Awards & Honours Quiz: Pritzker, Templeton and Other International Prizes

The correct answer is B, 1979. The Pritzker Architecture Prize was founded in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and Cindy Pritzker through the Hyatt Foundation of the United States, and the first laureate in that year was Philip Johnson of the United States. The award carries one hundred thousand dollars and a bronze medallion inscribed with the Vitruvian words for firmness, usefulness and beauty. A is wrong because 1969 is the year the Booker Prize for fiction was instituted. C is wrong because 1989 is the year of the Goldman Environmental Prize, known as the Green Nobel, and of the Praemium Imperiale. D is wrong because 1999 has no major international prize attached to it and is placed as filler. Candidates should hold the field and the founding year together for each award in this chapter.

The correct answer is B, Balkrishna Doshi. Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi became the first Indian to win the Pritzker Prize when it was conferred on him in 2018; he had trained under Le Corbusier, and his works include the Indian Institute of Management at Bangalore and the Aranya low-cost housing at Indore. A is wrong because Charles Correa, the architect of the Jawahar Kala Kendra at Jaipur, received the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1984 but never the Pritzker, and he is the strongest distractor in this question. C is wrong because Laurie Baker, the British-born architect who worked in Kerala with low-cost local materials, received the Padma Shri but not the Pritzker. D is wrong because Raj Rewal, known for the Asian Games Village in Delhi, has also not received it.

The correct answer is A, Mother Teresa. The Templeton Prize was established in 1972 by Sir John Templeton for exceptional contribution to affirming the spiritual dimension of life, and Mother Teresa, the founder of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, received the very first award in 1973; she went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. B is wrong because Baba Amte, who worked with leprosy patients at Anandwan in Maharashtra, received the Templeton Prize in 1990. C is wrong because the fourteenth Dalai Lama received it in 2012, long after the first award. D is wrong because Pandurang Shastri Athavale, the founder of the Swadhyaya movement, received it in 1997. All four are genuine recipients, so only the year separates the right answer from the rest.

The correct answer is B, the spiritual dimension of life. Sir John Templeton endowed the prize in 1972 for a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery or practical works, and he insisted that its value always exceed that of the Nobel Prize. A is wrong because architecture is the field of the Pritzker Prize, founded in 1979. C is wrong because mathematics is covered by the Fields Medal, restricted to those under forty, and by the Abel Prize of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. D is wrong because grassroots environmental activism is recognised by the Goldman Environmental Prize, called the Green Nobel, and partly by the Right Livelihood Award. Matching each prize to its field is the first step in this chapter.

The correct answer is B, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. The Abel Prize was established in 2002, the bicentenary of the birth of the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel, first awarded in 2003 to Jean-Pierre Serre, and it carries no age limit, so it recognises a lifetime of work. A is wrong because the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences selects the Nobel laureates in physics and chemistry and the economics laureate, but there is no Nobel Prize in mathematics at all. C is wrong because the International Mathematical Union awards the Fields Medal, given every four years to mathematicians under forty. D is wrong because the Association for Computing Machinery awards the Turing Award, the highest honour in computer science. For revision, note that the Fields Medal is the one restricted by age and the Abel the one that is not, and that both exist because Alfred Nobel's will of 1895 named no prize for mathematics.

The correct answer is A, below the age of forty. The Fields Medal was instituted in 1936 and is awarded every four years at the International Congress of Mathematicians, with the condition that the recipient be under forty on the first of January of that year, the purpose being to encourage further achievement rather than to crown a career. B is wrong because the medal has no nationality requirement and has gone to mathematicians from many countries; Manjul Bhargava and Akshay Venkatesh, both of Indian origin, won in 2014 and 2018. C is wrong because the rule is the reverse of an upper age bar of forty. D is wrong because no condition of employment applies. Maryam Mirzakhani of Iran became the first woman to win the medal, in 2014.

The correct answer is B, the Philippines. The award was instituted in 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in memory of Ramon Magsaysay, President of the Philippines, who died in an air crash that year, and it is presented at Manila to persons of Asia for greatness of spirit in service to the people. Vinoba Bhave was the first Indian recipient, in 1958. A is wrong because Indonesia's first President was Sukarno and no such award is named after him. C is wrong because Thailand is a monarchy and has no presidency. D is wrong because Vietnam's leader of that era was Ho Chi Minh, and no international award of this kind bears his name. The award is often described in the press as the Nobel Prize of Asia.

The correct answer is B, M. S. Swaminathan. The World Food Prize was created in 1986 at the initiative of Norman Borlaug to honour work that improves the quality, quantity or availability of food, and the Indian agricultural scientist M. S. Swaminathan, a leader of the Green Revolution in India, received the very first prize in 1987. A is wrong because Norman Borlaug founded the prize and had already received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, so he was not himself a laureate of it. C is wrong because Verghese Kurien, the architect of Operation Flood and of the dairy cooperative movement, won the World Food Prize in 1989. D is wrong because Rattan Lal, the soil scientist, won it much later, in 2020. The founding year, the founder and the first laureate are three separate facts.

The correct answer is B, Alternative Nobel. The Right Livelihood Award was instituted in 1980 in Sweden to honour work on the practical problems the Nobel Prizes were seen to overlook, and it is presented in Stockholm; the Chipko Movement received it in 1987 and Ela Bhatt of the Self Employed Women's Association in 1984. A is wrong because the Green Nobel is the usual description of the Goldman Environmental Prize, founded in 1989 for grassroots environmental activists. C is wrong because the Nobel of Asia is how the Ramon Magsaysay Award is described. D is wrong because the Oscars of Science is the nickname of the Breakthrough Prize, founded in 2012 by technology entrepreneurs. These nicknames are asked as often as the official names.

The correct answer is C, Gandhi Peace Prize. The Gandhi Peace Prize was instituted by the Government of India in 1995, the one hundred and twenty-fifth birth anniversary year of Mahatma Gandhi, and although foreign nationals and institutions may receive it, it is an Indian national award given by the Government of India. A is wrong as an answer because the Pulitzer Prize, created by the will of Joseph Pulitzer and first awarded in 1917, is administered by Columbia University in the United States. B is wrong because the Templeton Prize is awarded by the John Templeton Foundation. D is wrong because the Abel Prize is awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Examiners place an Indian award among international ones precisely to test this distinction.

The correct answer is A, the Association for Computing Machinery. The Turing Award has been given by that body since 1966, is named after the British mathematician Alan Turing, and is widely described as the Nobel Prize of computing; Raj Reddy, of Indian origin, received it in 1994 for work in artificial intelligence. B is wrong because the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers gives its own medals and awards in engineering but not the Turing Award. C is wrong because the Royal Society of London awards the Copley Medal and elects fellows, and has no connection with this prize. D is wrong because the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters awards the Abel Prize in mathematics. Keeping the awarding body with each prize is the quickest way to answer such questions.

The correct answer is A, Tomb of Sand. Geetanjali Shree's novel Ret Samadhi, translated into English by Daisy Rockwell as Tomb of Sand, won the International Booker Prize in 2022, becoming the first book originally written in Hindi, and in any Indian language, to receive that award. B is wrong because The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, written in English, won the Booker Prize in 2008. C is wrong because The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, also in English, won in 1997. D is wrong because The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai won in 2006. The International Booker Prize is the separate award for a book translated into English, and the translator shares the prize equally with the author. For revision, keep the two awards apart: the Booker Prize is for fiction written in English, while the International Booker Prize is for a work translated into English from any language.