Newsmakers Current Affairs
Resul Pookutty
- Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty has bagged the best sound award for documentary India’s Daughter at the Motion Picture Sound Editors’ (MPSE) 63rd annual Golden Reel Awards. ‘India’s Daughter’ is directed by Leslee Udwin.
- Udwin’s controversial BBC documentary India’s Daughter features an interview of one of four men sentenced to death in the December 16 Delhi gangrape case. Government of India has banned public screening airing of this documentary.
- With this, India got its first coveted award from the Motion Picture Sound Editors’ of United States for best sound.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali/ Ranveer Singh
- Producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali and actor Ranveer Singh have been chosen for the prestigious 2016 Pandit Dinanath Mangeshkar Award on February 26, 2016. They will be conferred the award at a function to be held in Pune by Lata Mangeshkar on April 24, 2016.
- On April 24 every year, the Mangeshkars honour the finest artistes in India to commemorate Lataji’s father Pandit Dinanath Mangeshkar’s death anniversary. The award was instituted in 1999 and carries monetary award of Rs 101001 and a citation.
HL Dattu
- A panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi selected former Chief Justice of India HL Dattu on Februay 23, 2016 for appointment as the next chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
- Under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, the President appoints the chairperson and members of the NHRC on the recommendation of a committee comprising the Prime Minister, Ink Sabha Speaker, Union Home Minister, leaders of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. and Deputy Chairman of Kajya Sabha.
- HL Dattu retired as CJ1 on December 2, 2013. Tire post of NHRC chairperson had been lying vacant since May, 2019 after Justice KG Balakrishnan completed his neatly five year long tenure.
Ismail Mahomed
- An Indian- origin playwright in South Africa Ismail Mahomed was conferred Knighthood by the French government for his lifelong devotion to the promotion of arts m February 22, 2016.
- Ismail Mahomed was bestowed withThe Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature) by French Ambassador Elisabet Barbier in Johannesburg.
- At present, Ismail Mahomed is working as the Artistic Director of the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
Goverdhan Mehta
- Achim Fabig, the German Consul General conferred the prestigious ‘Bundesverdienstkreuz’ (the Cross of the Order of Merit) to Hyderabad- based professor Goverdhan Mehta in Chennai on February 22, 2016.
- In 1995, professor Mehta was the first Indian scientist to receive the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award. He has also been very fortunate to be a guiding force to bind Indo-German relations by suggesting the establishment of the Deutsche Forschungs Gemeinschaft (DFG) office in India.
