Every year, the Padma award winners are announced on the eve of Republic Day, and this year was no different. The Padma awardee list was announced late Monday evening. Although Bollywood has no recipients this year, late playback legend SP Balasubramanyam has been honoured posthumusly with Padma Vibhushan. He is the only name from the entertainment industry among seven names who are recipients of the second-highest civil honour. Carnatic singer Chithra has been awarded Padma Bhushan, third highest honour while singer Bombay Jayashri Ramnath has been awarded with Padma Shri.
For those unversed with the Padma Awards, they happen to be one of the highest civilian awards and are given in three categories, viz Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri. The Awardees are chosen from different fields of activities including art, social work, public affairs, science, medicine, literature, and education, etc.
The Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday announced the awards that include seven Padma Vibhushan awards, 10 Padma Bhushan awards, and 102 Padma Shri awards. This time, 29 of the awardees are women and the list includes 10 persons from the category of foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI, 16 posthumous awardees and one transgender award winner.
Late Bala Subrahmanyam was popular as SPB or Balu in the movie world, had recorded over 40,000 songs in 16 languages over a period of five decades. He died on September 25 in Chennai. He was 74. Balasubrahmanyam was on life support measures since Aug 14 for severe Covid-19 pneumonia.
He has won six National Awards as Best Male Playback Singer for his works in four different languages -- Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. He has been a recipient of Padma Shri in 2001 and Padma Bhushan in 2011.
The Padma Vibhushan is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service, the Padma Bhushan for distinguished service of high order, and the Padma Shri for distinguished service in any field.
The awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March or April every year.
-With IANS inputs
