Current Affairs Updates: Awards : July 25, 2009

July 24, 2009: Indira peace prize for Gates foundation
Microsoft founder Bill Gates became the first business leader of the world to receive the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2007. The award, comprising cash money of Rs 25 lakh, is recognition to the work done by Gates’ foundation in fighting poverty and illness, especially HIV-AIDS, in India and other countries.
This award was instituted in 1986 and Bill Gates is the 22nd recepient of this award.

July 25, 2009: Shahid Kapur gets prestigious Rajiv Gandhi award
Shahid Kapur is the recipient of the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Award.

July 25, 2009 : Lord Swraj Paul honoured with 'Pride of India' award
Leading NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul has been conferred with the 'Pride of India' award for 2008, the highest honour by a London-based charity for his outstanding achievements in public life in the UK.
Lord Paul is the the first Asian to be appointed to the Privy Council by the British Queen.

July 23, 2009: Aquapharm wins prestigious Gold Award for Exports
Aquapharm Chemicals Pvt. Ltd. has been honored with "Gold Award for their Outstanding Export Performance for the year 2006-07." The award, given by Chemexcil, a Government of India set-up under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, was presented at the hands of Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia, Honourable Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, who was also present as the Chief Guest at the august occasion.

July 24, 2009 : MTS Receives National Telecom Award
MTS, the mobile telephony brand of Sistema-Shyam Teleservices (SSTL), has been conferred National Telecom Award for being the most successful new telecom operator in India presented by Sh. Gurudas Kamat, Hon’ble Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology, Government of India.

July 23, 2009 : Glory of India Award for Rini Kakati
Rini Kakati who is recognised for her outstanding career and community work, socially, educationally and culturally spanning was presented the prestigious Glory of India Award from the India International Society on 18 July at a glittering ceremony held at the St James, Buckingham Gate, London.

July 24, 2009 : Spire Edge project bags 3 awards
India's first mainstream green project, Spire Edge, which is being developed with FDI funding from Millennium Spire Ltd was adjudged 'The Best Office Development' and 'The Best Architecture' in India at the recently concluded Asia Pacific Property Awards 2009 in Singapore. Eventually, it went on to bag the much coveted Asia-Pacific's Best Office Development award as well.

July 23, 2009 : Gopichand gets Dronacharya 2009
Gopichand is conferred with the Dronacharya Award 2009 , the highest sporting honour for coaches in the country. He is the only Indian sportsperson to win all three top sporting honours: the Arjuna Award in 1999, the Rajiv Khel Ratna Award in 2001 and now the Dronacharya Award 2009.

July 23, 2009: AT&T; Receives Market Leadership Award for Retail Carrier Ethernet Services.
Market research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan recognized AT&T; Inc. with the Frost & Sullivan 2009 Market Leadership Award in Retail Carrier Ethernet Services.

July 23, 2009 : Vodafone Crossword Book Award 2008
The Vodafone Crossword Popular Book Award’ was won by author Pallavi Aiyar for her book ‘Smoke & Mirrors’. The Popular Award - which was introduced in 2006 - is a unique initiative by Crossword and Vodafone and offers readers the opportunity to vote for their favourite book.

This year the awards in the English Fiction category is jointly won by authors Amitav Ghosh for his book ‘Sea of Poppies’ and Neel Mukherjee for ‘Past Continuous’, ‘Curfewed Nights’ by author Basharat Peer has won in the English Non-Fiction category and ‘T’TA Professor’ by author Manohar Shyam Joshi (translated by Ira Pande) has bagged the best in Indian Language Fiction Translation. The book is originally written in Hindi.

July 1, 2009 : CPRI scientists bag Hari Om Ashram Trust Award
Three scientists of Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI) viz. CPRI Director S k Pandey, Principal Scientist Dr R S Marwaha and Senior Scientist Dr Dinesh Kumar have been selected for the Indian Council of Agriculture Research's prestigious 'Hari Om Ashram Trust' Award for 2007-08. for 'Kufri Chipsona' varieties grown and stored after using these technologies produced high quality processed product containing low fat which can be consumed even by health conscious consumers.