Nadoja Hampa Nagarajaiah and Dr. R. Balasubramaniam to receive awards; Book ‘Sumananjali’ to be released

Mysuru:  Sri Vanamali Charitable Trust, Vijayanagar 2nd Stage, has organised its Award Presentation Ceremony for the year-2018, at Ganabharathi in Kuvempunagar here on Oct.27 at 5 pm.

While well-known Kannada litterateur Nadoja Dr. Hampa Nagarajaiah will be conferred ‘Shree Vanamali Samskruti Seva  Prashasthi’, Dr. R. Balasubramaniam of Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM) and V-LEAD with a social service background will be honoured with ‘Padma Shri Dr. Mathoor Krishnamurthy Samaja Seva  Prashasthi.’ Both the awards carry a cash prize of Rs.25,000, a citation and Sri Vanamali idol each.

Noted Scholar Dr. T.V. Venkatachala Sastry will preside.

On the 10th year of awards ceremony, the Trust, founded by Dr. Mathoor Krishnamurthy in 2009, will be releasing a book titled ‘Sumananjali’ in memory of the Trust’s Founder-Secretary late Sumana Vishwanath. Scholar Dr. N.S. Taranath and GRAAM Executive Director R. Basavaraju will introduce the awardees.

Awardees’ Profile

Dr. Hampa Nagarajaiah is a well-known personality in the world of Kannada research and literature. Born at Hampasandra of Chikkaballapura taluk on Oct.7, 1936, popularly called as Dr. Hampana, he completed his MA in Kannada from the University of Mysore and acquired a Ph.D from Bangalore University. He was conferred the Nadoja Prashasthi from Hampi Kannada University. In his untiring 38-year journey as a teaching faculty, he has served at Kannada Study Centre of Bangalore University and retired as Director of the Centre.

He has authored more than 80 books (literary works). His diverse literary and research work is rich and has focused on language, Jainism, Karnataka’s glorious history and its culture.

Having widely travelled across the globe, he is an active member in the Advisory Council of London, Paris and Berlin University’s Jain study centres.

He is bestowed with awards such as Pampa, Kundakunda, Ranna, Chavundaraya, Shamba Joshi, Kavyananda and many others. He has received prestigious State awards like Rajyotsava Prashasthi and honoured with Bhasha Samman from Kendra Sahitya Academy. He was the President of Kannada Sahitya Parishat and currently heads Kuvempu Trust as its President.

Dr. R. Balasubramaniam (Balu): At a young age of 19, Dr. Balu worked with full dedication towards the upliftment of healthcare facilities for the poor rural population. Having taken inspiration from Veera Sanyasi Swami Vivekananda’s ideals, he set up ‘Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement’ at a village near H.D. Kote and stays amidst the forest tribals for over decades, untiringly working for their healthcare, improving their lifestyles.

In his 26 years of service, Dr. Balu started many schools in rural areas and has provided education to more than fifty thousand children on community development alongside formal education. He has strived hard for the human rights of underprivileged tribals and made effective use of RTI and created awareness among tribals about its usage.

He has also founded V-LEAD and VIIS, the institutes which provides assistance and training to people from all the sections of society in enterprise management, personality development and power of positive thinking about nation building. He has penned many a books in support of these.

He is a recipient of ‘Swasthya Sevaratna’ by the Indian Medical Anthropological Guild (Association), ‘Shri Vivekananda Prashasthi’ by Ramakrishna Mission and countless honorarium. He has received many accolades for his work as Honorary Professor at Cornell University, USA. He is active in many State and Union Govt. programmes, related to environmental protection while relentlessly working for the upliftment of tribals.