Sports

Awards

The SCOPE (Standing Conference Of Public Enterprises) Excellence Awards.

Dr. Singh on Thursday conferred the ‘SCOPE award for excellence and outstanding contribution to public sector management’

·         Under the ‘individual’ category for 2007-08 on Steel Authority of India Chairman S. K. Roongta

Mr. Roongta also received three other major awards for the state-owned steel major —

1.      the Gold Trophy (SCOPE award for excellence and outstanding contribution to public sector management in the ‘institutional’ category for 2006-07, and

2.      Two ‘MoU excellence awards’ in the categories ‘mining & metals’ and ‘listed companies’ for 2007-08,

STAR IMPACT AWARD (UK based) 

Muna Wehbe, chief executive of the Foundation,

Stars Foundation, a London-based charity, give “Stars Impact” awards every year to groups which have made a “demonstrable difference” to the lives of disadvantaged children.

·         Two Indian NGOs — Mumbai-based “Prerana” and “Sense International India,” Ahmedabad — are to get $100,000 each for their work among disabled and poor children.

·         They are among the six grassroots organisations from South Asia and Africa selected by, the foundation

·         Prerana was selected for providing night and day care and education/training for children at risk from ‘second generation’ commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking in India.

·         The Sense International India was recognised for supporting hearing-impaired and visually-challenged children

1.      for setting up South Asia’s first teacher training and mentoring course in tackling these handicaps.

Manna Dey conferred Dadasaheb Phalke award

Legendary playback singer Manna Dey, who has enthralled audiences for over five decades, was conferred the Dadasaheb Phalke award by President Pratibha Patil at the 55th National Film Awards ceremony

·         Actor Prakash Raj received received the National Film Award for Best Actor on for his sensitive performance in the Tamil film Kanchivaram(must watch). The Priyadarshan-directed film, based on the silk weavers’ community of Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu, also bagged the honour for Best Feature Film.

·         Veteran Kannada actress Umashree won the Best Actress award for her portrayal of a wronged woman from a minority community in the Kannada film Gulabi Talkies, which also won the award for the Best Feature Film in that language.

·         Veteran filmmaker and winner of the Dadasaheb Phalke award Adoor Gopalakrishnan received the Best Director award for the Malayalam film Naalu Pennungal.

·         Sharad Goekar, who was declared the Best Child Artist for his role in the Marathi film Tingya,.

·         Lyricist Prasoon Joshi received the award for Best Film on Family Welfare for Taare Zameen Par on Aamir Khan’s behalf. Mr. Joshi picked up an award in the Best Lyricist category,

·         while Shankar Mahadevan received the Best Male Playback Singer honours for the same film.

·         Ms. Ghoshal’s won her third awardfor best female playback singer  after Devdas and Paheli.

·         Gandhi, My Father, produced by Anil Kapoor, was given the Special Jury Award.

Lokmanya Tilak award for N. Ram

Editor-in-chief of Hindu The N. Ram has been conferred the second Lokmanya Tilak National Journalist Award by the Kesari Mahratta Trust.

·         Kesari was established in 1881(ie 129 year old !) by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak who used this newspaper and Mahratta as media for creating awareness about the independence movement among the masses.

·         The first Lokmanya Tilak award was bestowed on January 4, 2009 on Vir Sanghvi, Editorial Director of Hindustan Times, New Delhi.

FOOTBALL

FIFA President Joseph Sepp Blatter

Lionel Messi  (club Barcelona , country Argentina  ) claimed the World Player-of-the-Year Award

·         It caps a perfect year for the winger, who won an unprecedented treble of titles with Barcelona — the La Liga, Spanish Cup and the Champions League .  

·         Received the Ballon d’Or as the best player in Europe.

·         He also sealed Barcelona’s first Club World Cup (Barcelona beat Estudiantes 2-1.)

·         But his only international triumph was an Olympic gold medal in 2006, and he will have to play much better for his country to lead Argentina to a third World Cup — and its first since Maradona inspired victory in 1986.

OTHER AWARDS

·         The women’s award went to Brazil’s Marta for the fourth year in a row.

·         The late England player and manager Bobby Robson received FIFA’s Fair Play Award,

·         While the Presidential Award for contributions to football and society went to Jordan’s Queen Rania.

·         Ronaldo was honoured at the gala for scoring the best goal of 2009, a 40-metre shot against Porto in last season’s Champions League.

·         The world football body also announced its first World XI men’s team — which included six players from the Spanish league and five from the English Premier League.

Miss Universe 2009

Eighteen-year-old Stefania Fernandez(Venezuela ) was crowned Miss Universe 2009 by incumbent crown holder and compatriot Dayana Mendoza  at Los Angles

·         The first runner-up title is shared by Miss Australia Rachael Finch and Miss Puerto Rico Mayra Matos Perez.

·         The title of second runner-up went to Miss Kosovo Gona Dragusha,

Venezuela made history at the Miss Universe 2009 pageant by winning the crown for the second year running.

·         Ms. Fernandez became the sixth Miss Universe from a South American country, known for its obsession with beauty.

·         Venezuela has won five Miss Universe titles, five Miss World and four Miss International crowns — more than any other country.

Miss India, Ekta Chowdhury, exited the contest without making it to the top 15.

Stockholm Water Prize

This  year’s recipient of “Stockholm Water Prize, is India’s Bindeshwar Pathak, on his achievement in promoting low-cost sanitation. He received this prize at  “Closing Plenary of World Water Week” in Stockholm, Sweden,

Government initiatives

·         The Centre plans to ensure safe drinking water to all habitations by 2012.

·         It has also set a target of covering rural India under the ‘Total Sanitation Campaign’ by 2010.

·         The National Water Policy allocated first priority to drinking water in planning and operation of water resources systems.

·         The Minister complimented Noting that the per capita availability of water was about 1,700 cubic metres,

MSRF

The chairman of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, M.S. Swaminathan, was awarded a honoris causa by the University of Talca at a recent function in Chile.

·         In his remarks, Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences Hernan Paillan hailed Dr. Swaminathan’s contribution to the breeding research programmes of three key products worldwide — wheat, rice and potato.

·         The university also awarded the presidential medal to Dr. Swaminatha

Jean Mayer Award for journalist

·         Eminent journalist Sanjoy Hazarika has been awarded the Dr. Jean Mayer Award for Global Citizenship by the U.S.-based Tufts University for his contribution to the north-east of India, initiatives in health and governance, besides advocacy of issues.

·         The award is given annually to scholars and practitioners who make significant contributions to improving the lives of people in their areas of work and impacting both research and policy.

·         The previous awardees include Nobel laureates Amartya Sen and Desmond Tutu.

UNEP awards for two institutions  (Sasakawa Prize )

UNEP's Executive Director and Under-Secretary General of the United Nations Achim Steiner

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) awarded an appreciation to two institutions that managed to produce environmental-friendly products while at the same time having capability to improve livelihood for poor people.

·         The companies, named Trees, Water and People (TWP) (Stuart Conway, co-founder and International Director of TWP) .TWP is an organisation that collaborates with local non- governmental organisations in distributing fuel-efficient cook stoves to communities in Honduras, Guatemala, El Savador, Nicaragua and Haiti.

·         Nuru Design changed the lives of thousands of school children, housewives and villagers across Latin America, Africa and India. Nuru Design as the company has brought rechargeable lights to villages in Rwanda, Kenya and India

DRDO’s Technology Leadership Award for 2008

W. Selvamurthy, Chief Controller (Life Sciences and Human Resource), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), has been chosen for the DRDO’s Technology Leadership Award for 2008 instituted by the DRDO.

CONTRIBUTION

• The award citation says Dr. Selvamurthy’s recent path-breaking research — application of nitric oxide and oxygen for treating high altitude pulmonary oedema, has saved more than 500 soldiers’ lives.
• He developed a new prophylactic method of using carbozen gas for protection against noise-induced loss of hearing among the crew of battleships and battle tanks.

The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 2 lakh and the citation.

Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur (National Order of the Legion of Honour), FRANCE

·         The French order, established by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte on May 19, 1802,

·         It is awarded for distinguished work in culture, science, army, industry and commerce.

·         It is divided into five categories – chevalier (knight), officier (officer), commandeur (commander), grand officier (grand officer) and grand’croix (grand cross).

·         Though the membership of the Légion is restricted to French nationals, foreign citizens who have served France or the ideals it upholds may receive a distinction of the Légion, which is nearly the same thing as membership of the Légion.

Previous Indian recipients of the decoration include legendary film-maker

1.      Satyajit Ray (1987),

2.      Tamil film star Sivaji Ganesan (1995),

3.      sitar maestro Ravi Shankar (2000),

4.      environmentalist R. K. Pachauri (2006) and

5.      Bollywood super star Amitabh Bachchan (2007).

6.      Prof. Asha Pande of Rajasthan University’s Department of Foreign Languages here who has been nominated for the highest civilian award of France this year attributes it to her tireless work spanning three decades devoted to promotion of French education and culture in Rajasthan

7.      Lata Mangeshkar

The President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, has chosen Dr. Pande for the award of Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur (National Order of the Legion of Honour), the highest decoration in France, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to French culture and ethos.

Manna Dey conferred Dadasaheb Phalke award

Legendary playback singer Manna Dey, who has enthralled audiences for over five decades, was conferred the Dadasaheb Phalke award by President Pratibha Patil at the 55th National Film Awards ceremony

·         Actor Prakash Raj received received the National Film Award for Best Actor on for his sensitive performance in the Tamil film Kanchivaram(must watch). The Priyadarshan-directed film, based on the silk weavers’ community of Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu, also bagged the honour for Best Feature Film.

·         Veteran Kannada actress Umashree won the Best Actress award for her portrayal of a wronged woman from a minority community in the Kannada film Gulabi Talkies, which also won the award for the Best Feature Film in that language.

·         Veteran filmmaker and winner of the Dadasaheb Phalke award Adoor Gopalakrishnan received the Best Director award for the Malayalam film Naalu Pennungal.

·         Sharad Goekar, who was declared the Best Child Artist for his role in the Marathi film Tingya,.

·         Lyricist Prasoon Joshi received the award for Best Film on Family Welfare for Taare Zameen Par on Aamir Khan’s behalf. Mr. Joshi picked up an award in the Best Lyricist category,

·         while Shankar Mahadevan received the Best Male Playback Singer honours for the same film.

·         Ms. Ghoshal’s won her third awardfor best female playback singer  after Devdas and Paheli.

·         Gandhi, My Father, produced by Anil Kapoor, was given the Special Jury Award.

Sangeet Natak Akademi

Akademi Ratna. (Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellows) given by The General Council of Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama

·         Renowned Hindustani vocalist Pandit Jasraj,

·         veteran film actor Shreeram Lagoo ,

·         danseuse Yamini Krishnamurti  

·         ,Carnatic musician Lalgudi Jayaraman,

·         theatre personality Kamlesh Dutt Tripathi and

·         vocalist Kishori Amonkarare

At present, there are only 32 Fellows of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

1.      The honour of Akademi Fellow carries a cash award of Rs. 3 lakh, while Akademi Award carries Rs.1 lakh, besides ‘Tamrapatra’ and ‘Angavastram.’

Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the year 2009.

The General Council of the Akademi also selected 33 personalities from the fields of music, dance, and theatre for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the year 2009.

Eight eminent artists in the field of music selected for the award are —

·         Abdul Rashid Khan and Vasundhara Komkali for Hindustani vocal,

·         Lachman Singh Seen (Tabla) and Ali Ahmad Hussain (Shehnai) for Hindustani instrumental music,

·         Parassala B. Ponnammal for Carnatic vocal,

·         U. Srinivas (Mandolin),

·         Dandamudi Sumathi Rama Mohan Rao (Mridangam) for Carnatic instrumental music and

·         L. Ibohalmacha Singh (Nata Sankirtana) for Other Major Traditions of Music.

In the field of dance, (p/t)

·         Ananda Shankar Jayant (Bharatanatyam),

·         Prerana Shrimali (Kathak),

·         Kalamandalam Rajan (Kathakali),

·         L. Bino Devi (Manipuri),

·         Geeta Mahalik (Odissi),

·         Vyjayanathi Kashi (Kuchipudi),

·         Daksha Sheth (creative and experimental dance) and

·         Kala Krishna (other major traditions of dance -Andhranatyam) have been selected.

In the field of theatre, the awardees are

·         Shankar Narayan Navre (Marathi) and Vayala Vasudevan Pillai (Malayalam) for playwriting,

·         Sudha Shivpuri and Neeta Mohindra for Acting, and

·         Joy Michael and Dinesh Thakur for direction.

·         For allied theatre arts, Kamal Arora (make-up) and Kuldeep Singh (music for theatre) have been selected.

OTHERS

Musafir Ram Bhardwaj, Folk Dance (Himachal Pradesh); Vilayat Khan Ragi, Dhadhi Folk Music (Punjab), U.K. Kunjirama Panicker, Theyyam (Kerala), Jaganath Behera, Pala (Orissa), Shanti Jain, folk music (Bihar), Vithal Gangaram Umap, folk theatre (Maharashtra) and Bhikhudan Govindbhai Gadhvi, folk music (Gujarat) have also been selected for the award. Moinul Haque has been selected for contribution to mime, while Leela Venkataraman has been selected for her overall contribution in performing arts.

Ernst &Young entrepreneur of the year 2009 Awards (Monte Carlo, Monaco )

·         Anand G. Mahindra, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra Group, has been named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year 2009.

·         The Lifetime Achievement Award has gone to N. Vaghul ( eminent banker ) for his unparalleled contribution to the Indian financial sector.

·         Harsh C. Mariwala, Chairman & Managing Director, Marico, is the winner in the manufacturing category.

·         The award for the Manager Entrepreneur of the year has gone to O. P. Bhatt, Chairman & Managing Director (two managing directors Mr. S.K. Bhattacharyya and Mr. R. Sridharan) State Bank of India.

·         The award for the Start-up Entrepreneur of the year is given to Amit Mittal, Chairman & Managing Director, A2Z Maintenance & Engineering Services Pvt. Ltd.

·         The services category award has gone to Shashi Kiran Shetty, Chairman & Managing Director, Allcargo Global Logistics.

·         Vikram Akula, Chairperson and Founder of India’s largest microfinance company SKS Microfinance Pvt. Ltd., is named the Business Transformation Entrepreneur of the year.

·         The Entrepreneur of the year healthcare & life sciences award has gone to Pankaj R. Patel, Chairman & Managing Director, Zydus Cadila Healthcare Ltd.

STAR IMPACT AWARD (UK based) 

Muna Wehbe, chief executive of the Foundation,

Stars Foundation, a London-based charity, give “Stars Impact” awards every year to groups which have made a “demonstrable difference” to the lives of disadvantaged children.

·         Two Indian NGOs — Mumbai-based “Prerana” and “Sense International India,” Ahmedabad — are to get $100,000 each for their work among disabled and poor children.

·         They are among the six grassroots organisations from South Asia and Africa selected by, the foundation

·         Prerana was selected for providing night and day care and education/training for children at risk from ‘second generation’ commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking in India.

·         The Sense International India was recognised for supporting hearing-impaired and visually-challenged children

2.      for setting up South Asia’s first teacher training and mentoring course in tackling these handicaps.

Indian, Russian films win Golden Conch at MIFF

The 11th Mumbai International Film Festival of Documentary, Animation and Short Films .

·         Russian director Alexander Gutman’s 17 August won the Golden Conch for the Best Documentary, while

·         The Spell, directed by Umesh Kulkarni was adjudged the best fiction film

SPORTS
2009 for Indian sports

BOXING

·         Vijender Singh won India’s maiden World Championship medal in Milan become the world’s number one middle weight boxer,

·         The 24-year-old Vijender, along with female boxer M.C. Mary Kom, won the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, which was also a first for Indian boxing.

·         Indian boxing also found a new hero in a 22-year-old shy Manipuri pugilist Suranjoy Singh, who won the gold in the Asian Championships to end a 15-year drought.

BILLIARDS

Pankaj Advani, become new world champion after he upstaged nine-time world champion Mike Russell of Qatar to become the second Indian — after Geet Sethi — to win the World Billiards Championship.

BADMINTON

Saina Nehwal living up to the expectations and the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V. Diju cracked the top 10 chart.

·         Saina became the first Indian to win a Super series title when she clinched the Indonesian Open in June

·         While the Jwala-Diju pair lifted the Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold crown in August to break into the top 10.

Indian tennis

Sania Mirza became India’s first female tennis player to win a Grand Slam title when she triumphed at the Australian Open along with compatriot Bhupathi in the mixed doubles event in January 2009.

MOTOR SPORTS

Force India( owner Vijay Mallya) at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium and Giancarlo Fisichella earned the team’s first pole and then returned to drive one of the most mature races of his illustrious career for a second place finish.

Indian football also showed signs of revival with Baichung Bhutia and his men winning the Nehru Cup and SAFF Championships and Praful Patel taking charge of the national federation.

C. Muniyappa

Caddie-turned-pro C. Muniyappa was named the Asian Tour Rookie of the Year following his inspirational triumph in the Indian Open earlier this year.

World Junior squash championships ( at Chennai )

History was made, twice over, at the World Junior squash championships (Chennai) as Egyptians

·         Mohamed el Shorbagy only the second person to win the boys’ event twice, first Ramy Ashour and

·         Nour el Sherbini , the youngest girls’ champion ever

Record Book

Sachin Tendulkar became the first man to score a double century in One Day Internationals. The great man’s unbeaten 200 off 147 balls helped India defeat South Africa by 153 runs in the second ODI at Gwalior,

• Tendulkar’s innings surpassed the previous record for the highest score in ODIs — 194, which was set by Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar in 1997 and equalled by Zimbabwe’s Charles Coventry in 2009.

The South Asian Games 

·         The 11th South Asian Games (at Dhaka , mascot Kutum ) , a sporting festival of eight nations in 23 disciplines over 12 days came to a grand end with a splendid closing ceremony at the Bangabandhu National Stadium

·         The next host is India.

·         The final medals tally (read as Country, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Total): India 90, 55, 30, 175; Pakistan 19, 25, 36, 80; Bangladesh 18, 23, 56, 97; Sri Lanka 16, 35, 54, 105; Nepal 8, 9, 19, 36; Afghanistan 7, 9, 16, 32; Bhutan 0, 2, 3, 5; Maldives 0, 0, 2, 2.

Indian Legacy in Bangladesh

·         Kazi Nazrul Islam’s famous song Azi Sristi Shuker Ullashe.

·         Rabindra Nath Tagore’s “Aamra Shabai Raza “  and “Aamar Janma Bhommi”

·         Dancing to the tune of “Dhono Dhanne Pushpe Vora” written by Dwijendralal Roy

CHESS
Soumya Swaminathan(seeded nine) become the girls’ champion in the World junior chess championship at Puerto Madryn, Argentina,

·         Soumya the third Indian girl, and second in succession, to win the coveted crown. K. Humpy (2001) and D. Harika (2008) were the other winners.

·         The Pune-based Soumya entered the competition by virtue of winning the National junior girls’ title in) 2008.

The open title went to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France ) who pipped Sergie Zhigalko (Belarus) on tie-break score after the players tied at 10.5 points.
BOXING

Suranjoy Singh

Asian champion Suranjoy Singh became the first Indian boxer to clinch a gold medal in the inter-continental President’s Cup after out-punching Frenchman Nordine Oubaali 8-1 in the flyweight (51kg) final here on Friday.

The 22-year-old Manipur boxer’s triumph also fetched him a $3,000 cash prize at the prestigious season-ending event, where confederations from Asia, America, Africa, Europe and Oceania were pitted against one another.

Representing Asia One, Suranjoy didn’t allow his rival from the Europe Two team to land a single scoring punch in the first two rounds.

HOCKEY

HOCKEY WORLD CUP

The idea was floated in 1969 and became a reality on October 15, 1971 at Barcelona. Tanvir Dar of Pakistan emerged as the hero of the first World Cup scoring the first goal and taking credit for a hat-trick.

·         The indefatigable Dutchman, Ties Kruize, remains the only player to have figured six editions from 1971 to 1986.

·         The amalgam of aesthetics and athleticism brought displayed Pakistan four trophy triumphs — two in the Seventies (1971, 1978), one in the next decade (1982) and one more, at Sydney (1994).

·         The Dutch had three cup victories — 1973, 1990 and 1998 —

• It is  the second on Indian soil — after the Bombay edition in 1981-82
• Poignantly, India has just one success to recall. That finest hour surfaced in 1975 at Kuala Lumpur. The captain of the 1975 victorious Indian team, Ajit Pal Singh and coach BalbirSingh Sr.

GOLF

Asian Tour International in Bangkok

Gaganjeet Bhullar of India produced a brilliant course record eight-under-par 64 to win the season-opening Asian Tour International by one shot

This was Bhullar’s second Asian Tour title, following his breakthrough win in last year’s Indonesian President Invitational tournament.

Two par shots later, he reeled off a birdie hat-trick and nailed a birdie on the ninth hole as well to lie six-under at the turn.

UNDER-20 World Cup (soccer)

Ghana beat Brazil in a penalty shootout to become the first African team to win the under-20 World Cup ,end a decade of South American dominance.

• Ghana to become the first champion from outside South America since Spain in 1999.
• Ghana had lost its two previous finals, against Brazil in 1993 and Argentina in 2001.

Played at Cairo International Stadium,

LEANDER PAES (MIXED DOUBLES AUSTRALIAN OPEN )

Leander Paes equalled the record for most number of Grand Slam title triumphs by an Indian (21st Grand Slam final, 11th win )

·         Paes and his Zimbabwean partner Cara Black clinched the Australian Open mixed doubles championship with a straight-set win

1.      Top seeds and favourites, the 36-year-old Paes and the 30-year-old Black beat 10th seeds Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and Jaroslav Levinsky of Czechoslovakia 7-5, 6-3 in just about one-and-a-half hour.

·         The triumph gave the Indian his 11th overall and fifth mixed doubles title. With this, Paes has equalled one-time doubles’ partner Mahesh Bhupathi’s tally.

·         This is Paes and Black’s second title together, the first being the 2008 U.S. Open.

·         Paes and Black had made back-to-back Grand Slam finals — Wimbledon and the U.S. Open — last season but faltered at the finishing line in both the events.

·         Paes has been a former mixed doubles’ champion at Melbourne Park(ie,AUSTRALIAN OPEN ) and that triumph came in 2003 when he was partnering American legend Martina Navratilova.

Roger Federer extends record to 16 Grand Slam titles

Roger Federer dismantled Andy Murray in the Australian Open final(2010) to extend his own record to 16 Grand Slam titles. Federer collected his fourth Australian Open title with a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(11) win at Rod Laver Arena

·         He becomes only the fifth man to win four Australian titles (in 2004, 2006 and ’07)  American Andre Agassi, who won the last of his four in 2003,

·         He also beat Murray in straight sets in the 2008 U.S. Open final, the only previous meeting between the pair at a Grand Slam.

·         Federer was playing in his 22nd Grand Slam final and 18th of the last 19.

·         Last Year he won

1.      first clay court major at the French Open, completing a career Grand Slam of titles at the four majors.

2.      He regained his Wimbledon title

3.      At the U.S. Open, lose in an upset to Juan Martin del Potro.

Andy Murray

·         Murray was desperate to become the first British man since Fred Perry in 1936 to win one of the four tennis majors (for last 74 year no British man had won any Grand Slam ) 

·         He had set a record for British men just by reaching two major finals in the Open era.

·         Murray still holds a 6-5 advantage over Federer in career head-to-heads — one of only four players who can boast that — but has lost the last three.

World Junior squash championships ( at Chennai )

History was made, twice over, at the World Junior squash championships (Chennai) as Egyptians

·         Mohamed el Shorbagy only the second person to win the boys’ event twice, first Ramy Ashour and

·         Nour el Sherbini , the youngest girls’ champion ever

PERSONALITIES

Bindeshwar Pathak

 Sulabh International founder Bindeshwar Pathak has been named among “Heroes of Environment 2009” by Time magazine under the “scientists and innovators” category

·         The magazine has credited Dr. Pathak with developing the technology for a new toilet and founding the non-profit non-government Sulabh sanitation movement to bring his creation to those who need it the most.

U.S. Award for Mallika Dutt
 Indian-American human rights activist Mallika Dutt has won the American Courage Award for her work in the U.S. and India.

·         In 1989, Ms. Dutt co-founded ‘Sakhi,’ an organisation that helped south Asian women suffering domestic violence in New York.

Bunker Roy,

Bunker Roy, founder-director of the much talked-about Barefoot College at Tilonia in Rajasthan’s Ajmer district,

·         He has been chosen for this year’s Robert Hill Award for his contribution to promotion of photo-voltaics (solar energy).

1.      He is the first Indian to be recognised by the Global Solar Community which had its 24th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference in Hamburg, Germany, this year

2.      The award is in the name of Professor Robert Hill (1937-90) who worked on many aspects of photo-voltaics, including technical and policy issues

·         The award is also in recognition of Mr. Roy’s innovative “barefoot approach” to solar electrification of remote, inaccessible villages all over the world.

1.      (p/t)The barefoot approach has reached 25 of the Least Developed Countries in Africa, Asia and South America so far with solar electrification of nearly 30,000 houses in over 800 villages. This has led to a saving of almost 1.60 million litres of kerosene per month.

2.      The “barefoot approach” is a bottoms-up approach that takes the poor rural communities into confidence to shoulder responsibility for solar electrification of their villages.

·         This means getting every family to pay what they would otherwise pay for kerosene, diesel, candles and torch batteries and wood. And that comes to between $ 5 and $ 10 a month.

K. Rukmini Menon

The Indian Foreign Service Association has condoled the demise of the country’s second woman career diplomat K. Rukmini Menon in Bangalore

·         Born on September 6, 1922, Ms. Menon worked in the High Commission of India in London from 1949 and joined the Foreign Service in September 1951

1.      She also held the distinction of being the first woman officer to enrol at the National Defence College.

·         She was the second woman officer to join the IFS, after C.B. Muthamma, and served as Ambassador to Nigeria, Italy and Denmark.

·         After retirement in 1980, she became a member of the Union Public Service Commission.

Gunners Day observed

September 28 has a special place in the history of

·         The Regiment of Artillery as the first Indian Artillery Unit, 5 (Bombay) Mountain Battery equipped with 2.5 inch RML Gun, was raised on this day in 1827.

·         The Regiment of Artillery has the honour of five of its illustrious generals appointed as Chief of the Army Staff, including the present Chief, General Deepak Kapoor.

Sajjil, (Iran long-range missiles)

·         An improved version of Shahab-3 and

·         The two-stage Sajjil, powered by solid fuel, were fired

·         These missiles were tested during Iran’s Great Prophet IV military exercises.

·         Like the Shahab-3, Sajjil rockets have a range of around 2,000 km.

BLOOM BOX

A mini power plant, which could replace expensive power houses and transmission lines by K.R. Sridhar(CEO of Bloom energy )

R. S Pandey

A recipient of the first Prime Minister’s award for Excellence in Public Administration, Mr. Pandey is a Nagaland-cadre IAS officer of 1972 batch.

• He recently wrote a book tittled Communitisation: The Third Way of Governance”
1. In this book he has penned his experience with communitisation programme in elementary education, primary healthcare and power management in Nagaland.
• At present he is a Petroleum Secretary

Rajiv Shah

Mr. Shah (36) is the highest ranking Indian American of the Obama Administration.

·         The U.S. Senate has approved the nomination of Rajiv Shah to head the US Agency for International Development (USAID), making him the highest ranking Indian-American in the administration.

·         The confirmation has put Mr. Shah in charge of the $20-billion aid agency, which is poised to play a key role in the new foreign policy of the Obama Administration which has made development a key tool.

·         Mr. Shah would report to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

First World Pneumonia Day on November 2

November 2 will be observed as the first World Pneumonia Day

·         Nevertheless, two million children under five years of age die from pneumonia each year – more than from AIDS, measles and malaria combined.

·         Every minute, one child dies of pneumonia in India, according to new World Health Organization data

·         Two bacteria – Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenza type 2 (Hib) -- as the leading causes of pneumonia.

·         India leads the world with 27 per cent of the global pneumonia cases, followed by Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

To check this he Union Health Ministry introduce a pentavalent (five-in-one) vaccine which includes Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib), one of the two bacteria causing pneumonia and meningitis
Irina Bokova

Bulgaria’s (a member of the EU) former foreign minister, 57-year old Irina Bokova, has taken over as the first woman Director-General of UNESCO, the Paris-based U.N. agency for Education, Science, Culture and Communication.

·         On September 22, Ms Bokova emerged triumphant after UNESCO’s 58-member Executive Board voted for her following a long and difficult five-round electoral battle which pitted her against Egypt’s influential Culture Minister Faroukh Hosni.

·         Europe has held the leadership of UNESCO for 45 of the organisation’s 64-year-old history.

C.B. Muthamma,

India’s first woman career diplomat and first woman Ambassador, died in a Bangalore hospital. She was 85.

·         Opting for the foreign service after she passed the civil services examinations in 1949,

·         In 1970 she was posted as India’s Ambassador to Hungary, the first woman from within the service to be appointed Ambassador..

·         She will be most remembered for her successful crusade for equality for women in the male-dominated Indian civil services of her time. She brought a petition against the government of India on the ground that she had been overlooked for promotion, arguing that the rules governing the employment of women in the service were discriminatory. Her case was upheld in 1979 in a landmark judgment by a three-member Bench headed by Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer.

·         She was nominated as the Indian member of the Independent Commission on Disarmament and Security Issues set up by the then Swedish Prime Minister, Olaf Palme.

·         She continued to write prolifically and on a range of interests during her retirement, from a collection of scholarly articles titled “Slain by the System: India’s Real Crisis” (2003) to a cookbook on Kodava cuisine.

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

·         Tunisia’s President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was re-elected for a fifth term with an overwhelming 89 per cent of the vote — his weakest performance yet but more than enough to show his solid grip on the nation.

·         Mr. Ben Ali was last re-elected in 2004 with more than 94 per cent of votes. He took power in a bloodless coup in 1987.

·         Many voters see continuity as a good thing in Tunisia, a strong U.S. and European ally and a relatively secular, moderate and stable outpost in the Arab world.

KALAYANI KAUL

Prominent barrister of Indian-origin Kalyani Kaul, who has handled high-profile cases in the U.K., has been appointed a Recorder by Queen Elizabeth and will soon preside over hearings in county courts.

·         The post of Recorder is a fee paid post and there is no minimum sitting requirement.

1.      As a Recorder, Ms. Kalyani will prepare cases for trial and preside over hearings in county courts.

·         A Recorder is also considered for authorisation to sit as

1.      Deputy High Court Judges in the Chancery and

2.      the Queen’s Bench Divisions of the High Court and

3.       sit in the Royal Courts of Justice or county courts (specialist civil jurisdiction).

The 49-year-old Kalyani, who was the third highest paid barrister in terms of legal aid payments in 2005, has been practising law in Britain for the last 26 years. She studied Law in the London School of Economics (LSE).

Yugratna Srivastava

Yugratna Srivastava, who addressed the United Nations summit on climate change as the Asia-Pacific UNEP/TUNZA Junior-Board representative.

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

Breaking centuries- old social barriers, Saudi Arabia has inaugurated its first-ever co-educational university allowing girls to attend classes without veil,

·         A multi-billion-dollar initiative aimed at producing future scientists, engineers and technologists.

·         Described as the Bait Al-Hikmah or the “House of Wisdom”, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is the brainchild of the forward-looking Saudi monarch,

350.org. ( an NGO)

·         350.org is calling on political leaders to commit to deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at Copenhagen.

·         The 350.org campaign will cumulate in a global day of environmental action on October 24.

·         The world’s top climatologists, such as James Hansen of the NASA/Goddard Institute, caution

1.      That atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide must return to the safe threshold of 350 parts per million if catastrophic global warming is to be avoided

2.      Levels currently stand at 385ppm.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

·         Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono began his second five-year term as Indonesia’s first directly elected President.

·         Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population among all nations

Kenneth Kaunda

Zambia’s(capital Lusaka) First President Kenneth Kaunda the founding father of this southern African nation Still, he is referred to as the First President and his office has been institutionalised as the ‘Office of the First President.’

Other Important African Leaders

·         Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and

·         Nelson Mandela of South Africa,

·         Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe

8 Indian-origin CEOs at big U.S companies: Forbes

·         Indra Nooyi ( Madras-born  tops the FORBES list.)   PepsiCo’s

·         The Nagpur-born Vikram Pandit,       CEO Citigroup,

·         Shantanu Narayen,       Adobe Systems’ (IT)

·         Francisco D’Souza        Cognizant’s,(IT)

·         Abhijit Talwalkar,       storage devices firm LSI’s

·         Jai P. Nagarkatti ,        biopharma Sigma Aldrich

·         Dinesh C. Paliwal audio and infotainment equipment firm Harman International’s

·         Quest Diagnostics’ Surya Mohapatra .

NANDITA DAS

·         Actor Nandita Das has been appointed chairperson of the Children’s Films Society of India (CFSI).

·         According to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, she will hold the office for three years.

·         The last chairperson was Nafisa Ali.

Hun Kim

·         The Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) has appointed Hun Kim as its new Country Director for India.

·         A Republic of Korea national, Mr Kim took over his new position here with effect from February 1.

·         Mr. Kim succeeds Tadashi Kondo, who is now ADB’s Head of the Office of Co-financing Operations based in the bank’s headquarters in Manila.

M. Madan Babu (29)

·         The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) has announced this year’s selection of 17 of Europe’s most talented young researchers as EMBO Young Investigators. The selection has been made out of 123 applicants from nine countries.

·         M. Madan Babu (29) of India, a former student of Anna University, who has done his PhD in Computational Genomics and is now heading a group in Systems Biology at the MRC Lab of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, U.K., is among those selected.

Yukiya Amano

·         He is the current Director General(5^th) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), having been elected to the position in July 2009. Amano previously served as a Japanese diplomat and international civil servant for the United Nations and its subdivisions.

Srikumar Banerjee

·         He took over as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), on Monday from Anil Kakodkar. An expert in materials science and technology(zirconium alloys ), he has made outstanding contributions in materials-related areas, both basic and application-oriented.

SHYAM LAL YADAV

A journalist of India Today has been selected for the first PCRF-NDTV National RTI Award for his new reports based on information he gathered under the Right to Information Act. Based on the information he gathered under the Act, Mr. Yadav wrote stories on the foreign jaunts by Ministers of the UPA government, bureaucrats junketing, corruption cases and the delay in hanging Afzal Guru.

MOTHER TERESA

Macedonia and Albania(Tirana) have been engaged in a dispute over the national identity of Mother Teresa,

• Who was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia, to an ethnic Albanian family.
• She went to Calcutta in 1929 and dedicated herself to the service of the poor and infirm.
• She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
• After her death in 1997,
• she was buried in Calcutta and Pope John Paul II beatified her in 2003.

Sanjaya Lall (economist)

·         Oxford University this week established a visiting professorship in memory of Sanjaya Lall — regarded as a member of the ‘second generation’ of globally renowned Indian economists.

·         The Patna-born alumnus of Oxford University, Lall is regarded as one of the university’s most prolific economists with 33 books, 75 articles and over 70 contributing chapters in other books.

·         He helped 40 developing countries on a range of issues, including technology policy, export strategy and industrial competitiveness.

·         The Chair will be maintained with a £35,000 benefaction from the Sanjaya Lall Memorial Fund.

Sonia Maria Sotomayor

Sonia Maria Sotomayor (a Judge ) .

·         Sworn in a Justice of the United States Supreme Court on August 8,

·         she is the 111th Justice of that court, its first Hispanic Justice and only the third woman to hold the post.

N. Rangabashyam

·         Chennai-based eminent surgical gastroenterologist N. Rangabashyam has been nominated to the Wall of Honour of the Royal Society of Medicine, U.K.

·         The Society constructed a Hall with a glass dome to create the Wall of Honour to include those who have contributed academically to any branch of medicine; doctors who have rendered yeoman service at the war front and for the underprivileged in any country.

Preet Bharara confirmed as Manhattan attorney

Punjab-born Preet Bharara (a naturalised American citizen,) has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the new Attorney for Manhattan in New York,

·         It is considered as the most prestigious federal prosecutor’s post outside Washington.

·         Now he will oversee more than 200 lawyers who handle some of the country’s most prominent cases,

Nominated to Canadian(Toronto) Senate  (Vim Kochhar )

For the first time, an India-born businessman , Vim Kochhar (73) , has been nominated to the Canadian Senate by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

·         He is among five outstanding Canadians who have been nominated to the Senate by Mr. Harper,

·         For the past 30 years, Mr. Kochhar has played an active role in the community by creating the Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons.

·         He is serving as Board Member for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights .

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