Prez Murmu presents Padma Awards
New Delhi: Former chief of Suzuki Motor late Osamu Suzuki, late singer Pankaj Udhas, former Bihar deputy chief minister late Sushil Kumar Modi, and publisher of Tamil daily Dinamalar, Lakshmipathy Ramasubbaiyer, were among the 71 prominent personalities conferred with Padma awards by President Droupadi Murmu on Monday.
Altogether 139 distinguished persons were named for the country's civilian awards -- Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri -- on the eve of the 76th Republic Day on January 25. While 71 of them were given the awards at the Rashtrapati Bhavan's majestic Durbar Hall on Monday in the presence of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, among others, the remaining will be conferred with the decorations at a separate function to be held soon.
Veteran actor-director Shekhar Kapur, cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin, hockey player P R Sreejesh, chairman of Asian Institute of Gastroenterology and AIG Hospitals, D Nageshwar Reddy, violinist Lakshminarayana Subramaniam and Telugu superstar Nandamuri Balakrishna, also known as Balayya, were the other prominent persons conferred with the Padma awards by Murmu.
Among the awardees, four received Padma Vibhushan -- Suzuki (Posthumous), Subramaniam, Reddy and Malayalam author and film director M T Vasudevan Nair (Posthumous). A total of 10 distinguished personalities were conferred with Padma Bhushan. They include Udhas (Posthumous), Sushil Kumar Modi (Posthumous), Balakrishna, Kapur, Sreejesh, Tamil actor S Ajith Kumar, chairperson of Zydus Lifesciences, Pankaj Patel, and Vinod Dham, an Indian-American engineer, who is widely known as the 'Father of the Pentium'.
As many as 57 prominent personalities were conferred with Padma Shri. These include former chairperson of the State Bank of India, Arundhati Bhattacharya, industrialist Pawan Kumar Goenka, wildlife researcher and Marathi author Maruti Bhujangrao Chitampalli, who gave unique dictionaries on birds, animals and trees, and master puppeteer Bhimavva Doddabalappa Shillekyathara, who was one of the first women to practise Togalu Gombeyaata (leather puppetry) art form.
Former AIIMS and SGPGI director A K Mahapatra and Punjabi singer Jaspinder Narula Kaul were also given Padma Shri.
This year, the Padma awards were given to 30 unsung heroes, including 100-year-old Libia Lobo Sardesai, who played an important role in Goa's freedom movement. She co-founded an underground radio station -- 'Voz da Liberdabe (Voice of Freedom)' -- in a forested area in 1955 to rally people against Portuguese rule.
The awards are given in various disciplines and fields such as art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports and civil service, among others. Padma Vibhushan is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; Padma Bhushan for distinguished service of high order, and Padma Shri for distinguished service in any field.
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