Tagore Award for Zubin

One crore rupees, a citation in a scroll, a plaque as well as an exquisite traditional handicraft or handloom item comprise the Tagore Award for cultural harmony. The award conferred on maestro Zubin Mehta this year is open to all persons regardless of nationality, race, language, caste, creed or gender, mentioned The Free Press Journal, while reporting the event in its edition dated July 11, 2013.

Zubin Mehta: fostering communal harmony

The annual award was instituted by the Government of India during the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Rabindranath Tagore. Mehta was unanimously selected for the award by a four-member jury led by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and comprising the then Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir, leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to communal harmony, as per a statement issued by the Culture Ministry. The first recipient of the award was Pandit Ravi Shankar in 2012.
Mehta has also been in the news for another reason. On July 3, 2013, the Maharashtra state revenue department waived entertainment tax for his "Concert for Peace” scheduled to be held in Bombay on September 9 and 10, 2013. "The issue was pending before the government. The exemption has been granted on the basis of an undertaking by the organizers that the revenue generated from the event will be utilized exclusively for the cause of music and charity,” additional chief secretary (revenue) Swadheen Kshatriya informed The Times of India (TOI) of July 4.
In 2011 Mehta had said he may not perform in Bombay because of the heavy entertainment tax levied on his concerts which limited the organizers garnering funds for charity. The Mehli Mehta Music Foundation, named after his father who was a violinist and founding conductor of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra, had moved the court in 2011 against the imposition of the tax on Zubin’s concert, but was denied relief. The funds raised from that concert were to be used solely for western classical music education in the city, they had contended, reported TOI.
Taking "note of Mehta’s sentiments,” a senior bureaucrat said, "We felt the decision to be most appropriate for the Mumbai-born artiste” referring to the tax waiver for the September concert. However, the organizers would have to submit a statement of expenses and utilization of funds generated and "if it is found that the amount was not utilized for the cause mentioned in the affidavit, the organizers will be liable to be punished as per the law. The exemption will only be for the September event,” the official specified.