CSE receives 2018 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development

The award was presented here on Tuesday by former Vice President of India, Mohammad Hamid Ansari.

According to the international jury which decided on the recipient of the 2018 prize, CSE has been awarded for “its pioneering work over almost four decades in environmental education and protection, for its steadfast advocacy of measures to combat environmental deterioration, for its success in influencing public policies and programmes that have benefitted social and economic development in India, and for keeping the issue of environmental sustainability at the forefront of national attention and public policy.”

Past recipients of this award include illustrious personalities and institutions like Mikhail Gorbachev, general secretary of the Communist Party of the (then) Soviet Union (1987); Gro Harlem Brundtland, prime minister of Norway (1988); the UNICEF (1989); Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic (1993); Jimmy Carter, former president of the US (1997); UN and its secretary-general Kofi Annan (2003); Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany (2013); and the Indian Space Research Organisation (2014). The 2017 Prize had gone to former Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh.

Receiving the prize on behalf of CSE, its director general SunitaNarain said: “My colleagues and I accept this prize with gratitude, but also with the awareness that so much more needs to be done. All our work, all our efforts must add up – we have to make a difference in this increasing climate change-risked and insecure world. Your recognition will give us the courage to persist. But more importantly, it underscores the imperative of action. Urgent action.”