March

Superstar Amitabh Bachchan has been chosen for NTR National Film Award for the year-2011. The award carries a cash component of Rs 5 lakh besides a memento and a citation. A committee comprising Telugu film personalities Tammareddi Bharadwaja, M Balayya and K C Sekhar Babu chose Amitabh Bachchan for the NT Rama Rao National Film Award for 2011 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema, official sources here said. The Committee also chose film director Shyam Benegal for the B N Reddy National Award that carries a reward of Rs 2 lakh, a citation and a memento. Previous recipients of the award include Akkineni Nageswara Rao, a contemporary of late NTR, Bollywood great Dilip Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, thespian Sivaji Ganesan, music maestro Ilaiyaraja, Kannada actor Raj Kumar, director Hrishikesh Mukherjee and actress Waheeda Rehman among others. Telugu movie stalwart and former MP Kaikala Satyanarayana has been chosen for prestigious Raghupati Venkaiah Memorial Award that also carries Rs 2 lakh. Telugu film producer and studio owner G Adiseshagiri Rao has been chosen for the Nagireddy-Chakrapani National Film Award. Andhra Pradesh government gives this award, instituted in 1996 in the name of Telugu film legend and former Chief Minister of the state, every year to an outstanding film personality. The awards will be presented on Ugadi, the Telugu New Year's Day, in Hyderabad on April 11.

Toyo Ito(71), the Japanese architect was declared as the winner of 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize on 18 March 2013. The Pritzker Architecture Prize is said to be the most prestigious and richest award of architecture. Often, this prize is also referred as the Nobel Prize of Architecture. Toyo Ito is the sixth Japanese architect to win this prize. He will win 100000 US Dollars as well as a bronze medal at the official Pritzker ceremony will take place on 29 May 2013 at John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

The 60th National Film Awards were announced on 18 March 2013. The artists who gave benchmark performances in acting and film making in the year 2012 were rewarded in the National Film Awards 2013.

The list of winners chosen by the jury in National Film Awards 2013 is as follows:
Best Feature Film - Paan Singh Tomar (Hindi)
Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director - Chittagong (Hindi); and 101 Chodiyangal (Malayalam)
Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment - Vicky Donor (Hindi); Ustad Hotel (Malayalam)
Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration - Thanichallanjan (Malayalam)
Best Film on Social Issues: Spirit (Malayalam)
Best Children's Film - Dekh Indian Circus (Hindi)
Best Film on Environment and Conservation/preservation: Black Forest (Malayalam)
Best Animation Film - Delhi Safari (Hindi)
Best Direction - Dhag (Marathi) Dir: Shivaji Lotan Patil
Best Actor - Paan Singh Tomar (Hindi) Actors: Irrfaan, Vikram Gokhale
Best Actress - Dhag (Marathi) Actress: Usha Jadhav
Best Supporting Actor - Vicky Donor (Hindi) Actor: Anu Kapoor
Best Supporting Actress - Vicky Donor (Hindi) Dolly Ahluwalia; Thanichallanjan (Malayalam) Kalpana
Best Child Artist - Dekh Indian Circus (Hindi), Actor: Virendra Pratap; 101 Chodiyangal, Actor: Minon
Best Male Playback Singer - Chittagong (Hindi) Singer: Shankar Mahadevan, Bolo Na (Rajat Kamal medal and Rs 50,000)
Best Female Playback Singer - Samhita (Marathi) Singer: Aarti Anklekar Tikekar, Palakein Naa Moondon
Best Cinematography - Ko: YAD, Cameraman: Sudheer Palsane
Best Screenplay - Screenplay Writer (Original) Kahani (Hindi) Sujoy Ghosh, Screenplay writer (Adapted) Oh My God (Hindi) Bhavesh Mandalia, Umesh Shukla and Dialogues Ustaad Hotel (Malayalam) Anjali Menon
Best Audiography - Location Sound Recordist Annayum Rasoolam (Malayalam) Radhakrishnan S; Sound Designer, Shabdo (Bengali) Anirban Sengupta, Dipankar Chaki; Re-recordist of final mixed track Gangs of Wasseypur (Hindi) Alok De, Sinoy Joseph, Shreejesh Nair
Best Editing - Kahaani (Hindi) Namrata Rao
Best Production Design - Vishwaroopam (Tamil) Boontawee Thor Taweepasas, Lalgudi N Ilayaraja
Best Costume Designer - Paradesi (Tamil) Poornima Ramaswamy
Best Make-up Artist - Vazakkuenn 18/9 (Tamil) Raja
Best Music Direction - Songs: Samhita (Marathi) Shailender Barve; Kaliyachan (Malayalam) Biji Bal
Best Lyrics - Chittagong (Hindi) Prasoon Joshi, Bolo Na
Special Jury Award - Chitrangada (Bengali) Rituparno Ghosh; Kahaani (Hindi) Gangs of Wasseypur (Hindi) Dekh Indian Circus (Hindi) Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Best Special Effects - Eega (Telugu) Makuta VFX
Best Choreogrpahy - Vishwaroopam (Tamil) Pandit Birju Maharaj

The National Film Awards are most prominent awards given away to the film fraternity. These awards were established in 1954. Annually, the national panel is appointed by Government of India which selects the winner. The awards are presented by the President of India in the official ceremony.

Sugathakumari(79), the Malayalam poetess in the third week of March 2013 was chosen for the Saraswati Samman 2012 for the poetry collection Manalezhuthu, which means The Writing on the Sand in English. The Saraswati Samman is constituted by K. K. Birla Foundation. Saraswati Samman is awarded annually for outstanding literary work in any Indian language in past 10 years. Sugathakumari has 15 volumes of poetry credited to her. Sugathakumari is also the passionate environmentalist. She was also the head of Kerala’s State Women’s Commission.

Navneet Kaur Dhillon(20) was crowned Pond’s Femina Miss India 2013 on 24 March 2013 in the grand finale of 50th edition of the beauty pageant in Mumbai. Navneet Kaur belongs to Punjab and is a media student at present. Navneet Kaur was also given the title Miss Glowing Skin. Sobhita Dhulipala and Zoya Afroz were the first and second runners-up respectively. The trio of Navneet Kaur, Sobhita Dhulipala and Zoya Afroz were selected from a total of 23 finalists from India.

The London based Indian origin writer, Anil Ananthaswamy won inaugural Physics Journalism Prize for the article Hip Hip Array on 28 February 2013 in central London. The Physics Journalism Prize is co-sponsored by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Institute of Physics (IOP). The article written by Anil Ananthaswamy, Hip Hip Array lays emphasis on Square Kilometre Array which is an international project for building and designing largest radio telescope. The purpose of the prize is to inspire physicists by encouraging the journalists for tackling the complex topics.

NRI entrepreneur Kartar Lalvani has been conferred with the Healthcare Businessman of the Year Award 2013 at the Asian Business Awards ceremony held in London on 23 March. The founder-chairman of Vitabiotics, UK's largest supplier of minerals and vitamin supplements to the retail trade received the honour from UK's Home Secretary Theresa May. Amit Bhatia, chief of the Swordfish group of companies and son-in-law of steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, was declared the Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013. The Lifetime Achievement Award 2013 went to Indian-origin entrepreneur Sudhir Choudhrie. Asian Business Awards 2013 were the 16th edition of Asian Business Awards. The event celebrates the acumen, achievement and excellence of the Asian business. The event encapsulates diversity as well as range of Asian businesses in UK.

S. Venkata Mohan a scientist of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), on 19 March 2013 won the National Bioscience Award for 2012 in Hyderabad. S. Venkata Mohan who is from the Bioengineering and environmental centre of the Institute won the prize for his contributions towards developing technologies for production of clean bio-fuels from waste. The National Bio-science Award which is also called by N-BIOS Prize is an honour of high importance conferred by the Federal Government of India to the select young Indian bio-scientists of less than 45 years of age. The award is given every year for distinctive contributions made towards the development of state of art in basic and applied areas of biological sciences through demonstrated activity in the form of publication in reputed journals and or patents. The award recognizes research and development work carried out in India during the last 5 years of the career.

Madhya Pradesh on bagged two national tourism awards one for the best civic management of a tourist destination and other for the most innovative and unique tourism project in the 23rd National Tourism Award. Madhya Pradesh which is known for tourism hotspots received the awards from President Pranab Mukherjee at a function held for National Tourism Awards 2011-12 in New Delhi, at Vigyan Bhawan. The state received the award in category-‘B’ city for Municipal Council of Mandu in Dhar district. It also got another award for most innovative and unique tourism project-Air Taxi. The state has pioneered in the country to launch the first intra-state Air Taxi services through MPSTDC, in a joint venture with M/s Ventura Air connect Pvt Ltd.

The Union ministry of social justice and empowerment for the first time instituted national awards in order to recognize the efforts and encourage excellence in the field of prevention of Alcoholism and Drug abuse and rehabilitation of its victims. The awards shall be conferred on the awardees in a function to be held in New Delhi on the 26 June every year, which has been declared as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. The Awards are open to all Indian Institutions, Organizations including Gram Panchayats and Individuals without any distinction or discrimination on grounds of religion, race, sex, caste or creed. Even a former addict, who has done outstanding work in the field of awareness generation or de-addiction or rehabilitation will be recognized and awarded. In the country the problem of drug abuse and the substance abuse is on the increase and it has been felt that the victims who are falling prey to this problem are youth in the country. In some of the states the problem has become very serious like Punjab, Manipur and some of the other states. Therefore apart from the government lot of NGOs are involved in the prevention of drug abuse and alcoholism.

Dr. Prakash Kumar, Principal Scientist, seismology group, CSIR- National Geophysical Research Institute was selected for the National Geo-science Award-2011 in the Applied Geophysics category for his contribution in seismology and geodynamics. He has published papers on seismological mapping of Lithospheric-Asthenospheric boundary using converted waves, a state-of-the-art seismological approach. He earlier received the CSIR Young Scientist award. Dr.V. Vijaya Rao, Chief Scientist of controlled seismic studies group of NGRI received the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for his significant research contributions in geophysics.

Tan Twan Eng on 14 March 2013 was announced as a winner of the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize. With this, he became the first Malaysian author to win the most prestigious literary prize of Asia. Tan Twan Eng won the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize for his novel The Garden of Evening Mists. This is only a second time that the prize has been given to the novel written originally in English. The previous winners had won the award as English translations. The Man Asian Literary Prize laid its foundation in 2007. The literary award is given annually to best novel by an Asian writer. The novel can be written in English or translated into English. It should have been published in previous year. The winner is given 30000 US Dollars. The translator, if exists, is given 5000 US Dollars. The submissions for the best novels are invited by the jury through publishers in any country.

The Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Prof. K.V. Thomas on 14 March 2013 announced Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Awards for the year 2011.The Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Awards are given every year by Bureau of Indian Standards for encouraging the service as well as manufacturing organizations so that they strive for excellence. These awards give recognition to those who are considered as the leaders of quality movement in the country. The Best of All Award was given to DAV ACC Senior Secondary Public School, Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh for excellence service standards. In a category called Large Scale Manufacturing Industry, Nokia Siemens Networks Private Limited, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu was given the award for excellence in quality standards. In the Large Scale Service Industry category, R Systems International Limited, Noida, and Uttar Pradesh won the award. In the Small Scale Manufacturing Industry category, the award was bagged by Technocrat Connectivity Systems (Private) Limited, Rudrapur, Uttarakhand.

At the 5th CIDC Vishwakarma Award 2013, Tapas Kumar Lahiry- the chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) and Bharat Cooking Coal Limited (BCCL) won the Achievement award for Public Officer on 7 March 2013 in New Delhi. At the function organized by Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC), Lahiry received this award. Lahiry is a mining engineer as well as administrator with leadership qualities. BCCL’s turnover is 6952 crore Rupees with a profitability of 1093.69 crore Rupees in 2010-11. Lahiry has also remained associated with mining industry of America, China and Australia. CIDC Vishwakarma Awards are held annually for recognising the achievements as well as work of the organisations and individuals.

SAARC Literature Award was presented to five writers at Agra during the two days SAARC Festival of Literature on 10 March 2013. A poet-diplomat from India Abhay K was among the five writers to be honoured with the prestigious Literature Award. Other writers to be honoured with this award were Farheen Chaudhary (Pakistan), Abdul Khaliq Rashid (Afghanistan), Suman Pokhrel (Nepal) and novelist Daya Dissanayake (Sri Lanka). The award is annually presented to the eminent writers of the South Asian region for their contribution in the promotion of literature through their writings as well as literary initiatives. The SAARC Literature Festival 2013 focused on environment, literature and cultural connectivity. The First-Ever SAARC Writers Conference was organized in April 2000.

The President of India Pranab Mukherjee was conferred with the Liberation War Honour Award by the President of Bangladesh Zillur Rahman on 4 March, 2013. The award was conferred upon him for his contribution to 1971 war.Earlier, this top most honour of Bangladesh was conferred upon former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi posthumously in 2011 for contributing towards creation of Bangladesh.

The Parliamentary Award Committee selected BJP leader Arun Jaitley, Congress MP Karan Singh and JD(U) MP Sharad Yadav for Outstanding Parliamentarian Award for 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively.
Arun Jaitley and Karan Singh are the members of Rajya Sabha from Gujarat and Delhi respectively. While Sharad Yadav is a member of Lok Sabha from Madhepura, Bihar. The Award Committee which was headed by the Speaker of Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar recommended these names, which were accepted by executive committee of the Indian Parliamentary Group on 6 March 2013. Outstanding Parliamentarian Award was instituted by the Indian Parliamentary Group in 1994.

Public Sector Units (PSUs) like ONGC, SAIL and IOC will be among the seven state-owned units to be conferred the SCOPE Meritorious Awards 2011-12 next month. Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), which is an apex body of PSUs, on 6 March, announced the names of awardees of ‘SCOPE Meritorious Awards’ in specialized fields. “These awards, which are highly prestigious in areas of economy and other segments like corporate governance, would be distributed next month,” SCOPE Executive Director, U D Choubey said in a statement. CPSEs, which would be awarded, have been selected for performing well in various fields like corporate governance, corporate social responsibility (CSR), environment and sustainable development, and human resource development (HRD). Neyveli Lignite Corp Ltd would receive an award for environmental excellence and sustainable development, while Indian Oil Corporation would be awarded for corporate governance. ONGC would be awarded for doing good job in the area of CSR and SAIL in HRD.

Nirbhaya, the Delhi gang-rape victim, has been honoured with a US "woman of courage" award posthumously for "inspiring people to work together to end violence against women in India and around the world."US first lady Michelle Obama joined secretary of stateJohn Kerry as he praised the determination and courage of "a woman known simply as Nirbhaya - braveheart, fearless" at the State Department presentation ceremony on 8 March on International Women's Day.Besides Nirbhaya, eight other women were give the annual award recognizing women around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women's rights and empowerment, often at great personal risk. They are Malalai Bahaduri, first sergeant, Afghan National Interdiction Unit ( Afghanistan); Julieta Castellanos, rector, National Autonomous University of Honduras (Honduras); Josephine Obiajulu Odumakin, president, Campaign for Democracy (Nigeria); Elena Milashina, journalist, human rights activist ( Russia); Fartuun Adan, executive director, Elman Peace and Human Rights Centre ( Somalia); Tsering Woeser (Wei Se), Tibetan author, poet, blogger (China); Razan Zeitunah, human rights lawyer and founder, Local Coordination Committees ( Syria) and Ta Phong Tan, blogger ( Vietnam).

Indian Ministry of Tourism’s new film Find What You Seek received first prize at the 11th Golden City Gate Tourism Media Awards Ceremony held in Berlin on 8 March 2013.The Golden City Gate is an international film, print and media contest for the tourism industry. The Awards ceremony is held every year at ITB Berlin, the world’s leading travel trade show. Union Minister for Tourism K Chiranjeevi had launched the new campaign Find What You Seek, the second phase of Incredible India Campaign at WTM 2012 in November 2012 along with the new Domestic Campaign “Go Beyond”. By launching new campaign, the Ministry of Tourism has made a paradigm shift by shifting the focus from destinations and products to consumers (travelers). The new campaign emphasizes that there is something for every traveler in India and every traveler can find what he or she is seeking while travelling in our incredible country. Domestic campaign Go Beyond urges travelers to travel beyond the obvious, the known destinations to the lesser known destinations.

The results of the ABP News Best City Awards Survey were announced at a glittering ceremony on 6 March on New Delhi. The ABP News-Ipsos Best City Research and Rewards running for the first time is the only consumer validated survey and celebrates the best of India’s cities and acts as a benchmark for excellence. List of winners of the ABP News-IPSOS Best City Survey and Awards 2013
Best City 2013 -Public Transport: Nagpur
Best City 2013-Power Availability: Mumbai
Best City 2013-Affordable Housing: Madurai
Best City 2013-Roads: Delhi
Best City 2013-Law & Order: Rajkot
Best Tourist Friendly City 2013: Nasik
Best Green City 2013: Nagpur
Best City for Health Care Services 2013: Nagpur
Best City for Primary Education 2013: Delhi
Best City-Women Safety 2013: Rajkot
Best City-Efficient Traffic Management 2013: Pune
Best City-Cleanliness and Sanitation 2013: Rajkot
Best City to Live in 2013: Nagpur

As a tribute to the Delhi gang rape victim, the government on 8 March in New Delhi, bestowed the Rani Laxmi Bai - Stree Shakti award to 'spirit of Nirbhaya', a pseudonym given to her. The award, presented on the International Women's Day by President Pranab Mukherjee, was received by the mother of the 23-year-old paramedical student at a function where her father and two younger brothers were also present. The citation of the award to the spirit of Nirbhaya said that it was in acknowledgement of the contribution of thousands of men, women, boys and girls who turned the dark hour into a momentous cry for justice and freedom for all women from violence. Mukherjee also lauded the work of five other winners of the Stree Shakti awards. The Rani Rudramma Devi award was given to Assamese social worker Pranita Talukdar, Mata Jijabai award to artist Sonika Agarwal, Kannagi award to Guramma H Sankina of Karnataka, Rani Gidinliu Zeliang award to Keralite social worker Omana T K and Devi Ahilyabai Holkar award to Olga D'Mello from Maharashtra.

SAARC Literature Award was presented to five writers at Agra during the two days SAARC Festival of Literature on 10 March 2013. A poet-diplomat from India Abhay K was among the five writers to be honored with the prestigious Literature Award. Other writers to be honored with this award were Farheen Chaudhary (Pakistan), Abdul Khaliq Rashid (Afghanistan), Suman Pokhrel (Nepal) and novelist Daya Dissanayake (Sri Lanka). SAARC Literature Awards annually presented to the eminent writers of the South Asian region for their contribution in the promotion of literature through their writings as well as literary initiatives. The SAARC Literature Festival 2013 focused on environment, literature and cultural connectivity. The First-Ever SAARC Writers Conference was organized in April 2000.