Aamir Qutub, an India-born entrepreneur and CEO of Australian IT multinational Enterprise Monkey, has been awarded the 2024 India Australia Business and Community Alliance (IABCA) Young Professional of the Year Award. The accolade recognizes his exceptional contributions to entrepreneurship and social service in Australia.
Upon receiving the award, Qutub expressed his gratitude in a conversation with Radiance from Australia. “More than a decade ago, when I left my hometown for Australia, I never imagined standing in the grand Parliament Hall, receiving an international award in the presence of the Prime Minister. I am deeply humbled and honored to have received the 2024 IABCA Young Professional of the Year Award.”
Reflecting on his journey, Aamir shared, “This recognition is not just about my individual efforts but highlights the power of community support. From my early days in India to establishing myself in Australia, the backing of people around me has been crucial. This award is for my work as a founder and CEO, where we have created jobs and contributed to the local economy. Our initiative, Angel Next Door, played a key role in helping over 100,000 Australians during the COVID-19 crisis.”
Aamir also offered advice to emerging entrepreneurs in India, encouraging them to pursue their dreams, regardless of their background.
“I come from a middle-class family in a small Tier 3 city, but I dared to dream big. The journey was not easy, but persistence, adaptability, and continuous learning made it possible. Your background does not define your future – your determination does. Every small step you take today contributes to tomorrow’s success,” he said.
Reflecting on his journey, Aamir acknowledged the many people and institutions that played a role in his success.
“From the regional city of Aligarh and the nurturing environment at AMU, where I laid my foundation, to the vibrant city of Geelong, where Deakin University provided me with a platform to grow – this journey has been shaped by countless hands and hearts,” he added.
A proud alumnus of AMU, Aamir has received numerous accolades, including being a finalist for the Australian Young Business Leader Award. He was the youngest General Manager of ICT Geelong and also served as Digital Manager for Australian Sports Tech Network. In the early stages of his career, Aamir worked as a cleaner during the day and a newspaper delivery boy at night to fund his startup. He has also demonstrated his commitment to social causes by spending a night on the streets with other CEOs to experience the life of homelessness, raising awareness for Australians without shelter.
Aamir’s professional journey began with Honda Cars India as a Production Manager before he co-founded the Stand India Foundation, a not-for-profit social venture. He holds an MBA in Information Management from Deakin University and a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from AMU, where he served as General Secretary of the AMU Students’ Union.
source: http://www.radiancenews.com / Radiance News / Home> Pride of the Nation> Award> Markers of Excellence> Latest News / by Radiance News Bureau / October 07th, 2024
Photographers Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand captured images of protests, police and paramilitary action and daily life in Kashmir.
Women shout slogans as the police fire teargas and live ammunition in the air to stop a protest march in Srinagar, Aug. 9, 2019. The image was part of a series of photographs by Associated Press photographers which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.
The story of India’s crackdown on Kashmir last August was difficult to show to the world. The unprecedented lockdown included a sweeping curfew and shutdowns of phone and internet service.
But Associated Press ( AP ) photographers Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand found ways to let outsiders see what was happening. Now, their work has been honoured with the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in feature photography.
Snaking around roadblocks, sometimes taking cover in strangers’ homes and hiding cameras in vegetable bags, the three photographers captured images of protests, police and paramilitary action and daily life — and then headed to an airport to persuade travellers to carry the photo files out with them and get them to the AP ’s office in New Delhi.
Kashmiri Muslim devotees offer prayer outside the shrine of Sufi saint Sheikh Syed Abdul Qadir Jeelani in Srinagar, Dec. 9, 2019. The image was part of a series of photographs by Associated Press photographers which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.
“It was always cat-and-mouse,” Mr. Yasin recalled on Monday. “These things made us more determined than ever to never be silenced.”
Mr. Yasin and Mr. Khan are based in Srinagar, Kashmir’s largest city, while Mr. Anand is based in the neighboring Jammu district.
Mr. Anand said the award left him speechless.
“I was shocked and could not believe it,” he said, calling the prize-winning photos a continuation of the work he’s been doing for 20 years with the AP .
An Indian Border Security Force (BSF) soldier keeps vigil near the India-Pakistan border at Garkhal in Akhnoor, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) west of Jammu, India, Aug. 13, 2019. The image was part of a series of photographs by Associated Press photographers which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.
With communications shut down, these journalists had to find out about protests and other news by finding them in person. Mr. Khan and Mr. Yasin took turns roving the streets in and around the regional capital of Srinagar, Mr. Yasin said, facing mistrust from both protesters and troops. The journalists were unable to go home for days or even let their families know they were doing okay.
“It was very hard,” Mr. Khan said, but “we managed to file pictures”.
After spotting luggage-toting people walking toward the airport, he said, the photographers decided to ask travellers to serve as couriers. Mr. Yasin also recalled how a relative of his, who was also a photojournalist, had told him about delivering film rolls to New Delhi in person as the conflict in Kashmir raged in the 1990s.
A masked Kashmiri protester jumps on the bonnet of an armored vehicle of Indian police as he throws stones at it during a protest in Srinagar, May 31, 2019. The image was part of a series of photographs by Associated Press photographers which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.
The photographers thus went to the Srinagar airport and sought out strangers willing to carry memory cards and flash drives to New Delhi and call AP after landing in the Indian capital.
Some flyers declined, fearing trouble with the authorities, Mr. Yasin said. But others said yes and followed through. Most of the memory cards and drives arrived.
Mr. Yasin says their prize-winning work has both professional and personal meaning to him.
“It’s not the story of the people I am shooting, only, but it’s my story,” he said. “It’s a great honour to be on the list of Pulitzer winners and to share my story with the world.”
“This honor continues AP ’s great tradition of award-winning photography,” said AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt. “Thanks to the team inside Kashmir, the world was able to witness a dramatic escalation of the long struggle over the region’s independence. Their work was important and superb.”
Pulitzer finalists for breaking-news photography award
In a year when protests arose across the globe, AP photographers Dieu Nalio Chery and Rebecca Blackwell were Pulitzer finalists for the breaking-news photography award for their coverage of violent clashes between police and anti-government demonstrators in Haiti.
Protesters and passersby look at images of people said to have been injured or killed during the month-long protests calling for the resignation of President Jovenel Moise, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Oct. 15, 2019. The image was part of a series of photographs by Associated Press photographers which was named a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography.
Bullet fragments hit Mr. Chery in the jaw while he documented the unrest. He kept taking pictures, including images of the fragments that hit him.
A protest against fuel shortages and demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moise in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sept. 20, 2019. The image was part of a series of photographs by Associated Press photographers which was named a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography.
“All five of these photographers made remarkable, stunning images despite dangerous and challenging conditions, sometimes at great personal risk,” said AP Director of Photography David Ake. “Their dedication to getting up every morning and going out to tell the story is a testament to their tenacity. The result of their work is compelling photojournalism that grabbed the world’s attention.”
AP Executive Editor Sally Buzbee called the Kashmir prize “a testament to the skill, bravery, ingenuity and teamwork of Dar, Mukhtar, Channi and their colleagues” and lauded Mr. Chery’s and Ms. Blackwell’s “brave and arresting work” in Haiti while many journalism outlets were focused elsewhere.
“At a time when AP ’s journalism is of more value than ever to the world, these journalists’ courage and compelling storytelling show the absolute best of what we do,” Ms. Buzbee said.
The honor for the photographers is the AP’s 54th Pulitzer Prize. The news cooperative last won a Pulitzer last year for stories, photos and video on the conflict in Yemen and the ensuing humanitarian crisis.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> World / by Associated Press (AP) / May 05th, 2020
The Media Foundation has chosen Shahina KK as the winner of the Chameli Devi Award for an outstanding woman journalist. In her acceptance speech she spoke of her attempt to establish that the police conspired to forge a case against Abdul Madani after the Bangalore blasts. “I have always tried to espouse the cause of those who live on the margin and who cannot have their say,’’ she said.
She was awarded for work done while with Tehelka. She is now with Open magazine.
I am using this opportunity to explain who I am.
See, I happen to be a Muslim, but I am not a terrorist.
Unfortunately, anybody carrying a Muslim name, no matter whether he or she is a believer, agnostic or atheist has to keep this as an opening line on every occasion of a dialogue in public. I have hardly practiced any religion right from my adolescence yet I have to make this kind of a statement.
You may have an idea about what I am going to talk about. In fact this award gives me a great opportunity today to talk about the crime I have committed. I interviewed two of the prosecution witnesses in the infamous Bangalore blast case in which Kerala PDP leader Abdul Nasar Madani is an accused. Madani had spent 10 years in prison as an under-trail in the Coimbatore blast case of 1997 and later was exonerated in 2007. The firebrand orator, who once triggered some kind of belligerence among the post-Babri Masjid Kerala Muslim youth, in his second coming had made a public alliance with the left parties in the last Lok Sabha polls. A man who was speaking the language of democracy, a politician who was using the tools of parliamentary politics had been again taken by the police, this time from Karnataka, for his alleged involvement in the Bangalore blast case. He was arrested immediately after the Lok Sabha polls.
Two of the six prosecution witnesses in the case, Jose Thomas and Mohammed Jamal who is the younger brother of Madani, had approached the court alleging that their testimonies had been fabricated. The third witness was on death bed in a hospital in Ernakulam on the day the police recorded his testimony. He died four days later. Police records say that the testimony was recorded in Kannur, around 500 kms away from Ernakulam where he was admitted. The hospital records prove that on that day he was not in Kannur, but was very much in the hospital in Ernakulam. Speech continues here.
An unintended but welcome consequence of the lockdown to contain the coronavirus has been improved air quality stated the presentation of ALTAIR, a team of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) students led by MBBS first-year student, Ayesha Samdani, which won the ‘The Judges Choice Award’ in the International NASA Space App Challenge-2020 for presenting a solution in response to the NASA’s Challenge ‘A One Health Approach’.
Ayesha and team members, Mohd Zakir Husain (MBBS), Aman Ahmad Khan (MBBS), Faisal Jamil (B.Tech) and Abdullah Samdani (BA LLB) gave an analysis on air quality of the pre and post lockdown periods in the Indo Gangetic region of Northern India. Their study gave details about how an improvement in the air quality benefited the health of people.
For the presentation, the ALTAIR members also coded an Air Quality Index (AQI) Calculator to measure AQI of a certain region, which is helpful in giving health and cautionary statements and providing guidance to common people on pollution related health issues.
Congratulating the students on the achievement, Prof Shahid Ali Siddiqui, Principal, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC) of the university and Prof Shakeel Samdani, Dean, Faculty of Law said that the work of these AMU students is formative as it provides a clear comparison of average concentration levels during the months before the lockdown and the time period during the lockdown restrictions, showing a reduction in SO2 level.
The event was judged by ISRO and NASA scientists including Tazeen Siddiqui of NASA.
source: http://www.milligazette.com / The Milli Gazette / Home> News> Community News / by The Milli Gazette Online / October 06th, 2020
A woman has made her village proud by reviving the dying art of Wooden Cutlery of Udayagiri in Nellore District of Andhra Pradesh.
Inheriting the craft from her father, Shaik Gousia Begum has trained 400 artisans in woodware. She has now been selected for YSR Award 2022.
Why is Udayagiri famous?
Situated 100 km from Nellore district headquarters, Udayagiri is known for its intricate wooden cutlery, soap cases, and bowls. More than a hundred years ago Sheikh Abdul Bashir was impressed by the softwood cutlery art of Dadasahib, a carpenter. Sheikh Abdul learnt the art and sold his products locally. He soon began improvising with intricate designs and carving. His cutlery caught the eye of tourists visiting Udayagiri and the Handicraft Department, which subsequently began training artisans, particularly women in the craft.
Shaik Gousiya Begum who is the third generation artisan, took up this job after her father fell sick. She trained many craftsmen. Later she also trained her son Zakeer Husain who is now a fourth-generation artisan.
“After my father fell sick in 2005, I took up the profession and started teaching people. From a batch of 5-6 members, now we have 400 artisans who work in the cluster at the village. Everyone is from a poor background. We used to make products and sell them in other states,” said Shaik Gousiya Begum.
She also received the State Award in 2005.
Her son takes it to social media
Begum’s son always wanted to become a police constable. But she wanted him to pursue business and keep the tradition alive. Zakeer Husain who learnt the work from his grandfather also trained other women. However, as time passed, Udayagiri Cutlery saw a downfall due to a lack of marketing. It was Hussain who promoted the products on social media platforms. “Now, my son is responsible for sales and promotion. We send our products to Lepakshi stalls in Hyderabad, and Andhra Pradesh. My son also travels to other countries to sell products in exhibitions”, said Begum.
Much Demand
Begam says their wood cutlery has a great demand. People book their products online. They have designed 150 different products. These include wooden spoons. forks, salad bowls, trays, and combs influenced by Persian motifs and patterns, earrings, toys, lamps, and many more.
How do they make it?
Wood cutlery takes a lot of time and patience for perfection. The local wood of Devadari, Nardi, and Khalidi is sourced from Durgampalli hills and dried for ten days. The wood is then soaked in water for 2 days, and then dried again in the shade for 3 days. The process of making cutlery then begins and takes time depending on the design.
Take it around the globe:
“I want to take this art form to other countries and make my grandfather proud. Previously, my grandfather used to make and sell locally. But later, I started to run the business on social media and set up stalls in every exhibition hosted by the government”, said Zakeer Hussain.
GI tag
Wood cutlery of Udayagiri got its significance when the village was granted Geographical Indications (GI) tag for being the only region with such a craft form in 2016. Then they started selling out at famous exhibitions such as Shilpararnam in Hyderabad. The women later set up the Udayagiri Cutlery Mutually-Aided Cooperative Society.
Need for development
Tucked away in a quaint corner of the Nellore district, the artisans said there is a need for the development of their cluster. They have been regularly asking the government for better space that can accommodate 400 workers.
. “Udayagiri has a great future and many prospective buyers. However, we need better manpower and machinery. Currently, 90% of the work has to be done by hand. Schemes and opportunities for training more people on this craft form are what we need” said Hussain.
source: http://www.m.dailyhunt.in / Daily Hunt / Home / NewsMeter / November 2022
The literary work is the fourth translation and the first Urdu work to win the JCB Prize
(Left to right) Mita Kapur, literary director, The JCB Prize for Literature; Sunil Khurana, chief operating officer, JCB India; winning author Khalid Jawed; translator of ‘The Paradise of Food’ Baran Farooqi and jury member AS Panneerselvan JCB Prize
Khalid Jawed’s The Paradise of Food has been awarded the JCB Prize for Literature 2022. The book was chosen by a panel of five judges.
The Paradise of Food has been translated into English from Urdu by Baran Farooqi and published by Juggernaut. The Rs 25 lakh prize was awarded to the author virtually by Sunil Khurana, chief operating officer, JCB India, and A.S. Panneerselvan, chair of the jury for 2022, at a hybrid event organised at The Oberoi, New Delhi. Khalid Jawed also received the trophy — a sculpture titled ‘Mirror Melting’ by Delhi artist duo Thukral and Tagra.
The Paradise of Food, which is the fourth translation to win the JCB Prize and the first in Urdu, is a bildungsroman that traces the narrator’s journey through life anchored in a middle-class Muslim joint family.
The jury comprised Panneerselvan, journalist, editor and columnist; author Amitabha Bagchi; J Devika, historian, feminist, social critic and academician; author Janice Pariat and Rakhee Balaram, assistant professor, Global Art and Art History at the University of Albany, State University of New York. The award ceremony began with a welcome note from Mita Kapur, literary director of the JCB Prize, and an address by Deepak Shetty, CEO & managing director, JCB India. Classical dance performances by Shriram Bhartiya Kala Kendra led up to the grand announcement.
Speaking about the merit of The Paradise of Food as a piece of literature, Bagchi commented, “This singular and moving book shines a scintillating light on the violence at the heart of human civilisation. The language contains several beautiful and unusual formulations that are a literary achievement by both the author and the extremely skilled translator. A literary landmark in a less-celebrated genre of Urdu’s grand literary tradition, this work deserves to be widely read in India and beyond.”
Other members of the jury, too, unanimously appreciated Jawed’s book. Rakhee Balaram described the work as a “book of indescribable brilliance” and to J. Devika, it was a “powerful ice-pick in the winter of civilisational crisis that has engulfed the countries of South Asia”.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / Telegraph India / Home> My Kolkata> Events> Literary Event / by My Kolkata Web Desk / November 20th, 2022
Kasturba Medical College, Attavar organized camp organizers’ meet and conferred E K Hussain with Dr TMA Pai Arogya Sevak Award 2022, at the Sanjeevini Hall, KMC Attavar here on Saturday June 11.
Marketing head of KMC Hospital Mangaluru, Rakesh Darshan welcomed the gathering. Camp co-ordinator of KMC Attavar Herbert Pereira briefed on the number of camps organized in Dakshina Kannada and said, “Due to COVID, we were not able to organize more camps in 2020 but from October 2021, we have organized 178 camps in various places where more than 27,474 patients had undergone health check-up and 1,442 patients were given further treatment at the KMC hospital. When we organized camps, we received very good support from many organizations. I would like to thank all the organizations that joined hands with us to make our mission successful.”
Addressing the gathering Dr Deepak Madi said, “Our founder Dr TMA Pai had a dream of eliminating illiteracy, poverty and ill health. He started schools to educate the poor people, banks to eliminate poverty and hospitals to provide treatment. Now, KMC Hospitals in the health sector are in second place in the country.”
Dr Deepak Madi further said, “We cannot go to every village to treat the patients, but some good-hearted people have joined hands with us to reach out to every village in providing treatment to the people. We are also providing the KMC Attavar Loyalty card and the Arogya card to the people. We normally hold camps in the hospitals but holding camps in villages is quite different. It is a godly work and I salute all those who have dedicated their time to helping the people who are deprived of medical facilities. I urge all of you to continue your good work. If you need any help we are always there at your service. This humanitarian work should continue. In the coming days, let all the people make use of the KMC Loyalty Card and Arogya cards.”
E K Hussain was felicitated by Dr Deepak Madi with a shawl, memento, and citation. Medical social worker Asha read out the citation. Prajna Counselling Centre was awarded with ‘Best Camp Organizer – 2022’ for its outstanding work in the field of rural Helth. KMC Hospital also felicitated all the camp organizers and those who had done the highest registrations of Manipal Arogya Card on the occasion.
Dr Manohar Pai, Dr Sumana Kamath, Dr Athmananda Hegde, Dr Rajendra A, Dr Shourjya Banarjee, Dr Basavaprabhu, Dr Smitha D’Sa, and Dr Deepthi D’Souza were present.
Nithesh Shetty delivered the vote of thanks.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / Daijiworld.com / Home> Karnataka / by Media Release / June 11th, 2022
