Awards & Honours Mixed Quiz: Set 6

The correct answer is A, 1998. Amartya Sen received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998 for his contributions to welfare economics. His work spans social choice theory and the measurement of poverty and inequality, and his book 'Poverty and Famines' argued that famines come not only from a fall in food output but from a collapse in people's ability to buy food. With Mahbub ul Haq he helped shape the Human Development Index, and his other books include 'Development as Freedom' and 'The Argumentative Indian'. Option B is wrong because 2004 has no link with his prize. Option C is wrong because the economics prize of 1997 went to Robert Merton and Myron Scholes for their work on valuing options. Option D is wrong because 1999 is the year Amartya Sen was given the Bharat Ratna, which students often mix up with the Nobel. Exam tip: remember Nobel 1998 and Bharat Ratna 1999 for Amartya Sen, and note that Abhijit Banerjee won the economics Nobel in 2019.

The correct answer is B, Tanvi Shah. She was the first Indian woman musician to win a Grammy, in 2010.

Tanvi Shah, a singer and lyricist from Chennai, wrote and sang the Spanish lines of the song 'Jai Ho' from the film Slumdog Millionaire. The song won the Grammy for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media at the 2010 ceremony, shared with A. R. Rahman and Gulzar. The same film had already brought Rahman two Academy Awards, and Rahman and Resul Pookutty are the other Indian names students should keep with it.

A is wrong: Neeti Mohan is a playback singer with no Grammy. C is wrong: Shweta Pandit is a playback singer who has not won one either. D is wrong: Shalmali Kholgade is also a playback singer without a Grammy.

Exam tip: Tanvi Shah - first Indian woman to win a Grammy, 2010, for the Spanish lyrics of 'Jai Ho'.

The correct answer is C, Tanvi Shah. She sang the Spanish lines of Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire and also wrote them, and when the song won the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media in 2010 she became the first Indian woman to win a Grammy award. A. R. Rahman won two Grammy awards at the same ceremony for the music of the film.

Option A, Monali Thakur, is a playback singer who won the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer, an Indian honour and not a Grammy. Option B, Neeti Mohan, is a singer who came to notice through a television talent show and has sung for many Hindi films, but she has not won a Grammy. Option D, Palak Muchhal, is a playback singer known as much for her charity work for children with heart ailments. None of the three has won this award.

The correct answer is D, Smriti Mandhana. The India opener was named ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year for 2021 and received the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy in January 2022. She had scored 855 international runs across the three formats in that year, including India's first century in a day-night Test, made against Australia at Carrara. The trophy is named after Rachael Heyhoe Flint, the England captain who pushed for women's cricket at Lord's and for the first Women's World Cup in 1973. Option A is wrong because Mithali Raj, India's long-serving captain, has never won this particular trophy. Option B is wrong because Ellyse Perry of Australia won it in 2019, not for 2021. Option C is wrong because Lizelle Lee of South Africa took the ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year award that season, which is a separate prize. Exam tip: the women's award is the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, the men's is the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy.

The correct answer is C, K. K. Birla Foundation. The foundation instituted the Saraswati Samman in 1991 for an outstanding literary work in any of the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, published in the previous ten years, and the award carries the largest cash prize of any Indian literary honour.

Option A, the Sahitya Akademi, gives its own annual award in twenty-four languages, the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship and the Bhasha Samman, but not this one. Option B, Bharatiya Jnanpith, gives the Jnanpith Award and the Moortidevi Award, and because both trusts honour writing across Indian languages the two are easily confused. Option D, the Ministry of Culture, funds the Sahitya Akademi but gives no literary award in its own name; the civilian honours it deals with are the Padma awards, which are not literary awards. The same foundation gives the Vyas Samman and the Bihari Puraskar, also from 1991.

The correct answer is A, Bhanu Athaiya. She won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design in 1983 for Richard Attenborough's film Gandhi, sharing the award with John Mollo, and became the first Indian of any kind to receive an Oscar. She had begun her career with the film CID and designed costumes for more than a hundred Hindi films.

Option B, Satyajit Ray, is the answer most candidates choose wrongly. His Academy Award of 1992 was an honorary one for lifetime achievement, given nine years after Athaiya's win and in the year of his death. Option C, A. R. Rahman, won two Oscars in 2009 for Slumdog Millionaire, for the original score and for the song Jai Ho. Option D, Resul Pookutty, won the award for sound mixing for the same film in the same year, so both are much later than 1983.

The correct answer is B, Best Costume Design. Bhanu Athaiya designed the costumes for Gandhi, the film Richard Attenborough made in 1982, and shared the Academy Award of 1983 in that category with the British designer John Mollo. The film itself won eight Oscars that year, among them Best Picture and Best Director.

Option A, Best Actress, has never been won by an Indian. Option C, Best Original Score, is the category in which A. R. Rahman won in 2009 for Slumdog Millionaire, twenty six years later. Option D, Best Documentary, is a different branch of the awards; in the short film branch of it The Elephant Whisperers won in 2023. Remembering the category with the name is what this question tests, because all four are real Academy Award categories.

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 A, Harivansh Rai Bachchan. The Hindi poet of the Chhayavaad and Halavaad periods, best known for Madhushala, received the first Saraswati Samman in 1991 for his autobiography written in four volumes. The award was instituted that year by the K. K. Birla Foundation.

Option B, Ram Vilas Sharma, was the first recipient of the Vyas Samman, also in 1991 and also from the same foundation, which makes him the sharpest distractor in the set; the two firsts of the same year are regularly swapped. Option C, Vijay Tendulkar, was the Marathi playwright of Ghashiram Kotwal and Sakharam Binder, honoured with the Saraswati Samman later, in 2001. Option D, Kaifi Azmi, was the Urdu poet and lyricist who won the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Padma Shri but not this first. Learn the pair together: Bachchan for the Saraswati Samman and Ram Vilas Sharma for the Vyas Samman, both in 1991.

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, Slumdog Millionaire, the film directed by Danny Boyle and set in Mumbai. A. R. Rahman won the Academy Award for Best Original Score and, with the lyricist Gulzar, for the Best Original Song Jai Ho. At the same ceremony Resul Pookutty won the award for sound mixing, so four Indians were honoured for one film.

Option A, Lagaan, was nominated in 2002 in the foreign language film category but did not win, although its music was also by Rahman. Option C, Life of Pi, based on the novel by Yann Martel and set largely on the sea with an Indian boy as its hero, won four Oscars in 2013, but its score was written by Mychael Danna. Option D, Gandhi, won eight Oscars in 1983, including the costume design award of Bhanu Athaiya, but its music was not Rahman's.

The correct answer is D, Dhyan Chand Award. The Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and Games was instituted in 2002 to honour sportspersons who not only performed well in their playing days but kept serving the sport after retiring. It is named after Major Dhyan Chand, the hockey wizard who won Olympic gold in 1928, 1932 and 1936; his birthday, 29 August, is celebrated as National Sports Day, when all the national sports awards are given. A is wrong because the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, started in 1991-92, is the highest award for the best performance over the previous four years, and in August 2021 it was renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, which is a different award from the lifetime achievement one. B is wrong because the Arjuna Award, started in 1961, is for consistent outstanding performance by active players. C is wrong because the Dronacharya Award, started in 1985, is for coaches. Exam tip: Khel Ratna best performance, Arjuna players, Dronacharya coaches, Dhyan Chand Award lifetime achievement; all given on 29 August.

The correct answer is B, Bharatiya Jnanpith. The trust that gives the Jnanpith Award instituted the Moortidevi Award in 1983 for a creative work that carries the spirit of Indian philosophy and culture, and the work may be in any of the languages of the Eighth Schedule or in English.

Option A, the Sahitya Akademi, gives its annual award, the Fellowship, the Bhasha Samman, the Translation Prize, the Bal Sahitya Puraskar and the Yuva Puraskar, a long list that does not include this one. Option C, the K. K. Birla Foundation, gives the Saraswati Samman, the Vyas Samman, the Bihari Puraskar and the Shankar Puraskar, and since the Shankar Puraskar is also for work on Indian philosophy and culture the two are easily interchanged; the difference is that the Shankar Puraskar is for Hindi only. Option D, the Government of Madhya Pradesh, gives the Kabir Samman for poetry. Remember Bharatiya Jnanpith as the trust behind two awards, the Jnanpith and the Moortidevi.

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 C, 1992. The Academy gave Satyajit Ray an honorary award for his lifetime of work in cinema, and it was handed to him in a Kolkata hospital as he was too ill to travel. He died a few weeks later in the same year, and the Government of India conferred the Bharat Ratna on him in 1992 as well.

Option A, 1983, is the year Bhanu Athaiya won the costume design Oscar for Gandhi, which is the confusion this question rests on. Option B, 1985, is the year Ray was given the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in India, an honour that is often mixed with the Academy award in the options. Option D, 2009, is the year of the four Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire. Ray's films, beginning with Pather Panchali of 1955, had by then been honoured at Cannes, Venice and Berlin.

The correct answer is B, Hindi. The Vyas Samman was instituted in 1991 by the K. K. Birla Foundation and is given for an outstanding literary work in Hindi published in the previous ten years. Its first recipient was the critic and scholar Ram Vilas Sharma.

Option A, Rajasthani, is the language of the foundation's Bihari Puraskar, which is open to a writer from Rajasthan writing in either Hindi or Rajasthani, and that overlap is what makes this option tempting. Option C, Sanskrit, has no award of its own from this foundation, though a Sanskrit writer is eligible for the Saraswati Samman because Sanskrit is in the Eighth Schedule. Option D, Konkani, is likewise covered by the Saraswati Samman rather than by the Vyas Samman. The clean distinction to carry into the exam is that the Vyas Samman is for Hindi alone while the Saraswati Samman, instituted by the same foundation in the same year, is open to every Eighth Schedule language.

The correct answer is B, Rabindranath Tagore. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, largely on the strength of Gitanjali in his own English rendering, and he was the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize in any field. He also wrote the national anthems of India and Bangladesh and renounced his knighthood after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.

Option A, V. S. Naipaul, won the prize in 2001 but was born in Trinidad to a family of Indian descent and was a British citizen, so he is not counted as an Indian winner; his name is the usual trap in this question. Option C, Salman Rushdie, won the Booker Prize in 1981 for Midnight's Children, not a Nobel. Option D, Sri Aurobindo, was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature but never received it. Papers sometimes phrase the question as the first Asian Nobel laureate, and the answer is the same.

The correct answer is C, the Cannes Film Festival, held every year in the French town of Cannes on the Mediterranean coast. Its highest award is the Palme d'Or, the Golden Palm, given to the best film of the main competition, and below it comes the Grand Prix, which Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine as Light won in 2024.

Option A, the Berlin Film Festival, called the Berlinale, gives the Golden Bear to its best film and Silver Bears in the other categories. Option B, the Venice Film Festival, the oldest of the three, gives the Golden Lion. Option D, the Toronto Film Festival in Canada, has no jury prize of that kind as its highest honour; its best known award is decided by the audience. The three European festivals and their animals or plants must be learnt as fixed pairs.

The correct answer is B, The God of Small Things. Arundhati Roy's first novel, set in Ayemenem in Kerala and built around a pair of twins, won the Booker Prize in 1997, and she was the first Indian woman and the first writer living in India to win it.

Option A, The Inheritance of Loss, won the Booker for Kiran Desai in 2006; she is the daughter of the novelist Anita Desai, who was shortlisted three times without winning. Option C, Midnight's Children, won the Booker for Salman Rushdie in 1981 and later won the Booker of Bookers as the best winner of the prize's first twenty-five years. Option D, The White Tiger, won the Booker for Aravind Adiga in 2008. All four are genuine Booker winning novels by writers of Indian origin, so the question is purely about matching the book to its author, and the four together answer most Booker questions.

The correct answer is A, Berlin. The Berlin International Film Festival, held in Germany early in the year, gives the Golden Bear to the best film and Silver Bears for direction, acting and screenplay. The bear was chosen because it is the emblem of the city of Berlin itself, which makes the pair easy to remember.

Option B, Venice, gives the Golden Lion, the lion being the symbol of the city and of St Mark. Option C, Cannes, gives the Palme d'Or, the golden palm leaf taken from the coat of arms of the town. Option D, the Moscow International Film Festival, gives the St George statuette and is rarely the answer in an Indian paper. Berlin, Venice and Cannes are the three festivals whose prizes are asked again and again.