New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday presented the Padma awards to four foreigners and two persons of Indian-origin, including an India-born prominent hotelier of Japan, for their eminent contributions in their respective fields.
The President presented the Padma Shri to Dr Tatiana Shaumyan for Literature and Education. She is Head of the Centre for Indian Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. She is a specialist in India’s Foreign Policy and International Relations in Asian countries.
She has been presented the Padma award for her work on India, during her long stint at the Center of Indian Studies in the Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow. President Kovind presented the Padma Shri to Ryuko Hira for Trade and Industry.
President of HMI Hotel Group and Ora Group of companies Japan, he has encouraged Japanese investments in India. Ryuko Hira from Japan born in Jaipur as Kamlesh Punjabi. He is better known as Ryuko Hira, and the owner of HMI Hotel Group, which runs a chain of hotels and resorts in Japan.
He is also the Chairman of The Indian Commerce and Industry Association of Japan and has been instrumental in bringing a lot of investment opportunities in India. President Kovind presented the Padma Shri to Dr Chirapat Prapandvidya for Literature and Education.
A Thai Sanskrit scholar, he is a member of the Sanskrit Studies Centre, Silpakorn University, Bangkok. He is also President of Sanskrit Studies Foundation.
The President presented the Padma Shri to Rutger Kortenhorst for Literature and Education. He is a Sanskrit enthusiast, researcher and teacher in the John Scottus Schools, Dublin. He has been a pioneer in propagating Sanskrit in Ireland. British Indian Prof Prokar Dasgupta received the Padma Shri for Medicine.
A professor at King’s College London, he is a renowned surgeon-scientist, educator and has pioneered robotic surgery in urology. In 2010 and 2018 he was named one of the top ten prostate cancer surgeons in the United Kingdom by the Daily Mail.
President Kovind presented the Padma Shri to Maria Krzysztof Byrski for Literature and Education. Professor Emeritus at Warsaw University, he has taught Polish Indologists and has translated Manusmriti, Kamasutra and the dramas of Bhasa and Kalidasa in Polish language.
Byrski was the Polish ambassador to India from 1994 to 1996. His love for India began in 1955 when he was a student of Indian Studies at the University of Warsaw.
He later came to Banaras Hindu University (BHU), where his doctorate thesis was titled ‘Concept of Ancient Indian Theatre’.
As ambassador, he had his visiting card engraved in Devanagari script. In 1994, when he was invited to give the annual Parikshith Memorial lecture, in Kerala, Byrski spoke ex tempore in chaste Sanskrit for one hour, while all other Sanskrit scholars who spoke before him gave their speeches in Malayalam.Â
