Awards & Honours - Current Affairs for October, 2016

Two Yazidi women, Nadia Murad Basee and Lamiya Aji Bashar who escaped after sexual trafficking and enslavement by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/ISIS have won the top human rights award of the EU- the Sakharov prize.

• The announcement of the joint laureates of 2016 was made following a decision by the European Parliament on 27th Oct 2016.
• The Sakharov prize award ceremony will be held on 14th December in Strasbourg.
• Nadia Murad Basee was also appointed the UNODC Goodwill Ambassador.
• Basee and Bashar were among thousands of Yazidi girls and women abducted by IS militants and forced into sex slavery in 2014.
• Both survived and campaign for the Yazidi community currently.
• The lady activists were nominated by S&D and Liberal ALDE group in the European Parliament.
• Both Basee and Bashar are advocates for women surviving sexual enslavement by IS.
• They are both from Kocho, a village near Sinjar in Iraq taken over by the IS terrorists in 2014.
• They are public advocates of the Yazidi community in Iraq.
• The Yazidi community is a religious minority that has been subjected to a genocidal campaign by ISIS militants.
• Murad also promotes recognition of the Yazidi genocide.
• The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is annually awarded by the EU parliament.
• It was conceived in December 1988 to honour those who have dedicated their lives to fight for the cause of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
• It is awarded annually in memory of Andrei Sakharov, a Soviet scientist and dissident.

All India Radio’s entry “Diary of a Tiger” in Oct 2016 won the first prize in the community service announcement category of the prestigious Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union award for 2016

• Diary of a Tiger was declared the winner at an award ceremony held in Bali, Indonesia on the sidelines of ongoing 53rd ABU General Assembly and Associated Meetings
• Abhinay Srivastava, the programme executive of AIR Allahabad, received his award by Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union in association with Radio Republic Indonesia and Ministry of Communication and Informatics, Indonesia
• Diary of a Tiger is an 89 second spot in Hindi on the loss of forest and decreasing natural habitat of tigers
• It reflects through notes inscribed by the successive generation of tigers in a diary format on their gradual decreasing numbers due to apathetic behaviour of human beings

The prize includes 6 categories:

1. Drama
2. Documentary
3. News Reporting
4. Community Service Announcement (CSA)
5. Interactive Programmes
6. Innovative Programmes
• AIR has submitted entries in 4 categories namely Drama, Documentary, CSA and Innovative Categories

Bill Murray was on 23rd Oct 2016 honoured with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humour. He was presented with the award at a ceremony organised at the Kennedy Centre Concert Hall in Washington DC

• He was awarded the 19th Mark Twain Prize for making an impact on US society
• American actor, comedian and writer Bill Murray first gained recognition on Saturday Night Live, which earned him an Emmy as well
• In 2013, he won the Golden Globe and BAFTA award for best actor for his role in Lost in Translation
• He won the second Emmy for Oliver Kitteridge
• The Mark Twain award has been given since 1998
• It is named after well-known 19th century novelist Mark Twain
• Recipients of the Twain Prize received a copy of the 1884 bronze portrait of Mark Twain
• The honour was won last year by Eddie Murphy

Portugal’s Renato Sanches on 24th Oct 2016 was awarded the 2016 European Golden Boy award.

• Sanches defeated Man-U’s Marcus Rashford and Bayern’s Kingsley Coman. He also ousted Gianluigi Donnarumma, the AC Milan goalkeeper to win this award
• Sanches was selected following a vote from newspaper journalists across the EU to name the best player in 2016 under the age of 21
• Sanches is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as midfielder for German club Bayern Munch and the national team of Portugal
• He began his career with sports club Benfica
• He made is complete international debut in March 2016
• He was chosen for UEFA Euro 2016 at the age of 18
• He is the youngest Portuguese player to participate in a global tournament
• He scored one goal through the competition and won the Young Player of the Tournament
• The Golden Boy award is given by sports journalists to young footballers playing impressively in a single calendar year from the EU
• All nominees for this award should be below 21 years of age and play in the top tier of the EU

Milan city council bestowed honorary citizenship on Dalai Lama on 20th Oct 2016 over the objections of the Chinese Embassy which indicated that the gesture will have negative effect on regional cooperation and bilateral relations

• Chinese embassy in Rome issued a statement indicating that the Dalai Lama had injured China and that it was voicing a strong protest and firm opposition against bestowal of the citizenship
• China accused the Dalai Lama of leading a campaign to split Tibet from China
• Exiled leader in turn has said that he wants Tibet to have a higher degree of autonomy under Chinese rule.
• Italy has been a favoured nation in the EU for Chinese firms looking for acquisitions
• Chinese firms purchased 14 Italian companies in 2015 and added USD 10.6 billion to Italian coffers.
• In Milan, the number of Chinese residents have doubled over the past decade to nearly 29,000 doubling the number of businesses
• Dalai Lama also met with the archbishop of Milan and the city’s mayor

Sir David Cox has been named the inaugural recipient of the International Prize in Statistics

• This is considered the highest honour in the field much like the Fields Medal, Abel Prize, Turing Award and Nobel Prize
• The prize will be bestowed each year to teams/individuals using statistics to advance technology, science and human welfare
• Cox is a giant in the field of statistics
• The Cox model has been used in analysis of survival data and enables researchers to easily identify risks of special factors for mortality or other survival outcomes among groups of patients with disparate characteristics
• From disease risk assessment and treatment evaluation to product liability, school dropout, re-incarceration and AIDS surveillance systems, the Cox model has found widespread applications

A 13-year-old boy Roshan Sori from Maoist affected Sukma district of Chhattisgarh has been honoured with the APJ Abdul Kalam Ignite Award for a software to register a vote through EVMs with authorities

• Sori is among three students from the state constituting the 28 awareness this year
• Two other winners of this award from Chattisgarh were Himanshu Rateria of Janitor Chanpa district and Indu Manipur of Dantewada in Bastar
• While the former student wanted to create a medical alarm on TV for senior citizens, the latter awardee developed a septic tank pressure record scale
• NIF announced the name of the awardees on the 85th birth anniversary of the former president and Missile Man of India
• This competition was organised by NIG in partnership with CBSE, Honey Bee Network and other partners
• State Educational Boards namely Board of School Education Haryana, Nagaland Board of School Education, Directorate of Higher Education, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, Lok Sikshan Sanchalanalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission, Dept. of School Education, Govt. of Chhattisgarh and Mizoram Board of School were also involved.

Hollywood actor Robert De Niro was selected as the recipient of the 44th Chaplin Award by the Film Society of Lincoln Centre

• De Niro will be presented with an award at the gala on May 8, 2017
• He is an Italian American actor and producer who has starred in over 100 films
• He was cast as Vito Corleone in the 1974 film The Godfather Part 2 for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
• He also won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the portrayal of Jake La Motta in the 1980 movie Raging Bull
• A recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2003, he has also won the Golden Globe Cecil B DeMille Award in the year 2010
• The Film Society of Lincoln Centre is one of the most prominent film presentation bodies
• It was founded by the following Lincoln Centre executives: William F. May, Martin E. Segal and Schulyer G Chapin
• American independent cinema as well as World Cinema and new filmmakers are supported through this centre
• The organisation holds a yearly gala tribute called Chaplin award Gala honouring stars and industry leaders
• Last year, the recipient of the award was Morgan Freeman

Eminent writer C. Radhakrishnan on 15th Oct 2016 was selected for the Mathrubhumi Literary Award 2016 in recognition of his contribution in the field of literature

• He was selected by a panel chaired by novelist M. Mukundan and Sethu as well as Sarah Joseph being other jury members
• The editor of Malayalam magazine Piravi published by the School of Bhagvad Gita, he is also the former chief editor of a daily called Madhyamam
• He is also the recipient of the National Literary Academy of India and the Kerala Literary Academy
• He has also won several other awards such as the Lalithambika award, the Vayalar Award and Mooloor Award
• He was also awarded the Moortidevi award for 2013 for his novel Theekkadal Katanhu Thirumadhuram.

Gianluigi Buffon from Juventus won the 2016 Golden Foot award

• The 38 year old accepted the award in Monaco and admits the honour is one of many he hopes to garner
• The legend was honoured for contributions to the sport on and off the field
• Last year’s award went to Inter Milan star Samuel Eto while Ryan Giggs, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Francesco Totti have all won in the past
• The Golden Foot award is a global football award, given to players who stand out for their athletic achievements as individuals and team players and for their personality
• Award is also given to active players who are 28 or above
• It can only be given once
• Winner of the award leaves a permanent mould of his footprint on the Champions Promenade in the principality of Monaco

Bob Dylan on 13th Oct 2016 won the Nobel prize in literature 2016

• Dylan won the award for creating new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition
• Apart from being a singer, Dylan is also a songwriter, artist and writer
• Most of his well-known songs date from the 1960s when songs chronicled unrest of a social nature
• His earlier songs such as Blown’ In the Wind and The Times They Are a-Changin’ were musical compositions that inspired the American civil rights and peace movement
• His lyrics have incorporated numerous social , political, philosophical and literary influences
• The accomplishments of the singer as a recording artist and performer were central to his career, but songwriting is held to be his greatest contribution
• Since the 1990s, he has published six books of drawing and painting and his work has been displayed in major art galleries
• As a musician, he sold more than 100m records; he is the best selling songwriter and artist of his times
• Numerous awards were received by him including 11 Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe award and an Academy Award
• He was also awarded a special citation for the Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008, profoundly impacting popular music and culture in N. America along with lyrical compositions that are extremely powerful
• He is the first American to win the prize since novelist Toni Morrison in 1993
• The Nobel Prize in Literature has been annually awarded to an author from any country who has produced outstanding work in the field of literature
• The prize has been awarded since 1901
• It is one of the 5 Nobel prizes established by Alfred Nobel since 1895
• In 2015, Svetlana Alexievich was awarded the Nobel prize in literature for her polyphonic writings

Indian shooter Jitu Rai has been awarded the Champion of Champions title for pistol shooting in 2016 by the International Shooting Sports Federation

• The 29-year-old shooter was awarded the honour for his exceptional performances in the international circuits over the past 6 months
• The Army man won two world cup events in Maribor and Bangkok
• Jitu Rai also won 5 podium positions and nine top 8 finishes making him world number 6 prior to the Olympics
• An eighth place finish in the Rio Olympics thwarted his performance
• Silver medal finishes in Baku, Granada and Bologna made him the only Indian shooter competing for the world number 1 spot in 2016
• The National Rifle Authority of India and shooter Abhinav Bindra published a report that Jitu lacked access to the right expertise for a superlative performance in the Rio Olympics
• The ISSF pistol shooting tournaments are over with Jitu ending the lander year ranked sixth in 10m pistol and seventh in 50 m pistol, becoming the only Indian shooter in the world top 10

Leading human rights organisations have awarded the annual prize for human rights defenders to imprisoned Chinese Muslim minority economics professor, Illham Tohti, garnering new attention on a case that has brought strong global condemnation

• The Martin Ennals award is given by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and 8 other human rights groups
• Award was announced on 11th Oct and the award ceremony will take place in Geneva, Switzerland
• Prof. Tohti has been jailed for life on account of “separatism” in Sept 2014, after a 2 day long trial
• A member of the Turkic Muslim Uighur ethnic group, he has taught at Beijing’s Minzu university and criticised China’s ethnic policies in Xinjiang.
• He has denied advocating separatism
• He also worked to bring Uighur grievances to light
• His sentence brought international condemnation from Western nations such as the EU
• Chinese government policies and an influx of migrants of the majority Han ethnic group have threatened cultures bring economic marginalisation
• Sentiments such as these have brought deadly riots in Urumqi in 2009
• Stopped from publishing, Prof. Tohti had turned to the Internet, running a site to foster discussion about social, economic and developmental issues handled by Chinese Uighur
• The other finalists for the award were Ethiopian collective for independent journalism Zone 9 bloggers and Syrian human rights lawyer, activist and journalist Razan Zaitouneh.

Chandigarh International Airports Limited, a JV of Airports Authority of India and States of Punjab and Haryana has been conferred with the IBC award and trophy for excellence in built environment and infrastructure projects for the New Integrated Terminal Building of Chandigarh International Airport for 2014-2015 at the 21st Annual Convention Inaugural function held in Delhi

• Indian Building Congress or IBC is to build a living environment which is affordable, aesthetic and sustainable as well as energy efficient. It also aims at promoting eco-friendly, technology driven cost competitive environment conducive to healthy life meeting needs of the Indian population.

Sprinter Srabani Nanda on Oct 8 2016 won the 24th Ekalabya Award for 2016 in recognition of her sporting excellence.

• She is an Indian woman sprint runner athlete from Odisha specialised in 4x100m relay, 100m and 200m sprint events
• She belongs to the Odisha district Kandhmal
• She qualified for the Rio Olympics in the 200m women’s category
• Srabani won gold in 200m, silver in 100m and 4x100m relay at the 12th South Asian Games in Guwahati in February 2016
• She won bronze in the 100m and 4x100m relay in the Asian Grand Prix Athletics in Thailand in 2015
• Ekalabya award is instituted in the year 1993 by the Indian metals Public Charitable Trust of the IMFA group of companies
• It is given annually to young sportspersons of Odisha in recognition of their outstanding performance in the preceding two years
• It was instituted to promote, encourage and recognise Odia sports personalities in the State.

Oliver Hart and Bengt Holstrom on 10th October 2016 won the 2016 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel for their contributions to contract theory.

• They developed a contract theory which is a comprehensive framework for analysing many diverse issues in contractual design such as performance based pay for top executives, deductibles and co-pays in insurance and privatisation of public sector activities
• Fresh theoretical tools created by Hart and Holstrom are valuable to the understanding of real life institutions and contracts as well as potential pitfalls in public sector activities
• In the 1970s. Bengnt Holestrom demonstrated how a principal should design an optimal contract for an agent whose action is partly observed by the principals
• Holmstrom’s informativeness principle stated how this contract should link the agent’s pay to performance relevant information
• Using the basic principal agent model, he demonstrated how a principal should design an optimal contract for an event whose action is partly unobserved by the principal
• His informativeness principle stated precisely how this contract should link the agent’s pay to performance relevant information
• Using the basic principal agent model, he demonstrated how the optimal contract carefully weights risk against incentives
• Holstrom generalised these results to more realistic settings such as when employees are not only rewarded with pay but with potential promotion as well and individual members of the team free ride on the efforts of others
• In the mid 1980s, Oliver Hart made a fundamental contribution to a new branch of contract theory that deals with the important case of incomplete contracts
• Hart’s findings shed new light on ownership and control of businesses and have had a vast impact on several fields such as economics, political science and law
• His research provides new theoretical tools for ascertaining the questions as to which kinds of companies should merge, proper mix of debt and equity financing and when institutions such as schools or prisons can be privately or publicly owned
• While Hart is a Professor of Economics at Harvard University, Cambridge United States, Bengt Holstrom is a Professor of Economics and Management at MIT.

The 2016 Nobel peace prize was awarded on 7th Oct 2016 to the Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for resolute efforts to bring the nation’s 5 decade long civil war to an end.

• This war claimed the lives of 220,000 Colombian people and displaced nearly 6 million
• This civil war is the one of the longest in modern times and the sole remaining armed conflict in the Americas
• President Santos initiated the negotiations that culminated in the peace accord between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas as he sought to move the peace process forward.
• Accord was controversial though he was able to ensure Colombian voters were able to voice their opinion concerning the peace accord in a referendum
• Outcome of the vote was not what was expected as a narrow majority of 13 million Colombians voted against the accord
• Despite the No majority vote in the referendum, President Santos brought the conflict to an end
• His endeavours to attain peace fulfil the criteria of the prize
• Former Nobel peace prize winners range from Red Cross to Mother Teresa and Desmond Tutu.
• The first winner of the Nobel peace prize was Henri Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross Movement

SIkkim’s CM Pawan Chamling was on Oct 6 awarded the prestigious 2016 ‘Sustainable Development Leadership Award‘ by President Pranab Mukherjee during the World Sustainable Development Summit organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) at Vigyan Bhawan.

• Award was presented in light of Sikkim emerging as the first and only organic state in the country in Jan 2016
• Known as the Land of Flower, Sikkim has a population of 6 lakhs and is gaining worldwide fame as the first fully organic state of India
• Close to 75 thousand ha have been converted into organic farms according to criteria prescribed by the National Programme for Organic Production
• The NE state contributes 80000 MT organic production of 1.24 MT of organic production recorded in India
• The resolution for transforming Sikkim into a Totally Organic state was initiated by Champing in the Sikkim Legislation on Feb 24, 2003
• The Sikkim State Organic Board was set up in Sept 20003 as well for outlining policy and regulations for the state
• Sikkim’s state government stopped purchasing chemical fertilisers and pesticides and eliminated subsidy to farmers for procuring chemical pesticides
• State government also created organic farming schemes and action plans to set up targets of conversion

Former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman Udupi Ramachandra Rao,well known as U. R. Rao, was inducted into the 2016 IAF Hall of Fame on 30 Sept 2016 by the International Aeronautical Federation (IAF).

• Rao became the first Indian to be inducted into IAF Hall of Fame.
• Currently he is the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Physical Research Laboratory at Ahmedabad and chancellor of IIST at Thiruvananthapuram
• He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1976
  He was also inducted into the International Astronautical Federation in Paris becoming the first Indian to do so. He is also the first from the nation to be inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame at Washington
• IAF was founded in 1951 and has over 300 members from 66 countries across the globe
• The hall of game honours personalities in the field of astronomy and science

CV Chandrashekhar, a well known personality in performing arts was conferred the Akademi Ratna , the most prestigious and rare honour, which is restricted to 40 numbers at any given time. Presently there are only 40 Fellows of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

The award winners are listed below

2015 Akademi Award in field of Music was conferred on 11 artists and they are

• Krishna Bisht and Mashkoor Ali Khan for Hindustani Vocal Music
• Kartik Kumar for Hindustani Instrumental Music–Sitar
• Brij Narayan for Hindustani Instrumental Music–Sarod
• R N Thyagarajan and R N Tharanathan (joint award) for Carnatic Vocal Music
• Suguna Varadhachari for Carnatic Vocal Music,
• Lalgudi G J R Krishnan for Carnatic Instrumental Music–Violin,
• Mambalam M K S Siva for Carnatic Instrumental Music-
• Nagaswaram, Bhupinder Singh, Hridyanath Mangeshkar and Prafulla Kar for Other Major Traditions of Music–Sugam Sangeet.
  
  2015 Akademi Award in field of Dance was conferred on 9 artists and they are
  
  
• Ranganayaki Jayaraman for Bharatanatyam
• K Kunhiraman Nair for Kathakali
• G Padmaja Reddy for Kuchipudi
• Aloka Kanungo for Odissi
• Sharodi Saikia for Sattriya Dance
• Mandakini Trivedi for Mohiniattam
• Sadashiva Pradhan for Chhau Dance
• W Lokendrajit Singh for Contemporary/Experimental Dance
• Rajkumar Bharathi for Music for Dance


2015 Akademi Award in field of Theatre was conferred on 9 artists and they are

Nand Kishore Acharya and Shafaat Khan for Playwriting
• Parvez Akhtar and Mushtaq Kak for Direction
• Manoj N Joshi and Himani Shivpuri for Acting
• Pradeep Mulye for Allied Theatre Arts–Scenic Design
• Sarojini Nangiar for Other Major Traditions of Theatre–Kutiyattam
• Rani Balbir Kaur for Overall Contribution in Theatre


2015 Akademi Award in field of Theatre was conferred on 10 artists and they are


• Khuman Lal Sao for Folk Music of Chhattisgarh
• Ramchandra Singh for Folk Theatre of Bihar
• Khem Raj for Folk Music of Jammu and Kashmir
• S R D Prasad for Martial Art of Kerala
• Chhaya and Maya Khutegaonkar joint award for Folk Dance of Maharashtra-Lavani
• Gangmei Aluna Kabuini for Traditional Dance and Music of Manipur
• Paramjit Singh Sidhu for Folk Music of Punjab
• Sayeed Sabri Jaipuri for Qawwali, Rajasthan
• K K Ramachandra Pulavar and T N Sankaranathan for Puppetry

Shanta Gokhale and Chaman Ahuja were conferred with the 2015 Akademi Award


• Akademi Fellow has been conferred since 1954 and Akademi Award since 1952.

The three were awarded for their design and synthesis of molecular machines.

• Jean-Pierre Sauvage is a French coordination chemist
• Sir James Fraser Stoddart is a Scottish chemist working in the area of supramolecular chemistry and nanotechnology
• Bernard L Feringa was a synthetic organic chemist who specialises in molecular nanotechnology and is also well known in the field of homogenous catalysis.
• Developing the world’s smallest machines, the trio have worked on molecules with controllable movement which can perform the task when energy is added
• First step towards a molecular machine was taken by Sauvage in 1983 when he succeeded in linking two ring shaped molecules together to form a chain called cayenne
• Stoddart in 1991 took another step when he developed a roxatane which threaded the molecular ring onto the thin molecular able and demonstrated that the ring was able to move along the axle.
• Feringa was the first person to develop a molecular motor when he got the molecular rotor blade to spin continually in the same direction
• Using these motors, he rotated a class cylinder 10000 times larger than the motor
• He also developed a nano car
• Nobel laureates in Chemistry this year therefore took molecular systems out of the equilibrium’s stalemate and into energy filled states when movements can be controlled.
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry was first awarded in 1901 to J van’Hoff for his discovery of laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions
• The 2015 award was won by Lindahl, Modrich and Sancar for mechanistic studies of DNA.

Elephant researcher and conservationist Prajna Chowta was honoured with the Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite (Knight in the National Order of Merit) by the French Government. Her appointment by the President of the French Republic comes in recognition of a life devoted to caring for wild Asian elephants

• Chowta has founded the Aane Mane Foundation which has been researching and conserving wild Asian elephants
• She has also authored the Elephant Code Book on captive elephant management as well as the French book Enfant d’Elephant (Elephant’s Infant) in 2014
• The book captures the link between tribals and elephants in the Indian settings
• As a researcher, Chowta also developed an online monitoring system and one of the first GPS collars for India’s elephants
• She was also among the first few Indian women to be appointed Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite (Knight in the National Order of Merit)
• Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and Kamal Hassan was honoured under the French government’s Legion of Honour award in 2016 as well
• The National Order of Merit is a French order of merit with membership awarded by President of the French Republic
• It was founded on 3rd December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle
• Reason for this order’s establishment was twofold- to replace the larger number of ministerial orders given by the ministries and create an award lower than Legion of Honour, which is generally for French citizens

Kiara, an Indian girl of S. African nationality won the Google Science Fair prize 2016 winning the grand prize of USD 50,000 to use an orange peel for discovering a cheaper, super absorbent material that retains soil water

• Her project was entitled “No More Thirsty Crops” and was aimed at tackling the severe drought plaguing South Africa. Her solution to the problem of drought uses orange and avocado fruit peel that is normally discarded
• Google Science Fair is a programme for budding scientists between ages of 13-18 who solve world challenges through science and technology
• Kiara’s project uses the fruit peel to serve as a SAP or super absorbent polymer alternative, which absorbs and carries 300 times its own weight in liquid relative to the mass
• SAPs are not biodegradable and are costly and full of chemicals
• It was after 45 days of studies that Kiara succeeded in creating low cost, SAP made out of products from the juice manufacturing industry
• The polymer can retain large amounts of water, ensuring the soil remain moist and improving crop growth without regular water supplements.