Veteran music director Usha Khanna has been conferred the Maharashtra government’s “Lata Mangeshkar Award” for the year 2019-20, Cultural Affairs Minister Vinod Tawde announced here on Wednesday.
The award, instituted in 1993, has been given to senior musicians for their contribution to the industry.
The award, named after the legendary singer, consists of Rs 5,00,000 cash, a citation and a memento. Khanna, 78, is one of the few women musicians in the Indian film industry who carved out a niche for herself in the otherwise male-dominated field. She started her illustrious career with Bollywood film”Dil Deke Dekho” in 1959, whose music became instant hit.
The name of six-time world champion boxer Mary Kom has been recommended for the prestigious Padma Vibhushan award, the first time that a woman athlete’s name has been put forward by the sports ministry for the country’s second highest civilian honour after the Bharat Ratna.
Mary’s name was among nine recommended by the ministry for the Padma awards, and in another first, all the nine athletes this time around are women, the Times of India reported.Mary Kom was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 2013 and Padma Shri in 2006.
After winning a silver medal at the Maharashtra State Powerlifting Championship in her first attempt in July, Shilpa Agrawal, industrialist and former Mrs Universe Lovely has been appointed as a brand ambassador of the ‘Fit India Movement’ launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 29 on National Sports Day.
Shilpa was selected from fitness enthusiasts, fitness experts and trainers from all over India to become brand ambassador of the ‘Fit India’ movement. 30 women were shortlisted and Shilpa was selected from among them after a contest held in Gurgaon from September 6-8.
Gujarat has topped among 22 states in the Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) index released by Union Ministry of Commerce & Industry. It was released by Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Suresh Prabhu after the third meeting of the Council for Trade Development and Promotion in New Delhi.
Punjab has acquired second position followed by Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Among the Union Territories, Daman & Diu occupied top slot followed by NCT Delhi and Chandigarh. As regards the hilly states, Tripura was on top followed by Mizoram and Meghalaya.
India has jumped 11 spots on Global Economic Freedom index from last year’s 96th spot to the current ranking of 79. The latest gain is promising news for the Indian economy which is currently reeling under slowdown, Indian think-tank Centre for Civil Society said on Friday. “It is well established that economic freedom fosters economic growth by affecting incentives leading to efficient use of resources. The freedom to choose and supply resources, competition in business, openness to trade, and legally protected property rights are central ingredients for economic progress,’” said Sudhanshu Neema, Lawyer and Economist, Centre for Civil Society. The Economic Freedom of the World Report 2019 surveyed a total of 162 countries.
The Army is scheduled to conduct a major Exercise ‘HimVijay’ beginning October in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam with its newly created Integrated Battle Groups (IBG) involving 15,000 troops, defence sources said on Wednesday.
The exercise will coincide with the proposed visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping for the second informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The Panagarh based 17 Mountain Strike Corps will conduct Exercise HimVijay spread over a month and half with three newly created IBGs from October, the sources said.
The Rajasthan government will launch a Jan Soochna Portal on Friday. The portal, which has been developed by the information and technology department, will have information pertaining to 13 departments on a single platform. The IT department has created a public information portal in which 23-24 types of information will be made available from 13 departments, said a department official.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will inaugurate the International Ramayana Festival to be organized by The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) here on September 17.It will be a three-day event spanning across September 17-19.Apart from New Delhi, the festival is going to be organized in Lucknow, Ayodhya and Pune.
Eight countries from across the world will take part in the festival including Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Indonesia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Bangladesh and Fiji.The International Ramayana Festival has been organized annually for the last 15 years by ICCR.
Hindi Diwas commemorates the adoption of Hindi as an official language of India. The day is observed annually on September 14.On this day in 1949, Hindi written in Devanagari script was adopted as the official language of India by the Constituent Assembly of India.
The Hindi Diwas was established due to the efforts of several stalwarts who rallied and lobbied in favour of Hindi across India. The most notable among them was Beohar Rajendra Simha. Beohar Rajendra Simha along with other pro-Hindi speakers including Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Kaka Kalelkar, Maithili Sharan Gupt and Seth Govind Das even debated in the Parliament on the issue.
The Haryana Government has appointed cricket legend Kapil Dev, who traces his roots to Haryana, as the first Chancellor of Sports University, Rai (Sonepat).The appointment of Kapil Dev, captain of India’s 1983 Cricket World Cup winning team, was announced by Haryana Youth and Sports Minister Anil Vij through a tweet on Saturday.The Haryana Assembly at its Monsoon Session last month had created Haryana’s first sports university at Rai. Till now, a sports school had been functional at Rai.Kapil will be the first Chancellor of the university, sources said, adding that the other staff, including the vice-chancellor, would be appointed soon.
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