Awards & Honours - Current Affairs for September, 2017

Eminent scientist, Professor C.N.R Rao, has become the first Asian to be chosen for the prestigious Von Hippel Award for his immense contribution in materials research. The award is the US-based Materials Research Society’s (MRS) highest honour. It recognises “those qualities most prized by materials scientists and engineers - brilliance and originality of intellect, combined with vision that transcends the boundaries of conventional scientific disciplines,”. The award citation noted Mr. Rao’s immense work on:

• novel functional materials, including nanomaterials (having particles of nanoscale dimensions), graphene (the strongest and thinnest material)
• 2D materials,
• superconductivity, and
• colossal magnetoresistance (change in electrical resistance of a material in a magnetic field).

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Engineering Council of India (ECI), felicitated the award winners of “AICTE-ECI Chhatra Vishwakrma Awards” of AICTE approved Degree & Diploma level Technical Institutions/Universities in New Delhi on 19th Sept 2017. The ‘AICTE-ECI Chhatra Vishwakarma Awards’ are an epitome for motivating individuals and institutions/ organizations to raise their performance in their specific domains leading to significant contribution towards the growth & development of the nation. These Awards are given in following categories separately for Degree and Diploma Students (including students from AICTE approved Community College) for providing an innovative solution “To convert existing institutes into smart institute using innovative approaches: 1.Category-I: Outstanding Student Engineers (3 Awards each in Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Electronics Engineering, Computer Science and Biotechnology streams or their allied branches) 2.Category-II: Outstanding Teachers Awards (3 Awards each in Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Electronics Engineering, Computer Science and Biotechnology streams or their allied branches) 3.Category-III: Outstanding Institutions Awards (3 Awards) based on the maximum number of awards won from the above two categories and other criteria. The Council received 965 nominations from teams comprising of 3-4 members in each team. Nominations were received from teams from 23 States. All nominations were further shortlisted based on parameters like - Innovation, Implementability, Cost benefit, Eco friendly, and its Social impact. Total 55 innovative solutions were shortlisted by a Jury comprising experts from Industry and Academia led by eminent industrialist Dr B D Mundhra, Chairman, Simplex Infrastructure out of which 50 ideas are from teams of Degree Level Engineering Colleges and 5 from the teams of Diploma Level Institutes. All 55 Teams comprising of around 250 students and their Mentors also displayed prototype of their ideas for the given problem statement on 19th September, 2017 in AICTE HQs premises. The following are the winners of the Awards:

The dystopian vision of The Handmaid’s Tale, the deeply cynical Washington comedy Veep and the ever-topical ‘Saturday Night Live’ won top series honours 17th Sept 2017 in an Emmy Awards ceremony. “Go home, get to work, we have a lot of things to fight for,” producer Bruce Miller said in accepting the best drama trophy for A Handmaid’s Tale, which also won best drama writing and directing awards and a best actress trophy for Elisabeth Moss. A beaming Margaret Atwood, the Canadian author whose 1985 novel is the show’s source, was onstage. Sterling K. Brown, whose role in This Is Us earned him the top drama series actor trophy, paid tribute to the last African-American man to win in the category, Andre Braugher in 1998 for his role as a police detective in Homicide - Life on the Street. Ms. Moss captured her first Emmy and thanked her mother in a speech that was peppered with expletives, while Ann Dowd won supporting actress honours for A Handmaid’s Tale. Donald Glover won the best comedy actor for Atlanta, which he created and which carries his distinctive voice. Julia Louis-Dreyfus was honoured for a sixth time for her role as a self-absorbed politician in Veep, named best comedy for the third time. Riz Ahmed was honoured as best limited series actor for “The Night Of.” Lena Waithe became the first African-American woman to win an Emmy for comedy series writing, for Master of None, sharing the award with series co-creator Aziz Ansari, who is of Indian heritage.

An award ceremony based on ‘SWACHHTA’ Ranking 2017 of Higher Educational Institutions was held in New Delhi. Shri Prakash Javadekar congratulated the awardees of ‘SWACHHTA’ Ranking- 2017 of Higher Educational Institutions. Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) were awarded on the basis of cleanliness and hygiene has been undertaken and concluded. Parameters for a clean campus were formulated, like student/toilet ratio, kitchen hygiene, availability of running water, modernity of toilet & kitchen equipment, campus green cover, garbage disposal in hostels and academic buildings, disposal techniques, water supply systems and also a certain weightage to whether the institutions has adopted any neighbouring locality or village to spread awareness & activities in Swachhta. About 3500 HEIs responded to the online invitation, submitting all their details as per format. The top 174 institutions were shortlisted as per criteria and officials from UGC and AICTE inspected the premises of all 174 institutions. Finally, the top 25 institutions across various categories like Universities, Technical Institutions, Colleges and Government institutions were selected and they were awarded on the occasion. This exercise will help generate peer pressure amongst institutions in the all important area of cleanliness. Clusters of villages have been adopted by certain HEIs under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan programme in consultation with District Collectors. All Collectors and HEIs under the programme were invited to participate in the Best Collector & HEI Award by converting, before 31st August 2017, One Village into Open Defecation Free, with solid and liquid waste facility. Many participated in the exercise and finally, 5 districts completed the exercise - Medak, Jhabua, Warangal, Ajmer and Indore.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Container Terminal (JNPCT) was awarded “Container Terminal of the Year” Award for the above 0.6 million TEUs category at The Gateway Awards 2017 held at Mumbai. The Jawaharlal Nehru Port owned JNPCT won the award for its proactive strategies to ease congestion, smooth delivery of containers and revamping of infrastructure to support trade amidst adverse conditions. JNPCT has been able to create growth momentum in the last few years as a result of various initiatives to increase the overall efficiency of the terminal and the Port. These initiatives have now started showing positive results and we will continue to further increase our efficiency levels.” The Gateway Award was instituted to recognise and promote best practices, innovation and motivation in the Indian Maritime industry. The tenth edition of the Gateway Awards showcased the outstanding achievements and exceptional accomplishments of individuals and organisations in the Indian Maritime industry.

Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy and Mumbai-born scientist Veena Sahajwalla have been conferred the PLuS Alliance Prize. This is a prestigious honour that recognises Research Innovation, Education Innovation, Global Leadership and Global Innovation. The Prize of USD 50,000 was awarded in two categories; Education Innovation and Research Innovation. Both winners were recognized for the development and implementation of innovative solutions to significant global issues.

The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation also announced on Sept 6 that it was giving its public service award to Planned Parenthood. Each award includes a $250,000 honorarium. The foundation’s clinical research award is shared by Dr. Douglas Lowy and John Schiller of the U.S. National Cancer Institute. In the early 1990s they began work that would eventually lead to vaccines against human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes cervical cancer and some other cancers. They showed that a particular viral protein could provoke a strong immune response against the virus. The Lasker award for basic medical research went to Michael N. Hall of the Biozentrum Institute at the University of Basel in Switzerland. Starting in the 1990s, he discovered and studied proteins that serve as a master regulator of cell growth, one that responds to the availability of nutrients. Defects related to those “TOR” proteins contribute to diabetes and cancer, and scientists are developing anti-cancer drugs based on them, the foundation said. In awarding its public service prize to Planned Parenthood, the foundation said it had provided “essential health services and reproductive care to millions of women for more than a century.” Laskar Awards: Know More

• The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1945 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine.

The four main awards are:


• Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.
• Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award.
• Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award
• Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science

Eminent Konkani writer Mahabaleshwar Sail has been honoured with the Saraswati Samman 2016 for his novel Hawthan.

The 74-year-old’s novel was shortlisted out of 22 books written in as many languages.

The award carries a cash prize of ?15 lakh and a citation.

Mr. Sail is a bilingual writer who has four Marathi dramas and seven Konkani novels to his credit.

He has also written five short stories and a novel in Marathi.

Mahabaleshwar Sail: Know More

• Mahabaleshwar Sail was born on 4 August 1943 in Shejebag in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. He had served in Indian Army and had participated in 1965 Indo-Pakistani War.
• He also had served as UN peacekeeper in 1964-1965 at Israel and Egypt border.
• He also had worked as supervisor in Forest Department, Goa, Daman and Diu Police and India Post till his retirement.
Saraswati Samman: Know More

• Saraswati Samman is an annual award bestowed upon Indian citizen for his outstanding literary work written in any 22 Indian language mentioned in Schedule VIII of Constitution and published during last 10 years.
• The award has been named after Indian goddess of learning Saraswati.
• It is considered one of the highest literary awards in India.
• It was established in 1991 by the KK Birla Foundation
• It carries cash prize of 15 lakh rupees, a citation and a plaque of goddess Saraswati.
• Harivansh Rai Bachchan was first recipient of this award for his autobiography published in four volumes.