What is Global Tiger Initiative ?

Global Tiger Initiative” is a commitment of the World Bank to save tigers and conserve tiger habitats. World Bank’s commitment to a global Tiger Initiative has received widespread interest and support from the conservation and scientific communities. The launch of the Tiger Initiative is being co-hosted by the Smithsonian Institution and the International Tiger Coalition (ITC), a body of 39 NGOs representing millions of members and working around the world and in most tiger range countries.

India is participating in this programme to the extent of building up the capacity of knowledge institutions involved in the field of wildlife management and forestry. Besides this, it will participate in events like the pre-summit tiger workshop and the Global Tiger Summit. The platform of Global Tiger Initiative may be used for disseminating / exchange of good practices amongst the tiger range countries, apart from addressing cross border illegal wildlife trade issues. However, the said initiative would not be used as a field project for tiger conservation in States.

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Rural Business Hubs

Rural Business Hubs is an initiative by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry started in 2007.

Rural Business Hubs is a first-of-its-kind Public, Private and Panchayat Partnership which aims to foster and permeate economic growth into and for rural India.
The concept of Rural Business Hubs is based upon synnergically link rural products, skills and produces with the marketing and professional skills of the industry to overcome the impending factors which hinder economic growth from reaching rural India. Such impediments are Poor market linkages , weak Infrastructure , Fragmented farms and farming , Many layers of intermediaries , Lack of standardisation and grading etc.
Current Situation:
Till February 2010, Government has identified 35 districts for Rural Business Hubs intervention programme in consultation with State Governments. So far 26 district RBH workshops have been organised and champion products identified. In addition, financial assistance to 49 projects throughout the country has been extended for establishment of RBH.

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Action Plan to Enhance Forestry Science

Action Plan to Enhance Forestry Science addresses the issues regarding upgrading the scientific capabilities of India’s forestry establishment include the establishment of the following:

• Forestry Fellowship Programme which will recognise outstanding contributions to forestry sciences, a forestry fellowship programme is being introduced.
• National Forestry Knowledge Forum: A platform where expert knowledge in various issues in forestry will be shared is being developed. This forum will facilitate virtual interactions of experts in forestry. It will be physically located in Delhi and will be open for national and international experts in the field of forestry science.
• National Forestry Information Network: A network is being established with a robust foundation using remote sensing, GIS and MIS. All land based forestry interventions will be geo-mapped and monitored on a time scale, and will be put in the public domain. The process is being guided by a core group of forestry professionals.
• IT for fire monitoring: A programme to use satellite data for early transmission of fire signals to the mobile phones/ PDA’s of field officers is being undertaken. The University of Maryland has agreed to share all active fire data obtained from TERRA and AQUA satellites of NASA every six hours for this. This will not only help in quick fire detection and reducing the response time, but has also helped in identifying fire sensitive areas. This was originally conceived by the MP forest department, which a national e-Governance Award for the initiative.
• National Bureau for Forest Germplasm: A Forest Genetics Resource network is being established along the lines of the Plant Genetics Resource Bureau. The objective would be to identify, characterise, preserve the valuable germplasm of a wide number of forestry species in the country. This will protect our valuable genetic resource against extinction and exploitation.

Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) for modernisation of forestry research was give a special grant of Rs. 100 crore in Budget 2009- 10.

via Press Information Bureau

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Expert Committee to Enhance the Scientific Capacity of MoEF

Scientific personnel have historically made up a large portion of the human resources of the Ministry of Environment & Forests, as it was conceived Ministry of Science in Early eightees under PM Indira Gandhi. . Over the years, a number of issues and constraints have arisen related to the scientific resources and expertise of the Ministry. These need to be urgently addressed. With this in mind, and to ensure that the scientific manpower and infrastructure in the Ministry of Environment and Forests Government of India has set up an Expert Committee to take a fresh look at scientific manpower and infrastructure in the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The proposed committee members are as follows:

1. Dr. Kasturirangan, Member Planning Commission, Chairman
2. Dr. Chandra Venkataraman, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Mumbai, Member
3. Dr. Kalpana Balakrishnan, Professor, Environmental Health Engineering, Sri Ramachandra University Chennai, Member
4. Shri Vishwanathan Anand, Retired Secretary, MoEF, Member
5. Dr. Deepak Pental, Vice Chancellor, Delhi University, Member
6. Ms. Swati A Piramal, Director of Piramal Healthcare Limited, Member
7. Shri M.F. Farooqui, Additional Secretary, MoEF, Convenor

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Important days

JANUARY

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12 National Youth Day
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21 Army Day
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23 Nethaji Subhash Chandra Bose Birth day
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26 Republic Day
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30 Martyrs Day, World Leprosy Eradication Day

FEBRUARY

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28 National Science Day
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29 National De-addiction Day

MARCH

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8 International Womens Day
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15 World Consumers' Rights Day
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15 World Disabled Day
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16 National Immunisation Day
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21 World Forestry Day
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22 World Day for Water
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23 World Meteorological Day
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24 World TB Day

APRIL

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5 National Maritime Day
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5 Samta Diwas
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7 World Health Day
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10-16 Railway Week
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12 World Aviation and Cosmonautics Day
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13 Jallianwala Day
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17 World Haemophilia Day
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18 World Heritage Day
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22 Earth Day
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23 World Book Day

MAY

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1 May Day, Workers Day, International Labour Day
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3 World Press Freedom Day
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3 World Asthma Day
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8 World Red Cross Day
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12 International Nurses Day
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13 National Solidarity Day
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15 International Families Day
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17 World Tele-communication Day
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21 Anti-terrorism Day
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24 Commonwealth Day
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31 No-Tobacco Day

JUNE

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4 International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression
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5 World Environment Day23 Blood Donation Day
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25 UN Charter Signing Day
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26 International Day Against Drug Abuse & Illicit Trafficking
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27 World Diabetes Day

JULY

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1 Doctors Day
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11 World Population Day

AUGUST

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1 World Breast Feeding Day
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1-7 Breast Feeding Week
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6 Hiroshima Day
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9 Nagasaki Day
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9 Quit India Day
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15 Independence Day
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29 National Sports Day

SEPTEMBER

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5 Teachers™ Day
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8 International Literacy Day
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16 World Ozone Day
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27 World Tourism Day

OCTOBER

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1 International Day for the Elderly
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2 World Vegetarian Day
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2 World Animal Day
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4 National Integration Day
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5 World Habitat Day
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7 International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction
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8 Air Force Day
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10 National Post Day
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14 World Standards Day
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16 World Food Day
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21 Police Commemoration Day
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24 UN Day
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30 World Thrift Day
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31 National Integration Day

NOVEMBER

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14 Childrens Day
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18 Sappers™ Day
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19 Citizens Day

DECEMBER

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1 World AIDS Day
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3 International Day of Disabled Persons
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4 Indian Navy Day
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5 International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development
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7 Armed Forces Flag Day
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10 Human Rights Day (UN)
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20 Kisans Day

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e-PRI

e-PRI is a a unique scheme of Panchayati Raj Ministry that proposes to provide a whole range of IT related services to Panchayati Raj Institutions as part of the Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) under NeGP (National E Governance programme).

It has been launched by Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India on January 28, 2010. It would provide the services like Decentralised Database and Planning, PRI Budgeting and Accounting, Implementation and monitoring of Central and State sector schemes, Citizen-centric Services, Unique codes to Panchayats and Individuals, Essential GIS-based applications, On-line Self-learning medium for elected representatives and official functionaries. E PRI also envisages providing computing facilities along with connectivity to all the 2.36 lakh panchayats at a tentative cost of Rs 4,500 crore over a three-year period. Panchayats being the basic unit for planning and implementation of Cenral/States programmes and schemes, 'e-PRI' would be the umbrella MMP where Information and Service Needs Assessment, Business Process Engineering and Detailed Budget Reports for 27 States were ready for access.

Objective of e-PRI MMP

• Enabling Panchayats to better deliver its mandated services to the Citizens through IT.
• Enabling PRIs to use IT as a tool for transparency, disclosure of services to Citizens and social audit
• Improving internal management processes and decision making in Panchayats
• Enabling PRIs to use IT for electronic tagging and tracking of funds transferred to Panchayats, including rapid bank transfer of funds, tracking fund transfers to, expenditures of the Panchayats

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[Ebook] India Yearbook 2010 (1292 pages in 4 MB)e

Size: 4 MB Zip file containing PDF file inside it.
Pages: 1292


Click me to Download

Cover

Official Description

INDIA 2009 is an updated and comprehensive edition of the Reference Annual containing information on varied subjects related to our country like economy, rural and urban development, industry and infrastructure, art and culture, health, defence, mass communication etc. It incorporates sections on Science & Technology, Education, Information Technology, General Knowledge, Current Affairs, Sports, Events of the past year and latest ones too.

A rich source of authoritative and definitive data on all these subjects makes it a compulsory read for students as well as for researchers and academics.

My Comment

well don't take out a printout, because official book is for 345 Rs.
besides this is only for reference, when you want to see some fact/data about India or Govt. schemes.

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Awards in 2009

^{Nobel 2009}

Person	Category
Barack Obama	peace
Australian American Researcher Elizebeth Blackburn Carol Greider Jack Szostak of US	Medicine
Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom (both Americans)	Economics
Herta Mueller a member of Romanias ethnic German Minority	Literature
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Tamil Nadu born Indian Scientist, American scientist Thomas Steitz Israeli Ada Yonath	Chemistry
Charles K Rao Williard S boyle George E Smith	Physics

Kushwant singh (writer & Journalist)	National Amity Award 26th sep 2008.
Shekhar Gupta(editor-in-chief Indian Express )	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Award for National Intergration 2006-2007 on 27 sep 2008.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak	1995 Jawarlal Nehru Award  on Nov 18'08.
13  journalist management Guru C.K Prahalad Surinam's President Sardjoe	Pravasi Bharatiya Samman. (Jan' 09)
Arunachal Governor JJ Singh (Retired).	Mother Teresa Award (Life Time Achievement Award)
Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (MD)	Biacon Pharma Got the Nikkei Asia Prize 2009.
Dr.A P J abdul Kalam	Hover Medal Award. +honorary doctorate of laws by Queens University (Belfast).
Suu Kyi	Mahatma Gandi Peace Award 2009.
Gujrat's Water and Sanitation Management Organisation (WASMO)	UN Public service award 2009.
Major Mohit Sharma ( Para Special Forces) Major D Sreeram	Asoka Chakra

Deep Joshi(Social Activist)	Magsaysay Awards 2009.(5 others apart from him)
Nirmala Deshpande (Posthumously)	Paksitan President conferred the Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) the third highest award of Pakistan
Gautam Bhai(Pawanar Ashram Wardha,Maharastra)	17th Rajiv Gandhi Natinal Sadbhavana Award.
Dalai Lama	International Freedom Award (by National Civil Rights Museum, USA)
Oscar Fernandes (congress)	Nelson Mandela Award

^{Padma Awardees in Jan 2009-}

1. ^{Dr Anil Kakodkar(Chief of Atomic Energy Department)}
2. ^{G Madhavan Nair(ISRO Chairman)}
3. ^{Sister Nirmala(Missionary)}
4. ^{Sunder Lal Bahuguna (Environmentalist)}

^{Indira Gandhi Peace Price}

Director General of IAEA Mohamed Elbardei	nov 19'08.
Bill Gates	july 25'09.

^{12th Rajiv Gandhi Awards}

Krishna Patil	(2nd youngest Indian Girl to scale Mt Everest) Woman Achiever
G Madhavan Nair	(ISRO chief)Super Achiever
Supernani Rajshree Birla	(Social Worker Social Entrepreneur
Sam Pitroda (Father of Yellow Revolution In India)	Global Indian Award
Rohit Kocchar (Owner of a Law firm)	The Youngl Entrepreneur
Abhinav Bindra	Sports
Avika Gor (Balika Vadhu)	Youngest Prodigy
Ramesh Chandra Agarwal(Chairman Dainik Bhaskar)	Journalism
Vineet Jain (Owner Times Group)	Industrial
Katrina Kaif	Best Actress
Sahid Kapoor	Best Actor

^{Beauty Queens}

Ms Nikkitasha Marwaha	Miss India Worldwide 2009.
Rupal Lakhani(Gujrati origin)	Miss India Canada in Toronto.
Stefania Fernandez	Miss universe 2009 title.

^{Journalism Related}

Delhi Union of Journalist	Appan Menon Memorial Award.
PTI	News agency of the year by UK based Magazine.
Nirupama Subramaniam Islamabad Correspondent of The Hindu and Vinita Desmukh Editor Intelligent Pune.	Chameli Devi Jain Award for oustanding women medai person 2008-09

^books

Abhishek Mazumdar(Harlesden High Street)	Metro Plus Playwright Award 2008
Christos Tsiolkas (Australias author)	best Book Prize at the prestigious commonwealth Writers Award in Auckland.2009
Liu Xiaobe (44.Chinese Dissident and writer, house arrest since dec 2008 )	2009 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith freedom to write award
Lakshinandan Bora and Mannu Bhandari	saraswati Samman and Vyas samman 2008 by Loksabha Speaker Meira Kumar
Hillary Mantel(Wolf Hall)	Manbooker prize 2009
Alice Munro(Canadas Short story writer)	Manbooker International.

^Businessmen

Lakshmi Mittal	Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award

^Films

^{Movies & Music}

Zakir hussain (Tabla Maestro) + three musician jointly for his music album Global Drum Project	Grammy Awards 2009
A.R Rahman(1st Indian & also double Oscar winner)	1.    Golden Globe Award for best original music score. 2.    B4U outstanding Achievement trohy at the UK Asian Music Award. 3.    grassroot Grammy in US. 4.    Honorary Doctorate by Aligarh Muslim University
Director Paresh Mokashi (film Harish Chandrachi Factory in Marathi.)	Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial foundation Award for best debutant director

^{55th Natinal Film Awards 2007 (given on Sep 2009)}

Best Feature Film	Kanchivaram (Tamil Percept picture company/Priyadarshan)
Best Film for wholesome Entertainment	Chal De Aditya Chopra/Shimit amin
Indira Gandi Award for Best First Film	Frozen Hindi,Shivajee Chandrabhushan
Best Director	Adoor Gopalakrishnan for naalu Pennungal(Tamil)
Best Film on Family Welfare	Taare Zameen Par Hindi Aamir Khan
Best Scren Play	Gandhi My Father Hindi Feroz shah Abbas
Nargis Dutt Award for best feature film on National Integration	Dharm Hindi Sheetal Talwar/Bhavna Talwar
Best Actor	Prakash Raj for Kanchivaram (Tamil)
Best Actress	Umashree for Gulabi Talkies(Kannada)
Best Supporting Actor	Darshan Jariwala for Gandhi my Father
Best Supp actress	Shefali Shah for the Last Lear (Eng)
Best Playback Singer Male	Shanker mahadevan For Taare Zameen Par
Best Playback singer Female	Shreya Ghosal fro Jab We Met
Best Music	Ouseppachan for Ore Kadal (Malayalam)

^{Dadasaheb Phalke Award}

 

Manna Dey	Dadasaheb Phalke Award
	*** will add previous years winners later

^{Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Award 2009}

Phalke Ratna Award	Manoj Kumar
Phalke Legend Actor Award	Shammi kapoor
Phalke Golden Singer Award	Shamshad Begum
Phalke Kalptaru Award	Prithvi Raj kapoor(Posth)
Phalke Memorable Commercial Film Award	Ashutosh Gowariker
Phalke Academy for the senior most producer of India	Surendra Kapoor

^{Theatre / Drama}

Valayapatti AR Subramaniam(Thavil Maestro)	Sangita Kalanidhi title of the Music Academy Chennai.
Ebrahim Alkazi (veteran theatre director)	Hindiratna Samman awarded every year to non hindi speaking individual who has made distinctive contribution to various aspects of hindi language

^{The 62nd Cannes festival 2009}

^info.

^{·       May 13-24 2009 in Cannes France.}

^{·       The Pixars Film "UP" opened the festival.}

^{·       first time that an animated film opened the festival.(3D)}

^{List of Winners}

Palme d'Or (Golden Palm)	The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke (Austria).
Grand Prize	A Prophet by Jacques Audiard (France)
Jury Prize	Fish Tank by Andrea Arnold (Britain and Thirst by Park Chan wook (S. Korea)
Special Prize	Alain Resnais
Best Director	Brillante Mendoza (Kinatay)(The Phillippines)
Best Actor	Christoph Waltz for Inglorious Basterds (US)
Best Actress	Charlotte Gainsbourg for Anarchist (Denmark)
Best Screenplay	Feng Mei for Spring Fever (China)
Camera d'Or (First time director)	Samson and Delilah by Warwick Thornton (Australia)
Best Short Film	Arena by Joao Salaviza (Portugal)

^Misc

Global Leadership Award conferred on	Sabana Azmi.
Tamil Film Mudhal varai has won the award for	Best Drama Feature in the Best Feature film (International)-Genre Awards category at the New York International Independent Film Video Festival
Carrier Underwood (lyricist and pop singer)	44th Academy Country Music Awards ceremony,  Entertainer of the Year Award.
Pandit Jasraj (Hindustani Classical Vocalist )	Saraswati Samman by Saraswati Music College

^{Ending words}

^{1.    if you’re reading this & come across new awards and names, do post them on this thread so I can update this ebook}

^{2.    This award list was compiled by Vandna Jain of IO Forum}

^{3.    These colorful tables / document / pdf created by Mrunal Patel.}

^{Award List for GS Current Affairs by Vandana Jain}

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