Indian wins Rolex award for Enterprise

SINGAPORE: An Indian woman who revived Indian ethnic tradition and a Thai microbiologist who persuaded poachers into eco-protectors are among four people who received this year's Rolex award for Enterprise.

Chandra Shroff had set up a mobile resource centre to showcase Kutchi embroidery and teach a new generation of artisans about the tradition to revive an art that was into obsolescence.

Prof Pilai Poonswad, also known in Thailand as the 'Great mother of Hornbills' turned poachers and illegal loggers in south Thailand into protectors of the birds and their habitats.

Of the other two recipients, Alexandra Lavrillier, a French ethnologist established a mobile school to preserve Siberian nomads' cultural heritage.

Brad Norman, an Australian environmentalist had implemented a global photo-identification database for whale shark conservation.