PRESIDENTIAL AWARDS FOR SCHOLARS IN KANNADA

The Union government is set to introduce Presidential Awards for all classical languages, including Kannada, from this year. In the last few years,only Tamil was declared a classical language and awards were given for scholars in that language. From this year on, the awards will be extended to other languages -classical Kannada, classical Telugu, classical Malayalam and classical Odia "with the

objective to promote classical languages." Sanskrit, Pali/Prakrit, Arabic and Persian, too, will be included for the awards. A lifetime achievement award will be given away to one Indian each in classical Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Odia; there will be two international life achievement wards (one for an Indian national and another for a non-Indian); five young scholars' awards (for those between 30 and 45 years of age) will be presented. The awards will be given out annually on the lines of those being presented for classical Tamil. There will be 15 'certificates of honour' and one international award for Sanskrit; three certificates of honour for Persian and Arabic; and one each for Pali and Prakrit. There will befive young scholars' awards for Sanskrit, and one each for Persian, Arabic, Pali and Prakrit. The certificate of honour, lifetime achievement and international awards will include Rs 5 lakh cash each. The young scholars' award will include Rs 1 lakh cash. For the awards in Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Odia, proposals can be sent by all secretaries of the Union government, chief secretaries of all state governments, educational secretaries of all states, vice-chancellors of all central universities, all head of Indian missions abroad, all awardees of previous years and state universities in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Odisha.