1) Sarangi maestro Ram Narayan chosen for Bhimsen Joshi Award.
- Sarangi maestro Pandit Ram Narayan has been chosen for the prestigious Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi classical music award for 2015-2016.
- The annual award, instituted by the Maharashtra government, is given to individuals who have excelled in classical vocal or instrumental music.
- The award, finalised by a committee of top music artistes and exponents, comprises Rs. 5 lakh in cash, a trophy and a citation.
- Pandit Ram Narayan, 88, has been playing the sarangi since his childhood, and over the years acquired global acclaim for his music for which he was conferred India’s second higest civilian honour, Padma Vibhushan, in 2005.
2) Actor Nana Patekar to get `Godavari Gaurav` award.
- Well-known actor Nana Patekar will get the ‘Godavari Gaurav’ award, instituted by city-based ‘Kusumagraj Prathishthan’.
- The other awardees include dancer Kanak Rele, Chetana Sinha, Dr. Shashi Kumar Chitre, Dr. Balkrishna Joshi and endurance cyclists Hitendra and Mahendra Mahajan for their contribution in various fields.
- The award carries a prize of Rs. 21,000 and a memento.
- The awards will be presented by Marathi writer Madhu Mangesh Karnik on March 10 – the death anniversary of well-known poet and writer V.V. Shirwadkar, who was popularly known as ‘Kusumagraj’.
About Nana Patekar
- In September 2015, Nana Patekar established an organisation, Naam Foundation with fellow Marathi actor Makar and Anaspure, which works to provide aid to farmers to overcome by drought conditions in Maharashtra, India.
- The foundation works for betterment of farmers in the drought-prone areas of Marathawada and Vidarbha in the state of Maharashtra, India.
3) The Revenant director Alejandro Gonzalez won Directors Guild of America award 2015.
- The Revenant director Alejandro Gonzalez was received his second consecutive Directors Guild of America (DGA) award for best feature film at the 68th annual DGA Awards.
- Previously he won the same award for the movie Birdman which went on to win three Oscars for best picture, original screenplay and director.
- Steven Spielberg is the only director to have won the DGA feature trophy three times.
The Other winners of DGA Awards
- David Nutter won the Directors Guild drama series award for the Mother’s Mercy episode.
- Chris Addison won the comedy series award for Veep for the Election Night episode.
- Dee Rees won the TV movie-miniseries award for Bessie, the biopic of pioneering blues singer Bessie Smith.
- Matthew Heineman won the documentary award for Cartel Land.
- Alex Garland won the first-time feature award for Ex Machina at the DGA Awards.
- Kenny Ortega won the children’s award for Descendants.
- Andreas Nilsson of Biscuit Filmworks won the commercials award.
- Adam Vetri won the reality TV award for Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Challenge.
- About Directors Guild of America award
- George Marshall, the President of the Screen Directors Guild in 1948 announced that the Guild would begin an Awards program to honor directors for their directorial achievement. The award was renamed later as the Directors Guild of America in 1960.
4) IRCTC awarded National Innovation Award.
- The new version of Next Generation e-Ticketing System (NGET) introduced by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has been bestowed gold in national award for e-governance 2015-16 in the category of “Innovative Use of ICT by Central Government PSUs”.
- The award seeks to recognize projects implemented by Central Government PSUs that demonstrate effective and innovative use of ICT which resulted in improvement in outcomes related to efficiency, effectiveness of process, cost, quality and service delivery.
- The awards were announced at the 19th National Conference on e-Governnace, held recently at Nagpur.
5) Prime Minister Shram Awards 2014 announced.
- Union Ministry of Labour and Employment announced the Prime Minister Shram Awards for the year 2014.
- There are nine nominations for the Shram Bhushan Award, Nineteen nominations for Shram Vir or Shram Veerangana and twenty six nominations for Shram Shree or Shram Devi Awards.
- Shram awards were set up by the Union Government in 1985 to recognize the outstanding contributions of workers in both public and private sectors.
SHRAM RATNA
- This is the highest award (one in number) among the Shram Awards and carries a cash award of 2 lakh rupees with a Sanad. For the year 2014, this prestigious award was not awarded to any one as screening committee did not consider any nominee eligible for the award.
SHRAM BHUSHAN
- Total number of these awardees is nine. It carries a cash award of one lakh rupees and a Sanad. Nine nominations were found suitable for the award for the year 2014 in respect of Public Sector Undertaking and Private Sector.
- And Shram Veer/ Veerangana awards carry a cash prize of 60000 rupees and a Sanad. Shram Shree/ Devi Awards comprise of a cash prize of 40000 rupees and a Sanad.
6) Anirban Lahiri Wins Hilton Asian Tour Golfer Of The Year Award.
- India’s Anirban Lahiri has been voted as the Hilton Asian Tour Golfer of Year by fans in an online poll.
- Lahiri reinforced his stature as one of the global game’s rising young stars with a spectacular season to remember in 2015.
- The Indian triumphed at the Maybank Malaysian and Hero Indian Open before going on to finish tied fifth at the PGA Championship last year.
- He also became the first Indian to feature at The Presidents Cup and ended the year by winning the Asian Tour Order of Merit title and finishing in 40th place in the world rankings.
7) Lionel Messi win his first Player of the month award.
- Lionel Messi has been named La Liga’s Player of the Month for January.
- This is the first time that the Barcelona star has received the award.
- Messi, 28, was recognised after an opening month to 2016 in which he scored six times in five league games, including key goals at Malaga and at home to Atletico Madrid as Barca took control of the title race.
8) Karnataka Mobile One m-governance model wins gold at World Government Summit.
- Karnataka’s flagship mobile-one governance application has won gold medal at the fourth World Government Summit in Dubai, UAE in the m-governance awards category.
Karnataka Mobile One m-governance model
- This model is country’s and world’s largest multimode mobile governance platform launched in December 2014 by President Pranab Mukherjee.
- It offers 4,500 services including G2C, B2C and G2B services onto single integrated platform that can be accessed on smartphones, a web portal or through SMS and IVRS.
- It provides services like bill payments, issue redressal, agriculture etc from both the government and private sector to citizens.
9) Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award 2015.
- Chief Executive Officer Vinita Gupta and managing director Nilesh Gupta, Lupin Ltd have been chosen the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2015.
- Ms. Vinita and Mr. Nilesh Gupta will now represent India at the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award (WEOY) in Monte Carlo.
- An 11-member jury led by Adi Godrej selected the winners.
- F.C. Kohli, former Vice-Chairman of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his pioneering contribution towards the Indian software industry and nation-building.