Imphal: Padma Awards, one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, have been announced Monday. Padma Awards are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, late singer S P Balasubrahmanyam, eminent cardiologist from Karnataka Belle Monappa Hegde, archaeologist B B Lal and father of fibre optics late Narinder Singh Kapany are among seven people who were chosen for the Padma Vibhushan on the eve of Republic Day.
Manipur’s octogenarian entrepreneur Radhe Devi, popularly known as ‘Potloi Setpi’ (wedding dresser) and Tangkhul folk singer Rewben Mashangva were also chosen for Padma Shri among 102.
Spiritual leader Maulana Wahiduddin Khan and Odiya artist Sudarshan Sahoo were also chosen for Padma Vibhushan. The illustrious Kannada writer Chandrashekhar Kambar, former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and former Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan, were three of ten people chosen for Padma Bhushan.
The Padma Bhushan list was dominated by politicians, including former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and former Gujarat Chief Minister late Keshubhai Patel.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s former Principal Secretary Nripendra Mishra, the chairman of the committee for the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya also find his name in the Padma Bhushan list.
Well-known singer K S Chitra, who sang in all south Indian languages and Hindi among others, Shia leader late Kalbe Sadiq, industrialist Rajnikant Devidas Shroff, the founder of United Phosphorus Limited and hailed as India’s ‘Crop Protection King, and Tarlochan Singh were also chosen for Padma Bhushan.
This year, the President has approved conferment of 119 Padma awards, including one duo case (in a duo case, the Award is counted as one). The list also includes 102 Padma Shri awards. Twenty-nine of the awardees are women while 10 are from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI, 16 posthumous awardees and one transgender awardee.
Besides Hegde and Kambar, who won the top two Padma awards, there are three more winners from Karnataka. Artiste Matha B Manjamma Jogati, an applied mathematician and Electrical engineering professor Rangasami L Kashyap and para-sportsperson K Y Venkatesh.
Here is the full list of awardees: https://bit.ly/3r3nANt