News in brief: India
The Sino-Indian Joint Military Exercise "Ex Hand-in-Hand 2008," aimed at
developing combat strategies to counter terrorism, was organised in India recently.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
signed an agreement to supply nearly 2,000 tonnes of uranium to India.
India has struck a deal with France to provide 300 tonnes of uranium for two proposed
1000-MW light water reactors by Areva of France at Jaitpur in Maharashtra's
Ratnagiri district.
The Rajasthan Congress Legislature Party (CLP) chose the former Chief Minister and
Congress general secretary, Ashok Gehlot as the new Chief Minister of the state.
Odissi dancer Pritika Kalra Gandhi received the National Women Excellence Award
2008 of the foundation for religious Harmony and Universal Peace recently.
Nine young scientists from different research institutions have won the prestigious
Scopus Young Indian Scientists Awards for 2008. The awards are instituted by
Elsevier, the Netherlands based research publisher of scientific information. The winners
are: Govindasamy Bala of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (for Earth Sciences
category), Siva Athreya of the Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore (Mathematics),
B.V.S. Reddy of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad (Chemistry),
Bhanuprakash Reddy of the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad (Medicine), R.
Raman of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New
Delhi (Agriculture), S. Ganesh of IIT, Kanpur (Agriculture Biological Sciences),
Suman Chakraborthy of IIT, Kharagpur, (Engineering) and Satyabrata Patnaik of
JNU, Delhi, and Moulik Parikh of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and
Astrophysics, Pune (Physics).
Rajiv Mathur was appointed as the new Chief of the Intelligence Bureau from January
1, 2009. He took over from P.C. Halder, who retired on Dec 31, 2008.
The world-famous mangoes of Malihabadi in Uttar Pradesh have got Geographical
Indicators (GI) status.
Historian Romila Thapar has been honoured with the $1 million Kluge Prize for
Lifetime Achievement in the Study of Humanity, along with Peter Brown, a historian
of the post-Roman world.
Bharatanatyam danseuse and director of the Ahmedabad-based Darpana Academy
Mallika Sarabhai has been selected for the "Crystal award for 2009," given by the
World Economic Forum, for her two decades of work in the fields of women
empowerment and social justice as well as arts and culture.
Nobel laureate and Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency
Mohamed ElBaradei has been chosen to receive the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace,
Disarmament and Development for 2008.
Editor-in-Chief of the IBN Network Rajdeep Sardesai has been unanimously elected
president of the Editors Guild of India. He succeeds the Chief Editor of Nai Duniya,
Alok Mehta, who served for two terms. Resident Editor of Malayala Manorama and The
Week K.S. Sachidananada Murthy was re-elected secretary-general.
The Supreme Court collegium, headed by the Chief Justice of India K.G.
Balakrishnan, has refused to reconsider its decision on elevation of three High Court
Chief Justices as apex court judges. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed his
reservations about the elevation of these three judges on the ground that seniority had
been overlooked and certain States were not represented in the apex court.
Leather technologist T. Ramasami was selected for the prestigious Dr. Y. Nayudamma
Memorial Award for the year 2008.
Ashutosh Kaushik who hails from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh won the 'Bigg Boss 2'
title and a whopping Rs.1 crore in cash. Model-actor Zulfi Syed was declared the second
runner-up, while Raja Chaudhry became the first runner-up.
Avtar Singh Makkar was re-elected president of the Shiromani Gurdwara
Prabhandak Committee for the fourth time in a row.
Konkani writer Ravindra Rajaram Kelekar, 83, was declared winner of 42nd Jnanpith
award for 2006.
Visva Bharati has decided to confer its highest award, "Deshikottama" to the former
King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuk. Among others who will be conferred the
award are former Visva Bharati Vice-Chancellor, Amlan Dutta, economist J. Endrez,
historian Irfan Habib and theatre personality Habib Tanvir.
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