Sahitya Akademi announces Yuva Puraskar, Bal Sahitya Puraskar winners for 2024
New Delhi (PTI): The Sahitya Akademi on Saturday announced the names of 23 writers, including English writer K Vaishali and Hindi author Gaurav Pandey, who will receive the prestigious Yuva Puraskar across as many languages.
The National Academy of Letters also announced the names of 24 winners of the Bal Sahitya Puraskar for 2024.
The winner of the Yuva Puraskar in Sanskrit will be announced at a later date, the Akademi said in a statement.
"The Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi in its meeting held today under the Chairmanship of its President Sri Madhav Kaushik approved selection of 23 writers who were selected on the basis of recommendations made by the Jury comprising three members each in the concerned language in accordance with the rules and procedure laid down for the purpose," the literary body said in a statement.
While K Vaishali will be honoured for her memoir "Homeless: Growing up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India", Gaurav Pandey won the prestigious award for his poetry collection "Smritiyon Ke Beech Ghiri Hai Prithvi".
The Yuva Puraskar has been awarded for 10 poetry books, seven collections of short stories, two collections of articles and one of essays, one novel, one book of ghazals and one memoir.
The other winners of the Yuva Puraskar are Nayanjyoti Sarma (Assamese), Sutapa Chakraborty (Bengali), Self Made Rani Baro (Bodo) and Heena Choudhary (Dogri).
Rinku Rathod (Gujarati), Shruti B R (Kannada), Mohd Ashraf Ziya (Kashmiri), Adwait Salgaonkar (Konkani), Rinki Jha Rishika (Maithili), and Shyamkrishnan R (Malayalam) are also among the winners.
Waikhom Chingkheinganba (Manipuri), Devidas Saudagar (Marathi), Suraj Chapagain (Nepali), Sanjay Kumar Panda (Odia), Randhir (Punjabi), Sonali Sutar (Rajasthani) have also been picked for the Yuva Puruskar.
The other winners are Anjan Karmakar (Santali), Geeta Pradeep Rupani (Sindhi), Lokesh Raghuraman (Tamil), Ramesh Karthik Nayak (Telugu) and Javed Amber Misbahi (Urdu).
Yuva Puraskar awardees will receive a casket containing an engraved copper plaque and a cheque of Rs 50,000 at an awards ceremony later.
For the Bal Sahitya Puraskar, the Akademi has picked English writer Nandini Sengupta for her historical fiction "The Blue Horse and Other Amazing Animal Stories from Indian History" and Devender Kumar's collection of children's stories "51 Baal Kahaniyan".
The Bal Sahitya Puraskar has been awarded for seven novels, six books of poetry, four stories, five short stories, one play, and one historical fiction.
The winners of the Bal Sahitya Puraskar are Ranju Hazarika (Assamese), Dipanwita Roy (Bengali), Birgin Jekova Machahary (Bodo), Bishan Singh 'Dardi' (Dogri), Gira Pinakin Bhatt (Gujarati) and Krishnamurthy Biligere (Kannada).
Muzaffar Hussain Dilbar (Kashmiri), Harsha Sadguru Shetye (Konkani), Narayangee (Maithili), Unni Ammayambalam (Malayalam), Kshetrimayun Subadani (Manipuri), Bharat Sasane (Marathi), Basanta Thapa (Nepali) and Manas Ranjan Samal (Odia) are also among the winners.
The remaining winners are Kuldeep Singh Deep (Punjabi), Prahlad Singh 'Jhorda' (Rajasthani), Harshdev Madhav (Sanskrit), Dugal Tudu (Santali), Lal Hotchandani 'Lachaar' (Sindhi), Yuva Vasuki (Tamil), P Chandrashekhar Azad (Telugu) and Shamsul Islam Farooqi (Urdu).
The winners of the Bal Sahitya Puraskar will receive a casket containing an engraved copper plaque and a cheque of Rs 50,000 at a special function to be held at a later date.
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Cong takes swipe at PM over India not being part of US-led 'Pax Silica' grouping
New Delh (PTI) The Congress on Saturday said it is perhaps not very surprising that India is not part of a US-led strategic initiative to build a secure silicon supply chain, given the "sharp downturn" in the Trump-Modi ties, and asserted that it would have been to "our advantage if we had been part of this group".
Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the news of India not being part of the group comes after the PM had enthusiastically posted on social media about a telephone call with his "once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC".
In a lengthy post on X, Ramesh said, "According to some news reports, the US has excluded India from a nine-nation initiative it has launched to reduce Chinese control on high-tech supply chains. The agreement is called Pax Silica, clearly as a counter to Pax Sinica. The nations included (for the moment at least) are the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia."
"Given the sharp downturn in the Trump-Modi ties since May 10th, 2025, it is perhaps not very surprising that India has not been included. Undoubtedly, it would have been to our advantage if we had been part of this group."
"This news comes a day after the PM had enthusiastically posted on his telephone call with his once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC," the Congress leader asserted.
The new US-led strategic initiative, rooted in deep cooperation with trusted allies, has been launched to build a secure and innovation-driven silicon supply chain.
According to the US State Department, the initiative called 'Pax Silica' aims to reduce coercive dependencies, protect the materials and capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence (AI), and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale.
The initiative includes Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. With the exception of India, all other QUAD countries -- Japan, Australia and the US -- are part of the new initiative.
New Delhi will host the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 19-20, focusing on the principles of 'People, Planet, and Progress'. The summit, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit, will be the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.
Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump on Thursday discussed ways to sustain momentum in the bilateral economic partnership in a phone conversation amid signs of the two sides inching closer to firming up a much-awaited trade deal.
The phone call between the two leaders came on a day Indian and American negotiators concluded two-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement that is expected to provide relief to India from the Trump administration's whopping 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods.
In a social media post, Modi had described the conversation as "warm and engaging".
"We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the US will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity," Modi had said without making any reference to trade ties.
