Month: February 2020

Ashapurna Devi was the first woman to win the Jnanapith Award in 1976 for her work ‘Pratham Pratisruti’ in Bengali. This prominent Bengali novelist and poet was also known as Ashapurna Debi or also as Asha Purna Devi.

She was also awarded the ‘Padma Shri’ by the Government of India in the same year 1976.

Ashapurna Devi was born on January 08th, 1909 in Potoldanga, Calcutta (now Kolkata). She passed away aged 86 in 1995.

The Jnanapith Award is a literary award in India. Alongwith the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship it is one of the 2 most prestigious literary honours in the country. The Jnanapith award was instituted in 1961.

The name of the award is taken from the Sanskrit words ‘jnana’ and ‘pitha’ (knowledge-seat). It carries a cheque for Rupees 11 lakhs, a citation plaque and a bronze replica of Saraswati, the Indian Goddess of knowledge, music and the arts.

A historic MOU, the first ever textile agreement between the two nations, India and Sri Lanka was signed on September 11th, 2013 at an event held in the Galadari Hotel, Colombo.

Its objective was the expansion of the business and co-operation in the development of SME in Handloom, Power-loom and Textile sectors. The period of the MOU will remain in force for 5 years from the date of signing MOU and it can be renewed thereafter.

The event was attended by Anura Siriwardena (Secretary, Ministry of Industry & Commerce, Sri Lanka), Ms.Zohra Chaterji (Secretary, Textile Ministry of India), Y.K. Sinha (High Commissioner of India in Sri Lanka), Basil Rajapaksa (Minister of Economic Development), M.Fowzie (Senior Minister), PS Raghavan (Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, India), Ashraf Omar (CEO of Brandix Lanka), Visvanath Agarwal (Chairman – Powerloom Development & Export Promotion Council of India, PDEXCIL), Anura Siriwardena (Secretary, Ministry of Industry & Commerce), and several members of Business and Industry.

G. Shankara Kurup was the first winner of the Jnanapith Award in 1965. He won the prize for his collection of poems in Malayalam ‘Odakkuzhal’ (The Bamboo flute, 1950).

Born June 03rd, 1901 in Nayathode, Kingdom of Cochin (now in Ernakulam district, Kerala). Shankara Kurup is better known as Mahakavi G (The great poet).

The Jnanapith Award is a literary award in India. Alongwith the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship it is one of the 2 most prestigious literary honours in the country. The Jnanapith award was instituted in 1961.

The name of the award is taken from the Sanskrit words ‘jnana’ and ‘pitha’ (knowledge-seat). It carries a cheque for Rupees 11 lakhs, a citation plaque and a bronze replica of Saraswati, the Indian Goddess of knowledge, music and the arts.

The first edition of  ‘Premia Runaway Week ‘ (PIRW) was launched at a grand opening at the Mapple Exotica, Chattarpuri, New Delhi.

The Premia Runaway Week is a gateway and a new platform that showcased young designers of the future, to-day. The event which showcased 24 designers was hosted by Tarun Shienh and the Main Title Sponsors are Premia Group, represented by Tarun Shienh, CMD .

An initiative of ‘The Indian Federation for Fashion Development’ (IFFD) to discover new talent to present themselves to the Industry at large. Present were both the Founders Avinash Pathanian and Kiran Kheva.

Sir Harilal Jekisundas Kania ( H J Kania) took oath of office on August 14th, 1947 as the First Chief Justice of Independent India and held the post until November 06th, 1951.

H.J. Kania was conferred Knighthood in 1943.

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) is the highest-ranking Judge in the Supreme Court of India and thus holds the highest Judicial position in India.

Mithu Chowdhury from Kolkata was crowned as India’s first ‘Dance India Dance (DID) Super Mom ‘.

‘ Super Mom ‘ is a new season of India’s biggest dance realty show.

Nagaland became the first state in the country to use a high tech voter record system. The system is aptly called ‘ Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).

This was introduced and used successfully by the Election Commission of India for the first time, in the by-election to the Noksen Assembly constituency in Nagaland.  September 04th, 2013 .

Barista Lavazza, a chain of espresso bars opened its first Indian outlet in Basant Lok, New Delhi. February 2000.

India born Barista entered the market in 1997 and was later taken over by the Italian Lavazza (Italy’s largest coffee company and the 6th largest coffee roaster in the world).

Building on its Italian heritage – The Barista Coffee Company has over 200 Barista Lavazza Espresso Bars and Barista Lavazza Cremes in over 30 cities across India.

Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar fondly remembered as ‘Dadasaheb Mavalankar’ was elected as the first speaker of Independent India’s ‘First Lok Sabha.  November 17th, 1947 .

Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee , OBE was the first Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force.  April 01st, 1954.