Ramon Magsaysay Award

The Ramon Magsaysay award was established in April, 1957. This award was created to commemorate Ramon Magsaysay, the late president of Philippines. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is Asia’s premier prize and highest honour.

The Award is presented in formal ceremonies in Manila, Philippines on August 31st, the birth anniversary of the much-esteemed Philippines President whose ideals inspired the Award’s creation. This award is given in 6 categories.

These categories are:

1. Government services (GS)

2. Public services (PS)

3. Community leadership(CL)

4. Journalism, literature & creative communication arts (JLCCA)

5. Peace and International Understanding (PIU)

6. Emergent leadership (EL)

From the year 2009, The Ramon Magsaysay award foundation has done away with the practice of awarding the award in the above six categories.

Ramon Magsaysay Award 2019 winner

India's Ravish Kumar (Journalist) Thailand’s Angkhana Neelapajit (human rights activist), Philippines’ Raymundo Pujante Cayabyab (musician), Myanmar’s Ko Swe Win (journalist), South Korea’s Kim Jong-Ki, an activist working on violence and mental health issues in youth.

List of Indian Recipients of Ramon Magsaysay Award-

Name Year Awarded Category Vinobha Bhave 1958 Community Leadership Chintaman Deshmukh 1959 Government Services Amitabha Chowdhury 1961 Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts Mother Teresa 1962 Peace and International Understanding Dara Khurody 1963 Community Leadership Verghese Kurien 1963 Community Leadership Tribhuvandas Patel 1963 Community Leadership Welthy Fisher 1964 Peace and International Understanding Jayaprakash Narayan 1965 Public Service Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay 1966 Community Leadership Satyajit Ray 1967 Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts Moncompu Sambasivan Swaminathan 1971 Community Leadership M.S. Subbalakshmi 1974 Public Service Boobli George Verghese 1975 Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts Henning Holck-Larsen 1976 Peace and International Understanding Ela Ramesh Bhatt 1977 Community Leadership Mabelle Arole 1979 Community Leadership Rajanikant Arole 1979 Community Leadership Gour Kishore Gosh 1981 Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts Pramod Karan Sethi 1981 Community Leadership Chandi Prasad Bhatt 1982 Community Leadership Manibhai Desai 1982 Public Service Arun Shourie 1982 Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts Rasipuram Lakshman 1984 Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts Muralidhar Amte 1985 Public Service Lakshmi Chand Jain 1989 Public Service K.V. Subbanna 1991 Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts Ravi Shankar 1992 Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts Banoo Jehangir Coyaji 1993 Public Service Kiran Bedi 1994 Government Services Pandurang Athavale 1996 Community leadership Tirunellai Seshan 1996 Government Services Maheshweta Devi 1997 Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts Jockin Arputham 2000 Peace and International Understanding Aruna Roy 2000 Community Leadership Rajendra Singh 2001 Community Leadership Sandeep Pandey 2002 Emergent Leadership James Michael Lyngdoh 2003 Government Services Shantha Sinha 2003 Government Services Lakshminarayan Ramdas 2004 Peace and International Understanding V. Shantha 2005 Public Service Arvind Kejriwal 2006 Emergent Leadership Palagummi Sainath 2007 Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts Mandakini Amte, Mr. Prakash Amte 2008 Community Leadership Community Leadership Deep Joshi 2009 Community Leadership Neelima Mishra 2011 Emergent Leadership Harish Hande 2011 Community Leadership Kulandei Francis 2012 Emergent Leadership Anshu Gupta & Sanjiv Chaturvedi 2015 Emergent Leadership Bezwada Wilson, Thodur Madabusi Krishna 2016 Human rights activist, Carnatic music Bharat Vatwani, Sonam Wangchuk 2018 Restoring health and dignity to troubled lives Education for community progress Ravish Kumar 2019 Journalist (“Prime Time” show on NDTV)

The latest Ramon Magsaysay Awardee Ravish Kumar got this award in appreciation of his TV show "Prime Time" programme “deals with real-life, under-reported problems of ordinary people”.

Satyajit Ray has also been awarded this award in 1967 in the area of Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts.

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