Dr. Maxine Berntsen Honoured with Majha Sanman Krutadnyata Puraskar 2014

Dr. Maxine Berntsen, the founder of Pragat Shikshan Sanstha was honoured with the prestigious ABP Majha Sanman Puraskar 2014. In a ceremony organised in Mumabi on 26 June, this award was presented to Dr. Berntsen from the hands of Hon. Chief Minister, Maharashtra Shri. Prithviraj Chavan and Hon. Union Surface Transport Minister Shri. Nitin Gadkari.

Dr. Berntsen has done her Ph.D. in linguistics and Indian languages at the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation was on social variation in the Marathi speech of Phaltan, a taluka town in Western Maharashtra.

In addition to doing her linguistic research Dr. Berntsen collaborated with her friend Jai Nimbkar in writing a series of nine books, including a reference grammar and a dictionary, to teach Marathi to adult non-Maharashtrians.

After starting the work of Pragat Shikshan Santha in 1978, Dr. Berntsen began advocating regional language as the medium of education through her articles and speeches. She is also one of the founder members of Marathi Abhyas Parishad.

ABP Majha, a renowned Marathi news channel has been giving this award since 2010 to distinguished people in the areas of art, sports, science, language, social work, economics and industry. This year along with Dr. Berntsen, Ramdas Padhye, Baba Kalyani, Ravindra and Smita Kolhe, Tanuja, Sachin Pilgaokar and Sandip Patil also got this award.

This award programme will be broadcasted on ABP Majha on Saturday, 5 July at 7 pm.