The government today announced the list of people who will be conferred with Padma Awards - one of the highest civilian Awards in the country.
The list includes Nonogenarian Bhakti Yadav, popularly known as "Doctor Dadi" from Indore, captain of Indian cricket team of blind Shekhar Naik, Dipa Karmakar, who finished fourth in artistic gymnastics at Rio Olympics last year and gold medallist at Rio Paralympics Mariyappan Thangavelu.
Indian Cricket team captain Virat Kohli, singer Kailash Kher, former Union Minister Sharad Pawar and senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi are among the awardees.
The focus of this year's Padma awards, according to the officials in the Home Ministry, was on recognising talent of unknown and unsung heroes of the country.
The Padma Awards are conferred in three categories- Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.
This year, Padma Vibhushan will be given to seven people while Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri will be bestowed upon seven and 75 eminent personalities respectively.
19 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 5 persons from the category of foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and 6 Posthumous awardees.
The Awards are given in various disciplines or fields of activities such as art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc.
"‘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," a statement by the government said.
The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.
These awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March or April every year.
Here is the full list of Padma awardees:
Padma Vibhushan
1. Shri K J Yesudas, Art-Music, Kerala
2. Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Others-Spiritualism, Tamil Nadu
3. Shri Sharad Pawar, Public Affairs, Maharashtra
4. Shri Murli Manohar Joshi, Public Affairs, Uttar Pradesh
5. Prof. Udipi Ramachandra Rao, Science & Engineering, Karnataka
6. Late Shri Sunder Lal Patwa (Posthumous), Public Affairs, Madhya Pradesh
7. Late Shri PA Sangma (Posthumous), Public Affairs, Meghalaya
Padma Bhushan
8. Shri Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Art-Music, Rajasthan
9. Prof. (Dr.) Devi Prasad Dwivedi, Literature & Education, Uttar Pradesh
10. Shri Tehemton Udwadia, Medicine, Maharashtra
11. Shri Ratna Sundar Maharaj, Others-Spiritualism, Gujarat
12. Swami Niranjana Nanda Saraswati, Others-Yoga, Bihar
13. H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn (Foreigner), Literature & Education, Thailand
14. Late Shri Cho Ramaswamy (Posthumous), Literature & Education-Journalism, Tamil Nadu
Padma Shri
15. Smt. Basanti Bisht, Art-Music, Uttarakhand
16. Shri Chemanchery Kunhiraman Nair, Art-Dance, Kerala
17. Smt. Aruna Mohanty, Art-Dance, Odisha
18. Smt. Bharathi Vishnuvardhan, Art-Cinema, Karnataka
19. Shri Sadhu Meher, Art-Cinema, Odisha
20. Shri T K Murthy, Art-Music, Tamil Nadu
21. Shri Laishram Birendrakumar Singh, Art-Music, Manipur
22. Shri Krishna Ram Chaudhary, Art-Music, Uttar Pradesh
23. Smt. Baoa Devi, Art-Painting, Bihar
24. Shri Tilak Gitai, Art-Painting, Rajasthan
25. Dr. Prof. Aekka Yadagiri Rao, Art-Sculpture, Telangana
26. Shri Jitendra Haripal, Art-Music, Odisha
27. Shri Kailash Kher, Art-Music, Maharashtra
28. Smt. Parassala B Ponnammal, Art-Music, Kerala
29. Smt. Sukri Bommagowda, Art-Music, Karnataka
30. Shri Mukund Nayak, Art-Music, Jharkhand
31. Shri Purushottam Upadhyay, Art-Music, Gujarat
32. Smt. Anuradha Paudwal, Art-Music, Maharashtra
33. Shri Wareppa Naba Nil, Art-Theatre, Manipur
34. Shri Tripuraneni Hanuman Chowdary, Civil Service, Telangana
35. Shri T.K. Viswanathan, Civil Service, Haryana
36. Shri Kanwal Sibal, Civil Service, Delhi
37. Shri Birkha Bahadur Limboo Muringla, Literature & Education, Sikkim
38. Smt. Eli Ahmed, Literature & Education, Assam
39. Dr. Narendra Kohli, Literature & Education, Delhi
40. Prof. G. Venkatasubbiah, Literature & Education, Karnataka
41. Shri Akkitham Achyuthan Namboothiri, Literature & Education, Kerala
42. Shri Kashi Nath Pandita, Literature & Education, Jammu & Kashmir
43. Shri Chamu Krishna Shastry, Literature & Education, Delhi
44. Shri Harihar Kripalu Tripathi, Literature & Education, Uttar Pradesh
45. Shri Michel Danino, Literature & Education, Tamil Nadu
46. Shri Punam Suri, Literature & Education, Delhi
47. Shri VG Patel, Literature & Education, Gujarat
48. Smt. V Koteswaramma, Literature & Education, Andhra Pradesh
49. Shri Balbir Dutt, Literature & Education-Journalism, Jharkhand
50. Smt. Bhawana Somaaya, Literature & Education-Journalism, Maharashtra
51. Shri Vishnu Pandya, Literature & Education-Journalism, Gujarat
52. Dr. Subroto Das, Medicine, Gujarat
53. Dr. (Smt.) Bhakti Yadav, Medicine, Madhya Pradesh
54. Dr. Mohammed Abdul Waheed, Medicine, Telangana
55. Dr. Madan Madhav Godbole, Medicine, Uttar Pradesh
56. Dr. Devendra Dayabhai Patel, Medicine, Gujarat
57. Prof. Harkishan Singh, Medicine, Chandigarh
58. Dr. Mukut Minz, Medicine, Chandigarh
59. Shri Arun Kumar Sharma, Others-Archaeology, Chhattisgarh
60. Shri Sanjeev Kapoor, Others-Culinary, Maharashtra
61. Smt. Meenakshi Amma, Others-Martial Art, Kerala
62. Shri Genabhai Dargabhai Patel, Others-Agriculture, Gujarat
63. Shri Chandrakant Pithawa, Science & Engineering, Telangana
64. Prof Ajoy Kumar Ray, Science & Engineering, West Bengal
65. Shri Chintakindi Mallesham, Science & Engineering, Andhra Pradesh
66. Shri Jitendra Nath Goswami, Science & Engineering, Assam
67. Shri Daripalli Ramaiah, Social Work, Telangana
68. Shri Girish Bhardwaj, Social Work, Karnataka
69. Shri Karimul Hak, Social Work, West Bengal
70. Shri Bipin Ganatra, Social Work, West Bengal
71. Smt. Nivedita Raghunath Bhide, Social work, Tamil Nadu
72. Shri Appasaheb Dharmadhikari, Social Work, Maharashtra
73. Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal, Social Work, Punjab
74. Shri Virat Kohli, Sports-Cricket, Delhi
75. Shri Shekar Naik, Sports-Cricket, Karnataka
76. Shri Vikasa Gowda, Sports-Discus Throw, Karnataka
77. Smt. Deepa Malik, Sports-Athletics, Haryana
78. Shri Mariyappan Thangavelu, Sports-Athletics, Tamil Nadu
79. Smt. Dipa Karmakar, Sports-Gymnastics, Tripura
80. Shri P R Shreejesh, Sports-Hockey, Kerala
81. Smt. Sakshi Malik, Sports Wrestling, Haryana
82. Shri Mohan Reddy, Venkatrama Bodanapu Trade & Industry, Telangana
83. Shri Imrat Khan (NRI/PIO), Art-Music, USA
84. Shri Anant Agarwal (NRI/PIO), Literature & Education, USA
85. Shri H.R. Shah (NRI/PIO), Literature & Education-Journalism, USA
86. Late (Smt.) Suniti Solomon (Posthumous), Medicine, Tamil Nadu
87. Shri Asoke Kumar Bhattacharyya (Posthumous), Others-Archaeology, West Bengal
88. Dr. Mapuskar (Posthumous), Social Work, Maharashtra
89. Smt. Anuradha Koirala (Foreigner), Social Work, Nepal
