Award and Prizes: April 2010

President presents Padma awards
• Nobel laureate Indian-origin scientist Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, noted theatre
personality Ebrahim Alkazi and founder-chairman of the Apollo Hospitals Prathap
Chandra Reddy were conferred the Padma Vibhushan, second highest civilian award, by
President Pratibha Patil.
• Music maestro A.R. Rahman, film actor Aamir Khan, classical vocalist Pandit Channulal
Mishra and prominent hotelier Captain C.P. Krishnan Nair were among 21 distinguished
persons who were honoured with Padma Bhushan.
• The loud applause was reserved for sportspersons Saina Nehwal (badminton), Virendra
Sehwag (cricket) and Ignace Tirkey (hockey), when they walked up to the podium to
receive Padma Shri award from the President.
• Dhrupad exponent Ustad Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar; businesswoman Anu Aga; multi-
lingual actor Arundhati Nag; the former CBI director, D.R. Karthikeyan; plant scientist
Palpu Pushpangadan; eye surgeon Vikas Mahatme; and cardiologist K.K. Aggarwal were
among those awarded Padma Shri.
• Among the Padma Bhushan awardees were eminent neurosurgeon Satya Paul Agarwal;
Tan Chung,renowned artist Ram Kumar; and eminent cardiac surgeon Ramakant Panda,
who performed the “beating heart” surgery on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year.
• The former Vice-Chancellor of Goa University, P.R. Dubhashi (for civil service), and
Abhijit Sen, member of the Planning Commission, were also conferred Padma Bhushan.
• Among others honoured with Padma Bhushan were, Arogyaswami Joseph Paulraj;
Balgangadharnatha Swamiji; Jagdish Chandra Kapur; Kushal Pal Singh; Mohammad
Amin; N.C. Satyanarayana; P.K. Warrier; Satyavrat Shastri and Shripaul Oswal.
• Founder-chairman of Nagarjuna Construction Company Alluri Venkata Satyanarayana
Raju, president of the Al Fara'a Group in the UAE J.R. Gangaramani and Ravi Pillai of
the RP Group of industries received Padma Shri in the trade and industry category.
• The award was also conferred on environmental crusader Baba Sewa Singh, vocalist
Ulhas Kashalkar and scientist Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath.
• Other recipients of Padma Shri included Arvind Kumar, A.T. Meetei, B. Ramana Rao,
Bertha Gyndykes Dkhar, Carmel Berkson, Gul Bardhan, Hari Uppal, Jitendra
Udhampuri, Lalzuia Colney, Laxmi Chand Gupta, M.R. Satyanarayana Rao, Maria
Aurora Couto, Mukund Lath, Philip Augustine, Ponisseril Somasundaram, Rabindra
Narain Singh, Rafael Irubieta Fernandez, Pandit Ragunath Panigrahi, Ram Dayal Munda,
Sumitra Guha, and Surendra Dubey.
• Noted scholar Govind Chandra Pande (Padma Shri) and poet Pandit Puttaraj Kavi
Gavaigalavaru (Padma Bhushan) were not present to receive their awards.
Classical Tamil Award for Asko Parpola
• Asko Parpola, leading authority on the Indus script and Professor Emeritus of Indology in
the University of Helsinki, Finland, has been chosen for the Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi
Classical Tamil Award for 2009.
• Professor Parpola will receive a cash prize of Rs. 10 lakh, a citation and a memento
during the World Classical Tamil Conference to be held in Coimbatore in June.
• The Assam government has decided to confer the coveted Srimanta Sankaradeva Award
to noted journalist and writer Homen Borgohain for the year 2007 in recognition of his
significant contribution to journalism and literature and noted actor Sharmila Tagore in
the fields of art and culture for the year 2008. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would
present the awards at a function in the city tentatively fixed for April 23, said an official
release .
Padma awards given to Chatwal, Ilaiyaraaja
• President Pratibha Patil confers Padma awards in New Delhi. The awardees are (PADMA
VIBHUSAN): Zohra Segal, Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman and Dr. Y.V. Reddy (PADMA
BHUSHAN): Ilaiyaraaja, Mallika V. Sarabhai, Dr. N.M. Shroff, B.K. Chaturvedi, (bottom
row) Sant Singh Chatwal, Bipin Chandra and Professor B.M. Hegde (PADMA SHRI)
Venu Srinivasan, Resul Pookutty, actor Rekha, R.V. Achrekar, Narayan Karthikeyan and
actor Saif Ali Khan.
• Non-Resident Indian hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal, music composer Ilaiyaraaja and
businessman Vindi Banga were conferred the Padma Bhushan awards by President
Pratibha Patil.
• Noted mridangam exponent Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman, former Reserve Bank of India
Governor Y.V. Reddy and nonagenarian artiste Zohra Segal were honoured with the
Padma Vibhushan, the country's second highest civilian awards at a glittering ceremony
at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
• Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's ‘guru' Ramakant Achrekar, boxer Vijender Singh, leading
actor of yesteryear Rekha, sound technician and Oscar Award winner Resul Pookutty and
car racer Narain Karthikeyan were among those conferred with the Padma Shri.
• The Ashoka Hall reverberated with applause as actor Saif Ali Khan walked up to to
receive his Padma Shri at the function attended by Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and other guests. Painter Akbar Padamsee, former Cabinet
Secretary and a current Planning Commission member B.K. Chaturvedi, Moosa Raza
(civil service), educationists Anil Bordia and G.P. Chopra were honoured with the Padma
Bhushan.
• Other Padma Bhushan awardees were: cardiologist B.M. Hegde, nuclear scientist Bikash
Sinha, historian Bipin Chandra, kathak exponent Kumudini Lakhia, panchavadya
exponent Kuzhur Narayana Marar, versatile artiste Mallika Sarabhai, banker N. Vaghul,
eye specialist Noshir Minoo Shroff, music composer Shrinivas Khale, sarangi player
Ustad Sultan Khan and ayurveda practitioner E.T. Narayanan Mooss.
• Nemai Ghosh, , music exponent Shobha Raju, environment activist Ranjit Bhargava,
TVS Motor Company Chairman Venu Srinivasan, businessmen Irshad Mirza, Kapil
Mohan (trade and industry), founder of Nirma Karsanbhai Patel were among those who
received the Padma Shri.
C'wealth award for Rana Dasgupta
• British-Indian author Rana Dasgupta won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for 2010 for his epic
tale Solo set in Communist and post-Communist Bulgaria. Australian Glenda Guest's Siddon
Rock was adjudged the Best First Book at the award's grand finale ceremony.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta chosen for Adiseshiah award
• Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, has been selected
for this year's Dr. Malcom Adiseshiah Award, instituted by the Malcom and Elizabeth
The award, consisting of Rs. 2 lakh in cash and a citation, would be
presented  November 21.
IIFA goes to Sri Lanka
• Amitabh Bachchan made an appearance at a glittering function to mark the media
awareness of the 11th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA), scheduled to be held
from June 3 to 5.
• Besides the IIFA function, the event would witness a 20-20 match between Hindi film
industry stars and Asian cricketers.
• Sri Lanka was chosen from among countries such as South Africa, the United Arab
Emirates, Australia and South Korea.
• IIFA started in 2000, with the first ceremony held in London at the Millennium Dome.
With the aim to take Indian cinema worldwide, the ceremony in the past has been held in
countries like Malaysia, Singapore, The Netherlands, UAE, England, Thailand and twice
in South Africa.
Bengali novel shortlisted for Independent Foreign Fiction prize
• Nearly 50 years after it was first written in 1962, Bengali novelist Mani Sankar
Mukherjee's book, Chowringhee, has been shortlisted for one of the Independent Foreign
Fiction prize for 2010 — the first time that an Indian work has accomplished the feat.
• One of the most popular works in Bengali literature in the 1960s, Chowringhee, is about
a myriad of characters that people a popular hotel, Shahjahan, in the city's Champs-
Elysees of the times, as seen from the eyes of a clerk who works there.