new international economic order; ensuring that scientific discoveries are used for the larger good of humanity, and enlarging the scope of freedom.

Swachh Survekshan Awards 2021 was recently presented by the President of India.

(Image Source: PIB)

Category/Winner

• Cleanest State (With more than 100 Urban Local Bodies): Chhattisgarh
• Cleanest State (With less than 100 Urban Local Bodies): Jharkhand
• Cleanest City (With less than One Lakh Population): Vita City of Maharashtra
• Cleanest Small City (1-3 Lakh Population): New Delhi Municipal Council
• Cleanest Medium City (3-10 Lakh Population): Noida
• Cleanest Big City’ (10-40 Lakh Population): Navi Mumbai
• Cleanest District: Surat
• Cleanest City: Indore
• Cleanest Ganga Town: Varanasi
• Cleanest Cantonment Board: Ahmedabad Cantonment
• Fastest Mover Small City: Hoshangawad, Madhya Pradesh
• Best Small City in Citizens’ Feedback: Triputi, Maharashtra
• Top City in Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge: Navi Mumbai

• M. Mukundan's "Delhi: A Soliloquy", translated from Malayalam by Fathima E.V. and Nandakumar K. has won the 2021 JCB Prize for Literature.
• The JCB Prize for Literature honours distinguished work of fiction by an Indian writer working in English or translated fiction by an Indian writer.
• The Prize is administered by the JCB Literature Foundation, a not-for-profit company, whose purpose is to promote the art of literature in India.

• Two Indian teenage brothers have won the 2021 KidsRights International Children's Peace Prize for tackling pollution from household waste.
• Vihaan (17) and Nav Agarwal (14) have developed the "One Step Greener" initiative segregating recyclables and organising pickups for trash from thousands of homes.
• Indian Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi, a children's rights activist who won the 2014 Nobel jointly with Pakistani education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, presented the brothers with the prize run by the Dutch-based KidsRights foundation at a ceremony in The Hague.
• The International Children’s Peace Prize is given annually by the International children’s rights organization KidsRights based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
• It is given to a child who has made a significant contribution to advocating children’s rights and improving the situation of vulnerable children such as orphans, child labourers and children with HIV/AIDS.

On 2nd November 2021, the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports announced the National Sports Awards 2021.

• The awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at a specially organized function at the Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan on 13th November, 2021.
• National Sports Awards are given every year to recognize and reward excellence in sports.
• The Selection Committee was headed by Justice (Retd.) Mukundakam Sharma (former Judge of Supreme Court).

About the Awards

• ‘Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award’: Given for the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over a period of previous four years.
• ‘Arjuna Award for outstanding performance in Sports and Games’: Given for good performance over a period of previous four years and showing qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline.
• ‘Dronacharya Award for outstanding coaches in Sports and Games’: Given to coaches for doing outstanding and meritorious work on a consistent basis and enabling sportspersons to excel in International events.
• ‘Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime achievement in Sports and Games’: Given to honour sportspersons who have contributed to sports by their performance and continue to contribute to promotion of sports event after their retirement.
• ‘Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar’: Given to corporate entities (both in private and public sector), sports control boards, NGOs including sports bodies at the State and National level who have played a visible role in the area of sports promotion and development.
• Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy: Given to overall top performing university in inter-university tournaments.

Awards, Winners and Discipline

• Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy 2021:Panjab University - Chandigarh