Current Affairs March 2020 - Awards

1 - National Award for Young Woman Scientists

Women scientists from Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), DRDO and IIT Delhi have received National Award for Young Woman Showing Excellence through Application of Technology for Societal Benefits. Dr. Shweta Rawat from DRDO DIPAS and Dr. Shalini Gupta of IIT Delhi received the award this year.

Dr. Rawat has developed a female-specific Full Body Protector (Prabal) to safeguard the Female troops deployed in riot control actions. Dr. Shalini Gupta has successfully led the development of a technology SeptifloTM, which offers fast and affordable assay for point-of-care diagnosis and treatment of bacterial septicemia, one of the biggest in-hospital killers worldwide.

2 - President of India conferred 61^st Annual Lalit Kala Akademi Awards

President Ram Nath Kovind, conferred the 61^st annual Lalit Kala Akademi Awards on 15 meritorious artists. Artists honoured were Anoop Kumar Manzukhi Gopi, David Malakar, Devendra Kumar Khare, Dinesh Pandya, Faruque Ahmed Halder, Hari Ram Kumbhawat, Keshari Nandan Prasad, Mohan Kumar T, Ratan Krishna Saha, Sagar Vasant Kamble, Satwinder Kaur, Sunil Thiruvayur, Tejaswi Narayan Sonawane, Yashpal Singh and Yashwant Singh.

Lalit Kala Akademi organises art exhibitions and award ceremonies every year to promote art as well as to honour talents.

3 - Environmental activist Jadav Payeng awarded Commonwealth Points of Light Award

Assam’s Environmental activist Jadav Payeng was awarded with 128^th Commonwealth Points of Light Award. Jadav Payeng, who is popularly known as the ‘Forest Man of India,’ received honor by Queen Elizabeth II for his exceptional voluntary service to environmental conservation. He has contributed years to transform a treeless sandbar along the Brahmaputra river into a 1,360-acre vibrant wildlife haven. The haven acts as home for animals and birds of varied species. It is named ‘Molai forest’.

The Points of Light Award recognises people across the 53 Commonwealth nations for the difference they are making in their communities and beyond.

4 - President of India presented Nari Shakti Puraskar

President Ram Nath Kovind presented Nari Shakti Puraskar to Bina Devi on the occasion of International Women’s Day. She is known as 'Mushroom Mahila' for popularising mushroom cultivation. Several other women were awarded in other fields.

The Nari Shakti Puraskar, instituted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, are "National Award in recognition of exceptional work for women empowerment" conferred every year on March 8 as a mark of respect and recognition for those who have demonstrated exemplary courage and stellar contribution towards empowerment of women.

5 - V Praveen Rao wins MS Swaminathan Award for the period 2017-2019

V Praveen Rao, Vice-Chancellor of Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), has won the seventh Dr. MS Swaminathan Award for the period 2017-2019. He was awarded for his contributions in the fields of agricultural research, teaching, extension and administration.

The biennial national award was constituted by Retired ICAR Employees Association (RICAREA) and Nuziveedu Seeds Limited (NSL). It carries a prize of ₹2 lakh and a citation. Praveen Rao handled 13 research and six consultancy projects on micro irrigation in India, Israel and South Africa.

6 - Arfa Sherwani & Rohini Mohan conferred with Chameli Devi Jain Award

Arfa Khanum Sherwani of The Wire and Bengaluru-based freelancer Rohini Mohan were jointly conferred with Chameli Devi Jain Award for outstanding women media-persons of the year. Sherwani was chosen for her reporting from conflict situations in Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh. Rohini Mohan’s reportage on the NRC exercise in Assam set a new benchmark for investigative journalism. Rohini writes on human rights and politics in South Asia.

Previous recipients of the award include Tavleen Singh, Neerja Chowdhury, Barkha Dutt, and Supriya Sharma, among others.

7 - Abel Prize Laureates 2020 announced

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced Hillel Furstenberg from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel and Gregory Margulis from Yale University, the USA as winners of the Abel Prize 2020 for their “pioneering use of methods from probability & dynamics in group theory, number theory and combinatorics”. Hillel Furstenberg and Gregory Margulis invented random walk techniques to investigate mathematical objects such as groups and graphs, and in so doing introduced probabilistic methods to solve many open problems in group theory.

The 2020 Abel Prize Laureates will be honoured at Abel Prize Ceremony 2021 due to Corona pandemic.

8 - Novelist Ruchika Tomar wins Pen/Hemingway Award 2020

Critically-acclaimed debut novelist Ruchika Tomar won the 2020 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, for "A Prayer for Travelers". The award includes a $25,000 prize and a month-long Residency Fellowship at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, a retreat for artists and writers, valued at $10,000.

The two PEN/Hemingway Award runners-up are Stay and Fight by Madeline ffitch and The Travelers by Regina Porter (Hogarth). The prize is underwritten by the Hemingway family and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation.

9 - Zoya Akhtar honoured with IIFTC Tourism Impact Award 2020

IIFTC honored Indian filmmaker Zoya Akhtar with IIFTC Tourism Impact Award 2020 for her outstanding contribution to the world tourism through her cinema. “Zoya Akhter set the trend in the film tourism space with her 2011 classic ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ shot in Spain, following it up with 2015 comedy-drama ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ shot in Turkey and promote tourism of these counties through her films making her a deserving winner.

IIFTC Tourism Impact Award recognises the successful convergence of films and tourism and it celebrates Indian filmmakers, whose cinema has contributed to the growth of world tourism.