AWARDS & HONOURS 2011-12

(Useful for DSC 2012)

Nobel Prizes 2011

Medicine

The Nobel Prize for Medicine/Physiology is being awarded jointly to Bruce A. Beutler and Jules A. Hoffmann ’’for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity” and to Ralph M. Steinman ’’for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity". While Beutler and Hoffman received half the prize, while Steinmen received the other half.

Physics

The 2011 Physics Nobel Prize goes to Saul Perlmutter (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC Berkeley), Prof. Brian Schmidt (High Z Supernova search team) and Prof. Adam Reiss (High Z Supernova search team). While Permutter got half the Prize, the other half went jointly to Schmidt and Reiss. 

Chemistry

The Nobel Prize for Chemistry is being awarded to Daniel Schechtman from Israel for the discovery of quasi crystals, which was his Nobel citation. He is the sole winner for this year’s prize.

Literature

The Nobel Prize for Literature goes to the Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer. 

Peace

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded jointly to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman for “their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”. As an exception this prize is not given in Stockholm, but in Oslo, Norway.

Economics

The 2011 Economics Nobel, called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences was jointly awarded to Thomas Sargent and Christopher A Sims. Their citation says ’’for their empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy”.

Sangeet Natak Academi Fellowship Awards and Akademi Awards

Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellows (Akademi Ratna) for the year 2011

Eleven eminent personalities were selected as the Fellows of Sangeet Natak Akademi in recognition of their contribution in their respective fields of performing arts.:

1. Mukund Lath
2. Hariprasad Chaurasia
3. Shivkumar Sharma
4. Amjad Ali Khan
5. Umayalapuram Sivaraman
6. M Chandrasekharan
7. RK Singhajit Singh
8. Kalamandalam Gopi
9. Padma Subrahmanyam
10. Chandrasekhar Kam-barand
11. Heisnam Kanhailal 

 
The General Council of the Akademi also selected thirty six persons from the fields of Music, Dance, Theatre and Puppetry for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the year 2011.

Music (9)

1. Shruti Sadolikar Katkar (Hindustani Vocal)
2. M Venkatesh Kumar (Hindustani vocal)
3.  Totaram Sharma Hindustani instrumental
4. Pushparaj Koshti (Hindustani instrumental)
5. Venkataraman (Carnatic vocal music)
6.  EM Subramaniam (Ghatam)
7. Ayyagari Symasundaram (Veena)
8. Sesham Patti T Sivalingam (Carnatic instrumental music,)
9. Gopal Chandra Panda (Odissi Music) 

 Dance (9)

1. Narthaki Natraj (Bharatanatyam)
2. Manjushree Chatter-jee (Kathak)
3. Thonnakkal Peethambar-am (Kathakali)
4. Priti Patel (Manipuri)
5. Alekhya Punjala (Kuchipudi)
6. Ramli Ibrahim (Odissi)
7. VK Mymavathy (Mohiniattam)
8. Tanusree Shankar (Creative and experimental dance)
9. Karaikudi Krishnamurthi (Music for dance) 

Theatre (8)

1. Alakhnandan (Direction)
2. Kirti Jain (Direction)
3. Amitabh Shrivastav  (Acting)
4.  Vikram Gokhale  (Acting)
5. Neena Tiwana  (Acting)
6. AR Srinivasan  (Acting)
7. R Nageswara Rao (Babji) for Major Traditions of Theatre Company Theatre, Andhra Pradesh
8. Kamal Jain for Allied Theatre Arts (Lighting).

Sundari Sridharani and Shrivats Goswami  received the Akademi Award 2011 for Overall Contribution Scholarship to Performing Arts. The honour of Akademi Fellow had been conferred since 1954 and Akademi Award since 1952. I.e. The honour of Akademi Fellow carries a purse money of Rs 3, 00,000 (Rupees three lakhs) and Akademi Awards carry Rs 1, 00,000 (Rupees one lakhs), besides Tamrapatra and Angavastram.

Padma Awards 2011

The President of India, Pratibha Patil, has approved 109 awards including one duo case (counted as one) and 14 in the category of Foreigners/ NRIs/ PIOs/ Posthumous. There are 19 women among this year’s awardees. The Padma Vibhushan is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; Padma Bhushan for distinguished service of high order and Padma Shri for distinguished service in any field.

These 109 awards comprise of 5 Padma Vibhushan, 27 Padma Bhushan and 77 Padma Shri Awards.

The list of Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri recipients for this year are:

Padma Vibhushan

1. Shri K G Subramanyan - Art-Painting & Sculpture
2. Late Shri Mario De Miranda - Art-Cartoonist
3. Late (Dr.)Bhupen Hazarika - Art- Vocal Music
4. Dr.KantilalHastim alsancheti - Medicine - Orthopedics
5. Shri T V Rajeswar -Civil Service.

Padma Bhushan

1. Smt. Shabana Azmi - Art - Cinema
   
2. Shri Khaled Choudhury - Art - Theatre
   
3. Shri Jatin Das - Art - Painting
   
4. Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta - Art - Instrumental Music- Sarod
   
5. Shri Dharmendra Singh Deol alias Dharmendra Art - Cinema
   
6. Dr.Trippunithwra Viswanathan Gpalkrishnan Art - Classical vocal and instrumental music
   
7. Ms. Mira Nair Art-Cinema
   
8. Shri M.S. Gopalakrishnan -Art - Instrumental Music-Violin
   
9.  Shri Anish Kapoor - Art - Sculpture
   
10. Shri- Satya Narayan Goenka - Social Work
    
11. Dr. (Judge) Patibandla
    
12. Chandrasekhar Rao - Public Affairs
    
13. Shri George YongBoon Yeo - Public Affairs
    
14. Prof. Shashikumar Chitre Science and Engineering
    
15. Dr. M S Raghunathan - Science and Engineering
    
16. Shri Subbiah Murugappa Vel-layan - Trade and Industry
    
17. Shri Balasubramanian Muthuraman - Trade and Industry
    
18. Dr. Suresh H. Ad-vani - Medicine
    
19. Dr.Noshir H Wadia - Medicine
    
20. Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty - Medi-cine
    
21. Prof. (Dr.) Shantaram Balwant Mujumdar - Lit-erature and Education
    
22. Prof Vidya Dehejia - Literature and Education
    
23. Prof.Arvind Panagariya-Literature and Education
    

International Press Institute India Award

The International Press Institute (IPI) - India award for excellence in journalism, 2011, has been awarded jointly to Tehelka and The Week for their outstanding journalistic work in 2010. The award, comprising a cash prize of Rs. 2 lakh, a trophy and a citation, will be presented in December.

Tehelka was selected for its expose of the “rent a riot” tactics of the Sri Rama Sena in Karnataka. The investigation by Pushp Sharma exposed the leader of the Sri Rama Sena, who “readily” agreed to launch mob attacks and incite riots for money. 

The Week was selected for its sustained investigation by Gunjan Sharma into sham medical and dental colleges which had no doctors, no patients and no facilties, but was allowed to award medical and dental degrees to thousands of students.

The awardees were selected by a distinguished jury of editors and publishers headed by the former Chief Justice of India A. S. Anand.

Man Booker Prize

Julian Barnes was the winner of Man Booker prize for fiction with his latest novel "The Sense of an Ending" winning the prestigious award British author Barnes, 65, won the 50,000 pounds prize for his latest novel which is a tale of childhood friendship and the imperfections of memory.

Lal Bhadur Shastri National Award 2011

President Pratibha Patil conferred the Lai Bahadur Shastri National Award 2011 on noted scientist and educator Prof Yash Pal for for excellence in Public Administration, academics and Management.

C K Prahlad, N R Narayana Murthy, R A Mashelkar, M S Swaminathan, E Sreedharan, Sunil Bharti Mittal and Arana Roy are among the earlier awardees.

International Committee of Red Cross Award

The Hindu’s Chhattisgarh correspondent, Aman Sethi, has won the International Committee of the Red Cross award for the best Indian print media article on humanitarian. His article on three Chhattisgarh villages which were ruthlessly torched by police, Mr. Sethi’s coverage spurred the local administration to probe the incident and send aid to the affected villages.

PEN Award for courage

An Italian writer living in hiding under round-the-clock police protection for exposing the Mafia has won Britain’s 2011 PEN-Pinter International Writer of Courage Award. Roberto Saviano’s 2006 best-selling novel Gomorrah is an expose of the Naples Mafia. Millions of copies have been sold and it was also made into a movie.

British playwright David Hare shares the 2011 Pinter prize with Saviano.

Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration

Environmentalist, lawyer and former Union Minister, Mohan Dharia, was given the 26th Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration for his service in promoting and preserving spirit of national integration.

World Economic Forum Crystal award

Performer Yvonne Chaka Chaka became the first African woman to receive the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Crystal Award for artists who improve the world through their work, the World Health Organisation (WHO) during the opening ceremony of the forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Pritzker Architecture Prize

The 2012 Pritzker Prize for architecture is conferred on Wang Irate, the First Chinese architecture to receive that honour.

Jnanpith Award 2010

Eminent Hindi authors Amar Kant and Shrilal Shukla were chosen for India’s highest literary honour Jnanpith Award for the year 2009 while renowned Kannada litterateur Chandrasekhar Kambar won it for the year 2010. 

Miss Universe 2011

Leila Lopes from Angola was crowned Miss Universe for smoothly handling an interview question. The first runner-up was 23-year-old Olesia Stefanko of Ukraine and the second runner-up was Priscila Machado of Brazil. The third was Miss Philippines and the fourth was Miss China.

Man Booker International Prize

Philip Roth, one of America’s most prolific and controversial novelists, was on May 17,2011 named winner of the £60,000 Man Booker International Prize awarded every two years for a body of work published either originally in English or widely available in English translation. He beat a formidable line-up of 12 contenders that included Rohinton Mistry and John Le Carre.

G. D. Birla Award for Scientific Research

A Professor of IIT-Mumbai, Subhasis Chaudhuri, was on May 25 selected for the prestigious G D Birla Award for Scientific Research for his contributions in the area of electronic communications. 48-year-old Subhasis Chaudhuri, who works in Department of Electrical Engineering, was conferred the award for his important contributions in the area of electronic communications. 

2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize

British-born Sierra Leonean novelist Aminatta Foma has won the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for her novel, The Memory of Love, set in the aftermath of Sierra Leone’s devastating civil war in which thousands of people were killed. Judges praised the book for its ‘powerful portrayal of human resilience,’ describing it as a bold, deeply moving and accomplished novel.

Sydney Peace Prize

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was on May 11 awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation’s top honour for exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights. Mr. Assange, an Australian and a former computer hacker who is fighting extradition from Britain to Sweden over alleged sex crimes, was praised and rewarded with the Sydney Peace Prize’s Gold Medal. The foundation paid tribute to Mr. Assange’s determination to seek greater transparency and accountability from governments around the world, having challenged centuries old practices of government secrecy.

Education in Excellence Award-2011

 Anand Kumar, whose initiative helped IIT-JEE, conferred the ‘Education in Excellence Award-2011 ’ in Doha. The award was given by the Bihar Foundation, Doha Chapter and the Indian Association for Bihar and Jharkhand at a function ‘Ek .Shaam, Bihar ke Naam’, organized on the occasion of Bihar’s 100th year.

Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding for 2009

German Chancellor Angela Merkel received the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding for 2009 for her enormous efforts toward sustainable and equitable development. The jury chaired by Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari has decided to confer the award on Angela Merkel.

ITU World Telecom and Information Society

International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the leading United Nations agency for Information and Communication Technology, decided to confer the 2011 ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award to Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations. The award is in recognition of his services to promote ICT as a means of providing a better life for humanity and social and economic empowerment. Sam Pitroda is the first Indian to receive this prestigious award.

InternationaL Award in Statistics

Prof. Victor Yohoi from Argentina has been conferred with the International Award in Statistics in Memory of Prof P. C. Mahalanobis, widely acclaimed as the ‘Father of Indian Statistics’. Prof Yohoi has been given the award for his notable achievements in the field of Statistics spanning over forty years and numerous technical breakthroughs in the field of mathematical and computational statistics.

Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award

The sports ministry announced Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award for the year 2010 to recognise the achievements the field of adventure. Two persons Reena Kaushal Dharmshaktu and Mamta Sodha have been selected for the land adventure award, while Commander Dilip Donde would be given the water adventure award and Late Col. Balwant Singh Sandhu would get the Life Time Achievement (Posthumously).

Rajiv Gandhi Manav Seva Award 2010

Smt. Mat Kagti, Assam, Dr. S.A. Thasleem Sulthana, Andhara Pradesh and Dr.Mallika Nadda Himachal Pradesh for confering of the prestigious award. The Award carries a cash prize of Rupees One lakh and a citation to each awardee.

Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award

SPICMACAY (Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture amongst Youth) has been selected for this year’s Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award for its outstanding contribution to the promotion of communal harmony, peace and goodwill. SPICMACAY is an institution working for the promotion of Indian classical music and culture among the youth.

Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration

Environmentalist, lawyer and former Union Minister, Mohan Dharia, was given the 26th Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration for his service in promoting and preserving spirit of national integration.

National Communal Harmony Award

Dr. Mohd. Hanif Khan Shastri, Acharya Lokesh Munni was presented National Communal Harmony Awards in the individual category for 2009 and 2010 respectively by the Vice President of India, Shri M. Hamid Ansari. 

French Honour for Four Indians

The French Government has conferred prestigious awards on four eminent Indians from different professional backgrounds in recognition of their contribution to the development of Indo-French cooperation in their respective fields.

It has conferred Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) on political scientist Prof. Balveer Arora and former Jawaharlal Nehru University’s professor Shiva Prasad.

Author Narendra Jadav has been honoured with Commandeur des Palmes Academiques (Commander of the Academic Palms) and Chevalier des Palmes Acaiiemiques (Knight of Academic Palms) has been conferred on Leena Srivastav of the Energy and Resources Institute.

The Order of the Legion of Honour is the highest distinction that can be conferred by the French Republic on an individual, irrespecive of nationality, in recognition of their distinguished contribution in their area of work.

The Order of the Academic Palms is one of the oldest civil distinctions of France. It was originally instituted by Napolean in 1808 to honour eminent members of the University of France.

King Abdul Aziz Medal

India’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Talmiz Ahmad has become the first Indian diplomat to be conferred the King Abdul Aziz Medal of First Class for his contribution towards elevating Indo-Saudi ties, the honour was bestowed upon him at Jeddah by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal. 

Magasaysay Award

Two Indians Harish Hande and Neelima Mishra - are among the five individuals and one organisation cho-sen for the 2011 Ramon Magsaysay Awards, considered Asia’s highest honour. Hande has been recognized for “his passionate and pragmatic efforts to put solar power technology in the hands of the poor, through a social enterprise that brings customised, affordable, and sustainable electricity to India’s vast rural populace, encouraging the poor to become asset creators”. He established Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO) in Bangalore in 1995.

Mishra has been chosen for “her purpose-driven zeal to work tirelessly with villagers in Maharashtra. The others chosen for the honour are Hasanain Juaini of Indonesia, who set up an Islamic school for girls in Indoneisa, Koul Panha for his leadership of a campaign for a vilant citizenry who will ensure fair and free elections in Cambodia and Tri Mumpuni of Indonesia for her efforts to promote micro hydropower technology.

Miss China crowned Miss World 2012

In a glittering ceremony held at the Dongsheng Stadium Wenxia YU of China won the title of Miss World 2012.  In a record breaking event 116 contestants represented their countries on the world stage. It was the second time a Miss China contestant was awarded the title. The last time was in 2007 when Zhang Zilin took the honor. The 23-year-old Ms. Yu is a music student who said she wants to become a music teacher. Femina Miss India managed to win the Seventh position.