Awards & Honours
Heart Lamp won the International Booker Prize for 2025
▪ Kannada writer, lawyer, and activist Banu Mushtaq, 77, began writing about her people, their joys, sorrows and anxieties, over five decades ago.
▪ On Tuesday, Heart Lamp, a collection of 12 short stories selected from her work written between 1990 and 2023 and translated by Deepa Bhasthi, won the International Booker Prize for 2025 from a shortlist featuring books in French, Italian, Danish, and Japanese.
▪ It’s a first win for Kannada, and the first time in the history of the prize that a collection of short stories has been honoured.
▪ The award for an Indian writer comes three years after Geetanjali Shree won the prestigious literary prize for Tomb of Sand, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell.
Dadasaheb Phalke Marathi Sanskrutik Kary Excellence Award
▪ Three eminent personalities, who have made stellar contributions to the field of arts, were honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Marathi Sanskrutik Kary Excellence Award.
▪ Padma Subrahmanyam, veteran bharatanatyam exponent, choreographer and research scholar (for excellence in performing arts); K.N. Ramaswamy, director ofBharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai Kendra (for promoting performing arts); and M. Murali, founder of NKM Trust (for promoting performing arts) received the award
Military Awards
▪ President Droupadi Murmu presented ‘Kirti Chakra’ and ‘Shaurya Chakra’ awards to 39 people for their heroic deeds.
▪ Six people received the ‘Kirti Chakra’ award: Rashtriya Rifles soldier Ravikumar, Colonel Manpreet Singh, Naik Dilwar Khan, Major Manjeet, Major Mallaram Gopal Naidu, and Jammu-Kashmir Police Deputy Superintendent Himayun Musamil Bhat.
▪ Similarly, 33 people from the armed forces and central armed police forces received Shaurya Chakra awards.
▪ Havildar Rohit Kumar Gikon and Vijayan Kutti from the Border Roads Organization also received the ‘Shaurya Chakra’ award. Among these, Rohit Kumar lost his life in an avalanche in Ladakh while on duty.
