Recent 6 months news in Awards

The Indian Haj Mission has been honoured with two ‘Labbaytum Awards’ by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah of Saudi Arabia.

The awards were conferred in the categories of Coordination and Communication, recognising the exemplary management of Haj operations and pilgrim services during Haj 2026. It is to be noted that this is the first instance of India receiving two Labbaytum Awards in a single Haj season.

Major Abhilasha Barak, an Indian Army officer, has been conferred the 2025 UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award. She served as the Engagement Team Commander and Gender Focal Point within the Indian Battalion under the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

She is the third Indian peacekeeper to receive this global award, after Major Suman Gawani (2019) and Major Radhika Sen (2023). It is to be noted that She is the first woman combat helicopter pilot in the history of the Indian Army.

The National Awards for e-Governance (NAeG) 2026 recognized 17 projects across India to promote excellence in digital governance. The awards comprised 10 Gold Awards, 6 Silver Awards, and 1 Jury Award.

The Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI), managed by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, received a Gold Award under Category VII. The e-Jagriti Platform, operated by the Department of Consumer Affairs, secured a Silver Award under Category I.

Recognized projects include the ‘Agri Stack’ project by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and the ‘Mahakumbh 2025 Initiative’ by the Prayagraj Mela Authority. Additionally, the Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council (K-DISC) received recognition for its ‘Blood Bag Traceability & Citizen Interaction Portal’, a citizen-centric health technology development.

Gold Award winners receive a trophy, a citation, and a cash prize of ₹10 lakh, while Silver Award winners are awarded a trophy, a certificate, and ₹5 lakh.

Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal presented the Sagar Aankalan - Logistics Port Performance Index (LPPI) awards for the FY25. The Deendayal Port Authority (DPA) in Gujarat was recognized as the best-performing port in the ‘Handling of Container Cargo - less than 0.5 Million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs)’ category.

The Visakhapatnam Port Authority (VPA) secured the second position in the ‘Sagar Aankalan Award’ for ‘Excellence in Handling Liquid Bulk Cargo’ in the category of ports handling 5 million tonnes and above.

Valluvan, a farmer from the Pollachi district of Tamil Nadu, has been honoured as a ‘Soil Farmer Hero’ by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN.

He has received this recognition for transforming his 11-hectare landholding into a profitable enterprise. He achieved this through the implementation of multi-crop, tree-based farming techniques, generating revenue of ₹2.5 lakh to ₹3 lakh per acre.

The 79th edition of the annual Cannes International Film Festival 2026 was hosted in Cannes, France. The Palme d’Or, the highest award, was won by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu for his drama ‘Fjord’, marking his second win. The Grand Prix was awarded to Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev for his political thriller ‘Minotaur’.

The Jury Prize was conferred upon ‘The Dreamed Adventure’ by Valeska Grisebach (Germany). The Best Director award was jointly presented to Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi (Spain) for ‘La Bola Negra’ and Paweł Pawlikowski (Poland) for ‘Fatherland’.

The Best Actor award was shared by Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne (Belgium) for ‘Coward’, while the Best Actress award was jointly awarded to Virginie Efira (Belgium-France) and Tao Okamoto (Japan) for ‘All Of A Sudden’.

The Best Screenplay award was presented to Emmanuel Marre (France) for ‘A Man of His Time’, and the Camera d’Or for Best First Film was awarded to ‘Ben’Imana’ by Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo (Rwanda).

Professor Manindra Agrawal, the Director of the IIT Kanpur, and Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the former Chief Scientist of the WHO, have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society (FRS).

The Royal Society is one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific academies in the world.

Five outstanding female scientists have been honoured with the “UNESCO–L’Oréal International Awards for Women in Science 2026”, presented jointly by the UNESCO and the Fondation L’Oréal.

The laureates for 2026 include Professor Liesl Zühlke from South Africa, Professor Felice Jacka from Australia, Professor Sarah A Teichmann from the UK, Professor Raquel Chan from Argentina, and Professor Gordana Novakovic from the United States (US).

Karnataka Grameena Bank (KGB) has won the National Award from the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). The award is given recognising its outstanding performance in subscriber enrolment under the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) scheme.

Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa, has conferred the Order of Mapungubwe, the highest civilian honour of the nation, on Indian-origin professors.

Salim Abdool Karim received the award under the Gold category, while Keertan Dheda was awarded under the Silver category. The honours were given recognising their exceptional contributions to the fields of medical science, epidemiology, and health policy.

The Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has secured a position among the top five global water utilities across three major categories at the 2026 Global Water Awards. The awards were presented during the Global Water Summit 2026 in Madrid, Spain.

It is to be noted that BWSSB is the sole Indian water utility to achieve top-five global recognition in three distinct categories, namely “Utility of the Year 2026”, “Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG-6) Champion of the year 2026”, and “Water Project of the Year 2026”.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission of the ISRO has received the 2026 Goddard Astronautics Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

The award was presented at the Accelerating Space Commerce, Exploration, and New Discovery (ASCEND) 2026 Conference held in Washington DC, USA. Vinay Kwatra, the Ambassador of India to the USA, accepted the award on behalf of ISRO.

Professor Momoko Kitada has been conferred with the 2026 International Maritime Organization (IMO) Gender Equality Award. The award, established in 2022, recognises individuals who have made significant contributions toward empowering women and promoting diversity within the maritime sector.

PM Narendra Modi has been conferred the prestigious FAO Agricola Medal by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The award recognises his contributions to food security, sustainable agriculture, and rural development.

It is one of the highest honours given by the FAO to individuals for their role in advancing global food security, improved nutrition, and agricultural development.

Actor Ishaan Khatter has been conferred with an honorary membership of the 45 Cavalry Regiment of the Indian Armoured Corps. The honour is in recognition of his portrayal of Captain Balram Mehta in the film ‘Pippa’ and for demonstrating respect towards the ethos and legacy of the regiment.

The film ‘Pippa’, directed by Raja Krishna Menon and produced by RSVP Movies and Roy Kapur Films, is based on the book “The Burning Chaffees” authored by Balram Singh Mehta.

Professor Kuljeet Kaur Marhas has been elected as a Fellow of The Meteoritical Society, becoming the first Indian woman to receive this distinction. She is the third Indian scientist to be awarded this international honour, following space scientists Devendra Lal and JN Goswami.

The Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) has announced the winners of the National Panchayat Awards 2025 (NPA-2025), recognizing 42 Panchayats for excellence in rural governance and sustainable development. Karnataka secured the highest number of awards with 6 honors, followed by Odisha and Andhra Pradesh with 5 awards each.

Under the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar (DDUPSVP) category, 34 Gram Panchayats (GP) were selected based on the scores of the Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI) 2.0. The Nanaji Deshmukh Sarvottam Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar (NDSPSVP-2025) recognized 8 winners, comprising 3 District Panchayats, 2 Block Panchayats, and 3 GPs.

New Napam Gaon Panchayat in Assam was named the Best GP of India under NDSPSVP 2025, receiving a prize of ₹1.5 crore. Telcup in Bihar and Biraharu in Uttar Pradesh secured the second and third positions, earning ₹1.25 crore and ₹1 crore respectively.

The winners of the 110th edition of the Pulitzer Prizes (2026) have been announced across 23 categories. Administered by Columbia University, the awards carry a certificate and a cash prize of $15,000 for each winner. In the Journalism section, The Washington Post won the award for Public Service, while the staff of The New York Times received the prize for Investigative Reporting. The Associated Press (AP) team, which included Aniruddha Ghosal, was honoured in the International Reporting category.

Saher Alghorra, a contributor to The New York Times, won for Breaking News Photography for documenting the situation in Gaza. Notably, freelance journalists Anand RK and Suparna Sharma, along with Natalie Obiko Pearson of Bloomberg, won the Illustrated Reporting & Commentary award for “trAPPed”, a graphic investigation into digital arrest scams in India.

Winners in the Arts and Books categories include Daniel Kraus for Fiction (“Angel Down”), Bess Wohl for Drama (“Liberation”), Jill Lepore for History (“We the People”), and Amanda Vaill for Biography (“Pride and Pleasure”).

Other recipients are Yiyun Li for Memoir (“Things in Nature Merely Grow”), Brian Goldstone for General Nonfiction (“There Is No Place for Us”), Juliana Spahr for Poetry (“Ars Poeticas”), and Gabriela Lena Frank for Music (“Picaflor: A Future Myth”). Julie K. Brown, a reporter for the Miami Herald, received a Special Citation for her reporting on Jeffrey Epstein.

The Guntur Municipal Corporation (GMC) in Andhra Pradesh has been conferred the 4th edition of the “Gender Equality Mobilisation” (GEM) Award. The award is presented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) recognising the initiatives and mobilisation efforts of the GMC towards gender equality.

J Santosh Kumar, a former Member of Parliament (MP) and environmentalist, has been conferred the “Global Green Icon” award at the World Climate Leaders Conclave 2026 held at the House of Lords in London. It is to be noted that he was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2018 from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to represent the state of Telangana.