Awards & Honours - Current Affairs for April, 2016

Riyad Mahrez on 24th April 2016 became the first African footballer to win the Professional Footballers Association’s (PFA) Player of the Year award for the 2015–16 season. With the award, Mahrez also became the second non-European, after Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez, to grab the award. Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli was named Young Player of the Year.

Jeje Lalpekhlua was named the Football Players Association of India Indian Player of the Year award at a Mumbai function. Nigerian striker Ranti Martins was named Foreign Player of the Year

• Manipur born Udanta Singh bagged the Young Player of the Year Award
• Bengaluru FC coach Ashley Westwood won the Coach of the Year award
• Debijit Majumdar was named Fans player of the year.

A Burundian activist credited with saving thousands of children's lives during a 12-year ethnically charged civil war is the first recipient of a new humanitarian prize called Aurora Award for awakening humanity presented by Hollywood actor and campaigner George Clooney.

• Marguerite Barankitse, a former teacher, founded the Maison Shalom (the house of peace) orphanage in eastern Burundi in 1993 to house a growing number of children orphaned during the conflict that devastated the country until 2005.
• The award was presented as the small central African country faces its worst crisis since the civil war ended with hundreds killed and thousands forced to flee abroad.
• Armenia based 100 Lives has instituted the award

Bollywood actress Radhika Apte on 22 nd April 2016 bagged the best actress in an international narrative feature honour at Tribeca Film Festival 2016 for her performance in anthology film Madly.

• Apte starred in clean shaven part of the anthology
• Other winners are listed below:

U.S. Narrative Feature Competition Categories:
The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature – Dean, written and directed by Demteri Martin.
Best Actor in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film –Dominic Rains in The Fixer.
Best Actress in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film – Mackenzie Davis in Always Shine.
Best Cinematography in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film – Cinematography by Michael Ragen for Kicks.
Best Screenplay in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film – Women Who Kill written by Ingrid Jungermann.

International Narrative Feature Competition Categories:
The Best International Narrative Feature – Junction 48, written and directed by Udi Aloni.
Best Actor in an International Narrative Feature Film –Alan Sabbagh in The Tenth Man.
Best Cinematography in an International Narrative Feature Film – Cinematography by Kjell Vassdal for El Clasico.
Best Screenplay in an International Narrative Feature Film – Perfect Strangers written by Filippo Bologna, Paolo Costella, Paolo Genovese, Paola Mammini, and Rolando Ravello.

World Documentary Competition Categories:
Best Documentary Feature – Do Not Resist, directed by Craig Atkinson (USA).
Best Documentary Cinematography – Cinematography by Jarred Alterman for Contemporary Color (USA).
Best Documentary Editing – Editing by Bill Ross for Contemporary Color (USA).

Directing Awards:
Best New Narrative Director Award — Priscilla Anany, director of Children of the Mountain (USA, Ghana).
Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award — David Feige for Untouchable (USA)

Short Film Competition Categories:
Best Narrative Short – Hold On (Houvast), directed by Charlotte Scott-Wilson (Netherlands).
Best Documentary Short – Extremis directed by Dan Krauss (USA).
Student Visionary Award – Ping Pong Coach, directed by Yi Liu. (Taiwan R.O.C., USA).

Storyscapes Award
Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness created by Arnaud Colinart, Amaury La Burthe, Peter Middleton, and James Spinney. Winner receives 10000 US dollars, presented by AT&T.

The Nora Ephron Prize
Rachel Tunnard, director, writer and editor of Adult Life Skills (UK).

Tribeca X Award
Hearing Colors created by Greg Brunkalla for Samsung.

Teams from BITS Pilani, IIT Bombay and Varanasi were announced winners for the 2nd edition of Ericsson Innovation Awards India. The three winning teams will be given INR 13 lakh for incubating the winning projects at an IIT approved technology business incubator

• Projects were submitted by students in areas such as web design, cloud computing, storage and networking, man machine interface, MIMO or multiple input multiple output, IoT, software defined networking, open source, signal processing, graphics and visualisation as well as research.

14 scholars receive this award in seven different categories every year for their contribution in the field of Hindi language and literature. Ge Fuping was among over 30 international and Indian scholars that were honoured by President Pranab Mukherjee for their effort in promoting Hindi language.

• The President presented them with the Hindi Sevi Samman awards for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014.
• The Hindi Sevi Samman Awards were instituted by Central Hindi Institute, Agra in 1989.

President Pranab Mukherjee on 19th April 2016 honoured the Chinese professor Ge Fuping with the George Grierson prize for his remarkable works done for the propagation of Hindi abroad.

• Besides him, Alka Dunputh (from Mauritius) and Shichiro Soma (from Japan) were also given the George Grierson award by the President.
• These awards were instituted by Central Hindi Institute, Agra in 1989.

Novak Djokovic pipped the likes of Usain Bolt and Lionel Messi to win the ‘Sportsman of the Year’ trophy for a third time

• Serena Williams clinched the top honour in the women’s category at the Laureus World Awards in Berlin.
• Djokovic, who won this award in 2012 and ’15, walked away with it for a second successive time after clinching three Grand Slams – Australian, Wimbledon and US Open – last year.
• He was also the finalist in the French Open.
• Messi, who had been nominated for a fifth time, once again lost out on the top award.

The winners in the 2016 Laureus World Sports Awards

• Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award: Novak Djokovic (Tennis)
• Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award: Serena Williams (Tennis)
• Laureus World Team of the Year Award: All Blacks (Rugby)
• Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award: Jordan Spieth (Golf)
• Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award: Dan Carter (Rugby)
• Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability: Daniel Dias (swimming)
• Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year: Jan Frodeno (Ironman Triathlon)
• The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation patrons Daimler and Richmond established this award in 1999. It was supported by its global partners Mercedes-Benz and IWC Schaffhausen.

The Pulitzer Prize is an awarded to persons from newspaper and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States.
- It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of American Joseph Pulitzer who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher
- It is administered by Columbia University in New York City.

The 2016 Pulitzer Prize Winners

• National Reporting
• The Washington Post Staff
• International Reporting – Alissa J. Rubin of The New York Times
• Feature Writing – Kathryn Schulz of The New Yorker
• Commentary – Farah Stockman of The Boston Globe
• Criticism – Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker
• Editorial Writing – John Hackworth of Sun Newspapers, Charlotte Harbor, FL
• Editorial Cartooning – Jack Ohman The Sacramento Bee
• Breaking News Photography – Mauricio Lima, Sergey Ponomarev, Tyler Hicks and Daniel Etter of The New York Times, Photography Staff of Thomson Reuters
• Feature Photography – Jessica Rinaldi of The Boston Globe
• Public Service – Associated Press
• Breaking News Reporting – Los Angeles Times Staff
• Investigative Reporting – Leonora LaPeter Anton and Anthony Cormier of the Tampa Bay Times and Michael Braga of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune
• Explanatory Reporting – T. Christian Miller of ProPublica and Ken Armstrong of The Marshall Project
• Local Reporting – Michael LaForgia, Cara Fitzpatrick and Lisa Gartner of the Tampa Bay Times
• History – Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America by T.J. Stiles (Alfred A. Knopf)
• Biography – Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan (Penguin Press)
• Poetry – Ozone Journal by Peter Balakian (University of Chicago Press)
• Fiction – The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Grove Press)
• Drama – Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda
• Nonfiction – Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick (Doubleday)
• Music – In for a Penny, In for a Pound by Henry Threadgill (Pi Recordings)

Author and poet Padma Sachdev on 12 April 2016 was selected for the prestigious Saraswati Samman for 2015 for her autobiography titled Chitt-Chete, written in Dogri language.

• The book, published in 2007, links the personal trials and tribulations of the author with issues concerning society.
• The Jammu born poet is the first lady poet of modern orientation in the Dogri language.
• Some of the poetry collections she has published include “Meri Kavita Mere Geet” which has won the 1971 Sahitya Akademi Award.

COAS General Joginder Jaswant Singh was conferred conferred the highest French civilian honour, Officier de l Ordre national de la Legion d Honneur (Officer of the Legion of Honour).

• This is the highest civilian award given for outstanding service to France regardless of recipient’s nationality.
• The Legion d’Honneur was established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte and has the following degrees- Chevalier, Officer, Commandeur, Grand Officier, Grand’Croix

Indian tennis star Sania Mirza was conferred with Padma Bhushan at a glittering investiture at Rashtrapati Bhavan on April 12th 2016 for her contribution to the game.

• Sania and her partner Swiss legend Martina Hingis took the tennis world by storm for much of last year with a 41-match winning streak
• The Indo-Swiss pair won 10 titles together, including nine consecutive ones and three grand slams namely the Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open
• Sania is the fourth Indian tennis ace to receive this award. Vijay Amritraj and Ramanathan Krishana as well as Laender Paes have won the Padma Bhushan as well as the Padma Shri.
• President Pranab Mukherjee presented remaining of the Padma Awards on 12 April 2016 at a Civil Investiture Ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. He conferred 5 Padma Vibhushan, 11 Padma Bhushan and 40 Padma Shri awards.

Padma Vibhushan

• Dr Vasudeva Kalkunte Aatre
• Dr Girija Devi
• Rajanikanth
• Ramoji Rao
• Dr V Shanta

Padma Bhusan

• Ravindra Chandra Bhargava
• Robert Dean Blackwill
• Indu Jain
• Udit Narayan Jha
• Heinam Kanhailal
• Sania Mirza
• Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad
• Dayanada Saraswati (Posthumus)
• Ram Vanji Sutar
• NS Ramanuja Tatacharya
• Swami Tejomayananda

Padma-award-2016
Padma Shri
This included:

• Priyanka Chopra
• Salman Khan
• SS Rajamouli
• Veena Tandon

Mother Teresa has been posthumously conferred with the United Kingdom prestigious Founders Award this year which is awarded for exemplary attainments of people within the global Asian community. Mother Teresa’s living relative, Agi Bojazhiu flew from Italy to receive the award on 9th April.

• Mother Teresa will also be made a saint on September 4, 2016
• She founded the Missionaries of Charity and spent 45 years serving the poor and the sick on the streets of Kolkata
• Leading NRI entrepreneur and philanthrophist Rami Ranger contributed 1,00,000 pounds for the Mahatma Gandhi statue and received the Community Service award for this.
• Awards launched in 2010

President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee on April 5th 2016 presented the National Geoscience Awards 2014 at a Rahstrapati Bhawan function.

• The National Geoscience Award for Excellence was conferred on Prof Ashok Kumar Singhvi
• The award is given to professionally qualified geo scientists, engineers or technologists and academicians with significant contribution in field of earth sciences.

Veteran journalist and writer Babu Bharadwaj passed away following cardiac arrest on April 30th 2016 in Kozhikode at the age of 68. He was a part of the prominent print and television media in Kerala. He won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award in 2006. Other famous works include novelettes and short story collections. The writer has also produced a Malayalam movie.

PEN America on 31st March 2016 announced it will be conferring the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award upon imprisoned novelist and journalist Ahmed Naji.

• This award will be presented on May 16, 2016
• The organisation will also salute Harry Potter creator JK Rowling with the 2016 PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Award for creating a love of literature among children worldwide.

A 66 year old poet in Kosli language, Haldhar Nag was in news in March 2016 after President Pranab Mukherjee on 28 March 2016 conferred Padma Shri 2016 on him at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
He was honoured with contribution in the Literature and Education Section

• In Odisha, he is known as Lok Kabi Ratna and has penned down 20 epics and several poems. He remembers all his creations and can recite them at any point of time.
• He wrote his first poem 'Dhodo Bargachh' (The Old Banyan Tree) in 1990.