• Dutch Author, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld won the International Booker Prize 2020 for her debut novel ‘The Discomfort of Evening’. Rijneveld became the youngest author to win the prize at the age of 29.

• The book tells the fictional story of Jas, a girl in a devout Christian farming family, whose brother dies in an accident after she wishes he would die instead of her rabbit.

• The book was first published in Dutch in 2018 and eventually translated into English by Michele Hutchison.

• The £50,000 prize ($66,000) will be split equally between the author and translator to give equal recognition to both.

• The International Booker Prize is an international literary award given annually to a book translated to English and published in the UK or Ireland.

* State Bank of India (SBI) to receive Brandon Human Capital Management(HCM) Excellence Award

* The award is also known as the Academy Awards of Learning & Development 2020.

* The SBI has been awarded with the global recognition for its HR initiative, ”Nayi Disha”.

* The award winners will be honored at Brandon Hall Group’s annual HCM Excellence Conference, January 26-28, 2021 at the Hilton West Palm Beach, Florida.

* The selected winners will also present in breakout sessions, sharing their leading practices during the conference.

* SBI partnered with M/s Chrysalis & developed the “Nayi Disha” Programme.

• Indian women’s hockey team defender Deep Grace Ekka and para-athlete Jayanti Behera received the Biju Patnaik sports award for outstanding performance.

• Both of them received a citation along with cash award of Rs 2 lakh each.

• Para-swimmer Satyendra Singh Lohia of Madhya Pradesh is the first Divyanga Indian sportsperson of the country, who has been awarded today with the Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award.

• He is also the first Asian Divyanga swimmer to cross the 42-kilometer Catalina Channel in the US in just 11 hours 34 minutes.

• Para-swimmer Satyendra Singh was also conferred with the Best Sportsperson National Award by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on World Divyanga Day.

• He has also been awarded the highest sports award of Madhya Pradesh as well as many other national and international honours.

• The fourth edition of the Dwijing festival with over 15 lakh tourists attending the 12-day event has emerged as the winner in five categories at the prestigious WOW Awards Asia 2020.

• The awards were won in these five categories -- rural activation of the year, special event of the year for government/federation /association, rural engagement property of the year, business/ B-2-B/knowledge-exchange property of the year and special event of the decade.

• The festival was organized by the Dwijing Festival Organising Committee under the guidance and leadership of tourism minister Chandan Brahma in association with Assam Tourism and Bodoland Tourism.

• The Dwijing Festival is an annual river festival celebrated in the BTAD region with various colorful events viz ethnic trade and food festival, exhibitions, games & sports, river campaign and adventure activities and various cultural programs that make it a center of attraction and the New Year Festival.

• Solapur based social activist Ganesh Vilas Lengare has been awarded the Star 2020 Certificate by the World Book of Records, London.

• The organisation, found in 2017, honours personalities for their outstanding contribution towards humanity and universal peace.

• Recognizing his efforts to help the needy during the coronavirus induced lockdown, Ganesh Lengare has been awarded the Star 2020 e-citation certificate.

• Out of the 21 schemes that were launched by him to assist the people, the most important was the COVID patient contact tracing, that was implemented with the help of Solapur district authorities.

• Mustapha Adib become the crisis-stricken Lebanon's next prime minister after getting the support of senior Sunni politicians.

• He was Lebanon's ambassador to Germany.

• Mustapha Adib was named by four former prime ministers on the eve of binding consultations between the president and parliamentary blocs on their choice for the post.

• The Editor Emeritus and Vice Chairman of the Ananda Bazar Group of Publications, Aveek Sarkar has been elected as the chairman of Press Trust of India (PTI).

• He succeeds Vijay Kumar Chopra, Chief Editor of the Punjab Kesari Group of newspapers.

• Aveek Sarkar was the founding Managing Director of Penguin India, the Indian counterpart of Penguin Books, the founding Editor of Business Standard and also the pivotal figure behind the acquisition of STAR News by the ABP Group in 2003.

• Commodore, Hemant Khatri (Retd) has assumed charge as the Chairman and Managing Director of state-owned defence shipbuilder, Hindustan Shipyard Ltd (HSL) at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

• He will replace Rear Admiral L V Sarat Babu (Retd). Previously, Hemant Khatri was serving as the Director of Strategic Projects HSL.

• Hemant Khatri was appointed as the CMD of HSL was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet(ACC) on 27th May 2020 with effective from 1st September 2020 till 31st July 2025 the date of his superannuation or until further orders.

• The Australian government has appointed former cricketer Matthew Hayden and Indian-origin politician Lisa Singh as trade envoys for advancing business ties with India.

• Three new appointments to the board of the Australia-India Council were announced

• Lisa Singh, former Labor Party Senator from Tasmania, would be the Deputy Chair.

• Former Victoria Premier Ted Baillieu and former cricketer Hayden are the other new members.

• The council plays an important role in advancing Australia’s foreign and economic policy interests with India.