By TwoCircles.net staff reporter

New Delhi : A Persian and six Urdu scholars have been conferred Ghalib Awards for their contribution to the
growth of the languages. Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari presented the awards here Friday while inaugurating the four-day International Ghalib Seminar on Iqbal: The Poet of Asia's Awakening.

Prof Akbar Hyderi (Urdu) and Prof Waris Kirmani (Persian) were conferred Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Ghalib Awards for criticism and research in Urdu.

Script writer Javed Siddiqi was given the award for Urdu drama while story writer Balraj Manra got the award for Urdu prose.

Sham-ul-Islam Farooqui received the award for popularising science in Urdu. Zubair Razvi was selected for the award for his literary services.

The seminar started with the recitation of the poems composed by the Poet of the East, Allama Iqbal.

The seminar is being attended by scholars from USA, Britain, Canada, Iran and Pakistan.