(Current Affairs) Awards and Prizes | April + May: 2014

Awards and Prizes

Sachin Tendulkar and CNR Rao conferred with Bharat Ratna

Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honour was conferred on cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar (40) and eminent scientist Prof CNR Rao (79) by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee. The awards were given at the Durban Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on 4 February 2014.

The recipient of the award will receive a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a medallion. This award does not carry any monetary grants. With this felicitation, Sachin became the first sportsperson to be conferred with the honour of Bharat Ratna. He is also the youngest person alive to be conferred with the award. Master blaster Sachin retired from international cricket on 16 November 2013. Sachin after receiving the
award dedicated it to his mother. Prof CNR Rao is the third scientist who has been conferred with the award. He received the honour after CV Raman and A P J Abdul Kalam, the former President of India. Rao is recognized international authority on solid state and materials chemistry. Till now, he has published 1400 research papers and 45 books.

With this honour felicitation, Tendulkar and Rao have joined the selected list of 41 eminent personalities, who have been conferred with this award. Both of them are also recipients of Padma Vibhushan, which is the country‘s second highest civilian honour. The award was instituted in 1954 and is given in recognition of exceptional service of the highest order.

At present, Prof CNR Rao is the head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. To accommodate the sportspersons with the top honour, the government of India revised the eligibility criteria
of the sportsperson in December 2011. Apart from this, Sachin is the first active sportsperson, who became the Rajya Sabha member of the country. He became a member of the Rajya Sabha in 2013.

About Bharat Ratna Awards

Rajendra Prasad, the former President of India on 2 January 1955 gave his order to establish an award. As per the order of the then President (till 1966), the award did not allowed any one to grant the posthumous
awards. Further in January 1966, a provision was inserted for this.

Till date, 12 posthumous awards have been given of which one includes Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Bose was given the award in 1992, which was withdrawn due to legal technicalities. The case of Bose is the only and last case recorded till date of withdrawal of the award. The Order of precedence of India is the protocol list (hierarchy of important positions) has placed Bharat Ratna awardees at the seventh position.

Non-Indians, who have been conferred with the award

  • Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987)
  • Nelson Mandela (1990)

Naturalised Indian citizen to be awarded

  • Mother Teresa (1980)

Vishwanath Tripathi selected for the Vyas Samman 2013

Vishwanath Tripathi, the eminent Hindi writer has been selected for the prestigious Vyas Samman for the year 2013. He has been chosen for his memoir ‘Vyomkesh Darvesh’ that is a biography of the noted Hindi scholar
Acharya Hazari Prasad Dwivedi.

Tripathi, who is 82-year-old has around 20 publications by his name that includes memoirs, novel and poetry collection. Surya Prasad Dikshit, the Hindi litterateur headed the selection committee for the award.

The Vyas Samman 2012 was given to Hindi litterateur Narendra Kohli for his historical novel Na Bhooto Na Bhavishyati published in 2004 that is based on Swami Vivekananda and the era he belonged.

About Vyas Samman

Vyas Samman was instituted by the K.K. Birla Foundation in 1991 and is awarded annually in recognition of the hindi literary work published in past 10 years in genres like plays, novels, poetry, short stories, critiques and others. The award carries 2.5 lakh rupees and a citation and a plaque. Malala, John Wood and Indira Ranamagar nominated for World Children’s Prize in Sweden Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who survived after being shot in her head by Taliban was nominated for the World Children’s Prize in Sweden for championing education rights for girls on 6 February 2014. As per the 15 member of international prize jury of WCP
name of Malala was selected as she is a child, who stood up for girls’ rights to education in Pakistan, but also in the world as a whole.

The World Children’s Prize (WCP) is also known as the Children’s Nobel Prize and was founded in 2000 with an aim to raise awareness of children’s rights in 60000 schools in 110 countries through educational programs.

Other candidates nominated for the year are John Wood from USA and Indira Ranamagar from Nepal. The WCP Program 2014 is open from 5 February to 15 October 2014.

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