** Kurnool lad wins Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival award

Deepak Reddy’s ‘Manasanamaha’ adjudged second runner-up in the Best Short Film category

Kurnool-based short filmmaker and director Deepak Reddy won the Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival Award in the Best Short Film category (second runner-up) for his short film ‘Manasanamaha’ in Mumbai on Sunday night. The movie is about a young man who muses on the nature of love, recounting three relationships from his past.

The short film ‘Manasanamaha’ has also been shortlisted for Oscar-2022 from India in the Best Live Acting Short Film category. 

Incidentally, at the same film festival, Allu Arjun-starrer ‘Pushpa-The Rise’ in Telugu won the ‘Film of The Year’ award. 

Andhra Pradesh

** Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Goutham Reddy dies of heart attack in Hyderabad

Andhra Pradesh Information Technology and Industries Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy (50) passed due to heart attack in Hyderabad.

Son of former YSRCP MP Mekapati Rajamohana Reddy, Mr. Goutham Reddy had returned to Hyderabad after his visit to Dubai to participate in the Expo on behalf of the Andhra Pradesh Government.

Reddy had done his post graduation in United Kingdom and returned to India. He made his political debut in 2014 on YSRCP ticket from Atmakur Assembly constituency in Nellore district and scored a comfortable victory. He repeated the feat again in 2019 from the same seat and went on to become Minister for Industries and Information Technology Minister.

In a very short span, Goutham Reddy made a mark in the portfolio allocated to him and at the time of pandemic, he under the guidance of the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy launched revival package for manufacturing and service sector in the State, who were reeling under severe crisis on account of the lockdown.

** Aces’ Sportsman of the year nominees

Neeraj, Ravi and Pramod make it to the Sportstar Awards shortlist


Neeraj Chopra (javelin): Neeraj won India’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in athletics. He also became only the second Indian to win an Olympic individual gold, after Abhinav Bindra.

In 2021: Won gold in the men’s javelin in Tokyo

Pramod Bhagat: Pramod justified his status as the favourite in the SL3 class when he took top honours in the Paralympics

In 2021: Won gold in the men’s singles badminton SL3 class in Tokyo

Ravi Dahiya: A product of the famed Chhatrasal stadium in Delhi, Ravi Kumar Dahiya did the country proud as he matched Sushil Kumar’s 2012 London Olympics feat in Tokyo

In 2021: Won silver in the men’s 57kg wrestling in Tokyo

The Sportstar Aces awards are presented by Byju’s Classes with IDFC First Bank as the associate partner. Odisha is the Sports Destination Partner and Union Bank of India the banking partner.

ONGC is the associate partner. Nippon Paint is the Colour Partner and Life Insurance Corporation of India the Insurance Partner.

To vote, visit aces.sportstar.thehindu.com

** GI tag sought for Panruti cashews

Panruti cashews are unique in nature because of the taste and quality, says TNCPEA secretary

The Tamil Nadu Cashew Processors and Exporters Association (TNCPEA) has applied for a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for Panruti cashews. The MSME Intellectual Property Facilitation Centre of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development’s Madurai Agri Business Incubation Forum acted as the facilitator for filing the tag.

According to the secretary of TNCPEA, M. Ramakrishnan, “We have been pushing for the GI tag for Panruti cashews and the Tamil Nadu government was also keen to get the same for traditional unique produces from the district including Panruti jackfruit and cashews.”

** India, France sign roadmap to enhance bilateral exchanges on blue economy and ocean governance

Agreement was signed during External Affairs Minister Jaishankar’s three-day visit to France which began on February 20 with bilateral talks with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian

India and France have inked a roadmap to enhance their bilateral exchanges on the blue economy and forge a common vision of ocean governance based on the rule of law and cooperate on sustainable and resilient coastal and waterways infrastructure.

** Mauritius President Rajkeswur Purryag finds his ancestral roots in Bihar

Purryag is scheduled to visit Wajitpur village in Punpun block of Patna district to get a feel of the place that his ancestors had left behind to sail to Mauritius decades ago.

Heads of foreign governments continue to discover their roots in Bihar . After the Prime Ministers of Mauritius and Trinidad and Tobago, it is now the turn of Mauritius President Rajkeswur Purryag to visit the land of his forefathers in the state.

** KGMU surgeon wins global acclaim

A discovery which led to a new surgical technique for a rare and extremely serious birth defect in urinary system has found a place in an international multi-volume textbook of plastic reconstructive and aesthetic surgery.

The team of doctors led by head of pediatric surgery department of KGMU, Prof SN Kureel, and comprising Dr Archika Gupta and Dr Sunil Kanoujia is credited with the discovery.

The achievement in the field of exstrophy-epispadias has been included in ‘Thieme Medical Publisher’ —an American German medical and science publisher.

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

** As scholar, critic, translator Gayatri Spivak turns 80, an extract from an exhilarating 1998 speech

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is University Professor, and a founding member of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University.

Spivak, well known for her translation of Derrida as also some works of Mahasweta Devi, was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Prize for Translation in 1997

I am deeply honoured that the Sahitya Akademi have decided to acknowledge my efforts to translate the fiction of Mahasweta Devi.

I want to begin by thanking Mahasweta Devi for writing such spectacular prose. I want to thank my parents, Pares Chandra Chakravorty and Sivani Chakravorty for bringing me up in a household that was acutely conscious of the riches of Bangla. My father was a doctor. But we children were always reminded that my father’s Bangla essay for his matriculation examination had been praised by Tagore himself.

** West Bengal Minister, nine-time MLA Sadhan Pande passes away

Senior Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Minister Sadhan Pande passed away on February 20. He was 71 and was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Mumbai.

Mr. Pande was a nine-time MLA from north Kolkata. For the first six terms, he represented Burtola Assembly segment as a Congress representative. Since 2011, he represented Manicktala Assembly segment as a Trinamool Congress MLA.

Mr. Pande was Minister of Consumer Affairs in the West Bengal government.

** WORLD RECORD : Bihar’s Sakibul Gani Creates World Record With Triple Century On First-Class Debut

Bihar’s 22-year-old batter Sakibul Gani etched his name on the history books by breaking the record for the highest individual score by a cricketer on first-class debut.

Becoming the first batter to score a triple hundred on first-class debut, Gani amassed 341 runs off just 405 balls with the help of 56 fours and 2 sixes in a Ranji Trophy Plate Group match against Mizoram at Jadavpur University Campus 2nd Ground in Kolkata on Friday. He maintained a strike rate of 84.20.