Important Awards and Honours 2013

1.Sanjiv Bhatt gets Mother Teresa Award 

Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was conferred the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice for 2012.

2.Priyadarshini Karve: Scientists of home and hearth

In January 2013, Priyadarshini Karve has won the Ashden Award for Renewable Energy for her biowaste-to-charcoal technology.

3.Award for Muthunayagam, Saraswat

The former secretary of the Department of Ocean, Development, A.E. Muthunayagam, will receive  the prestigious Aryabhatta award, instituted by the Astronautical Society of India (ASI), for 2010 and V.K. Saraswat, Scientific adviser to the Defence Minister, will receive the award for 2011. They have been selected for their achievements in rocketry.

4.President distributes awards to NRIs

1. President Pranab Mukherjee distributed the Pravasi Bhartiya Samman awards to 15 persons in January 2013.
2. The awardees included Mauritius President Rajkeswur Purryag, who was the chief guest at the inaugural of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.
3. The other recipients are: Ashok Shambhomal Vaswani, Tan Sri Ravindran Menon, Rasik Vihari Joshi, Satendra Kumar Singh, Gilbert Canabady Moutien, Mohammad Rabeeh karuvanthodi, Ismail Ebrahim, Bava Pandalingal, Patricia Maria Rozario, Narendra Ramakrishna Kumar and Subash Razdan.
4. The Australia India Society of Victoria and the Indian Doctors Forum, Kuwait, also won awards.
5. The award consisted of a medal, a citation scroll and a memento.

5.President presents Census Medals

1. President Pranab Mukherjee presented the Census Medals for extraordinary performance at a function in Vigayan Bhavan in January 2013.
2. The President congratulated all the Census Medal winners and said informed decision-making has to be based on empirical data and census is the only source of data that provides information on various individual characteristics right up to  the village level for rural areas and ward level for urban areas.
3. Ever since the first Census of India after Independence, it has been the tradition with the Census Organization to award silver and bronze medals and certificates of honour from the President to various census functionaries, including enumerators, supervisors, charge officers in recognition of their work.

6.Army Major Manjali to get Kirti Chakra

Major Abup J. Manjali to the Rashtriya Rifles will be awarded the Kirti chakra on Republic Day for bravery in counter-terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

7.India, Pakistan flavor to Man Booker International shortlist

1. Two of the biggest names in literatures from India and Pakistan – Kannada writer U.R. Ananthamurthy and Urdu novelist Intizar Hussain – are among the 10 writers form a round the world shortlisted for  this year’s £60,000 Man Booker International Prize released in January 2013.
2. It is awarded every two years to a living author in recognition of his or her achievement in fiction.
3. Mr. Ananthamurthy, a Jnanpith awardee and regarded as one of the most important voices of the “new movement” in Kannada, is also in the running for the $50,000 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature to be announced a the Jaipur Literature Festival.
4. Previous winners include Philip Roth, Alice Booker Prize, it recognize a writer for his or her continued creativity, development and overall contribution to fiction on the world stage.

8.Michael Clarke gets Allan Border Medal

1. In January 2013, Australian captain Michael Clarke won his fourth Allan Border Medal as the nation’s Cricketer of  the Year at a gala ceremony in February 2013.
2. Clarke, 31, and his predecessor as captain, Ricky Ponting, are the only players to win the medal, considered Australian cricket’s most prestigious individual prize, four times.

9.Jeet Thayil wins DSC Prize for South Asian Literature

1. Author Jeet Thayil has won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2013 for his debut novel Narcopolis based on the theme of drug addiction destroying the poor, deranged and marginalized people in Mumbai during 1970s and 80s. he was presented the coveted prize at a ceremony in the Jaipur Literature Festival.
2. The prize, carrying a cash award of $50,000 is given every year to an international author or shared with the translator for a work of fiction thematically linked to the South region. Mr. Thayll is the first Indian to win the prize, running into its third year.

10.Asian Nobel, made in Taiwan

1. In January 2013, Samuel Yin, one of Taiwan’s richest men launched the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize – the Tang Prize – by donating Tw$3 billion (about $101 million) for it.
2. The Prize is named after China’s Tang Dynasty (618-907) – which inspired generation after generation with administration for its vibrant characteristics of self-confidence and cosmopolitan inclusiveness – the qualities that the Tang Prize seeks to promote.
3. Beginning in 2014, prizes will be awarded every two years in four categories – sustainable development: biopharmaceutical; sinology; and the ‘rule of law’ – to individuals, regardless of nationality.
4. The winter in each category will receive Tw$50 million ($1.7 million), compared to the eight million Swedish kronor ($1.2million) that comes with a Nobel Prize.

11.L.N. Tallur bags Rs. 1 million Skoda Art Prize 2012

In February 2013, Karnataka-born artist L.N. Tallur, whose works depict majorly the underbelly of India, has won the Rs. 1 million Skoda Prize 2012 for contemporary art, from among a shortlist of four artists – including an artist collective.

12. Daughter accept Ravi Shankar’s Grammy

1. In February 2013, Sixty days after his demise, sitar legend Pandit Ravi Shankar was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy award, which was jointly accepted by his musically-gifted daughters Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones.
2. Ms. Anoushka Shankar, a reputed sitarist herself, and Ms. Jones, who has carved a niche as a singer-songwriter, attended the pre-Grammy ceremony at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre to accept the honour bestowed on their iconic father, who passed away on December 11, 2012 at  the age of 92.

13.Ravi Shankar wins best music album award

1. In February 2013, Sitar legend Ravi Shankar was posthumously awarded the best would music album trophy at the 55^thGrammys, beating his daughter Anoushka Shankar, a day after being honoured with a Lifetime Achievements award by The Recording Academy.
2. Pandit shankar’s album ‘The Living Room Sessions Part 1’ saw off competition from Ms. Anoushka Shankar’s ‘Traveller’; Amadou & Mariam’s  ‘Folila’; Daneil Ho’s ‘On A Gentle Island Breeze’; and Hugh Masekela’s Jabulani’.

14.Renowned poet gets Assam Literary Award

1. In January 2013, renowned Assamese poet Sameer Tanti has been awarded the prestigious Assam Valley Literary Award for the year 2012.
2. The award, instituted by Williamson Magor Education Trust, is given to preserve and promote the rich literary heritage of Assam.

15.Life achievements awards of the Department of Atomic Energy

1. In January 2013, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reiterated that while the Centre went ahead with its nuclear energy programme to meet the growing energy needs of the country, it would continue to ensure that nuclear power remained totally safe.
2. Presenting the lifetime achievement awards of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to four of its veteran scientists at a brief ceremony, Dr. Singh noted that the Department worked in “one of the most complex, sophisticated and challenging areas of science, technology and engineering.”
3. The scientists who were presented the lifetime achievements are: R.B. Grover, who played a key role in negotiating the Indo – U.S. nuclear deal, K. Balaramamoorthy, who developed non-destructive testing techniques, mathematician R. Balasubramanian, and S.K. Sikka, a key player in the nuclear tests of 1974 and 1998.
4. Known as India’s leading nuclear diplomat, Dr. Grover played a key role in opening ensuring India became a part of the International nuclear trade which were shut after the peaceful nuclear experiment of 1974. He was also in the forefront of talks that resulted in India’s entry into the pioneering International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project to tap fusion energy to meet future global power needs. Among other things, he conceptualized and set up the Homi Bhabha National Institute to meet the human resources requirements of the nuclear programme.
5. Dr. Balaramamoorthy, a former Chief Executive of the Nuclear Fuel  Complex, was honored for his pioneering contribution to the development of non-destructive testing techniques and outstanding work in the field of nuclear fuel and nuclear components fabrication.
6. Dr. Balasubramanian, who is the Director of the DAE’s Chennai-based Institute of Mathematical sciences, was conferred the award for his outstanding contribution to the field of higher mathematics, cryptology and theoretical computer science.
7. Dr. Sikka was honored for his contribution to condensed matter  physics and to the strategic  programme of the department of atomic energy.

16.U.R. Rao to join Satellite Hall of Fame

1. The former ISRO chairman, U.R. Rao, is all set to join the prestigious international Satellite Hall of Fame on March 19, an ISRO statement said in February 2013.
2. Prof. Rao, who presided over the country’s space programme as Secretary, Department of Space, and Chairman of the Space Commission for 10 years from 1984, will join some 40 space celebrities who include Arthur Clarke. He is now the chairman of the governing council of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmadabad.
3. On that day, the U.S. – based Society of Satellite Professionals International will formality induct Prof. Rao into its membership and Hall of Fame at a ceremony to be held in Washington D.C.

17. J.C. Daniel Award for Sasikumar

1. In February 2013, Yesteryear film director Sasikumar has been chosen for Kerala government’s prestigious J.C. Daniel Award for lifetime achievements in cinema for the year 2012.
2. The filmmaker, who has set what is stated to be a world record by making 141 films, was chosen for the award.

18.Mary Verghese Award presented to social worker from Kerala

The Mary Verghese Award 2013, instituted by the Mary Verghese Award Foundation to an individual, or organization, who, or which, made an outstanding contribution to the cause of enhancing the quality of life of physically-challenged persons, was presented to K.V. Rabia, founder of the Chalanam Movement in Malapuzha, kerala.

19.The Hindu Literary Prize goes to Jerry Pinto

Journalist-author Jerry Pinto has bagged The Hindu Literary Prize 2012 for his novel Em and the big Hoom.

20.Ela Bhatt honoured with Indira award

President Pranab Mukherjee presented the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2011 to Ela Ramesh Bhatt of the Self-Employed Women’s Association at Rashtrapati Bhavan in February 2013.