Context: This year, Renowned Malayalam poet Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri was conferred the 55th edition of the Jnanpith Award.

About Poet Akkitham

• Akkitham is the sixth writer to bag the Jnanpith Award for Malayalam literature. In 1965, famous Malayalam writer G Sankara Kurup became the first winner of the Jnanpith Award.
• He is instrumental in heralding modernism in Malayalam poetry.
• He is the only living poet being called Mahakavi (great poet) in Malayalam.
• He has contributed seminal works such as Pathalathinte Muzhakkam, Irupatham Noottandinte Ithihasam, and Balidarshanam.
• His work Balidarshanam won the State and Central Sahitya Akademi Awards in 1972-73.
• He was awarded Padmashri in 2017.
• He has also been bestowed with Ezhuthachan Award (the highest literary honour of the Kerala government), Odakkuzhal Award (given to literary works in Malayalam), and several other honours.

About the award

• Jnanpith Award is India’s highest literary honour.
• Presented annually by the cultural organization Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their “outstanding contribution towards literature”.
• The Award is open for only Indian citizens.
• Instituted in 1961, the award is bestowed only on Indian writers writing in Indian languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India and English, with no posthumous conferral.
• The award carries cash prizeof 11 lakh rupees, a citation plaque and a bronze replica of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge and wisdom.
• In 2019, author Amitav Ghosh was felicitated with 54th Jnanpith Award.
• He became the first English language writer to become a Jnanpith laureate.

Note: The most recent recipient of the award is Malayalam poet and essayist Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri who was awarded for the year 2019.