President Murmu Confers Kalinga Ratna Award 2024 to Dharmendra Pradhan

On June 29, 2020, President Droupadi Murmu presented the Kalinga Ratna Award-2024 to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at a program held in Cuttack, Odisha. The award was announced during the 600th birth anniversary celebration of Adikabi Sarala Das, a great 15th century Odia poet, organized by the Sarala Sahitya Sansad, which recognized the significant contributions of Sarala Das while allowing attendees to promote Indian languages and culture.

Objectives and Highlights of the Event

The purpose of the event was to recognize Sarala Das’s life and literary contribution while stressing the importance of values of linguistic inclusion and cultural pride. The President spoke on unity in India’s linguistic diversity and how literature is a bridge among culture, language and education.  She highlighted the importance of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which encourages education in the mother tongue, allowing children to connect more to their roots and traditions.

The Kalinga Ratna Award

The Kalinga Ratna Award is presented each year by the Sarala Sahitya Samsad to a recipient who has made significant contributions in the fields of education, literature, culture or public service. The recipient for the 2024 Kalinga Ratna Award, Dharmendra Pradhan,  was recognized for his dedication to reforms in the education system and for working to elevate Indian languages in education.

Other Honour

Also at the program, well-known short story writer Bijaya Nayak received the Sarala Samman, one of the prestigious state literary awards for his contribution to contemporary Odia literature.