Current Affairs June 2017 - Awards

1 - NAAC received Asia Pacific Quality Network Award 2017

National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) of India has received prestigious International Award of Asia Pacific Quality Network (APQN) titled “APQN Quality Award 2017 for International Co-operation in Quality Assurance” in recognition of NAAC’s continued efforts as facilitator of quality culture and co-operation within and outside Asia-Pacific region.

APQN Quality Award is among the most prestigious International Awards in quality assurance of higher education.

2 - Shri J P Nadda conferred WHO Director-General’s Special Recognition Award

Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, was conferred the WHO Director-General’s Special Recognition Award for global tobacco control.

The number of tobacco users in India have reduced by 81 lakhs.

The Government has adopted the following measures to control the use of tobacco −

Implemented large pack warnings with 85% pictorial health warnings on both the sides.
Conducted second round of Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS).
Strengthened & upscaled cessation facilities with the launch of the toll-free national tobacco Quitline and mCessation services.

3 - Soumitra Chatterjee to receive the Legion d' Honneur

Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee has been conferred with the highest French civilian honour, the Legion d'Honneur. Legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray had received the same honour 30 years ago.

Chatterjee has previously been conferred with the Commandeur de l' Ordre des Arts ET des Lettres, France's highest award for artistes. He is also the recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, which is India's highest award in cinema.

4 - Poet Haraprasad Das honoured with Kalinga Literary Award

Kalinga Literary Award was honoured to famous poet and essayist Haraprasad Das for his work and contribution to literature at the fourth edition of Kalinga Literary Festival (KLF). Kalinga Literary Award was held in 3 days, representing literature for peace and harmony.

Two new awards were introduced namely, the Kalinga International Literary Award and the Kalinga Karubaki Award. Kalinga International Literary Award was received by Anand Neelakantan for his immense contribution in literature and Kalinga Karubaki Award was given to Paramita Satpathy for her contribution to Odia poetry.

5 - NASA honored Comet Science Pioneer Michael A’Hearn

NASA has posthumously awarded the Exceptional Public Service Medal to Michael A’Hearn; one of the world is leading comet scientists. A’Hearn died May 29 at his home in University Park, Maryland at the age of 76.

The NASA Medal is for “fundamental work on comets and small bodies of the solar system, leadership in space missions, and ensuring public access to data from NASA missions and related projects.

Mike A’Hearn devoted his life to exploration, and his work has transformed our understanding of what comets are made of and how they interact within our corner of the universe.

6 - Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute selected for PM's yoga award

Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, Pune was selected as the first recipient of the Prime Minister's Award for outstanding contribution to promotion and development of Yoga.

The Institute has published books on Yoga and these have been translated into multiple languages. There are thousands of Iyengar Yoga teachers popularising and propagating yoga across the world.

The Award was recommended by an Evaluation Committee (Jury) constituted under the Chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary and included Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, Secretary (AYUSH) and Dr. Veerendra Heggade as its members.

7 - Qatar Airways voted as the World’s Best Airline in 2017

Qatar Airways has again been named as Airline of the Year by the prestigious 2017 Skytrax World Airline Awards. It was the fourth time that Qatar Airways has been given this global recognition as the world’s best airline. Qatar Airways enjoyed further success by winning major awards for the World’s Best Business Class, the World’s Best First Class Lounge and as the Best Airline in the Middle East.

Referred to as the “Oscars of the aviation industry”, the World Airline Awards are held in high esteem for clarity of process and independence, with no outside sponsorship or external influence. The survey voting processes and awards results analysis were subject to detailed, independent assessment by the UK advertising authority (ASA) in 2015 and found fully compliant, transparent and independent.

8 - Anti-hunger activist Ankit Kawatra to be honoured by Queen Elizabeth II

Anti-hunger activist Ankit Kawatra received the prestigious Queen's Young Leaders Award with 60 others from all 53 Commonwealth countries. He was honoured by Queen Elizabeth II.

Ankit Kawatra has been committed to solving hunger and malnutrition in India. He quit his corporate business job and founded a not for profit organisation Feeding India that works towards solving problems of hunger, malnutrition and food wastage, mainly by redistributing extra food from restaurants, canteens, households, corporates etc. to help people in need.

9 - Nisha Dutt bags Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award

Nisha Dutt, Chief Executive Officer of Hyderabad-based Intellecap has been honoured with the “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” award at the seventh Asian Awards in London for leading Intellecap to become a globally known enterprise that focuses on social capital and affects the underserved communities.

Earlier winners from India include Ratan Tata, Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and singer Asha Bhosle.

10 - West Bengal government received UN award

The UN awarded a scheme by the West Bengal government aimed at promoting girls' education with its highest Public Service Award. 'Kanyashree Prakalpa' scheme was chosen among 552 projects from 62 countries, which were nominated for the award.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee received a trophy and the certificate for the First Prize at the UN Public Service Forum. Kanyashree Prakalpa is a targeted conditional cash transfer scheme aimed at promoting education among girls. Over four million girls are already enrolled in the scheme.

11 - President of India presented the Hindi Sevi Samman Awards

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee presented the Hindi Sevi Samman Awards for the year 2015. The scholars received awards in 12 different categories for their contribution in the field of Hindi language and literature.

Ganga Sharan Singh Award − Prof S Shesharatnam, M. Govindarajan, Prof Harmedra Singh bedi, Prof H Suvdani
Ganesh Shankar Vidhyarthi Puruskar Baldev Sharma and Rahul Dev
Aatmaram Award − Girishchandra and Fani bhushan
Swami Vivekanand Award − Shridhar Pradakar and Shriranjan suridev.

12 - Defence Minister presented the Raksha Mantri’s Awards

Minister of Defence, Finance & Corporate Affairs Shri Arun Jaitley gave away Raksha Mantri’s Awards for Excellence for the years 2014-15 and 2015-16 in recognition of exemplary performance amongst Ordnance Factories and the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) in New Delhi.

Institutional Awards (2014-15) − Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad, Goa Shipyard Limited, Goa
Best Performing Division (2014-15) − Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Ordnance Factory Medak, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited
Institutional Awards (2015-16) − Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bharat Electronics Limited
Best Performing Division (2015-16) − Naval Systems, Ordnance Factory Medak, Goa Shipyard Limited

13 - Pune city police received FICCI Smart Policing Award 2017

Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries honoured Pune city police with Smart Police Award for the year 2017 due to its introduction of initiatives like Buddy Cop, Damini squad, “Lost & Found” portal, Beat Marshal Monitoring Sapience App, and Tenant Information System.

“BuddyCop” was introduced for helping women working in IT companies and ‘Damini squad’ was introduced where women police officials played a good role in tackling women security issues in the city. Pune Police Commissioner Rashmi Shukla received the award. Such initiatives focused on use of best technology for tackling internal security issues.

14 - Satyabrata Rout awarded with Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar

Noted theatre director and Professor Satyabrata Rout was awarded Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar for the year 2016 due to his unique methodology of teaching and practising direction and design to theatres.

He is a professor from the Department of Theatre Arts, S N School of Arts and Communication, University of Hyderabad (UoH).

He has directed many plays and has participated in national and international theatre festivals. He has conducted various theatre workshops across the globe. He has also been honoured with META (Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Award) award in 2013 for his amazing production Matte Ekalavya.

15 - Priyanka Chopra honoured with Dadasaheb Phalke Award

Veteran actor Priyanka Chopra was honoured with Dadasaheb Phalke Award in the new category of Internationally Acclaimed Actress. With this, Priyanka Chopra will be first recipient of this award category. She made India proud by performing internationally in American TV series Quantico and movie Baywatch.

Dadasaheb Phalke Academy honours artists from the Hindi and regional industry since the year 2000 and praises 22 different crafts of the industry, right from make-up artists to spot boys.