Table of Contents:
1. Judith Heumann Passed Away 
2. BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year - Mirabai Chanu 
3. Writer Vinod Kumar Shukla Wins PEN Award 2023
4. World's First Bamboo-Made Crash Barrier Installed on Indian Highway 

Judith Heumann Passed Away 

Judith Heumann was an internationally recognised leader of the disability rights movement. Her activism led to the implementation of major legislation in United States for disabled persons. She was born in Brooklyn, New York. After contracting polio as a child, she faced many hurdles in her life. Overcoming all of them she became the first wheelchair user to work as a teacher in New York City. She was a person who believed that disability is not a tragedy unless the society makes it so. 

Activities 

• Co-founded the World Institute on Disability with Ed Roberts and Joan Leon in 1983 

• Served as World Bank Group's first Advisor on Disability and Development (2002 to 2006) 

• Worked as the Special Advisor on International Disability Rights for the U.S. State Department appointed by President Barack Obama (2010) 

• Worked as a Senior fellow at the Ford Foundation to advance the inclusion of disability in the Foundation's work. 

Author of - Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist 

Famous Wordings: "Disability only becomes a tragedy for me when society fails to provide the things, we need to lead our lives - job opportunities or barrier-free buildings, for example. It is not a tragedy to me that I'm living in a wheelchair."  

BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year - Mirabai Chanu 

Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu has won the 2022 ‘BBC Indian Sportswoman Of The Year award’ after a public vote. She becomes the first athlete to win the award twice in a row after winning for the year 2021. The other shortlisted contenders for BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year were wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik, boxer Nikhat Zareen, and badminton player PV Sindhu. 

Mirabai Chanu 

• Indian weightlifter 

• Chanu's first major breakthrough came with the silver medal in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014 

• The first Indian to win an Olympics silver medal in weightlifting, Tokyo Olympics 2020 

• Secured gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, 2022 

• Won a silver medal at the World Weightlifting Championships 2020 

• Received Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, the highest sporting honor of India in 2018 

• Awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India in 2018 

Writer Vinod Kumar Shukla Wins PEN Award 2023
 

Hindi short story writer, novelist and poet Vinod Kumar Shukla has received the 2023 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. PEN America is one of the most prestigious literary prizes worldwide. The award was founded in 2016 in collaboration with the Vladimir Nabokov Literary Foundation and is conferred annually to a living author whose body of work, either written in or translated into English. The work should represents the highest level of achievement in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and/or drama, and is of enduring originality and consummate craftsmanship. 

Vinod Kumar Shukla 

• Considered as one of the greatest contemporary writers in the Hindi language 

• He is renowned for his distinctive linguistic texture and emotional depth 

• Notable works: Naukar Ki Kameez,1979 and a poetry collection “Sab Kuch Hona Bacha Rahega”,1992 

• Received the Sahitya Akademi Award for “Deewar Mein Ek Khirkee Rahati Thi” in 1999 

World's First Bamboo-Made Crash Barrier Installed on Indian Highway 

The world’s first 200-metre-long bamboo crash barrier has been installed on a highway connecting Chandrapur and Yavatmal districts in Maharashtra.The bamboo crash barrier in Nagpur has been named as ‘Bahu Balli’ and underwent rigorous testing at various government-run institutions on different parameters. These included tests at the National Automotive Test Tracks in Pithampur, Indore, it secured the Class 1 in the Fire Rating Test conducted at the Central Building Research Institute in Roorkee, and has been given accreditation by the Indian Road Congress. 

The bamboo species used in the making of this barrier is Bambusa Balcoa, which has been treated with creosote oil and coated with recycled High-Density Poly Ethylene (HDPE). The recycling value of the bamboo crash barrier is stated as 50-70 per cent compared with 30-50 per cent for steel barriers. 

• Chief Minister of Maharashtra: Eknath Sambhaji Shinde 

• Governor of Maharashtra: Ramesh Bais