General Awareness : Awards-and-Prize - November, 2014

(General Awareness For Bank's Exams) Awards and Prizes

A pioneer of environment education in India, Erach Bharucha, has been named for the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) ‘Earth Hero’ award for this year.
“All of you need to work with conservation, whichever profession you are in. The significance of these awards are that it brings recognition for hotspots of biodiversity and the need for conservation... For conservation to be successful, we need the number of conservation conscious individuals to reach a tipping point and the press and schools are the two mediums which can make this happen,” he said.
Mr. Bharucha is currently the Director of Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University in Pune.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been chosen for one of Japan’s top national awards for his contribution to India-Japan ties, becoming the first Indian to receive the rare honour.
Dr. Singh will be awarded ‘The Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers’ for his “significant contribution to the enhancement of relations and promotion of friendship” between Japan and India for about 35 years, a Japanese Embassy statement said.
It is a “high level National Order” and a rare honour awarded to those who are recognised for their distinguished contribution, it said, adding “Manmohan Singh is the first Indian recipient of this Order.”

The IPI India Award for Excellence in Journalism, 2014, has been awarded jointly to Hindustan Times and The Week for “outstanding journalistic work” during 2013.
Hindustan Times has been chosen for the award for a series of stories it did last year on acid attacks on women, sufferings of the victims and how some of them carried on with the fight. The series culminated in a campaign called “Stop Acid Attacks” to enlist the support of society for the cause.

President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the 49th Jnanpith award upon eminent Hindi poet Kedarnath Singh for his outstanding contribution towards Indian literature.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Mukherjee said Mr. Singh had offered, through his poetry, a rare assimilation of rhymes and lyrical prose, exploring both the realms of reality and fantasy with equal felicity.
“A poet of unique stature, his approach is not only sensitive to modern aesthetics but also to traditional rural communities while at all times being committed to the celebration called life,” the President said.
The Jnanpith award, institutionalised by philanthropist couple Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain and Late Rama Jain, commemorates Indian authors for their contribution to Indian literature.

The Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) has announced the winners of the Science Literature Awards for 2013.
C.P. Aravindakshan, K.V. Mathew, A. Achuthan, Aranmula Hariharaputhran, V.P.N. Namboothiri, and Sasidharan Mangathil won the awards in various categories for their science-related works in Malayalam published in 2013, an official press note quoting KSCSTE Director George Varghese said.

Dilip Vengsarkar who earned the sobriquet ‘colonel’ has been chosen for the BCCI’s Col. C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award for 2013-14.
He will receive a citation, trophy and cheque for Rs. 25 lakh at the BCCI’s eighth annual awards ceremony to be held on November 21.

Champion for girls’ rights Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate in history, won the World’s Children’s Prize, after a global vote involving millions of children.
“Millions of children have voted to award Malala this year’s World’s Children’s Prize for the rights of the child,” the organisation said in a statement.