Indira Gandhi award for Manmohan, CSE

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Delhibased environment thinktank Centre for Science and Environment received the Indira Gandhi Prize for peace, disarmament and development this year.

Speaking on the occasion, Manmohan said India must lead in reviving internationalism and stay ahead in the globalised world by handling its diversity and having an innate cosmopolitan temperament. The award was presented to him by former Chief Justice of India Justice (retd) T S Thakur, in presence of former President Pranab Mukherjee and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Former Vice-President M Hamid Ansari and Congress president Rahul Gandhi, besides a host of former chief ministers, Union ministers and dignitaries were present at the award function.

According to the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust Monday, the CSE has been awarded the prize for its steady fast advocacy of measures to combat environmental deterioration and for its success in influencing public policies and programmes that have benefitted social and economic development in India.

The international jury, chaired by the former President, decided to give the award to CSE also for keeping the issue of environmental sustainability at the forefront of national attention and public policy, a statement from the trust said.

After the announcement, Director General, CSE, Sunita Narain said she and her colleagues are humbled to join this list of changemakers and asserted that it (the award) is a recognition of the imminent threats that the world faces today - of insecurity due to climate change, inequitable development, and growing environmental degradation.

Established in 1980 under the leadership of late Anil Aggarwal and presently headed by Narain has been working for the last four decades to incorporate environmental sustainability into development policies.