Awards & Honours - Current Affairs for April, 2017

President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Jnanpith award on eminent Bengali poet Sankha Ghosh here.

Ghosh, a poet and critique par excellence, a teacher of reputation, a Sahitya Akademi (1977) and Padma Bhushan awardee, is professor of Bengali and an authority in his own right on the works of Rabindranath Tagore.

He represents the fluid brilliance that characterises India's multifarious literary genius.

The selection board noted that his poetic idiom and experiments with various poetic forms mark his greatness as a creative talent.

They also observed that Ghosh's poetry, while conveying messages, have remained free from polemics.

His works include Adim Lata-Gulmomay, Murkho Baro Samajik Noy or Baborer Prarthana, to name a few.

The award, by Bharatiya Jnanpith, recognises Indian litterateurs who write in one of the 22 Indian languages listed in schedule eight of the Constitution.

Bollywood star Aamir Khan broke his record of not being part of any awards functions when he attended the Master Dinananth Mangeshkar Awards ceremony in Mumbai on 23^rd April, 2017.

He received a special award given to the city’s eminent personalities in various fields from RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.

Aamir was selected for the recognition for the success of his film Dangal, one of the biggest hits of 2016.

Aamir reportedly attended the Master Dinanath Mangeshkar Awards after singer Lata Mangeshkar invited him.

The event also commemorated Dinanath Mangeshkar’s 75th death anniversary.

Kapil Dev was given the award for his outstanding contribution to the Indian cricket.

Legendary actress Vyjayanthimala Bali was honoured with Master Dinanath Vishesh Puraskar for her achievements in Hindi cinema.

Other Awardees

• Kishore Deshpande, presented with Anadmayee Puraskar for his work in social service, Vishwanath Karad, Founder, Vishwashanti Kendra, presented with Samarpit Jeevan Puraskar,
• Vijaya Rajadhyaksha, conferred with Vagvilasini Puraskar for her work in literature.
• Uday Nirgudkar received an award for his editorial work
• Kaushiki Chakraborty for her endeavour in the field of music.
• ‘Mohan Wagh Award’ for best drama was presented to Sunil Barve for Amar Photo Studio - Subak Sanstha.

Vani Jairam, the versatile playback singer in the South Indian film industry, was presented with the Ghantasala national award on 23 April 2017 at a function held in Andhra Pradesh.

The award is instituted by the Ghantasala National Art Academy in Andhra Pradesh.

The 71-year-old singer received the award from A. Ramalingeswara Rao, a High court judge in Andhra Pradesh and R Ananda Bhaskar, Rajya Sabha member from the INC party.

Award was in the name of legendary singer Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao who ruled the Telugu film music industry for over three decades.

The Telugu film ‘Sankarabharanam’ won her the National Film Award in Telugu in 1980.

Vani Jairam: Know More

• Vani Jairam is fondly called as Meera of modern India.
• She started her singing career in 1971 and has completed over four decades in the industry. She has done playback singing for over 1000 movies and recorded over 10000 songs.
• In addition, she has recorded over thousands of devotional songs and private albums and also participated in numerous solo concerts in India as well as abroad.
• Besides Hindi and Telugu, she has sung in several other Indian languages including Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Kannada, Gujarati and Bengali.
• She has won the National Film award for Best Female Playback singer thrice and has also received several state government awards from states such as Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. She was honoured with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement award in 2012.
• She will be receiving the North American Film Award for Best Singer for Malayalam film ‘Pookkal Panineer’ in July 2017 at an event in New York City.

Social activist Prafulla Samantra was announced one among six winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize for his 12-year legal battle that affirmed the indigenous Dongria Kondh’s land rights and protected the Niyamgiri Hills from a massive, open-pit aluminum ore mine.

The other five winners for this year are: Mark Lopez (United States); Uroš Macerl (Slovenia); Rodrigo Tot (Guatemala); Rodrigue Katembo (Democratic Republic of Congo); and Wendy Bowman (Australia).

Prafulla Samantra is a trained lawyer and has been involved in activism since the Jayprakash Narayan-movement.

He was an iconic leader responsible for rallying tribes in Niyamgiri region of Odisha and made use of legal provisions to block mining-to-metals conglomerate Vedanta from setting up a bauxite mine there.

Samantara was the first citizen to use law to halt the mining operations of Vedanta. As a result of his efforts, the company has been forced to suspend mining of bauxite from that region.

In August 2015, Vedanta announced the closure of its aluminium refinery in that region.

Samantara is only the sixth Indian to win the prize after Medha Patkar, M.C. Mehta, Rasheeda Bi, Champaran Shukla and Ramesh Agrawal since 1990 when the award was first instituted.

Goldman Environmental Prize

• This prize was created in 1990.
• It is to honour grassroots environmentalists undertaking risk to their lives for the cause of protecting the environment.
• The award is given to six persons, one from six geographical regions of the world, namely, Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South & Central America.

Chitra Productions in association with Dadasaheb Phalke Excellence Awards 2017 celebrated the 148th birth anniversary of the father of Indian Cinema, the respected Dadasaheb Phalke.

This year, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan won the award for the best actress female for her stellar performance in the film “Sarabjit”.

Hema Malini won the Award in the category of Kala Shree. Veteran Zeenat Aman walked the stage to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Soojit Sircar bagged Creative Director Award for “Pink”, along with Rohit Roy, who bagged the Best Negative Role in Film for “Kaabil”.

Veteran filmmaker and actor Kasinadhuni Viswanath is the winner of the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award for 2016.

The award consists of a Swarn Kamal (Golden Lotus), a cash prize of Rs. 10 lakhs and a shawl.

The award shall be conferred by the President of India at a function on May 3, 2017 at Vigyan Bhawan.

He has also been awarded 5 National Awards, 20 Nandi Awards (awarded by the State Government of Andhra Pradesh), 10 Filmfare Awards including Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dadasaheb Phalke Award: Know More

• The award is conferred by the Union Government for outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian Cinema.
• The Award was established in 1969 to commemorate the birth centenary year of father of Indian cinema, Dadasaheb Phalke.
• It is the highest official recognition (award) in Indian cinema.
• It is given on the basis of recommendations of a committee of eminent personalities set up by the government.
• Devika Rani was the first recipient of this award.

Following a victory at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival, actor Rajkummar Rao says his film Newton has won the Jury Prize for Best Film at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

The festival started on April 11, and will go on till April 25.

"Newton" is Amit Masurkar's second film after "Sulemani Keeda" in 2014.

The film had its world premiere at Berlinale, and won the Art Cinema award for the Forum section there.

The film also went to 16th Annual Tribeca Film Festival.

Also starring Anjali Patel, Newton, a political black comedy, revolves around a clerk placed on election duty in a conflict-ridden area of Chhattisgarh.

The film is produced by Manish Mundra of Drishyam Films, company best known for bankrolling critically-acclaimed projects such as Masaan, Ankhon Dekhi and Umrika.

Minister of State (IC) for Labour & Employment Bandaru Dattatreya awarded NSCI Safety Awards 2016 to 70 Organisations at a function held in New Delhi.

In addition, 12 client organizations from Construction Sector were also awarded.

The Award was granted to the organisations under four categories: SarvaShreshtha Suraksha Puraskar, Shreshtha Suraksha Puraskar, Suraksha Puraskar PrashansaPatra.

In Manufacturing Sector, Indian Oil’s Digboi refinery, National Fertilizers, Panipat, and NPCIL, Kaiga Generating Station 3 and 4, Karnataka, are the winners.

In Construction Sector, Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd. And L&T Ltd., Rawatbhata, Chittorgarh has been selected for its works on NPCIL Atomic Power Project, Rajasthan.

In MSME Sector, Electricals & Electronics, Thane, has won SarvaShreshtha Suraksha Puraskar for the year 2016.

National Fertilizers Ltd. Panipat has achieved a massive 49.67 million accident-free man-hours spread over 11 years and 5 months.

The Government framed the National Policy on Occupational Safety, Health and Environment in 2009.

As many changes have taken place in national as well as international arena, the government has constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee to review the national policy.

National Safety Council: Know More

• It is a self-supporting non- profit autonomous society coming under the purview of Ministry of Labour and Employment.
• It has been conducting award schemes for three sectors- Manufacturing Sector since 1998; Construction Sector from 2005 and Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises from 2009.
• The main objective of the NSCI award scheme is to recognise organisations that have made meritorious performance in achieving occupational safety and health (OSH) and implemented effective OSH management systems, practices and procedures.

The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has selected Tripura for the Krishi Karman Award 2015-16.

This is for commendable increase in food grain production in small category states.

Tripura gets this national award for the second time.

The northeastern state first received the award in the 2009-10 fiscal.

For total food grain production, Tamil Nadu gets the award in large category (production more than 10 million tonnes), Himachal Pradesh in medium category (1 to 10 million tonnes) and Tripura in small category (less than 1 million tonnes).

Each award-winning state would receive a trophy, a citation and cash award of INR five crore at a function in New Delhi.

Tripura: Know More

• Capital: Agartala
• Districts: 8
• Formation: 21 January 1972
• Population: 3.658 million (2012)
• Main Languages: Hindi, Kokborok, Meitei language, Odia

UNESCO has awarded its Peace Prize to Giuseppina/ Giusi Nicolini, the mayor of the Italian island of Lampedusa.

This is for her commitment to saving the lives of migrants and refugees.

Nicolini saved thousands who fled across Mediterranean on boats in search of a better life.

Lampedusa is a first European landfall for people fleeing war and economic hardship in Middle East and Africa.

Since 2012, mayor Nicolini has defended refugee and migrant rights.

The UNESCO Peace Prize jury recognised Nicolini for boundless humanity and commitment to refugee crisis management and integration in response to thousands of refugees on Lampedusa shores.

Nearly 13,000 women, men and children have perished in shipwrecks since 2013.

A total of 8,360 migrants have been rescued between April 14 –16 in Mediterranean and around 32,800 people have been brought to land since the start of 2017, as per the International Organisation for Migration.

At least 900 migrants have either perished or gone missing to cross the Mediterranean according to IOM's missing migrants project.

Nicolini leads a population of 6,500 residents on the Italian island 20 square miles.

The Jury of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize also decided to award the nongovernmental organization SOS Méditerranée (France) for their work to save the lives of refugees and migrants and welcome them with dignity.

Since becoming mayor in 2012, Giuseppina Nicolini has been recognized for her boundless humanity and unwavering commitment to refugee crisis management and integration.

This is in response to the arrival of thousands of refugees on the shores of Lampedusa and elsewhere in Italy.

SOS Méditerranée is a civic, European organization for the rescue of people in distress in the Mediterranean.

Since launching its rescue operation in February 2016, the organization has saved more than 11,000 lives.

The Jury also appealed to the international community to ensure that the Mediterranean Sea becomes, once again, a place where solidarity and intercultural dialogue hold importance.

The Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize was created in 1989 to honour individuals or public and private bodies or institutions that have made a significant contribution to promoting, seeking, safeguarding or maintaining peace.

This is in conformity with the United Nations’ Charter and the Constitution of UNESCO.

Past Laureates of the Prize

• French President François Hollande
• Nelson Mandela
• Frederik W. De Klerk
• Yitzhak Rabin
• Shimon Peres
• Yasser Arafat
• King Juan Carlos of Spain
• Former US President, Jimmy Carter

Global IT services provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been recognized by Oracle as its "Integrated Cloud Partner of the Year" in the UK and Ireland.

Over the last five years, TCS has strategically invested and pivoted toward Oracle Cloud to help its clients transform their businesses.

TCS was recently recognised as an "Oracle Cloud Elite Partner", received several "Oracle Excellence Awards.”

For a fifth consecutive year, TCS was ranked a leader in "Magic Quadrant for Worldwide Oracle Application Management Services" by Gartner in 2016.

Oracle: Know More

• Headquarters: Redwood City, California, United States
• Subsidiaries: NetSuite, Dyn, Art Technology Group, Taleo, Endeca.
• Founders: Larry Ellison, Ed Oates, Bob Miner

An Indian environmental engineer has won this year’s prestigious ‘Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards’ here for providing women working on farms with water management solutions and protecting small farmers against droughts and flash floods.

Trupti Jain, 46, was one among the six winners chosen for the Asia-Pacific laureate from a pool of nearly 1,900 applicants from over 120 countries and were selected by an independent international jury.

Each recipient receives a USD 100,000 prize money as well as a year of mentoring.

Jain, an Indian government employee for two decades in the rural development, has worked for women farmers whose work frequently go unrecognised.

Jain started Naireeta Services in 2013, providing handmade water management solutions that enable small farmers to filter and store rainwater underground to protect them against droughts and flash floods.

Her Gujarat-based company has already implemented 232 systems in India, directly benefiting 18,000 small farmers and indirectly helping more than 100,000 of the rural poor.

Five other winners, representing Latin America, North America, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa, were also honoured at the awards ceremony.

Chairperson of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority, New Delhi, Rayappa Ramappa Hanchinal, has been chosen for the sixth Dr. M.S. Swaminathan Award.

This is of the retired Indian Council for Agricultural Research Employees’ Association and Nuziveedu Seeds Limited.

The Swaminathan award, conferred biennially on eminent Indian scientists who worked on Indian agriculture and allied sectors, carries a cash prize of INR. 2 lakh, a medal and citation.

Dr. Hanchinal had earlier served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agricultural Sciences at Dharwad in Karnataka.

He has been associated with the Government of Indonesia as an advisor for development of field crop research and instrumental in organising commercial seed industry in West Africa while serving as seed production specialist for USAID and ICRISAT.

President of the association M. V. R. Prasad said there were 21 nominations for the award which were scrutinised by a selection committee of six members.

Mahavir Singh Phogat, a real life hero and father of wrestler Geeta Phoghat, along with Apollo Hospital founder Prathap C Reddy, won Ficci’s gender parity award for their contribution in harnessing the talents of their daughters.

Phogat was accompanied by his Commonwealth Games gold medal winner daughter Geeta at the event.

This marked the launch of the country’s first gender parity index by Ficci’s Ladies Organisation (FLO), which will

Leading film director Farha Khan, fashion designer Anita Dongre, HDFC managing director Renu Sud Karnad and Hindustan Times group chairperson Shobhana Bhartia also got the Ficci Ladies Organisation ICON awards.

Gender equality is intrinsically linked to sustainable development.

While the Constitution grants all citizens equality of status and opportunity, social and economic development indicators show that we are far from attaining gender parity.

World Bank data show female labour force participation rates have fallen over the past three decades from 35% in 1990 to 27% in 2014.

To achieve gender parity, men and women must have access to the same resources and the same opportunities.

FICCI: Know More

• Members: over 250,000 companies
• Headquarters: New Delhi
• Founder: Ghanshyam Das Birla
• Founded: 1927
• Employees: 500

In a major boost to Himachal Pradesh’s Congress government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday conferred ‘Krishi Karman Award.”

This is for its landmark achievement in showing highest production of food grains in year 2014-15, despite adverse weather conditions and rain-fed farming in the state.

The award was received by Agriculture Minister Sujan Singh Pathania, who led a team of senior officers including Additional Chief Secretary (Agri) Upma Chawdhry.

The award consists a trophy, citation and cash amount of rupees one crore.

The Union Ministry of Agriculture had selected Himachal Pradesh for the award under total food grains category-II of the Krishi Karman Award.

During last three years, total food grains production had increased to from 15.41 lakh in 2011-12 to 16.73 lakh tonnes in 2014-15.

The department had also done commendable work in promoting poly-house cultivation, micro-irrigation, organic farming and soil health management.

This feat has been achieved due to dedicated efforts of Agriculture Department in extending technological inputs and services to the farmers.

Himachal Pradesh: Know More

• Area: 55,673 km^²
• Capital: Shimla
• Population: 6.856 million (2012)
• Chief minister: Virbhadra Singh
• Language: Hindi

Malala Yousafzai is using her honorary Canadian citizenship to call on the country’s leaders to take real action to improve educational opportunities for girls.

The teenage Nobel prize winner spoke to the Canadian Parliament after becoming an honorary citizen on April 12, 2017.

She asked lawmakers to make education for girls a top priority when it hosts the G7 summit next year.

Ms. Yousafzai was 15 when she shot in the head by Taliban militants in Pakistan in 2012.

She was targeted due to her advocacy for women’s education.

She was originally scheduled to receive the honour on Oct. 22, 2014, but the ceremony was cancelled after a gunman attacked Canada’s Parliament Hill that day.

Canada: Know More

• Capital: Ottawa
• Dialing code: +1
• Currency: Canadian dollar
• Prime minister: Justin Trudeau
• Population: 35.16 million (2013) World Bank

Central Hindi Institute Director N.K. Pandey on 11th April 2017 announced the names of 26 writers from different categories for the prestigious Hindi Sevi Samman Awards.

The awardees will receive Rs 5 lakh each, a citation and a shawl from President Pranab Mukherjee at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in May 2017.

The Ganesh Shankar Vidhyarthi Award for Hindi journalism will be awarded to Rahul Dev and Baldev Bhai Sharma.

Professor S. Shesharatnam (Andhra Pradesh), M. Govind Rajan (Tamil Nadu), Harmahendra Singh Bedi (Punjab) and H. Subadani Devi (Manipur) have been selected from non-Hindi speaking states for their contribution to the Hindi language.

International Hindi writers selected for the award are Professor Fujii Takeshi (Japan) and Professor Gabriela Nik Ilieva (New York).

Non-Resident Indians (NRI) who get the awards are Pushpita Avasthi (Netherlands) and Padmesh Gupt (London).

The Union Human Resource Development Ministry instituted the Hindi Sevi Samman in 1989.

More than a hundred Hindi writers have received the prestigious awards till now.

Central Hindi Institute: Know More

• Kendriya Hindi Sansthan is an autonomous apex organization.
• It was set up by the Ministry of Education and Social Welfare of the Government of India on 19th March, 1960.
• It is being run by the Shikshan Mandal under the overall control of Ministry of Human Resource Development.
• The head office of the organisation is located in the historical city of Agra.
• The regional offices are spread in five different parts of the country- Delhi, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Shillong and Mysore.
• The extension centre of the organization is in Bhubaneswar.
• The organisation is entrusted with the responsibility of teaching Hindi language to the non-Hindi speaking population of our country in order to propagate it as their second language.

17 Pulitzer Prizes were announced on 10 April 2017 by Pulitzer Prize Administrator Mike Pride in at Columbia University in New York.

The announcement marks the 101st year of prizes.

The awards were announced in 21 categories and they include Letters, Drama & Music and Journalism.

The novel titled The Underground Railroad authored by Colson Whitehead won the Pulitzer Prize in the fiction segment. In 2016, the novel had received the National Book Award of the US.

This marks the first time in more than 20 years that the same work won the Pulitzer and National Book Award for fiction.

The novel Underground Railroad is about an escaped slave that combined liberating imagination and brutal reality.

More than 2,500 entries were submitted this year, competing for 21 prizes. Seven of the awards recognize fiction, drama, history, biographies, poetry, general nonfiction and music.

Complete list of winners:

2017 Pulitzer prizes for Journalism

• The Prize established in 1917 is awarded for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States.
• It was established by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher and is administered by Columbia University in NY City.
• Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories of which 20 winners are awarded a certificate and a cash award.
• The winner in the public service category of the reporting/journalism competition is awarded a gold medal.

An Indian-origin educationist Asha Khemka in the UK, who moved to Britain after her marriage with no English language skills, has been named the Asian Businesswoman of the Year.

65-year-old Dame Asha Khemka, Principal and CEO of West Nottinghamshire College, was honoured for her efforts in the field of education and skills at the Asian Business Awards ceremony.

Born in Bihars Sitamarhi district, Dame Khemka left school after passing her exams at the age of 13.

She had close to no English language skills when she moved to the UK with her husband and kids at the age of 25.

She taught herself English by watching children's TV shows and talking to other young mothers.

She went on to acquire a business degree from Cardiff University before becoming a lecturer and eventually taking over as principal and CEO of West Nottinghamshire College, one of the largest in the UK.

In 2013, she was awarded a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, one of Britain`s highest civilian awards.

The mother-of-three was the first Indian-origin Dame since Maharani Lakshmi Devi Bai Sahiba of Dhar State in 1931.

India Today Group Editorial Director Kalli Purie was today awarded the FICCI Young Women Achievers Award for excellence in media.

Union minister Smriti Irani gave away the awards in Delhi this evening at the annual programme of Young FICCI Ladies Organisation (YFLO) at Hotel Lalit.

The award was conferred to outstanding women achievers who have excelled in their respective fields and made a significant contribution to society.

The primary objective of these awards conferred every year is to promote entrepreneurship and professional excellence in women.

Young women under the age of 45 are chosen from diverse fields and are felicitated through these awards.

Other awardees included:

• Sussanne Khan (Entrepreneur),
• Simran Lal (Business),
• Shaina NC (Politics),
• Deepa Malik (Sports),
• Chiki Sarkar (Literature),
• Malvika Poddar (Fashion),
• Gauri Shinde (Film),
• Preeti Chandra (Community Service),
• Bhavna Kakkar (Art) and
• Vidha Lal (Performing Arts).

Atu Zumvu, SDPO Kohima has been conferred with the prestigious “Shaurya Chakra” thus becoming the first Police Officer from Nagaland Police to be conferred with Shaurya Chakra.

This is the first time since 1st December 1963 when Nagaland achieved its Statehood.

Besides this award, Atu Zumvu was earlier awarded with US special agent medal (2013), India Cyber Cop award (2011) Governor Gold Medal (2009) and Governor Commendation Certificate in 2005.

Zumvu thanked the President as well as his nominators for considering his achievement and contributions worthy of the medal.

Nagaland: Know More

• Founded: November 30, 1963, 3:00 PM GMT-8
• Land area: 16,579 km^²
• Formation: 1 December 1963†
• Districts: 11
• Population: 2.275 million (2012)
• Capitals: Kohima, Guwahati (Judiciary)

NTR National Awards for the years 2012 and 2013 at the Film Development Corporation office in Hyderabad were awarded to popular playback singer, actor and music director S.P. Balasubramanyam has got the NTR National Award for 2012, while Hema Malini will receive the same for 2013.

The Award is an annual Government award to recognise people for their lifetime achievements and contributions to the Cinema of India.

Together with the NTR National Award, the committee also announced the winners of the Ragupathi Venkaiah, B N Reddy and Nagireddy-Chakrapani awards.

NTR: Know More

• Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (28 May 1923 – 18 January 1996), popularly known as NTR, was an Indian actor, filmmaker, director, editor and politician.
• He served as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for seven years over three terms
• NTR has received three National Film Awards for co-producing Thodu Dongalu (1954) and Seetharama Kalyanam (1960) under National Art Theater, Madras, and directing Varakatnam (1970). NTR has received the erstwhile Rashtrapati Awards for his performance(s) in the films Raju Peda (1954), and Lava Kusa (1963)
• He garnered the Nandi Award for Best Actor for Kodalu Diddina Kapuram in 1970, and the Inaugural Filmfare Award for Best Actor - Telugu in 1972 for Badi Panthulu.

The 64th National Film Awards were announced on 7th April 2017. Sonam Kapoor and Akshay Kumar were among the big winners.

While Sonam’s Neerja was declared the Best Hindi Film of 2016, Rustom won Akshay Kumar the Best Actor award.

Over 300 films vied for the honours this year.

The process to choose the best from Indian cinema began in mid-March.

Filmmaker Priyadarshan was the chairperson of the jury in feature films category, while nationally acclaimed cinematographer and writer Raju Misra was the chairperson in non-feature category.

List of Complete Winners

Berners-Lee who invented the World Wide Web is this year’s recipient of the A.M. Turing Award, computing’s version of the Nobel Prize.

He is 61.

The award, announced by the Association for Computing Machinery, marks another pinnacle for the British native, who has already been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and named as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th Century by Time magazine

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the organization that awards the $1 million prize, announced the Turing Award winner earlier this week.

The computer science rockstar has picked up more than a dozen major prizes and honorific titles over the years; for instance, he's earned a place in the Internet Hall of Fame and has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

That invention not only transformed the world in unimaginable ways but was also a technically and conceptually challenging feat, ACM noted.

Berners-Lee invented the unique system for locating data on the web (such as the now-ubiquitous URLs that help users navigate to a specific page).

He also created early versions of web browsers and envisioned the way all of these conceptual pieces would fit together,

Berners-Lee began his work on the invention of the World Wide Web in response to a practical problem: Back in 1989, physicists at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), home of the largest atom smasher in the world, were having trouble sharing their data.

Berners-Lee earned a physics degree from the University of Oxford in 1976.

He was at a series of companies before winding up at CERN and, in 1994, founded the World Wide Web Consortium.

WW Consortium is dedicated to making common guidelines and standards for all things internet-related.

Timothy Berners Lee: Know More

• Born: 8 June 1955,
• London, United Kingdom
• Awards: Internet Hall of Fame, Royal Medal, more
• Important Books: Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by its Inventor.
• Education: The Queen's College, Oxford (1973–1976), Emanuel School (1969–1973)

Dawit Isaak, an imprisoned Eritrean-Swedish journalist, on 30 March 2017 was chosen to receive the 2017 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.

Isaak was chosen for the prestigious award in recognition of his courage, resistance and commitment to freedom of expression.

The journalist was arrested in a crackdown on the media that occurred in September 2001. His present location is unknown.

The Prize will be awarded on 3 May 2017, World Press Freedom Day, to be hosted in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Born on 28 October 1964, Dawit Isaak is a Swedish-Eritrean playwright, journalist and writer.

He moved to Sweden in 1987, where he later became a citizen and went into self-imposed exile.

After the independence of Eritrea, he returned to his homeland to become one of the founders and reporters of Setit, the first independent newspaper in the country.

He has been held in prison in Eritrea since 2001 without trial and is considered a traitor by the Eritrean government.

Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience and has called for his immediate and unconditional release.

Freedom Prize: Know More

• The UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize was created by UNESCO’s Executive Board in 1997.
• The award honours a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and, or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, and especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger.
• The Prize is named in honour of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist who was assassinated in 1986.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu was conferred with One more Prestigious Award. US - India Business Council conferred ‘USIBC Transformative Chief Minister’.

The Council Chairman Johan Chambers extended an invitation to Naidu to deliver a keynote address at the Second Annual West Coast Summit.

More than 150 Representatives of various Technology Giant Companies will be attending this Summit.

He will be receiving the award at the second annual West Coast Summit to be held in Menlo Park, California on May 8.

He has been requested to deliver his message on the occasion and a message towards award function has been received by the CMO.

AP: Know More

• Area: 160,205 km^²
• Founded: 1 October 1953
• Population: 49.67 million (2011)
• Capitals: Hyderabad, Amaravati

Indian Women’s T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur has been given Sydney Thunder’s Women’s Player of the Year award for the second season of the Women’s Big Bash League.

Pat Cummins, who was brought in a replacement for Mitchell Starc during Australia’s tour of India, after the Ranchi Test, won the Michael Hussey Medal for the Best Men’s Player of the Year award for the Men’s Sydney Thunder franchise.

28-year-old Kaur became the first ever Indian cricketer to be picked by a Big Bash League franchise, when the Sydney Thunder picked her in their squad.

Kaur’s selection was soon followed by that of Smriti Mandhana, who was picked by the Brisbane Heat, later in the year.

During her time with the Thunder, Kaur played in 13 matches and scored 296 runs at a very, very impressive average of 59 and a strike-rate 116.

She also slammed the joint-second most number of sixes in the competition and also hit 17 fours during her stint.

Harmanpreet Kaur: Know More

• Born: 8 March 1989 Moga
• Nationality: Indian
• Current team: India women's national cricket team
• Date joined: 7 March 2009 (India women's national cricket team)
• Odi shirt number: 84