GENERAL NEWS – JANUARY 2009

Monday, January 12th 2009
A R Rahman wins the golden globe
A R Rahman became the first Indian to win the Golden Globe award. He won the award for the best original music score for the movie Slumdog Millionaire. The movie has won the awards for Best Screenplay, Director and Motion Picture. The song "Jai Ho" in the movie, which was penned by lyricist Gulzar, won A R Rahman the award.

Friday, January 16th 2009
Film maker Tapan Sinha passes away
Renowned Film maker Tapan Sinha passed away on Thursday in Kolkata after a case of prolonged illness. He was 84 years old and is survived by a son. Some of his well known works in Hindi include films like "Kabuliwala", "Ek Doctor ki maut" and "Aadmi aur Aurat". This national award winner was known for his depictions of the struggles of the common man on the silver screen. He was also awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke award for his contributions to cinema. 

Thursday, January 22nd 2009
NDTV's Indian of the Year awards announced
At a ceremony in New Delhi, NDTV announced its Indian of the year awards. The awards were given to people who have made a mark in various fields like politics, sports, entertainment, business, arts and culture. From the field of politics the Generation-next Politician of the year award went to Jammu & Kashmir Chief minister Omar Abdullah. Abhinav Bindra who won the Olympic gold medal won the Sportsman of the year. "Slumdog Millionaire," the movie, won the award for global excellence. Mr Deepak Parekh won the Business Leader of the year award while Bollywood actor Aamir Khan was named the Entertainer of the year.

Friday, January 23rd 2009
"Slumdog Millionaire" nominated for 10 Oscars
"Slumdog Millionaire," the poverty to riches movie adapted from the novel "Q & A" by Vikas Swarup, has been nominated for 10 Oscars. The movie directed by Danny Boyle has won nominations for Best Picture, Direction, Film editing, Original Score, Cinematography, Original Song (2 nominations), Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and adapted screenplay. Music Composer A R Rahman has won three nominations out of the ten nominations. Veteran Lyricist Gulzar has been nominated for the song "Jai Ho" in the Original Song category along with A R Rahman.

Saturday, January 24th 2009
Chandrayaan takes X-rays of the moon
In a step towards revealing the origin and evolution of the Moon by mapping its surface composition, X-ray signals from the moon were detected and data recorded by the Imaging Xray Spectrometer, one of the 11 payloads onboard Chandrayaan-1. This device was jointly developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Wednesday, January 28th 2009
Former Indian president passes away
R Venkatraman, former Indian president, passed away on January 27 following multiple organ failure. He was 98 years old.. Mr Venkatraman was president during the time that coalition politics had just taken shape in the late eighties and had ushered in three prime ministers V P Singh, Chandrasekhar and P V Narasimha Rao during his tenure of five years. He was elected to the president's office on July 25, 1987. Following the death of President Venkatraman, the union government has declared a seven-day state mourning.

Thursday, January 29th 2009
Man-animal conflict zones to be mapped by IISc and NINA
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore which had tied up with Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) to study human -wildlife interactions in India and Norway in March 2008 have come up with a data map. Conservationists and policymakers will have the data and a map of the zones of human-wildlife conflict in India. Human-wildlife conflict is one of the major challenges facing conservation today. The joint survey will aim to provide sustainable mechanisms of coexistence.

Saturday, January 31st 2009
ISRO Plans for Chandrayaan-3
India's prestigious Rs 386-crore unmanned mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1 completed hundred successful days on Friday. Project director, Mylaswami Annadurai announced Indian Space research Organization's (ISRO) next moon mission which has been christened as Chandrayaan-3. The third venture is a lunar sample return mission where a spacecraft will land on the moon and bring back lunar samples to Earth for analysis. This mission is expected to be launched around 2012