Honours and Awards / May 2010.

• Ms. A. P. Subhadra, a junior public health nurse at the pakkom Primary Health Centre in Wayanad district of Kerala, wins the National Florence Nightingale Award for 21010. The award has been instituted by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

• India’s largest public sector bank State Bank of India is conferred the prestigious Asian Banker Award. The award is given for the bank’s status as the most sound banking institution in the Asia-Pacific region.

• At a glittering ceremony held in new Delhi, Delhi Chief Minister Ms. Sheila Dikshit honours 27 Hindi literateurs with the prestigious Hindi Akademi Awards. The most prominent among the awardees are ; Syed Asghar Wajahat, Abdul Bismillah, Mujeeb Rizvi and Kanhaiya lal nandan, among others.

• Human Resource Development Minister Mr. Kapil Sibal is conferred the Stephen P. Duggan award by New Your (USA) based Institute of international Education; He is given the award for his contribution the spheres of governance and education in India.

• Dr. Ajay Mathur, Director General of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) a statutory body under the Union Ministry of Power, is conferred the Energy Efficiency Visionary Award by the UD based alliance to Save energy.

• Ms. Rima Fakih, a 24 year old Lebanese immigrant, is crowned miss USA; she becomes the first Arab-American to win the coveted title.

• More than 30 years after his death, the anti-imperiallist Anglo-Irish writer, J. G. Farrell, is posthumously awarded a special one-off ‘lost’ Booker Prize for his novel Troubles, published in 1970.

• The award ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival is held in Cannes, France, Thai director Apicharpong Weerasethankl wins the Palme d’Or top prize for his surreal reincarnation tale Uncle Boonmee.