Awards

• Jamaican author Marlon James wins 2015 Man Booker Prize October 14, 2015

Jamaican author Marlon James has won the prestigious 2015 Man Booker Prize for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings. With this, he became first Jamaican to win Man Booker Prize. His 680-page epic novel is inspired by the attempted assassination on Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley in the 1970s. It has been published by Oneworld Publications. Judges had shortlished James’s from a list of 8 writers including him along with India’s Sunjeev Sahota, Hanya Yanagihara, Tom McCarthy, Anne Tyler, Chigozie Obioma and Marlon James.

Man Booker prize Established: It was launched in 1969 and presented by the Man Group, It aims at promoting the finest literary work in fiction by rewarding the best novel of the year written in English and published in the United Kingdom. 

Award Carries: cash prize of 50,000 pounds. The authors are shortlisted by judges from a wide range of disciplines and all with a passion for quality fiction.

 

• Kailash Satyarthi selected for 2015 Harvard Humanitarian of the Year Award October 14, 2015 

 

Indian Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi has been selected for the prestigious Harvard Humanitarian of the Year Award, it was announced on Wednesday.The annual award by the prestigious Harvard University is given to an individual whose works and deeds have served to improve the quality of lives and have inspired us to greater heights. The award ceremony is scheduled to take place on October 16, at the Harvard University, a press statement said. It recognise the works and deeds individuals who have improved the quality of lives and inspired people to greater heights.

Some of the recipients of are Kofi Annan, Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Javier Perez etc. About Kailash Satyarthi He is an adherent of Gandhian philosophy and as upheld Mahatma Gandhi’s practice of engaging and conducting peaceful protests against the exploitation of children for financial gain. He is the founder of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement). Through his NGO, he campaigns for protection of child rights and to abolish illegal human trafficking. Satyarthi ss the eighth Nobel laureate from India. He had won Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 and shared it with Malala Yousafzai. He was at the forefront of driving few agendas Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which were announced at United Nations SDG Summit in September 2015.

• Economist Angus Deaton wins 2015 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences 

   

  

   

Microeconomist Angus Deaton has won the prestigious 2015 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has selected him for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare. His research work has linked detailed individual choices and aggregate outcomes which inturn has helped to transform the fields of macroeconomics, microeconomics and development economics. With announcement of this prize, it concludes this year’s presentations of Nobel winners. All Nobel laureates will receive the prize on December 10, 2015 on the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death. About Angus Deaton Deaton was born on 19 October 1945 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He hold citizenship of both United States and United Kingdom. He is educated as a foundation scholar at Fettes College and had earned his B.A., M.A. and D.Phil. degrees from the University of Cambridge, UK. Presently, he is professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University. About Nobel memorial prize in economic sciences In 1968, Sweden’s central bank had added the economic sciences prize as a memorial to Nobel. 

• National Dialogue Quartet wins 2015 Nobel Peace Prize

   

National Dialogue Quartet (NDQ) in Tunisia has won prestigious 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. Norwegian Nobel Committee has selected NDQ for its decisive contribution in building pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the 2011 Jasmine Revolution. NDQ was established in 2013 as an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when Tunisia was on the brink of civil war aftermath of revolution. NDQ consists following 4 organisations in Tunisian civil society Tunisian General Labour Union. Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts. Tunisian Human Rights League. Tunisian Order of Lawyers. After the Tunisian Arab Spring (Jasmine Revolution) in 2010-2011, NDQ paved the way for a peaceful dialogue between the citizens. NDQ was also instrumental in establishing a constitutional system of government in Tunisia by guaranteeing fundamental rights for the entire population, irrespective of gender, religious belief or political conviction. About Jasmine Revolution It was an intensive campaign of civil resistance including a series of street demonstrations against the long authoritarian rule of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The events of revolution began in December 2010 and led to the ousting Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. Jasmine Revolution eventually led to a thorough democratization of the country and led to successful free and democratic elections. Arab Spring: It should be noted that Tunisia was birth place of Arab Spring which later spread to many parts of the Arab world including in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen. In every country except Tunisia the revolution had turned violent. In case of Syria it turned into civil war.

• Author Svetlana Alexievich wins 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature 

 

Author Svetlana Alexievich of Belarus has been selected for prestigious 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy has selected Svetlana for her polyphonic writings, courage and a monument to suffering. With this she became 14th women Literature Laureate and she is also the first writer from Belarus to receive this award. About Svetlana Alexievich She was born on 31 May 1948 in the Ukrainian town of Ivano-Frankivsk. She had studied journalism at the University of Minsk between 1967 and 1972. Later she worked as a journalist for several years and published her first book War’s Unwomanly Face in 1985. Using her journalistic skills, she has created a literature chronicling the great tragedies of World War II, Soviet Union and its collapse, Soviet war in Afghanistan and 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Her best-known works: Voices from Chernobyl (2005), Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War (1992), Awards: reviously, she had won the Swedish PEN prize in 2007 for her courage and dignity as a writer.

•  Winners of 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry October 7, 2015

Tomas Lindahl (United Kingdom)

Paul Modrich (US)

Aziz Sancar (US) 

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has chosen them for their research on mechanistic studies of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) repair. Their work has provided fundamental knowledge of functioning of living cell functions and its application for the development of new cancer treatments. 

Aziz Sancar: He has mapped Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER) which is the mechanism in which cells repair Ultra Violet (UV) damage to DNA. He is from the University of North Carolina, US. 

Tomas Lindahl: He has successfully demonstrated that DNA decays at a rate that ought to have made the development of life on Earth impossible. He is from the Francis Crick Institute. 

Paul Modrich: He has successfully demonstrated how the cell corrects errors that occur when DNA is replicated during cell division. He is from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University School of Medicine, UK.

They will receive the award at the annual award ceremony to be held on December 10, 2015 on the anniversary of the death of prize founder Alfred Nobel. All the three laureates will share the prize money of 8 million Swedish kronor equally. 

• Winners of 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics October 6, 2015

Takaaki Kajita (Japan)

Arthur B. McDonald (Canada) 

                                                                Takaaki Kajita (Japan)

                                                         Arthur B. McDonald (Canada)

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has selected them for their key contributions to experiments showing that neutrinos change identities. They individually have discovered neutrino oscillations and shown that neutrinos have mass. Arthur McDonald Mr. McDonald is a professor emeritus at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. He had led a research group which had demonstrated that the neutrinos from the Sun were not disappearing on their way to Earth. The group had captured these neutrinos with a different identity at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (Canada). Takaaki Kajita Takaaki Kajita is from the University of Tokyo, Japan. He had discovered that neutrinos from the atmosphere switch between two identities when they reach earth and after were captured by Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector (Japan). About Neutrino Neutrinos were first proposed by Swiss scientist Wolfgang Pauli in 1930. They are electrically neutral, weakly interacting elementary subatomic particle with half-integer spin. They are the second most widely occurring particle in the universe after photons which are the particles makingg up light. It belongs to the lepton family. There are three types of neutrinos: electron neutrinos (ve), muon neutrinos(vu) and tau neutrinos(vT) differing in terms of mass.

• Nobel Prize for Medicine 2015 winners October 5, 2015

Youyou Tu (China)

Satoshi Omura (Japan)

William Campbell (Ireland)

They have been chosen for their pioneering discoveries which have led to the development of potent new drugs against parasitic diseases such as malaria and elephantiasis. The laureates will receive their prizes on December 10, 2015 at a formal ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden marking the anniversary of the death of prize creator Alfred Nobel. William Campbell and Satoshi Omura: Both biochemists have won half of the Nobel Prize of this edition for discovering avermectin, a derivative which is used to treat hundreds of millions of people with river blindness and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis). Youyou Tu: She was awarded the other half of the prize for discovering artemisinin, a drug that has reduced malaria deaths and has become the mainstay of fighting the mosquito-borne disease. She is the 13th woman to win Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine and became first Chinese woman laureate. Diseases: River blindness is skin and eye disease which ultimately leads to blindness. Lymphatic filariasis which is also known as elephantiasis causes painful swelling of the limbs. About Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel award for medicine is given to persons whose discoveries have significantly enhanced the understanding of life or the practice of medicine. The winners are chosen by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute and are always announced before the Nobel Prize for other categories. The Nobel comes with prize money of 8 million Swedish kroner or 1.1 million dollars.

 

• ‘Buddha In A Traffic Jam’ wins best original screenplay award at the Madrid Film Festival July 13, 2015

Vivek Agnihotri’s political satire “Buddha In A Traffic Jam” won the Best Original Screenplay in a foreign language award at the Madrid International Film Festival. “Won the ‘Best Original Screenplay’ at Madrid International Film Festival, Spain. It stars Arunoday Singh and Mahi Gill in a lead role along with Anupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi and introduces Anchal Dwivedi. Besides this award category, the film was also nominated in other two categories viz. the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Lead Actress in a Foreign Language Film to actress Mahi Gill in the Madrid International Film Festival. Earlier the movie was premiered in the 2014 edition of Mumbai International Film Festival in the India Gold category. The film was also bestowed awards and was the opening film in the 7th Global Film Festival 2015. 

 

•  Indian-American teacher receives US Presidential Award July 3, 2015

Obama has named 108 Mathematics and Science teachers as recipients of the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Darshan Jain, an Indian-American teacher from Illinois, has been named by US President Barack Obama for prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. All of them were chosen for shaping America’s success through their passion for Math and Science. Presently Darshan Jain is director of mathematics at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. Previously, he had taught mathematics at this institute for eight years. Jain holds a BA degree in mechanical engineering and master’s degree (MS) in secondary mathematics education from the University of Illinois at Chicago. "The Presidential Award validates my core belief that all students can learn mathematics in authentic, rigorous, and impactful ways," Jain said.

"It is grounded in my experience that collaborative teachers can help all students achieve excellence."

Jain's industry experience includes time spent as a project engineer and a machine designer.About Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching It is awarded annually to outstanding science and mathematics teachers from across US from K-12 (kindergarten through 12th grades). The award carries monetary prize of US 10000 dollars.

• Indian-American named World Agriculture Prize laureate, 2 July 2015

Washington, 2 July 2015 R. Paul Singh, a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis, has been named as the 2015 Global Confederation for Higher Education Associations for Agriculture and Life Sciences World Agriculture Prize laureate. 

The award was announced at the annual Global Confederation for Higher Education Associations for Agriculture and Life Sciences (GCHERA) conference held at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Lebanon. He has helped establish and evaluate food-engineering programmes at institutions throughout the world, including in Brazil, India, Peru, Portugal and Thailand. He had earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering form Punjab Agricultural University. He had completed his doctorate from Michigan State University, US. Presently he is Professor at University of California (UC), Davis and had joined it in 1975. His research and studies on Airflow in complex systems: helped to design innovative systems for the rapid cooling of strawberries. Food freezing: helped to development of computer software generally used to improve the energy efficiency of industrial freezers. His research group also had created food- processing equipment under a NASA contract for a manned mission to Mars. He also had contributed in establishing and evaluating food-engineering programs at various institutions throughout the world including in India, Brazil, Portugal, Peru and Thailand. "I'm deeply humbled and honoured, upon receiving news of this award," said Singh. Formal presentation of the award will take place Sep 20, during a ceremony at Nanjing Agricultural University, Jiangsu Province, China.

• Fazle Hasan Abed, founder of Bangladesh-based poverty alleviation NGO wins World Food Prize 2015, 3 July 2015

“A man who created a Bangladesh-based nonprofit organization credited with helping more than 150 million people out of poverty was named the winner of the 2015 World Food Prize on Wednesday. He is founder and chairman of Bangladesh-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) BRAC (originally known as Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) which is world’s largest NGO. Fazle Hasan Abed created BRAC, originally known as Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, as a temporary relief organization to help with recovery from the 1970 typhoon that killed about 500,000 people and the subsequent war fought in 1971 to win independence from Pakistan. … World Food Prize President Kenneth Quinn said the ability of Abed, who was knighted in London in 2010, to successfully transition BRAC into a global relief organization was the key to his win…”

Fazle Hasan Abed he been bestowed with prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award (2010) and UNDP’s Mahbub Ul Haq Award (also known as Human Development Award) in 2004.







International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA) 15th Celebrations & Awards in Tampa Bay from April 23-26, 2014

Held at: The Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida, US

When: Took place between April 23-26, 2014

 The 2014 IIFA Awards honored the best films of 2013

 Bhaag Milkha Bhaag was awarded the most awards (14)

Hollywood star John Travolta was also awarded at the ceremony for his outstanding contribution to International cinema.

Popular Awards

Best Film: Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Best Actor In A Leading Role: Farhan Akhtar – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag as Milkha Singh

Best Actress In A Leading Role: Deepika Padukone – Chennai Express as Meenalochni Azhagusundaram

Best Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra– Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Best Story: Prasoon Joshi – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Best Actor In A Supporting Role: Aditya Roy Kapur – Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani as Avinash “Avi” Arora

Best Actress In A Supporting Role: Divya Dutta – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag as Ishri Kaur

Male Debutant Star: Dhanush – Raanjhanaa as Kundan Shankar

Female Debutant Star: Vaani Kapoor – Shuddh Desi Romance as Tara

Best Performance In A Comic Role: Arshad Warsi – Jolly LLB as Jagdish Tyagi (Jolly)

Best Performance In A Negative Role: Rishi Kapoor– Aurangzeb as DCP Ravikant, HPS

Musical awards

Best Music Direction: Aashiqui 2 – Mithoon, Ankit Tiwari, Jeet Ganguly

Best Male Playback Singer: Ankit Tiwari for Sunn Raha Hai;– Aashiqui 2

Best Lyrics: Tum Hi Ho : Aashiqui 2 – Mithoon

Best Female Playback Singer: Shreya Ghoshal for Sunn Raha Hai – Aashiqui 2

Best Sound Design: Nakul Kamte – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Best Background Score: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Technical awards

Best Action: Sham Kaushal & Tony Ching Siu Tung – Krrish 3

Best Special Effects: Keitan Yadav & Haresh Hingorani (Red Chillies VFX) – Krrish 3

Best Screenplay: Prasoon Joshi – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Best Choreography: Remo D’souza – Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani

Best Cinematography: Binod Pradhan – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Best Dialogue: Prasoon Joshi – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Best Editing: P. S. Bharti – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Best Costume Design: Dolly Ahluwalia – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Best Makeup: Vikram Gaikwad – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Best Production Design: Wasiq Khan – Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela

Best Sound Mixing: Anup Dev – Chennai Express, Debajit Changmai – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Best Sound Recording: Vinod Verma for Lungi Dance – Chennai Express