Respected Friends, Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS), a Civil society located in Lucknow shall be presenting five IRDS awards for 2010 to young achievers respectively in the fields of Medicine and Health, Human Rights, Law and legal affairs, Media and Journalism and Education. These awards are named respectively as Anadibai Joshi award, Safdar Hashmi award, V N Shukla award, Surendra Pratap Singh Award and S Ramanujam Award. There shall be no cash component associated with the award. The upper age limit for the awards have been fixed at 45 years. All the awards have been named after those prominent Indian personalities who died while still in the prime of their youth and who had a long promising career left ahead. Such personalities have been chosen with the hope that these awardees shall try to fulfill some of those left promises. Anadibai Joshi was one of the first Indian women to have obtained a degree in modern medicine when despite great hardships and poor health she got the MD from University of Pennsylvania in USA in the end of 19th Century. Safdar Hashmi was a playwright, actor and theorist, chiefly associated with secular values and associated culture who was brutally murdered in Delhi while performing a street play, Halla Bol. V N Shukla was one of the leading experts of Constitutional law. He got his Ph D from London in 1952 but even before that he had written down the authoritative book "Constitution of India" in 1950, among the most respected books on the topic. Surendra Pratap Singh was a journalist, news anchor, and newspaper editor who was not only the founder of Aaj Tak but is often regarded as the first true investigative journalist and is credited with having produced a host of fantastic journalists. S Ramanujan was the most famous modern Indian mathematician who, with almost no formal training in pure mathematics, made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory etc, and was a true natural mathematical genius. The five awards are open to all Indians as also to Non-resident Indians within the prescribed age limit of 45 years as on 31st May 2010 who have done remarkable work in India or among the Indian Diaspora. They shall be presented only to the Individuals and not to any organization or association. The awards shall henceforth be presented on an annual basis. Five independent Juries have been created for the selection of the candidates for these awards. In addition to exploring its own sources, IRDS also invites you all to send suitable propositions to it either at IRDS, 5/426, Viram Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow or at [email protected] . The last date for receiving the nominations/ propositions is 31 May, 2010 while the awards shall be announced on 10th June 2010.
Regards, Amitabh Thakur, President, IRDS, Lucknow # 94155-34526
