Why in News:

• The Sahitya Akademi announced its awards for 2021.

About the awards

• The Sahitya Akademi award is considered as the Government of India’s second-highest literary honour, following the Jnanpith prize. The Akademi is under the central government’s Ministry of Culture, but works as an autonomous institution.
• Every year since its inception in 1954(and first awarded in 1955), the Sahitya Akademi Award prizes to the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the major Indian languages recognised by the Akademi.
• Akademi bestows 24 prizes on literary works in the languages it has recognised, as well as an equal number of honours for literary translations from and into Indian languages.
• In addition to the 22 languages listed in the Indian Constitution, the Sahitya Akademi has designated English and Rajasthani as the languages chosen.
  • The most recent additions were Bodo and Santhali in 2005.
  • Awards in English began in 1960 — the first recipient was R K Narayan for his novel The Guide.

Conditions of bestowing the award

• The author must be of Indian origin.
• The book/work must be an excellent contribution to the language and literature
• When two or more works have similar worth, specific factors such as overall literary contribution and author status must be considered before awarding a prize.

 References:

1. http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/awards/akademi_awards.jsp
2. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/writers-protest-what-returning-sahitya-akademi-honour-means/
3. http://sahitya-akademi.org.in/?page_id=5601
4. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/sahitya-akademi-announces-awards-in-20-languages/article38073568.ece