The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) has announced the winners of the 72nd National Film Awards 2024. The Hindi film 'Article 370' won the Best Feature Film award, and Yami Gautam was honoured with the Best Actress (Leading Role) award for her performance in the same film.
The Best Actor award was jointly conferred upon Mammootty for 'Bramayugam' and Kartik Aaryan for 'Chandu Champion'. Rajkumar Periasamy won the Best Direction award for the Tamil film 'Amaran', and Randeep Hooda was recognised as the Best Debut Director.
Dr. Nandini Azad, the President of the Working Women's Forum (India) (WWF-I) and the Indian Cooperative Network for Women (ICNW), has been conferred with the Bharat Samman 2026.
India has won 4 gold medals at the 58th International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) 2026 held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The gold medallists are Debadatta Priyadarshi (Bhubaneshwar, Odisha), Harshit Singla (Mandi Gobindgarh, Punjab), Kabeer Chillar (Delhi), and Sandeep Kuchi (Hyderabad).
India also achieved 1 gold and 3 silver medals at the 37th International Biology Olympiad (IBO) 2026 held in Vilnius, Lithuania. Bhavyaa Gunwal from Mahendragarh, Haryana, won the gold medal.
The Anti-Money Laundering Division (AMLD) of Taiwan has won the Best Egmont Case Award (BECA) 2026, which is one of the highest honours of the Egmont Group.
The Financial Intelligence Unit – India (FIU-IND) was named the runner-up.
Nita Ambani, the Founder and Chairperson of Reliance Foundation, has been honoured with the 'Fortune India Most Powerful Women (MPW)' award at an event held in Mumbai. Roshni Nadar, the CEO of HCL Technologies, has been ranked second in the list.
India achieved a perfect golden sweep at the 56th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) 2026, held in Bucaramanga, Colombia.
The Indian contingent, comprising Kanishk Jain, Riddhesh Bendale, Rishit Garg, Shresth Suraiya, and Svarit Joshi, secured a joint No.1 World Rank alongside China, Russia, Kazakhstan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has been named the global winner of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2026. The award was conferred under Action Line C6 - Enabling Environment for its flagship project, 'Samriddh Gram: Integrated Phygital Service Delivery Model Enabled by BharatNet'.
The recognition was presented during the WSIS Forum 2026 held in Geneva. The WSIS Prizes, instituted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), honour Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects that advance sustainable development.
The Jestha Varna Mahavihar, a historic Buddhist monastery located in Lalitpur, Nepal (also known as Jyaba Bahi or Chakrabahil), has been conferred with the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award 2025. The award recognises the outstanding conservation and restoration work undertaken following the damage caused by the 2015 Gorkha earthquake.
It is to be noted that the restoration project was supported by the Government of India (GoI) through its post-earthquake cultural heritage reconstruction grant, with financial assistance of NPR 13.78 crore.
The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) organized the 29th edition of the National Awards for e-Governance (NAeG) 2026 in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The event was held under the theme "Viksit Bharat 2047: AI-Enabled, Data-Driven and Secure Digital Governance".
Union Minister Jitendra Singh conferred 17 awards across 7 categories, comprising 10 Gold, 6 Silver, and 1 Jury award. The NAeG provides a cash prize of ₹10 lakh for Gold award winners and ₹5 lakh for Silver award winners.
Notable Gold award winners include the ICMR-MINDS project for AI-enabled mental and substance use disorder screening, the Panchayat Advancement Index for utilizing data analytics for rural planning, and the Kadepur Gram Panchayat in Maharashtra for implementing a paperless, blockchain-based e-office.
Other recognized initiatives include e-Aarogya Dhamni, e-Jagriti (Ministry of Consumer Affairs), Agri Stack (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare), AI Clinical Support in eSanjeevani Telemedicine, the Mahakumbh 2025 Digital Initiative, the District Court Case Management System (DCMS) by the High Court of Kerala, and the Blood Bag Traceability Portal.
The Jury Award was presented to the Survey of India for its project titled "Real-Time Precise Positioning Services through CORS Network".
The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) has presented the 2026 Leadership Award to Sunil Bharti Mittal, the founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises Ltd.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has named French meteorologist Dr. Florence Rabier as the recipient of the 71st International Meteorological Organization (IMO) Prize.
The award, often called the "Nobel Prize of meteorology", carries a cash prize of 10,000 Swiss Francs (CHF).
The 8th Youth Co:Lab National Innovation Challenge 2026 was hosted at the Technology Hub (T-Hub) in Hyderabad. The challenge was organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) India in partnership with the Citi Foundation and the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), and implemented by the T-Hub Foundation.
The winners, NavaPrayoga Labs LLP (Grassip) from Hyderabad, UnBubble from Gurugram (Haryana), and Ecorenowa Solutions Pvt Ltd from Bengaluru were awarded a seed grant of Rs 3.5 lakh each.
Parveen Sheikh and Barkha Subba, two Indian conservationists, have been named among the 6 global recipients of the 2026 Whitley Award, commonly known as the "Green Oscar".
The former was honoured for her community-led efforts to protect the Indian Skimmer across river systems in India. The latter, a conservationist from the Darjeeling Himalayas, was recognised for her work in safeguarding the rare Himalayan salamander and its wetland habitat.
Each recipient receives £50,000 in project funding for one year. The other recipients of the 2026 Whitley Award include Moreangels Mbizah (Zimbabwe), Issah Seidu (Ghana), Marina Kameni (Cameroon), and Paola Sangolqui (Ecuador). Farwiza Farhan was honoured with the Whitley Gold Award.
Team India has won 5 medals (3 Gold, 1 Silver, and 1 Bronze) at the Global Skills Challenge (GSC) Australia 2026.
The Gold medalists include Pavan Bhadravati Suresha (Karnataka) for Additive Manufacturing (3D printing), Mausam Kumar Giri (Bihar) for Cloud Computing, and Vishnupriya Sunil (Delhi) for Health and Social Care. Harsh Ramesh Pawar (Maharashtra) won the Silver medal in 3D Digital Game Art, and Muskan (Haryana) secured the Bronze medal in Painting and Decorating.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) organised the inaugural Indian Athletics Awards 2025 in New Delhi. The awards were presented by Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.
Neeraj Chopra and Parul Chaudhary were named the Best Male and Female Athletes of the Year, respectively, receiving a cash prize of ₹10 lakh each. Shanavaz Khan and Pooja Singh were recognised as the Best Emerging Athletes of the Year, receiving ₹2.5 lakh each.
Lifetime Achievement Awards, carrying a cash prize of ₹5 lakh each, were conferred upon PT Usha, Anju Bobby George, Gurbacha Singh Randhawa, and Bahadur Singh Randhawa.
Viswanathan Anand has been conferred the Sports Journalists' Federation of India (SJFI) Gold Medal in recognition of his exceptional contribution to Indian chess and outstanding achievements in the sport.
The award was presented by former India captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth at the Madras Cricket Club (MCC) in Chennai.
Harsh Vardhan, the President of the Bihar Cricket Association (BCA), has been honoured with the Global Prestige Award at the House of Lords in UK.
The award was presented under the theme 'Visionaries of Change: Charting the Course to Viksit Bharat 2047'. It is to be noted that he was elected as the youngest President in the history of the BCA in 2025.
Jainendra K Jain, an Indian-born theoretical physicist, has been honoured with the prestigious Wolf Prize 2025 in the Physics category. He is the first Indian-born theoretical physicist to receive this honour, recognised for his 1989 discovery of composite fermions.
In the Physics category, the prize was jointly awarded to James P Eisenstein (USA), Jainendra K Jain (India/USA), and Mordehai Heiblum (Israel) for their contributions to the study of two-dimensional electron systems and composite fermions. Each category carries a diploma and a cash prize of $100,000.
Sudarsan Pattnaik, a sand artist from Puri, Odisha, has won the Russia Grand Sand Master Cup 2026 at the II International Festival of Sand Sculpture in Kaliningrad, Russia. He is the first Indian to receive this honour.
His winning entry was a 3-meter high sand sculpture depicting two contrasting faces of Earth. It is to be noted that he was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2014 for his contributions to the field of Arts.
