Superstar in Top Padma League
NEW DELHI: Actor Rajinikanth, prominent cancer specialist Dr Viswanathan Shanta, spiritual guru Shri Shri Ravi Shankar, classical dancer Yamini Krishnamurthi, classical vocalist Girija Devi, media baron Ramoji Rao and founder of Reliance empire late Dhirubhai Ambani are among the 10 Padma Vibhushan awardees this year. Padma Vibhushan is the country’s second highest civilian honour.
Film actor Anupam Kher, former CAG Vinod Rai, chairperson of the Andhra Pradesh Hindi Academy,
Dr Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad, well-known architect Hafeez Contractor, former US ambassador Robert Blackwill, tennis star Sania Mirza, shuttler Saina Nehwal and playback singer Udit Narayan are among the 19 Padma Bhushan Awardees.
Bollywood actors Priyanka Chopra and Ajay Devgan, public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam and social activist Madeleine Herman de Blic will get the Padma Shri.
In all, the government announced conferment of 112 Padma awards comprising 10 Padma Vibhushan, 19 Padma Bhushan and 83 Padma Shri.
As many as 19 of the awardees are women and the list includes 10 foreigners, NRIs and PIOs (including one posthumous) and four posthumous awardees.
Former Jammu and Kashmir governor Jagmohan, ex-DRDO chief V K Aatre and Indian-American economist Avinash Dixit have also been named for Padma Vibhushan. Swami Tejomayananda, late Swami Dayanand Saraswati, industrialist Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry, media head Indu Jain, artist Ram V Sutar, Dr Venkata Rama Rao Alla have been awarded the Padma Bhushan. Awardees in both the categories of Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan are from a mix of art, literature, science, industry and spiritualism.
Chinese yoga icon Zhang Hui Lan also known as Wai Lana has been awarded Padma Shri by the Modi government for her immense contribution to yoga on the global platform. Another international yoga master Predrag Nikic, president of Yoga Federation of Serbia and international advisor of European Yoga Council of International Yoga Federation, will also get Padma Shri.
A S Banga, president and chief executive officer of MasterCard, and chairman of the US-India Business Council and entrepreneur-turned-teacher Salman ‘Sal’ Khan will be given the Padma Shri award. In all, 18 Padma Shri awards have been given to personalities from different streams of art. Besides Priyanka Chopra and Ajay Devgan, Padma Shri has been awarded to movie makers Madhur Bhandarkar, Nila Madhab Panda, S S Rajamouli, classical dancer Pratibha Prahlad, classical vocalist Soma Ghosh, folk artist Prof M Venkatesh Kumar, classical musician from Goa Tulsidas Borkar, painter K Laxma Goud and folk singer Malini Awasthi.
Adman Piyush Pandey and late actor Saeed Jaffrey have been awarded Padma Shri. Nine Padma Shri awards have been given in literature and education category, 16 in medicine, four in public affairs, six in science and engineering and nine in social work.
These awards are conferred by the President at ceremonial functions held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March-April every year.
112 awardees
President Pranab Mukherjee has approved conferment of Padma Awards on 112 people