Awards & Honours Mixed Quiz: Set 13

The correct answer is A, Malala Yousafzai. The prize for 2014 was shared by Kailash Satyarthi of India, who founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan against child labour, and Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, who campaigned for girls' education and who remains the youngest person to receive any Nobel Prize. Option B is wrong because Nadia Murad shared the prize for 2018 with Denis Mukwege for work against sexual violence in war. Option C is wrong because Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, received it for 2019. Option D is wrong because Maria Ressa shared it for 2021 with Dmitry Muratov for the defence of free expression. The pairing of an Indian and a Pakistani in one award is the reason this question is set so often. Malala was seventeen years old when she received it, which is a fact papers ask separately.

The correct answer is B, Oslo. Alfred Nobel's will placed the peace prize in the hands of a Norwegian body, so the winner is chosen by the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the prize is presented at Oslo, the capital of Norway. Option A is wrong because Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, is where the prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and economic sciences are presented, all on the same day, 10 December. Option C is wrong because Geneva is the seat of the International Committee of the Red Cross and of many United Nations bodies, but no Nobel Prize is given there. Option D is wrong because Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, which has no part in the Nobel Prizes. This division between Norway and Sweden is the single most asked fact about the peace prize.

The correct answer is B, 10 December. The Nobel ceremonies are held on 10 December every year, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel in 1896; the prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and economic sciences are presented at Stockholm, while the peace prize is presented at Oslo. Option A is wrong because 21 October is the birth anniversary of Alfred Nobel and no ceremony falls on it. Option C is wrong because 1 January has no connection with the prizes; the winners are announced in the first half of October. Option D is wrong because 24 October is United Nations Day, which is often confused with the Nobel calendar because of the peace prize. Remember that the economics prize was not in Nobel's will and was added in 1968 by the central bank of Sweden.

The correct answer is B, Republic Day. The list of Bharat Ratna and Padma awardees is released on 25 January, the eve of Republic Day, and the honours are conferred by the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan later in the year. Option A is wrong because Independence Day is associated with the announcement of gallantry awards and of the Prime Minister's address from the Red Fort, not with the Padma list. Option C is wrong because Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October is observed as the International Day of Non-Violence and carries no award announcement of this kind. Option D is wrong because Constitution Day on 26 November marks the adoption of the Constitution in 1949 and again has no award list attached to it. Both the Bharat Ratna and the Padma awards were instituted in 1954, and the Bharat Ratna carries no cash award.

The correct answer is C, 1995. The Government of India instituted the Gandhi Peace Prize in 1995, the year of the 125th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and it is administered by the Ministry of Culture. Option A is wrong because 1969 was the centenary year of Gandhi's birth, when other memorials were set up but not this prize. Option B is wrong because 1991 is the year of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, later renamed, and has no link with this prize. Option D is wrong because 2000 is simply a round year offered as a distractor. Learn the amount with the year: the prize carries one crore rupees along with a citation and a plaque, it may be given to a person or to an institution, and the jury is headed by the Prime Minister of India.

The correct answer is D, Vinesh Phogat. The wrestler Vinesh Phogat was nominated in 2019 for the Laureus World Sports Award in the Breakthrough of the Year category, the first Indian athlete to be shortlisted in that category. The nomination followed a remarkable 2018, in which she won gold at the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast and then gold at the Asian Games in Jakarta, becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Asian Games title. She had already received the Arjuna Award in 2016. The Laureus World Sports Awards, begun in 2000 by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, are often called the Oscars of sport. Option A is wrong because Anirban Chatterji is not a Laureus nominee. Option B is wrong because Pankaj Advani, a world champion in billiards and snooker, was not on the list. Option C is wrong because the sprinter Dutee Chand, known for her legal fight over hyperandrogenism rules, was not nominated that year. Exam tip: Vinesh Phogat - Laureus nomination 2019, Asian Games gold 2018, Arjuna Award 2016.

The correct answer is A, Devika Rani. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was instituted in 1969 for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema, in memory of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, who made Raja Harishchandra in 1913, the first Indian feature film, and the first award went to the actress Devika Rani. Option B is wrong because Prithviraj Kapoor received the award later and posthumously. Option C is wrong because Satyajit Ray, the director of Pather Panchali, received the award in the nineteen eighties and was also honoured with the Bharat Ratna. Option D is wrong because Lata Mangeshkar received the award decades after it was instituted. The award is announced with the National Film Awards, so the year of institution, 1969, and the name Devika Rani are the two facts to carry.

The correct answer is D, Afghanistan. The Amir Amanullah Khan Award is Afghanistan's highest civilian honour, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi received it in June 2016 at Herat, on the day he and President Ashraf Ghani opened the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier called the Salma Dam, which India built on the Hari Rud. The honour is named after Amir Amanullah Khan, the ruler who won Afghanistan full control of its foreign affairs from the British in 1919. Option A is wrong, although Saudi Arabia did honour the Prime Minister in April 2016; its top award is the Order of King Abdulaziz Al Saud, a different decoration with a different name. Options B and C are wrong because neither Uzbekistan nor Iran gives an award of this name, and neither conferred its highest civilian honour on him in that year. Exam tip: Amir Amanullah Khan Award means Afghanistan, 2016, Herat and the Afghan-India Friendship Dam.

The correct answer is B, Julius Nyerere, the first President of Tanzania, who received the Gandhi Peace Prize in its first year, 1995, for his work for peace and for the poor of Africa. Option A is wrong because Nelson Mandela was not the first recipient of this prize; he is remembered above all for the Nobel Peace Prize of 1993, which he shared with F. W. de Klerk of South Africa. Option C is wrong because Baba Amte, who worked among people affected by leprosy at Anandwan, received it in 1999. Option D is wrong because Desmond Tutu, the South African archbishop, is remembered chiefly for his Nobel Peace Prize of 1984. Along with the first recipient, learn the Indian institutions on the list: the Ramakrishna Mission, ISRO and Gita Press of Gorakhpur.

The correct answer is A, Wildlife protection. The Amrita Devi Bishnoi National Award is given for outstanding courage and devotion in protecting wildlife. It was instituted by the Union environment ministry in 1994 and carries a cash prize with a citation. It is named after Amrita Devi Bishnoi, who in 1730 at Khejarli near Jodhpur clung to a khejri tree to stop the Maharaja's men from felling it; she and more than 360 other Bishnois died in that protest. The Bishnoi community, which follows the 29 rules laid down by Guru Jambheshwar, still guards the blackbuck, the chinkara and the khejri tree of the Thar desert, and the Khejarli sacrifice is remembered as an inspiration for the later Chipko movement. Option B is wrong because energy saving is rewarded by the National Energy Conservation Awards. Option C is wrong because broader environmental work is honoured by the Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar. Option D is wrong because biodiversity effort is recognised by the India Biodiversity Awards. Exam tip: tie Amrita Devi to Khejarli 1730, the khejri tree and the blackbuck of Rajasthan.

The correct answer is B, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. The prize is named after Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, the first Director General of the Council, and is given by the Council to scientists working in India, usually announced around its foundation day on 26 September. Option A is wrong because the Indian National Science Academy elects fellows and gives medals of its own, but not this prize. Option C is wrong because the Department of Science and Technology funds research and runs fellowship schemes; the Council is a separate body, although both come under the same broad umbrella of science administration. Option D is wrong because the Indian Space Research Organisation is concerned with space missions and gives no general science prize. Note that the prize goes to scientists below a prescribed age, which is why it is called an award for young scientists.

The correct answer is C, Grammy. Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt won the Grammy Award in 1994 for the album A Meeting by the River, which he recorded with the American slide guitarist Ry Cooder in the world music category. Bhatt, a musician of the Jaipur gharana and a disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar, is best known for building the Mohan Veena, a Hawaiian guitar rebuilt with about twenty strings so that it can carry the sliding notes and drone of Indian classical music. He was later honoured with the Padma Shri. A is wrong because Sangita Kalanidhi is the highest award of the Madras Music Academy, given for Carnatic music. B is wrong because the Oscar, or Academy Award, is given for films, not for a music album of this kind. D is wrong because the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award is a national honour for music, dance and drama given in India, and it is not the 1994 award named in the question. Exam tip: Vishwa Mohan Bhatt – Mohan Veena, Grammy 1994 for A Meeting by the River with Ry Cooder.

The correct answer is B, 1986. The Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust instituted this prize in 1986, two years after Indira Gandhi's death, and it is presented on 19 November, her birth anniversary, with a cash award of twenty-five lakh rupees. Option A is wrong because 1984 is the year of her assassination, not of the prize. Option C is wrong because 1991 is the year of Rajiv Gandhi's death and of prizes set up in his memory. Option D is wrong because 1995 is the year of the Gandhi Peace Prize, which is the award most often confused with this one. Keep the two apart by the giver and the money: the Gandhi Peace Prize comes from the Government of India and carries one crore rupees, while this prize comes from a memorial trust and carries twenty-five lakh rupees.

The correct answer is C, 1952. The Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's national academy of music, dance and drama, was created by a government resolution of 31 May 1952 and formally inaugurated on 28 January 1953 by President Rajendra Prasad. It was the first of the three national academies; the Sahitya Akademi for literature and the Lalit Kala Akademi for fine arts followed in 1954. Its annual awards, the Akademi Puraskar, have been given to performing artists since 1952, which makes it the oldest national honour for the performing arts in India. The higher honour, the Akademi Ratna or Fellowship, was started in 1954. A is wrong because 1961 is the year the Arjuna Award for sports began. B is wrong because 1950 is when the Constitution came into force, not when the Akademi was formed. D is wrong because 1959 is the year the National School of Drama was set up, not the start of the awards. Exam tip: Sangeet Natak Akademi 1952 (awards from 1952); Sahitya Akademi and Lalit Kala Akademi 1954.

The correct answer is A, Major Dhyan Chand. National Sports Day is observed on 29 August, the birth anniversary of the hockey player Major Dhyan Chand, who was part of the Indian teams that won Olympic gold in 1928, 1932 and 1936, and the national sports awards are conferred around this day. Option B is wrong because Sachin Tendulkar, born in April, was the first sportsperson to receive the Bharat Ratna but has no national day in his name. Option C is wrong because P. T. Usha is the athlete remembered for her near miss in the hurdles at the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984. Option D is wrong because Vishwanathan Anand is the chess grandmaster who was the first recipient of the Khel Ratna. Link 29 August, Dhyan Chand, National Sports Day and the sports awards as one chain.

The correct answer is B, Computer science. The Association for Computing Machinery has given the Turing Award every year since 1966 for lasting contributions of a technical nature to computing, and it is named after Alan Turing, the British mathematician who framed the idea of a universal computing machine and worked on breaking wartime codes. Option A is wrong because the highest honour in medicine is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, decided at the Karolinska Institute. Option C is wrong because astronomy has no Nobel of its own; work in astrophysics is recognised through the Nobel Prize in Physics and through the Kavli Prize. Option D is wrong because the prize in economic sciences was instituted in memory of Alfred Nobel by the central bank of Sweden and has nothing to do with Turing.

The correct answer is B, the Philippines. Ramon Magsaysay was President of the Philippines and died in an air crash in 1957; the award was created in the same year in his memory, it is presented at Manila, and it honours greatness of spirit in service to the people of Asia. Vinoba Bhave, in 1958, was its first Indian recipient. Option A is wrong because Indonesia's first President was Sukarno, after whom no such award is named. Option C is wrong because Malaysia has no award of this kind in the list asked by exams. Option D is wrong because Thailand is similarly unconnected. Do not confuse this nickname with that of the Right Livelihood Award, instituted in Sweden in 1980, which is called the Alternative Nobel Prize. The award is given in several categories, and it is not a government award of the Philippines.

The correct answer is C, 1995. The Gandhi Peace Prize was instituted by the Government of India in 1995, the year marking the one hundred and twenty fifth birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and it is given for social, economic and political change through non-violence, to an individual or an institution, Indian or foreign. Option A is wrong because 1969 is the year the Dadasaheb Phalke Award was instituted, on the centenary of Gandhi's birth. Option B is wrong because 1985 is the year the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development was instituted, a different prize given by a trust and presented on 19 November. Option D is wrong because 2001 has no award of this kind attached to it. The jury of the Gandhi Peace Prize is chaired by the Prime Minister, which is another fact papers ask for.

The correct answer is A, the European Parliament, which instituted the prize in 1988 and awards it each year to individuals or organisations defending human rights and freedom of thought. It is named after Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet nuclear physicist who became a campaigner for civil liberties and himself won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. Option B is wrong because the General Assembly declares observances and adopts resolutions but gives no such prize. Option C is wrong because UNESCO gives the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize, instituted in 1989, which is a different award. Option D is wrong because the Russian Academy of Sciences, of which Sakharov was a member, does not award the prize named after him. Malala Yousafzai received the Sakharov Prize in 2013. Sakharov himself was kept under internal exile in the Soviet Union for years, which is why his name was chosen.

The correct answer is B, Sachin Tendulkar. The cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was named for the Bharat Ratna in 2013 and honoured in 2014, the first sportsperson to receive the highest civilian award of the country and also the youngest recipient at that time. Option A is wrong because Major Dhyan Chand, for all his three Olympic golds in hockey, has not received the Bharat Ratna; the highest sporting award and National Sports Day carry his name instead. Option C is wrong because Milkha Singh received the Padma Shri and not the Bharat Ratna. Option D is wrong because Vishwanathan Anand received the Padma Vibhushan and was the first winner of the Khel Ratna, but not the Bharat Ratna. Note that the rules for the Bharat Ratna were widened to allow any field of human endeavour, which is what made a sportsperson eligible.