Current Affairs - Awards In News

• The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2021 to Maria Ressa (Philippines) and Dmitry Muratov (Russia) for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.
• Maria Ressa uses freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines. In 2012, she co-founded Rappler, a digital media company for investigative journalism, which she still heads. As a journalist and the Rappler’s CEO, Ressa has shown herself to be a fearless defender of freedom of expression. Rappler has focused critical attention on the Duterte regime’s controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign. The number of deaths is so high that the campaign resembles a war waged against the country’s own population. Ms Ressa and Rappler have also documented how social media is being used to spread fake news, harass opponents and manipulate public discourse.
• Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov has for decades defended freedom of speech in Russia under increasingly challenging conditions. In 1993, he was one of the founders of the independent newspaper Novaja Gazeta. Since 1995 he has been the newspaper’s editor-in-chief for a total of 24 years. Novaja Gazeta is the most independent newspaper in Russia today, with a fundamentally critical attitude towards power. The newspaper’s fact-based journalism and professional integrity have made it an important source of information on censurable aspects of Russian society rarely mentioned by other media. Since its start-up in 1993, Novaja Gazeta has published critical articles on subjects ranging from corruption, police violence, unlawful arrests, electoral fraud and ”troll factories” to the use of Russian military forces both within and outside Russia.

• Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) Prize for Science & Technology was announced by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on 26^th September 2021.
• Every year, CSIR presents this award to scientists below 45 years of age for their contributions in biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, medicine, engineering and earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary sciences.
• The 2021 SSB winner list did not feature any woman scientist.

• NHPC’s 510 MW Teesta-V Power Station located in the Himalayan State of Sikkim has been conferred with the prestigious Blue Planet Prize by International Hydropower Association (IHA), a London based non-profit membership association operating in 120 countries.
• The power station has been built, owned and being operated by NHPC.
• The award for Teesta-V Power Station was announced on 23^rd September 2021 during the World Hydropower Congress, 2021.
• The award had been conferred to Teesta-V Power Station based on its sustainability assessment undertaken by a team of accredited lead assessors of IHA in 2019 using the Operation Stage tool of the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol (HSAP) of IHA.
• The IHA Blue Planet Prize is awarded to hydropower projects that demonstrate excellence in sustainable development.
• The Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol (HSAP) is the leading international tool for measuring the sustainability of hydropower projects.

• The Goalkeepers Global Goals Award Winners are an annual recognition of remarkable individuals taking action to help achieve the Global Goals by 2030.
• The awards are given by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

India’s Government e Marketplace (GeM) has won the CIPS Excellence in Procurement Awards 2021 (CIPS Awards) in the "Best Use of Digital Technology" category.

About the Award

• The CIPS Awards are one of the leading recognitions around procurement globally, which is conducted under the aegis of The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS), London.

About CIPS

• CIPS is a global not-for-profit organisation and professional body dedicated to promotinggood practices in procurement and supply management, with a community across 150 countries.

About GeM

• Government e Marketplace is a 100% Government owned Section 8 Company setup under the aegis of Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry for procurement of goods and services by Central and State Government organizations.
• GeM offers a cashless, contactless, and paperless experience for sellers and buyers, and serves as an end-to-end solution for procurement of common use goods and services by Government buyers.

• The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) of India won the prestigious UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize 2021 for 'enabling education of persons with disabilities through technology-enabled inclusive learning materials, with a specific focus on Indian Sign language-based content'.
• Every year, the UNESCO International Literacy Prizes focus on a specific theme. This year, the spotlight was on inclusive distance and digital literacy learning.
• Along with NIOS, this year's UNESCO International Literacy Prizes were awarded to five other outstanding literacy programmes from Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Guatemala, Mexico, and South Africa on the occasion of International Literacy Day (8 September).

• British author Susanna Clarke won the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021 for her novel ‘Piranesi’.
• The Women's Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes.
• It is awarded annually to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year.

Asia’s highest honour - Ramon Magsaysay Awards 2021 was announced on 31 August 2021.

• Five persons will receive this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award — regarded as the Asian version of the Nobel Prize.

Awardees and their Contribution

• Muhammad Amjad Saqib (Pakistan): He developed a “first-of-its-kind’ interest-and-collateral-free microfinance programme, Akhuwat, which uses places of worship to disburse zero-interest loans, recording a phenomenal loan repayment rate of 99.9 per cent. Akhuwat has taken up a vast array of social support programmes in education, health services, “clothes bank”, anti-social discrimination and Covid-19 emergency aid.
• Firdausi Qadri (Bangladesh): A Bangladeshi scientist who has been instrumental in discovering vaccines that have saved millions of lives. She is credited with developing affordable oral cholera vaccine and the typhoid conjugate vaccine for adults, children, and infants. Most of her work is focused in congested slum areas of developing countries.
• Steven Muncy (Southeast Asia): Steven Muncy, from the US, is being recognised for “his unshakable belief in the goodness of man that inspires in others the desire to serve; his life-long dedication to humanitarian work, refugee assistance, and peace building; and his unstinting pursuit of dignity, peace, and harmony for people in exceptionally difficult circumstances in Asia.”
• WatchDoc (Indonesia): A production house that ingeniously combines documentary filmmaking and alternative platforms to highlight underreported issues in Indonesia.
• Roberto Ballon (Philippines): Environmentalist from the Philippines is being recognised for “his inspiring determination in leading his fellow fisherfolk to revive a dying fishing industry by creating a sustainable marine environment for this generation and generations to come”.

About the Award

• Established in 1957, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is Asia’s highest honour.
• It celebrates the memory and leadership example of the seventh Philippine president - Ramon Magsaysay - after whom the award is named, and is given every year to individuals or organisations in Asia who manifest the same selfless service and transformative influence that ruled the life of the late and beloved Filipino leader.
• The Ramon Magsaysay awardees, annually selected by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) board of trustees, are presented with a certificate and a medallion with an embossed image of Ramon Magsaysay facing right in profile.
• This year’s Magsaysay Award winners will be formally conferred the Magsaysay Award during formal presentation ceremony to be held on 28 November 2021, at the Ramon Magsaysay Center in Manila.

• After the “exceptional performance” of the men and women hockey teams in the Tokyo Olympics, on 6^th August 2021, the Govt. has renamed the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, the country’s highest sporting honour, after hockey wizard Major Dhyan Chand.
• Major Dhyan Chand was among India’s foremost sportspersons who brought honour and pride for India.
• Dhyan Chand is widely regarded as the greatest player in hockey. In his career that spanned from 1926 to 1949, he clinched Olympic medals in 1928, 1932 and 1936.

With a view to turn the spotlight on the logistics sector, the Government on 19^th July 2021 announced the launch of National Logistics Excellence Awards.

The awards are in two categories:

• (i)the first group includes logistics infrastructure/service providers, and
• (ii)second one is for various user industries.

The awards will highlight best practices including consolidation, process standardisation, technological upgrade, digital transformations, and sustainable practices.

Growth and Hindrances to India’s Logistics Sector

While the Indian logistics sector has been growing at a CAGR of 10.5%, reaching approximately USD 215 billion in value in 2020, there are systemic, interconnected problems that must be addressed to enhance its efficiency.

Comprehensive logistics costs amount to almost 14% of India’s GDP. Closing India’s competitiveness gap vis-à-vis the global average of 8 percent, would make the Indian logistics sector advanced, organised and efficient, on par with global peers with the ambition of being amongst the top 25 countries in the global Logistics Performance Index (LPI).