1. Prologue to six part Article series
  2. Bharat Ratna 42nd and 43rd
  3. Padma Awards 2014
  4. National awards / achievements
  5. International / Foreign awards
  6. 12th Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas 2014 (PBD)
  7. Diaspora in news
  8. Dead in news (DIN)
    1. Indians Dead
    2. Foreigners Dead
    3. DEAD Not important for exams

Prologue to six part Article series

Total six parts covering December 2013 to 8th June 2014- nearly six months that is the usual time span for current affairs most competitive exams below UPSC Civil service exam.

  1. [PIN-2014] Part 1/6: National- Official Posts, Committees, Stamps-2014, Defense, Telangana & more
  2. [PIN-2014] Part 2/6: International- Presidents, Prime ministers, Summits, bodies & Ukraine Crisis
  3. [PIN-2014] Part 3/6: Sports, Mascots, Athletes, Awards, FIFA-2014, Sochi-2014, Grand Slams, Hockey, Kabbadi, Cricket & more
  4. [PIN-2014] Part 4/6: Economic Regulators, Banking Sector CMDs, RBI monetary policy, RBI Committees, Business GK CEOs
  5. [PIN-2014] Part 5/6: Books, Authors, Movies awards & Beauty Pageants
  6. [PIN-2014] Part 6/6: Diaspora, Civilian awards & Dead in News, Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas, Padma 2014, Able Prize & more YOU ARE HERE

Any updates, corrections please do post in the comments but with reference except wikipedia

Bharat Ratna 42nd and 43rd

SachinRamesh Tendulkar
  • 42nd Awardee of Bharat Ratna
  • Rajya Sabha Members (Nominated)
  • Ambassador of UNICEF for promoting total sanitation campaign in India, Pakistan, Srilanka, B’desh and Nepal.
  • Won Arjun award- 1994, Rajeev Gandhi khel ratna 1998, Padma Shri 1999, Padma vibhusan 2008 and finally Baharat ratna 2014
  • Youngest recipient of Bharat Ratna
C. N. Rao
  • 43rd Baharat ratna
  • Chairman of scientific advisory council to the PM (headed this council 4 times {Rajeev Gandhi+ Dev gowda+ IK gujral + Manmohan singh}),
  • Also member of scientific advisory council to PM at time of Indra Gandhi; Padma vibhusan ,
  • 3rd scientist after C.V raman and Dr kalam to get Baharat ratna.
  • Worked on Solidstate chemistry. (Q was asked in CDS exam.)

You’ll get list of previous winners from Lucent GK / India Yearbook appendix.

Padma Awards 2014

Padma Vibhushan only 2

  1. Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar, Science
  2. BKS Iyengar, Yoga guru

Now in the following categories, only listing the important ones:

Bhushan, total 24 Padma Shree 100+
  1. Justice Dalveer Bhandari
  2. Kamala Hassan, actor
  3. Parveen Sultana, Singer
  4. Pulela Gopichand, Bandminton Coach
  5. Justice JS Verma, dead
  6. Llyod and Suzan Rudolf, Literature
  1. Paresh Rawal, Vidhya Balan
  2. Anjum Chopra- lady cricketer
  3. Sunil Dabas, Kabbadi
  4. Yuvraj Singh, cricket
  5. Dipika Pillaikal, Squash Tamilnadu
  6. Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, murdered. Anti-superstition campaigns in Maharahstra

Arjun Awards/ other sports awards are included in Sports category and not here.

National awards / achievements

Amazing Indian Award Arunima Sinha first Indian amputee to climb mount Everest
Best heritage city by tourism ministry Tirupati, Andhra
Bharat Ratna Sachin tendulkar and CNR Rao
GD Birla Scientific Research- Rajesh Gopakumar- Quantum field and string theory
Malavath Poorna 13 yo. Youngest girl to clime Mt.Everest. Hails from Nizamabad district of Telangana.
MS Subbulakshmi award 2014 given for many cateogies. cost:benefit not good. Subbulakshmi herself was a Indian classical singer
National Tourism award Sikkim
Saraswati Sanman 2013 Govind Mishra, Book – Dhul Podho par. Given by KK Birla Foundation
Shatin Swarup Bhatnagar given to scienists, by CSIR. cost:benefit bad hence not listing names.
SK Singh award for IFS Sibi George
Tagore award for Culture harmony 2013 Zubin Mehta, Musician
Yash Bhartiya Award Highest award by uttar pradesh government

International / Foreign awards

  • Nobel 2014 yet to be given.
  • Nobel 2013: same as PIN 2013 click me. Besides, Nobel-2013 topic is well past its expiry date for non-UPSC exam current affairs.
  • Right now this list is small because most international awards will be given in the end part of 2014.
Abel Prize
  • Russian Mathematician Ya G. Sinai
  • The Abel Prize considered Nobel Prize for mahts, since 2003.
  • $1 million
Allard prize for international integrity Anna Hazare
Gandhi peace prize 2013 Environmentalist Chandi prasad bhatt. Chipko Movement, Magsaysay award – 82. Award decided by panel headed by prime minister. Started in 1995.
Google digital activism 2014 Indian journalist Subhranshu Chaudhary. Communication platform CG Net Swara- Voice of Chhatisgarh
Indira Gandhi Peace prize 2013 German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
International Gandhi award 2013 VV Dongre, Goucheng Zhang. Leprosy work.
Marconi Society prize 2014 India born Prof.Arogyaswami Paulraj for a new antenna system
Pope First rank in Fortune world’s 50 greatest leaders.
Pritzker Prize For Architecture. This time to Japanese Shigeru Ban for earthquake relief structures in Bhuj, madeup of paperlogs and bamboo.
Ridenhour Prize for truthtelling Edward Snowden (NSA agent), Laura Poitras (journalist)
Siddiqa Praveen from West Bengal Gunsiess book tallest woman of the world
Templton prize 2014 for philosophy and religion. Tomas halik, czech priest
UK knighthood Ratan Tata got Britain’s highest civilian award for his company’s heavy investment in Britain. He is the only Indian citizen to get this award after 1950.
USA  national spelling bee championship Two Indians tie: Ansun Sujoe, Sriram Hathwar.

Goldman Environmental Foundation awards 2014

India’s Ramesh Agrawal helping villagers fight coal mining in Chhattisgarh
Peru’s Ruth Buendia to prevent two dams in the Peruvian Amazon
Russian zoologist Suren Gazaryan Defending protected areas from Olympic development in Sochi.

12th Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas 2014 (PBD)

  • by Ministry of Overseas affairs
  • since 2003 celebrated on 9th January every year because Gandhi returned from S.Africa on 9th Jan 1915

12th PBD 2014

  • @Delhi
  • Theme “engaging Diaspora: Connecting across generations ”
  • Chief guest – Datuk Seri G Palanivel, Minister of Natural resource and environment, Malaysia

PBD 2014 awardees (only important ones)

  1. Lisa Maria singh -1st south Asian descent to be member of Parliament in Australia
  2. Sushindra Muthuvel – 1st Indian origin member of Parliament in Papua New Guinea
  3. Shailesh Lakhman Vara – 1st Indian origin govt. minister in conservative party UK
  4. Dr. Renu Khator – President and chancellor of University of Houston
  5. Dr. Parthsarathi Pillai – Scientist in USA

for PBD 2013, click me

Diaspora in news

  • NOT all of the following have Indian origin or India birth or residing abroad. (इतनी सीआईडी करते फ़िरेंगे तो आर्टिकल कबी लिखेंगे!)
  • I’m including names that came in international news, and have some connection with India.
  • Not all of them are important for MCQs either. But if you keep a track someday something important comes by for UPSC Mains GS paper II, Diaspora topic.
Abraham panni kottu Zero pressure tyre for US military
Alexi Premkumar Indian aid worker, Tamilnadu. Worked for education of Afghani girls. Taliban abducted him.
Anil Zen 3D Model of Human Fingerprint
D.R.Mehta Founder and chief of world famous Jaipur foot organisation. got recognition in Harvard University.
Dinesh D’Souza Mumbai born author. Pleads guilty for illegally funding senator election in USA.
Dr Maha Al Muneef International woman of courage award. Honored by US for bravery
Dr.Ramanathan Raju New york mayor appointed him as boss of Newyork health corporation
Gargi Ghosh Obama’s global Development council
Gyan correa Gujarati movie director- The Good Road, Nominated at Oscar
Hinduja Srichand & Gopichad Hinduja  (India born Hinduja group owner) became UK richest person. 2nd richest- Russian Alisher Usmanov ; 3rd Lakshmi Mittal.
Indira Talwani  federal judge in Massachusetts,
Jawahar Kaliani Indian-American has been appointed to a key post in the U.S. Department of Treasury.
Lakshmi US International women of Courage award
acid attack victim  from India
Manish S Shah Judge Illinois
Manu Prakash Low cost microscope from paper, Stanford univ.
Nisha Desai Biswal Asst. Secretary for South and Central Asia, under Obama administration
Pritzker price for architecture Shigeru ban, Japan. Work in Bhuj Earthquake
Prof. Rakesh Khurana Dean of Harward college
Ratan Tata first India to be knighted in UK after 1950.
Ravinder Dahiya Engineering fellowship worth nearly 2 million by a British agency.
Salman Khan (not the Bollywood  actor.) this is the owner Khansacademy.org
Obama made him US presidential Ambassador for global entrepreneurship. ~5000 vidoes.
Indian mom, Bangla fathers.
Sanjam Garg IIT Delhi graduate + developed tools to counter cyber-attacks. Awarded by doctoral dissertation award (sponsored by Google)
Sant Singh Chatwal Indian Hotelier, Padma Bhushan, pleads guilty of violating US election funding law.
Sunil Sabharwal Obama nominated him for alt.exec.director post in IMF
Suvir Mirchandani Indian teen- Garamond font can save $136 million per year in printing costs.
Vijay Seshadri 98th Pulitzer prize 2014, for his poetry collection ‘3 sections’. another book “Long Meadow”. Writes in Washington post and Guardian.
Vince Girdhari Chhabaria Judge california
Yale Fellows. Nandia Das (actress); Parmesh Shahni (Godrej)

Dead in news (DIN)

Except CDS exam, dead people usually not asked anywhere.

Indians Dead

Amarkant dead.hindi writer. fought in Quit India movement. won jnanpith award.
Ashish Bose Demographer. Coined the term BIMRAU states. (dead)
Begum Hazrat Mahal 135th Anniversay. Took part in 1857’s mutiny, to oppose Britial annexation of Awadh. Later took refuse in Nepal.
Dasrath Manji “Mountain man of Bihar”. took 22 years to cut a road through mountain to help his village. After his death featured in Satyamev Jayate (Amir Khan show).
Dorris Lessing. Nobel literature winner, dead. From Britain.  Books: golden notebook, memoirs of survior, summer before dark.
Dr. Narendra Dabholkar murdered. Anti-superstition campaigns in Maharahstra. Later Maha. Vidhan sabha passed Anti superstition bill in Dec 2013. Penalty upto 7 years jail and 50k fine.
Fredrick Sanger British Called “Father of Genomics”. 2 times Nobel prize winner in chemistry {1958- structure of proteins <insulin >; 1980 – DNA sequencing }. Only 4 people won 2 times nobel prize.
GK Chada Noted Economist, chaired UGC pay commission
Gopinath Munde BJP cabinet minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj. Died in car accident. MP from Beed Constituency, Maharashtra.
Jagjit Singh On his memory govt released a postal stamp.
Juthika Roy Bhajan singer + Padma Shri in 1972+ Gandhi ji was fond of his bhajan.
K.P. Saxena  Padma shree awardee hindi writer.
Khushwant Singh Novelist. booklist already given under [Books] topic
Makar Dhawaj Darogha Famous folk dancer “chau” of Jharkhand. Padma shri awardee.
Maya Angelou civil rights activists, singer USA. Book: I know why the Caged bird sings. Died in June 2014
MP Anil Kumar Flying officer (retired). Blogger, inspired handicapped persons. Died of cancer. Nickname “Chairborne warrior”.
Mukul Sinha Lawyer, fought Post-Godhra riot victim cases in Gujarat (and appeared in english newsTV debates against Modi)
Noor Inayat Khan Died long time ago but recently Britain issued stamp in her honor. WWII heroine. Worked as radio operator. His father was an Indian.
Omprakash Valmiki Dalit Hindi writer, Uttrakhand. Dead
Pran Chopra former editor of “The statesman”
Rajendra Yadav Hindi writer. Sara Akash. Dead. Part of Nayi Kahani movement
Ranjit Bhatia Olympic distance runner. represented in Rome Olympics 1960. contempory of Milkha Singh.
Ravi Shankar died in 2012 but got Grammy nomination posthumously in 2013.
Silverine Swer Meghalay’s first Padma shree awardee. She served in Government  job during WW2. affectionately called “Kong Sil”
Silverine Swer Meghalaya First “Padma shri awardee ” + Oldest voter of Meghalaya.
Sydena Mohd. Burhanuddin Spiritual leader of Dawoodi Bohra community (Shia Muslims).
T.C. Narendran Insect taxonomist . Died. Got E.K. Janaki Ammal National award by MOEF
Tarla Dalal famous Indian COOK and author .
Tom Clancy Died. US thrillers. Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games.
Ustad Alla Rakha Khan Tabla player. Died in 2000 but google showed his doodle on 95th anniversary. He had won Padma shri and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
Vijay Dan Detha Rajasthani short story writer and novelist . Nominated for Nobel prize in 2011. Padma shri, Rajasthan ratna award and Sahitya akadmi award.
VK Murthy Cinematographer of Guru Dutt’s Pyasa. Had won Dadasaheb.

Foreigners Dead

Aitzaz Hassan Pakistani schoolboy who sacrificed himself to stop a suicide bomber.
Anja Niedringhaus Pultizer prize winner reporter, shot dead in Afghanistan
Ariel Sharon Former PM of Israel.
Gabriel Marquez Columbian short story writer nobel winner. Died. “One hundred Years of Solitude”
Hamid Mir Paki Journalist, attacked by Taliban. alive so far.
Hiroo Onoda Japan’s last surviving WW2 soldier died.
Karpal Singh Indian Malayasian politician.
Mikhail Kalashnikov Russian designer of Automative Kalashnikov47 (AK 47)
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Autobiography long walk to freedom. South Africa.
Bharat ratna- 1990 & nobel peace prize 1993
Rubin Hurricane Carter American black boxer, wrongfully convicted. Dead. Biography “the sixteenth round” movie, “Hurricane”.
Shakespeare 450th birth anniversary on April 23
Win Tin Myanmar’s longest serving political prisoner.

DEAD Not important for exams

May be some utility in state PSC GK type interviews, but not beyond that. I’m putting here only for the sake of public record.

Akkineni Nageshwara Rao Telgu film actor+ padma vibhushan+ Dada sahib phalke
Amarkant Well known Hindi writer .Died. (Various awards- Janpeeth award; Vyas samman etc.)
Balu Mahendran Died National award winner film maker.
Banda Vasudev Rao Father of Indian Poultry industry+ Founder of National egg Coordination committee. 78th death anniversary.
D. Rajenda Babu famous Kannda film maker (died)
Doris Lessing Died – Born in Iran . Nobel laureate 2007 Literature. Book- The golden notebook. 1st Novel- “Grass is singing”
Farooq Sheikh Actor (chasme badoor)   died,
Janmadhi Hanuman chali Telugu writer
Luiz Bellini First Brazilian to lift the football world cup as a captain . (dead)
Mohammad Qasim Fahim Afganistan Vice Pz & also served as Defence minister . He lead the the team against Taliban in 1992-96. Our Mannu was very sad on his death.
Nanda (Actress) Daughter of popular Marathi actor –director Master Vinayak.  Her 1st film – Toofan Aur DIYA.
Paul Walker died in car accident- Hollywood actor of famous movie  “Fast & Furious”
Philip Seymour Hofman Oscar winning actor. Narcotic drug overdose.
Phungwang  Wangye Dead. Tibetan communist leader . He was outspoken against the chinese rule in Tibet.
Radu Beligan World’s oldest active actor at age of 95, now Guinness world record
Reshma Pakistani folk singer (famous song Lambi judaai…..)
Ronnie Biggs Britain’s “Great train robber.
Shirley temple Youngest actress to win oscar
Sis Ram Ola Congi union labor minister. Dead December 2013.
Suchitra Sen Bengali Actress . (movies Devdas , aandhi)
Sunanda Pushkar Shashi Tharoor’s wife, died in mysterious circumstances.
Tony Benn British socialist + youngest MP of British parliament. Recently died

For more current affairs, visit Mrunal.org/Current

Any updates, corrections please do post in the comments but with reference except wikipedia

Inputs from Mr. Chandradeo and Ms. Rajtanil