62nd National Film Awards 2014

The 62nd National Film Awards for year 2014 was announced on 24 March 2015.
Court directed by Chaitanya Tamhane was selected as the Best feature film. Mary Kom (Hindi) directed by Omung Kumar was selected as the Best Popular film providing wholesome entertainment.
The 62nd National Film Awards in the various categories are as follows
Best Actor- Vijay for Nanu Avanalla Avalu (Kannada).
Best Actress- Kangana Ranaut for Queen (Hindi).
Best Direction-Srijit Mukherji, Director of Chotushkone (Bengali).
Best Film on Social Issues- Chotoder Chobi (Bengali) directed by Kaushik Ganguly.
Best Supporting Actor- Bobby Simhaa for film Jigarthanda (Tamil).
Best Supporting Actress- Baljinder Kaur for film Pagdi The Honour (Haryanavi).
Best Children’s Film- Kaakkaa Muttai (Tamil) and Elizabeth Ekadashi (Marathi).
Best Child Artist- Vignesh & Ramesh for Kaakkaa Muttai (Tamil).
Special Jury Award- Bhaurao Karhade, Director of Khwada (Marathi).
Best Cinematography- Sudeep Chatterjee for film Chotushkone (Bengali).
Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director- Aditya Vikram Sengupta for Asha Jaoar Majhe (Bengali).
Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration – Chotoder Chobi (Bengali) directed by Kaushik Ganguly.
Best Writing on Cinema- Silent Cinema: (1895-1930) authored by Pasupuleti Purnachandra Rao.
About National Film Awards
The National Film Awards are most prominent most prominent film award ceremonies in India.
Established- 1954. Since then awarded annually.
Winners in different categories of these awards are selected by the nation panel of Juries appointed by Union Government.
These awards are presented by the President of India in the official ceremony.

Rajendra Singh wins Stockholm Water Prize

Rajendra Singh, environmental activist based in Rajasthan, has been conferred the prestigious Stockholm Water Prize this year for his innovative water restoration efforts and courage to empower communities in Indian villages.

Mr. Singh, popularly known as “Water Man”, was named for the global award instituted by the Stockholm International Water Institute in 1991 for his work towards improving water security in rural India and for showing extraordinary courage and determination in his quest to improve the living conditions of those most in need, a statement said.

Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf, Patron of the Stockholm Water Prize, will present the prize during the World Water Week here on August 26, the statement said. The award carries $150,000 and a specially designed sculpture.

Mr. Singh, born in 1959, has dedicated himself to defeating drought and empowering communities for several decades. He won the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2001 for his work on community-based water harvesting and water management.

In its citation, the Stockholm Water Prize Committee said: “He has literally brought villages back to life. We need to take Mr. Singh’s lessons and actions to heart if we are to achieve sustainable water use in our lifetime.”

On receiving the news about the prize, Mr. Singh said “this is very encouraging, energising and inspiring news.”

“When we started our work, we were only looking at the drinking water crisis and how to solve that. Today our aim is higher. This is the 21st century. This is the century of exploitation, pollution and encroachment. To stop all this, to convert the war on water into peace, that is my life’s goal,” he said.

Green” technology developed by CSIR for leather tanning

Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science and Technology, today announced a breakthrough in scientific processes for the leather sector. The “paradigm shift”, in his words, is the result of efforts by scientists of the Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), a unit of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

A novel, biodegradable dispersing agent developed by CLRI, enables the chrome tanning of leather with just half the normal usage. This ensures the saving of water by 15 million litres per day in the Indian leather sector alone –and an estimated 200 million litres per day if this revolutionary technology is applied globally.

After a visit to CLRI, this morning, he said, “This development is aimed at multiple benefits relating to in-process abatement of effluent problem, curtailing process steps, huge water conservation, time economy and cost saving.”

He also announced that CLRI has succeeded in fostering an “enzymatic intervention” to complete in just 30 minutes the enabled fibre opening process which till now has taken up to 72 hours.

“This is good news for the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ agenda. Our leather and leather goods industry is on the verge of unique competitiveness,” Dr Harsh Vardhan remarked.
Hon'ble Minister released the 'first copy' of the MODEUROP Colour Card for the Autumn Winter 16/17 season (eighteen months ahead of the season) in the august presence of Dr M O Garg, Director General, CSIR; Prof Dr A B Mandal, Director, CSIR-CLRI; Dr Sudeep Kumar, Head, PPD, CSIR and Team CSIR-CLRI Shoe Design & Development Centre today.
Dr Harsh Vardhan visited various laboratories in CSIR-CLRI. The laboratories were Centre for Leather Apparels/Accessories and Development (CLAD), EXCEL Lab and Shoe Design and Development Centre (SDDC), etc.  He addressed the Scientists and Staff of CSIR-CLRI and applauded their efforts to develop technologies and products in the domain of leather technology.
Dr Harsh Vardhan interacted with the industry. The industrialists present were Shri N Shafeeq Ahmed (MD, SSC Shoes), Shri K R Vijayan (President, Indian Shoe Federation), Shri P Gopalakrishnan (Sellam Chemicals), Shri R Ramesh Kumar (ED, CLE), Shri Atanu Poddar (LANXESS India), Shri J Arun (LANXESS India), Mr Tuncay Deriner (Stahl India) and Mr Gopinath (MV Health Care). He appreciated the efforts of the industry and the partnership they have with CSIR-CLRI. This unique partnership is a testimony of development of leather sector in the country. The sector is increasingly becoming green technology oriented due to the efforts of CSIR-CLRI.
Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences and Vice-President, CSIR while visiting the laboratory closely identified this lab and its achievements with the current agenda of the Government in terms of ‘Make in India’ as well as providing essentials to the common man and to provide high science based technologies to the medium, small and micro enterprises. The services have been provided by the lab to test the various chemicals in waste water, which otherwise the industry cannot afford, were identified as one area where the laboratory has made maximum impact. He also appreciated that the laboratory has helped countries like Ethiopia with their technologies and products and have made an attempt to internationalize it’s out-reach. He emphasized and motivated the scientists to use the combination of natural materials such as pine apple leaf fabric, banana fabric with leather forms, which could lead to the next generation in the fashion industry.

As the Medical Doctor, he was particularly interested in the contribution by the lab in developing of collagen based wound/burn care product.

The Hon’ble Minister was extremely impressed and congratulated the scientists for the success story of an enduring partnership among the trinity of academy, research and industry in leather sector, spun around CLRI over a period of sixty six years. He has also noted that the Institute offers B.Tech., M.Tech. and Ph.D. in leather and footwear sciences through Anna University that could set an example for other sectors to emulate to make the Prime Minister’s National Skill Development Programme for inclusive employment generation. 

Hon’ble Minister has also visited M/s India Shoes Pvt Ltd., Chennai and appreciated CSIR-CLRI efforts for providing the end-to-end technology knowledge base to the company over the years. As a result, the India Shoes has emerged as one of the major manufacturers in the country exporting leather shoes and accessories. They are poised to emerge with the help of CSIR-CLRI a front runner to contribute for make-in-India effort.

About CSIR-CLRI Achievements  

Created just a few months after independence, the Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) is a unique research laboratory of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), one of its kinds in the world. Created to provide affordable footwear to our large mass of population, given the fact that our country has the largest cattle population in the world, this Institute has not only developed leather processing technologies and transferred them to the medium and small scale industry but also helped this industry to control the pollution which this industry is known for. Right from inception, the Institute made an initiative with foresight to link technology system with academia and industry. CSIR-CLRI, today, is a central hub in Indian leather sector with the direct role in education, research, training, testing, designing, forecasting, planning, social empowerment. CSIR-CLRI leads in pursuing science and technology relating to leather and delivering desired knowledge base.
CSIR-CLRI has achieved significant milestones in recent years in enhancing the domestic leather sector’s “green image”. These include:

Ø  Providing end of pipe or in-process control measures to ensure eco-benign leather processing for the sustainability of the sector. This has significant strengths in the treatment of waste water emerging from any processing industry, such as leather and textile, chemicals. Through its range of technologies (CAACO, FACCO, FICCO, ENICO), where there is no sludge generation. Treatment cost is in the range of around Rs. 10-30 per m3.

Ø  Water conservation has been a focus area of CLRI’s work. Its scientists have provided techno-enabled solutions to treat solid wastes, whereby value added products emerge, leading to multidimensional benefits on economy, employment and environmental cleanliness.

Ø  Composting from leather waste is being explored to ensure economic utilization of wastes for value addition.

Ø  Natural fibre based materials from a variety of sources such as pine apple leaf fabric, banana fabric, soya fabric, endi and muga silks have been evaluated for their potential to fabricate consumer products.

Ø  Considering India’s diabetes burden, CSIR-CLRI has collaborated with M/s Diabetic Research Centre, Chennai and M/s Novo Nordisk Education Foundation, Bangalore to develop novel diabetic footwear. The technology has successfully been transferred to M/s MV Diabetic Health Care Pvt. Ltd. Chennai. The product is presently being marketed as DIASTEP.

Ø  CLRI has built core strength in collagen based wound care products and a range of products has been developed in this direction. Some of these products are already adequately proven in the market. Newer directions in the product range has are being provided by this Institute towards strengthening the product profile. Many of these technologies have been transferred to user industries in India and abroad.

Ø  The Institute caters to the significant share of Intellectual properties generated by the global leather sector. The rate of translation of knowledge lead to the user industry is significantly higher than the global average.          

Ø  Several training programmes of varying focus and duration are conducted for the benefit of a wide range of target groups from leather industry. Alumini of this Institute contributes to around 60% of industry’s manpower employment.  Tailor made training programmes are also undertaken depending on the requests received from the industry. Trainings are also offered to operators / technicians / supervisors in CETPs, ETP and tanneries for operation and maintenance of treatment system and chrome recovery system.

Ø  Considering the importance of the technological intervention in MSME sector for the overall benefit of the people at the base of Economic pyramid, CSIR-CLRI has launched an innovative initiative by identifying fourteen socially relevant knowledge leads for possible transfer on ‘as is where is basis’ to potential micro and small scale beneficiaries without any license fee under CSIR 800 scheme.

Ø  The institute has significantly been contributing towards the growth and development of the rural sector by skill upgradation and empowerment of the rural artisans and women workforce. Empowering the SME sector in leather compliant to environmental regulations and requirements and restoring operations in closed tanneries in semi-urban and rural population in Tamil Nadu has led to the saving of 2.5 lakhs jobs.

Ø  Success stories of the Institute on international platform have enhanced the image of the Institute immensely on a global platform. The Institute has served the Govt of Ethiopia by the successful benchmarking programme of the tanneries in Ethiopia. Moreover, it has helped in the capacity building of the Leather Industry Development Institute, Ethiopia on a twinning mode. The programmes have helped the Ethiopian industry to have more capacity as well as export earnings.

Ø  CSIR-CLRI has presently been executing a project to assess the feasibility of establishing a Leather Park in Botswana. A research collaborative project is also underway with Vietnam. The Institute has in fact served many countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, Sudan Kenya, Sri Lanka etc. from time to time to enhance its image further.

Ø  Based on the immense success of the salt free tanning technology, developed by this Institute, in India and abroad, UNIDO, Vienna has come forward to join hands with CSIR-CLRI to establish UNIDO-CLRI Centre for Salt Free Tanning in order to disseminate the technology across the Indian Leather Sector. Based on the outcome, a major initiative will be taken up by UNIDO and CSIR-CLRI for dissemination of the technology at global level.

Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2014 conferred

Veteran Film Actor and Producer Shri Shashi Kapoor has been conferred Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2014. He is the 46th Dada Saheb Phalke Award Winner. The award is conferred by the Government of India for outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian Cinema. The award consists of a Swarn Kamal (Golden Lotus), a cash prize of Rs. 10 lakhs and a shawl. The award is given on the basis of recommendations of a Committee of eminent persons set up by the Government for this purpose. This year, a five member jury consisting of eminent film personalities, after due deliberations, unanimously recommended Shri Shashi Kapoor for the prestigious award.

Born in 1938, Shri Shashi Kapoor is a well-known actor and producer from the famous Kapoor family, a film dynasty in Bollywood cinema. Shri Shashi Kapoor is the third person to receive the prestigious award from the same family after Late Shri Raj Kapoor.

Shashi Kapoor is the younger brother of Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor. From the age of four, Shashi Kapoor acted in plays directed and produced by his father Prithviraj Kapoor, while travelling with Prithvi Theatres. He started acting in films as a child in the late 1940s. His best known performances as child artist were in Aag (1948) and Awaara (1951), where he played the younger version of the character played by his elder brother Raj Kapoor. Shri Shashi Kapoor also worked as Assistant Director in the 1950s.

Shashi Kapoor made his debut as a leading man in the 1961 film Dharmputra and went on to appear in more than 100 Hindi films. He was a very popular actor in Bollywood during the 60s, 70s and until the mid 80s.

Shashi Kapoor was one of India’s first actors to go international. He is known internationally for starring in many British and American films, notably Merchant Ivory Proudctions run by Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, such as The Householder (1963), Shakespeare Wallah (1965), Bombay Talkie (1970) and Heat and Dust (1982). He also starred in other British and American films such as Siddhartha (1972) and Muhafiz (1994).

In 1978, Shri Shashi Kapoor set up his production house Film Valas which produced critically acclaimed films such as Junoon (1978), Kalyug (1981), 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981), Vijeta (1982) and Utsav (1984). He also produced and directed a fantasy film titled Ajooba which had Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor in the lead role.

In 2011, Shri Shashi Kapoor was honoured with Padma Bhushan Award by the Government of India. He is also a recipient of three National Film Awards.

Ecologist Madhav Gadgil wins Tyler Prize

Renowned ecologist Madhav Gadgil has been chosen for the prestigious 2015 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.

The prize, instituted in 1973, is awarded by the international Tyler Prize Executive Committee with the administrative support of the University of Southern California.

Prof. Gadgil, who was Chairman of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), will share the $200,000 cash prize with noted American marine ecologist Dr. Jane Lubchenco for their work in changing policy and specifically for their “leadership and engagement in the development of conservation and sustainability policies in the United States, India and internationally”, said a release issued by the University of Southern California on Monday.

Both winners will receive the prize and a gold medallion at a private ceremony in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles on April 24. The day before, Dr. Lubchenco and Dr. Gadgil will deliver public lectures on their work at The Forum at the University of Southern California.

“Both of these laureates have bridged science with cultural and economic realities - like the impact on indigenous peoples in India or fishing communities in the United States - to advance the best possible conservation policies,” said the release.

Prof. Gadgil’s landmark report on the preservation of the unique ecosystem of the Western Ghats and the inclusion of local committees was especially noted as the reason behind his award that recognised his engagement with the public and other academic fields to “position him as a leading voice on environmental issues in India.”

Also noted were Dr. Gadgil’s contributions behind the crafting of India’s National Biodiversity Act, 2002.

Dr. Lubchenco, who was recently named first-ever U.S. Science Envoy for the Ocean by the United States Department of State, gets the award for her dedication to raising awareness of the importance of the ocean and the need to protect ocean ecosystems, notably during her tenure from 2009 to 2013 as administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The award commended her drive and passion in restoring fisheries and improving ocean health, which culminated in the unique “catch share” model – an alternative rights-based approach to fisheries attempting to change the economic incentives for fishermen that has been adopted by a number of regional fishery management councils in Alaska, along the Pacific Coast, the Gulf of Mexico and other regions across the American seaboard.

AIIB & BRICS Bank

On 25 January 2008, more than seven years ago, an article of mine titled "How about an Asian Investment Bank?" was carried in this newspaper (available on Business Standard's website). The central suggestion in that article was that India should take the initiative, in cooperation with China, to set up an Asian Investment Bank to fund infrastructure projects in member countries. This thought was shared with the ministry of finance but was not heard of thereafter.

At China's initiative an Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank(AIIB) was set up on 24 October 2014. On that date, 21 Asian countries became founder members and participated in a memorandum of understanding signing ceremony in Beijing. China's president chaired the event and most participating countries were represented by their finance ministers. India was represented by a joint secretary in the ministry of finance. The decision to send a joint secretary was preceded by a turf battle between the ministry of external affairs (MEA) and the ministry of finance (MOF). MEA pushed for an official from the Indian Embassy in Beijing to represent the government. MOF staked its claim as the nodal ministry for multilateral development banks and won that tussle. AIIBcould provide long-term funds for India's infrastructure needs and going forward India should pay considered attention to this institution.

In the past one week, first the UK and then France, Germany and Italy have confirmed that they will become founding members of AIIB. As per media reports, South Korea and Australia may also decide to become AIIB members. The US tried to dissuade its Western friends from joining AIIB but even its closest ally the UK decided to break ranks with it. This is the first time that three out of five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, UK and France) and four out of seven G7 members (UK, France, Germany and Italy) have defied the US in the setting up a new multilateral development bank. It is curious that Indian print media has barely covered this novel development.

As of now, there is no similar interest among developed Western countries in becoming members of the New Development Bank (NDB) or the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) to be set up by the five BRICS nations. China appears to be more focussed on getting AIIB up and running. The $50 billion AIIB will be headquartered in Shanghai like the NDB but China will be the dominant share-holder with 49 per cent equity unlike the $10 billion NDB in which the five founder countries have 20 per cent stakes each.

India's relations with China are complicated by sensitive bilateral and wider strategic issues. And, there is not much that India can do if China goes slow in making NDB operational since it is China's economic size and hard currency reserves which could enable NDB to be a major lender. China may prefer to begin with AIIB lending to countries in central Asia and perhaps later use NDB to lend to African or Latin American nations. However, the resulting loan portfolios would raise the exposure of these two institutions to high concentrations of country creditworthiness risk. India could keep its interactions with AIIB and NDB tied closely to its obvious strength as the potentially largest creditworthy borrower.

The World Bank and the ADB have flourished so long because they targeted their cost plus IBRD type lending initially to larger creditworthy borrowers such as India and subsequently China. The poorest countries have mostly received concessional IDA loans which are funded out of grants from developed countries. Borrowers usually baulk at defaulting to Bretton-Woods institutions as even short-term credit from Western commercial sources would not be rolled over, if they did.

China, with a one-party totalitarian communist system, has shown remarkable flexibility and competence in becoming the world's largest economy in purchasing power parity terms (China GDP: $17.6 trillion; US GDP: $17.4 trillion in 2014. Source: IMF). Although China's economic weight continues to grow its clout in Asia is tempered by its territorial and other differences with several neighbouring nations. A counterpoint is that most Asian countries have higher volumes of trade with China than the US.

The immediately relevant issue for the US is an erosion in the dominance of the IMF, World Bank and ADB if the CRA, AIIB and NDB grow in size over time. After former IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn left in disgrace in mid-2011, it was apparent that there were several non-G7 country candidates who were well qualified to replace him. However, yet another European (French) national was appointed. Since then, the US Congress has persistently stood in the way of IMF quota reforms. The principal shareholders of these multilateral institutions refuse to acknowledge that Asian nations are appalled by the lack of transparency in appointments at senior levels and the way these institutions are managed at times. For instance, the World Bank violated its Articles of Agreement in denying India fresh loans after India tested nuclear weapons in May 1998. As per its Articles, political issues should not influence the World Bank's lending policies.

The US has suggested that the AIIB will not follow the high lending standards of existing multilaterals. The World Bank's lending policies were covered in full page advertisements in Washington DC based newspapers about 15 years back when the bank felt it was under unfavourable scrutiny of the US Congress. These advertisements stressed that IBRD loans are used by borrower countries for imports from the US. As for the IMF, it has announced loans to Ukraine and earlier to EU countries somewhat hurriedly. Irrespective of whether these lending decisions were justified or not the IMF should follow the same procedures as it did for Asian nations in the late 1990s.

The World Bank has moved far away from when it used to proactively fund long gestation infrastructure projects. Consequently, AIIB would try to step into that role. The World Bank and ADB now seem to be too driven by the sensibilities of NGOs in developed countries on sustainable development issues. This is not to suggest that such considerations should be ignored. However, should multilateral development banks unilaterally refuse to fund projects in the hydroelectricity-irrigation, thermal and nuclear power sectors? To conclude, any initiative taken by AIIB or NDB to be open-minded about loans for projects in such sectors, in consultation with borrower countries, is likely to be welcomed.

Nobel laureate Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan to head Royal Society

Nobel Laureate Sir #VenkatramanRamakrishnan has been confirmed as President Elect of the #RoyalSociety.

His appointment was confirmed by the society’s council met on 19 March 2015 and will assume the charge on 1 December 2015.

He will succeed eminent geneticist Sir Paul Nurse who had taken on the role in 2010 and will step down after the customary 5-year term.

About Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

• Famously known as Venki. He was born in Chidambaram in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu.
• He holds B.Sc. degree in physics from Baroda University and Ph.D. from Ohio University, United States.
• In 2003, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
• Ramakrishnan was knighted for services to Molecular Biology in 2012.
• Awards- In 2009, Ramakrishnan was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering the precise structure of ribosomes i.e. the molecular machines that manufacture proteins inside all living cells. He shared this Prize with Tom Steitz and Ada Yonath.
• Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (2007) and Padma Vibhushan (2010).

About Royal Society

• It is a self-governing fellowship society of the world’s most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, medicine and engineering.
• Established: 1660.
• Purpose: To support excellence in science, and to encourage its use for the benefit of humanity.

The position President of the Royal Society is most important in British science and existed since 1660. The President of society is a key advocate for science in the UK and the world.