India Honours System

India : Honours and decorations

Gallantry
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Param Vir Chakra:
The Param Vir Chakra is an Indian military decoration given for valour in combat operations. It is India's highest military honor. The name is sometimes abbreviated as PVC. It literally means 'Wheel (or Cross) of the Ultimate Brave' (Sanskrit: Param, Ultimate; Vir (Pronounced veer), Brave; Chakra, Wheel, or its western equivalent, Cross). Equivalent awards in the United States are the Medal of Honor and the Victoria Cross in the United Kingdom.

The Param Vir Chakra (PVC) is the highest gallantry award for officers and other enlisted personnel of all military branches of India for the highest degree of valour or self-sacrifice in the presence of the enemy. It may be awarded posthumously and, indeed, most of the awards have been posthumous.

The PVC was established on 26 January 1950, by the President of India, with effect from 15 August 1947, and presently it is the second highest award of the government of India after Bharat Ratna (amendment in the statute on 26 January 1980 resulted in this order of wearing).

Ashoka Chakra:
Ashoka Chakra is an Indian military decoration awarded for valor, courageous action or self sacrifice away from the battle field. It maybe awarded to civilians as well as well as military personnel. It may be awarded posthumously. It is the peace time equivalent of the Param Vir Chakra.

Maha Vir Chakra:
The Maha Vir Chakra (MVC) is the second highest military decoration in India and is awarded for acts of conspicuous gallantry in the presence of the enemy, whether on land, at sea or in the air. It may be awarded posthumously.

Kirti Chakra:
Kirti Chakra is an Indian military decoration awarded for valor, courageous action or self-sacrifice away from the battlefield. It may be awarded to civilians as well as military personnel, including posthumous awards. It is the peacetime equivalent of the Maha Vir Chakra. It is second in order of precedence of peacetime gallantry awards; it comes after Ashoka Chakra and before Shaurya Chakra.

Vir Chakra:
Vir Chakra is an Indian gallantry award presented for acts of bravery in the battle field. To denote this award, the awardees can append the letters Vr.C. to their name. It is third in precedence in the war time gallantry awards and comes after the Param Vir Chakra and Maha Vir Chakra.

Shaurya Chakra:
Shaurya Chakra is an Indian military decoration awarded for valor, courageous action or self-sacrifice away from the battlefield. It may be awarded to civilians as well as military personnel, sometimes posthumously. It is the peacetime equivalent of the Vir Chakra. It is third in order of precedence of peacetime gallantry awards and comes after Ashoka Chakra and Kirti Chakra.

Civilian
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National Service:
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Bharat Ratna:
Bharat Ratna is India's highest civilian award, awarded for the highest degrees of national service. This service includes artistic, literary, and scientific achievements, as well as "recognition of public service of the highest order." Unlike knights, holders of the Bharat Ratna carry no special title nor any other honorifics, but they do have a place in the order of precedence. Bharat Ratna roughly translates as 'Gem of India'.

While there was no formal provision that recipients of the Bharat Ratna should be Indian citizens, this seems to have been the general assumption. There has been one award to a naturalized Indian citizen — Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa (1980); and two to non-Indians — Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987) and Nelson Mandela (1990). The awarding of this honour though, has frequently been the subject of litigation questioning the constitutional basis of such state awards.

Padma Vibhushan:
The Padma Vibhushan is India's second highest civilian honour. It consists of a medal and a citation and is awarded by the President of India.

It was established on January 2, 1954. It follows the Bharat Ratna and precedes the Padma Bhushan. It is awarded to recognize exceptional and distinguished service to the nation in any field, including government service. The award was briefly suspended from July 13, 1977 to January 26, 1980.

Padma Bhushan:
The Padma Bhushan is an Indian civilian decoration established on January 2, 1954 by the President of India. It stands third in the hierarchy of civilian awards, after the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, but comes before the Padma Sri. It is awarded to recognize distinguished service of a high order to the nation, in any field.

Padma Shri:
Padma Shri (also spelled Padma Shree, Padma Sree and Padma Sri) is an award given by the Government of India generally to Indian citizens to recognize their distinguished contribution in any sphere of activity including Arts, Education, Industry, Literature, Science, Games, Sports etc. (The word "Padma" (Hindi) means "Lotus".) It stands fourth in the hierarchy of civilian awards after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. On its obverse, the words "Padma" and "Shri", in Devanagari, appear above and below the lotus flower.

Literary:
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Jnanpith Award:
The Jnanpith Award is the highest literary honour conferred in the Republic of India. It is presented by the Jnanpith Trust, which is largely owned by the Jain family, publishers of The Times of India. The award carries a cheque for Rs. 500,000, a citation plaque and a bronze replica of Vagdevi. The award was instituted in 1961. Its first recipient was Malayalam writer G Shankara Kurup in 1965. An Indian citizen who writes in any of the official languages of India is eligible for the honour.
Its name is taken from Sanskrit jnāna-pīṭha = "knowledge-seat".

Sports:
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Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna:
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award is India’s highest sporting honour. It was instituted from the year 1991-92 in the memory of Late Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India. The award carries a medal and a scroll of honour apart from a cash component.

The award honours either an individual sportsperson or a sports team for outstanding performance in the sports disciplines included in any of Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, as well as Billiards & Snooker, Cricket and Chess in a year.

Typically, performances from 1 April of a year to 31 March of the next year are taken into consideration for the award. A selection committee of people affiliated to sports is constituted by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports for selecting the awardee every year.

A key difference from the Arjuna award is that the Arjuna award is given to the best sportsperson in each sport every year, where as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna is given to the best sportsperson across all the sports disciplines in that year. Khel Ratna literally means "Sporting Gem" in Hindi.

Arjuna Award:
The Arjuna awards were instituted in 1961 by the government of India to recognize outstanding achievement in National sports. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 300,000, a bronze statuette of Arjuna and a scroll.

Over the years the scope of the award has been expanded and a large number of sportspersons who belonged to the pre-Arjuna Award era, were also included in the list. Not only that the number of disciplines for which the award was to be given was also increased to include indigenous games and also in the physically handicapped category.

Dronacharya Award:
Dronacharya Award is an award presented by the government of India for excellence in sports coaching. The award comprises of a bronze statuette of Dronacharya, a scroll of honour and a cash component. The award was instituted in 1985. As the best sportsperson award is named Arjuna Award, it is appropriate that the coaching award is named after Dronacharya, as he was the Guru of Arjuna.

The winners of this award in 2005 were Mr. Arvind Savur for Billiards & Snooker, Ms. Sunita Sharma for Cricket (incidentally the first woman cricket coach to get the award) and Mr. Cyrus Poncha for Squash.

Movies:
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Dadasaheb Phalke Award:
The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is an annual award given by the Indian government for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema. It was instituted in 1969, the birth centenary year of Dadasaheb Phalke, considered the father of Indian cinema.

The award for a particular year is given during the end of the following year along with the National Film Awards.Some well known ones are :

# 1989 - Lata Mangeshkar, singer
# 1990 - A. Nageswara Rao, actor
# 1994 - Dilip Kumar, actor
# 1995 - Rajkumar, actor
# 1996 - Sivaji Ganesan, actor
# 1998 - B.R. Chopra, director, producer
# 2000 - Asha Bhosle, singer
# 2001 - Yash Chopra, director, producer
# 2002 - Dev Anand, actor, director, producer
# 2003 - Mrinal Sen, director
# 2004 - Adoor Gopalakrishnan, director

Others:
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Gandhi Peace Prize:
The International Gandhi Peace Prize, named after Mahatma Gandhi, is awarded annually by the government of India for outstanding work and contribution to social, economic and political transformation through non-violence and other Gandhian methods.

Recipients have included Nelson Mandela, John Hume, Baba Amte, Vaclav Havel, Sir Shridath Ramphal, Shri Ramakrishna Mission (in 1999, received by its president Swami Ranganathananda) and the International Red Cross.

For more info : India Honours System

A good article on "Living".

-> In this life we don't have winners and losers. We have winners and learners!

-> When the rocket went to the moon, how often was it on course?

ONLY 2.5 % of the time!!!

What was it doing the rest of the time?

Correcting!

-> Don't focus on working for money. Instead, focus on adding value.

-> Doing more with less.

-> What were Japanese products known for before WW2? Being shoddy, cheap and copy cats.

What are Japanese products known for today? Being good quality, still cheap and innovators.

What changed Japan? A man called Dr W. Edwards Deming.

-> You CAN'T change people! You CAN change the environment. You CAN change systems!


Extracts from:: http://www.relfe.com/life_purpose.html

Related Links :
http://www.relfe.com/plus_5_.html (<--- I Want The Earth Plus 5% This is one of the best articles I have read till date !!!! .. Amaaazing)

http://www.wateraid.org/international/default.asp

Feminity, an Opportunity ?

ABCDEFG - A Boy Can Do Everything For a Girl

Girls are very powerful. I am sure many would not agree to this statement but I will try to justify why I put it that way by the end of this post.

Women can stir the passions within men.(Not necessarily beautiful women).If a guy can make a girl smile, he is on the top of the world. He does anything to see her happy.

Some attempts can be like this (orkut):
- "hi..preeti.. can i b ur frnd"
- "hiii rekha...................yaar muthse dosti karogi?
i know purana hai
but kaam karta hai.........."
- "Hi you are so cute, can we be friends. BTW .. I am frm hyd .. working with Microsoft"
- Some try to impress by constantly romanticizing, craking jokes, winning something, working hard, coming out of their bad habits, taking the girl to places, etc etc. I am sure the number of ways in which the attempts were made is countless.

How should the girl react to such a situation? How many of you have handled such a situation properly? Very few are sucessful in handling it the right way.

How many of us have such an opportunity to bring about a positive change in a person ?.
If the person is a stranger, there is nothing wrong in ignoring him. If a friend of a girl is ready to do anything for her, just to make her happy and all he is willing is a heart to express himself , instead of running away from him, the girl if she has the time, can bring about a tremondous change in his life.

Many girls would argue saying that initially he would start off saying its friendship and one fine day he will come with a red rose and say he can't live without her ! :-) . No offence intended but I can say with confidence that if the girl is very clear about herself, it would reflect vividly in her behaviour. She can respect their admiration and help them improve. A very good example of such a girl is the character played by Bhoomika in the telugu movie "Na Autograph .. sweet memories".

I would like to make it clear that it is not their duty or responsibility to do so. I think it is a opportunity they have. The choice is left to them, it is upto them to tap the potential in their friends, get them on to right track. It depends on the time and resources available and above all, the clarity of thought, maturity of understanding levels.

In short, girls can do a lot ! ;)

Precious

One of the toughest things to find in this world is a "soulmate".A person whom you can speak with anything and everything comfortably.

We come across hundreds of people in our life. Some are just aquaintances with whom we exchange a smile. Some are friends with whom we speak often, crack jokes, discuss things. Some are good friends. When you need something or you are in trouble these are the people whom you approach. One has very good memories with them and they are an important part of your life. AND some are "SOULMATES", person(s) who UNDERSTAND you, there will be many things that one cannot share with parents or even good friends, but it is this best friend(s) whom you express your heart to WITHOUT ANNYY HESITATION. Such people are Precious.

It is inherent property of humans to search for such people. SUCH people are rare, and it is at this level of understanding that a human relation reaches the stage called Love, one of the highly misinterpreted words in the english dictionary!. You trust, you respect, you care, you appreciate, you admire, you guide.Its then that you Love!

Do not take such people for granted, most people in this world die without having even one such person in their life!. If you have one such person in your life, you are fortunate. You can see that the day gets brighter. Times of loneliness are gone. The confidence is higher. They become the elixir of life. They are PRECIOUS!.

Fortune

Yesterday I went to the Railway Station to send off my brother to chennai and on my way out of station, I checked my weight.

Lets forget about the weight ;).Its 82.5 :o, need to start some fitness schedule :D.

This is what the fortune at the back of the card says.

"Dabbu chesukovadaniki premamayamaina sahrudatvaniki anukulamaina samvatsaram"

"A Favourable year for money-making and for all matters of affection and friendship"

and Orkut says ..
Today's fortune:
You will be unusually successful in business

Lets see what this year turns out to be in Dec-06 ;).