Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran and the late parliamentarian Dr Shrikant R Jichka are among the winners of the first Bharat Asmita Awards announced in New Delhi on Thursday.
Maran will be presented the Bharat Asmita Jana-Pratinidhi Shrestha Award for being an exponent of good parliamentary practices and democratic values, former Chief Election Commissioner T N Seshan, who is the chairman of the awards committee, said in New Delhi.
Jichkar is also being awarded the Bharat Asmita Jana-Pratinidhi Shrestha Award posthumously for his contribution towards the promotion of democratic values, Seshan said.
The Bharat Asmita Jana-Jagaran Shreshta Award for the best mass media person engaged in public awakening will be given to Dr Jayaprakash Narayan of Hyderabad-based NGO Loksatta, while Dr Menu Rammohan Rao is being felicitated with Bharat Asmita Acharya Shreshtha Award for his contribution to the field of management education.
The awards, to be presented by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee in Pune on February 3, consist of a citation and cash prize of Rs 125,000.
"The awards aim to recognise the contribution of young achievers in the field of parliamentary practices, teaching and public awakening through the media," Seshan said.
The awards committee includes Raghunath Mashelkar, Vijay P Bhatkar, J F Riberio, Vishwanath D Karad and others and is instituted by MIT School of Management, Pune.