Former Union ministers Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and George Fernandes, Olympian boxer Mary Kom and former Mauritius prime minister Anerood Jugnauth were among seven personalities awarded the Padma Vibhushan.

Famous classical bhajan singer from Varanasi Channulal Mishra and Vishveshateertha Swamiji, who passed away recently, have also been honoured with the Padma Vibhushan.

Former defence minister Manohar Parrikar, industrialists Anand Mahindra and Venu Shrinivasan, Olympian badminton player P.V. Sindhu, former Nagaland chief minister S.C. Jamir and Jammu & Kashmir politician Muzaffar Hussain Baig have been awarded  the Padma Bhushan.

This year, the President has approved conferment of 141 Padma awards, including four duo cases (in a duo case, the award is counted as one).

Sixteen people have been given the Padma Bhushan and 118 the Padma Shri.

Thirty four of the awardees are women and the list also includes 18 persons from the category of Foreigners / NRI / PIO / OCI and 12 posthumous awardees.

Padma awards

The Padma awards are one of the highest civilian honours of India announced annually on the eve of Republic Day.

The awards are given in three categories: Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service), Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of higher order) and Padma Shri (distinguished service).

The award seeks to recognise achievements in all fields of activities or disciplines where an element of public service is involved.

The Padma awards are conferred on the recommendations made by the Padma Awards Committee, which is constituted by the prime minister every year. The nomination process is open to the public. Even self-nomination can be made.

When was the awards instituted?

The government instituted two civilian awards - Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan in 1954. The latter had three classes namely Pahela Varg, Dusra Varg and Tisra Varg. These were subsequently renamed as Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.

The award seeks to recognise works of distinction and is given for distinguished and exceptional achievements / service in all fields of activities / disciplines.

The fields include…

* Art (includes music, painting, sculpture, photography, cinema and theatre)

* Social Work (includes social service, charitable service and community projects)

* Public Affairs (includes law, public life and politics)

* Science & Engineering (includes space engineering, nuclear science, information technology and research & development)

* Trade & Industry (includes banking, economic activities, management, promotion of tourism and business)

* Medicine (includes medical research, distinction / specialisation in Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Sidhha, Allopathy and Naturopathy)

* Literature & Education (includes journalism, teaching, book composing, literature, poetry, promotion of education and literacy, and education reforms)

* Civil Service (includes distinction / excellence in administration by government servants)

* Sports (includes popular sports, adventure, mountaineering and yoga)

* Others (fields not covered above and may include propagation of Indian culture, protection of human rights, wildlife protection and conservation).

The awards are presented by the President usually in March / April every year where the awardees are presented a certificate signed by the President and a medallion.

This year’s winners

Singers Suresh Wadkar and Adnan Sami, as well as veteran TV actor Sarita Joshi have been conferred with the Padma Shri.

Six sports persons including cricketer Zaheer Khan, Indian women’s hockey captain Rani Rampal, former Indian men’s hockey player M.P. Ganesh, shooter Jitu Rai, former Indian women’s football team captain Oinam Bembem Devi and archer Tarundeep Rai have been given the Padma Shri.

Naukri.com founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani, industrialist Bharat Goenka, technocrat Nemnath Jain have been conferred the Padma Shri.

There are 21 “unsung” heroes who were given the Padma Shri, including Jagdish Lal Ahuja, who serves free food to patients and attendants outside PGI Hospital in Chandigarh; Mohammed Sharif from Faizabad, who has performed the last rites of more than 25,000 unclaimed bodies and veterinarian from Assam Kushal Konwar Sarma, who is known for treating elephants.

Tulasi Gowda from Karnataka, who earned the sobriquet “encyclopedia of forests” because of her vast knowledge of diverse plants species in spite of lacking formal education, has also been given the award.

Sathyanarayan Mundayoor aka Uncle Moosa, who has been promoting education and reading culture in the remote areas of the Northeast; Abdul Jabbar aka ‘voice of Bhopal’, known for fighting for the cause of victims and survivor of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy; and Usha Chaumar, a Dalit social worker working in the field of sanitation in Rajasthan, have also been given the award.

List of winners

Padma Vibhushan

1. George Fernandes* - Public Affairs, Bihar

2. Arun Jaitley* - Public Affairs, Delhi

3. Anerood Jugnauth - Public Affairs, Mauritius

4. M.C. Mary Kom - Sports, Manipur

5. Chhannulal Mishra - Art, Uttar Pradesh

6. Sushma Swaraj* - Public Affairs, Delhi

7. Vishveshateertha Swamiji* - Spiritualism, Karnataka

Padma Bhushan

1. M. Mumtaz Ali (Sri M) - Spiritualism, Kerala

2. Syed Muazzem Ali* - Public Affairs, Bangladesh

3. Muzaffar Hussain Baig - Public Affairs, Jammu and Kashmir

4. Ajoy Chakravorty - Art, West Bengal

5. Manoj Das - Literature & Education, Puducherry

6. Balkrishna Doshi - Architecture, Gujarat

7. Krishnammal Jagannathan - Social Work, Tamil Nadu

8. S.C. Jamir - Public Affairs, Nagaland

9. Anil Prakash Joshi - Social Work, Uttarakhand

10. Tsering Landol - Medicine, Ladakh

11. Anand Mahindra - Trade and Industry, Maharashtra

12. N.R. Madhava Menon* - Public Affairs, Kerala

13. Manohar Parrikar* - Public Affairs, Goa

14. Jagdish Sheth - Literature & Education, US

15. P.V. Sindhu - Sports, Telangana

16. Venu Srinivasan - Trade and Industry, Tamil Nadu

Padma Shri

1. Guru Shashadhar Acharya - Art, Jharkhand

2. Yogi Aeron - Medicine, Uttarakhand

3. Jai Prakash Agarwal - Trade and Industry, Delhi

4. Jagdish Lal Ahuja - Social Work, Punjab

5. Kazi Masum Akhtar - Literature & Education, West Bengal

6. Gloria Arieira - Literature & Education, Brazil

7. Zaheer Khan - Sports, Maharashtra

8. Padmavathy Bandopadhyay - Medicine, Uttar Pradesh

9. Sushovan Banerjee - Medicine, West Bengal

10. Digambar Behera - Medicine, Chandigarh

11. Damayanti Beshra - Literature & Education, Odisha

12. Pawar Popatrao Bhaguji - Social Work, Maharashtra

13. Himmata Ram Bhambhu - Social Work, Rajasthan

14. Sanjeev Bikhchandani - Trade and Industry, Uttar Pradesh

15. Gafurbhai M. Bilakhia - Trade and Industry, Gujarat

16. Bob Blackman - Public Affairs, UK

17. Indira P.P. Bora - Art, Assam

18. Madan Singh Chauhan - Art, Chhattisgarh

19. Usha Chaumar - Social Work, Rajasthan

20. Lil Bahadur Chettri - Literature & Education, Assam

21. Lalitha & Saroja Chidambaram (Duo) - Art, Tamil Nadu

22. Vajira Chitrasena - Art, Sri Lanka

23. Purushottam Dadheech - Art, Madhya Pradesh

24. Utsav Charan Das - Art, Odisha

25. Indra Dassanayake* - Literature & Education, Sri Lanka

26. H.M. Desai - Literature & Education, Gujarat

27. Manohar Devadoss - Art, Tamil Nadu

28. Oinam Bembem Devi - Sports, Manipur

29. Lia Diskin - Social Work, Brazil

30. M.P. Ganesh - Sports, Karnataka

31. Bangalore Gangadhar - Medicine, Karnataka

32. Raman Gangakhedkar - Science & Engineering, Maharashtra

33. Barry Gardiner - Public Affairs, UK

34. Chewang Motup Goba - Trade and Industry, Ladakh

35. Bharat Goenka - Trade and Industry, Karnataka

36. Yadla Gopalarao - Art, Andhra Pradesh

37. Mitrabhanu Gountia - Art, Odisha

38. Tulasi Gowda - Social Work, Karnataka

39. Sujoy K. Guha - Science & Engineering, Bihar

40. Harekala Hajabba - Social Work, Karnataka

41. Enamul Haque - Archaeology, Bangladesh

42. Madhu Mansuri Hasmukh - Art, Jharkhand

43. Abdul Jabbar* - Social Work, Madhya Pradesh

44. Bimal Kumar Jain - Social Work, Bihar

45. Meenakshi Jain - Literature & Education, Delhi

46. Nemnath Jain - Trade and Industry, Madhya Pradesh

47. Shanti Jain - Art, Bihar

48. Sudhir Jain - Science and Engineering, Gujarat

49. Benichandra Jamatia - Literature & Education, Tripura

50. K.V. Sampath Kumar & Vidushi Jayalakshmi K.S (Duo) - Literature & Education, Karnataka

51. Karan Johar - Art, Maharashtra

52. Leela Joshi - Medicine, Madhya Pradesh

53. Sarita Joshi - Art, Maharashtra

54. C. Kamlova - Literature and Education, Mizoram

55. Ravi Kannan - Medicine, Assam

56. Ekta Kapoor - Art, Maharashtra

57. Yazdi Naoshirwan Karanjia - Art, Gujarat

58. Narayan J. Joshi Karayal - Literature & Education, Gujarat

59. Narindar Nath Khanna - Medicine, Uttar Pradesh

60. Naveen Khanna - Science and Engineering, Delhi

61. S.P. Kothari - Literature & Education, US

62. V.K. Munusamy - Art, Puducherry

63. M.K. Kunjol - Social Work, Kerala

64. Manmohan Mahapatra* - Art, Odisha

65. Ustad Anwar Khan Mangniyar - Art, Rajasthan

66. Kattungal Subramaniam Manilal - Science and Engineering, Kerala

67. Munna Master - Art, Rajasthan

68. Abhiraj Rajendra Mishra - Literature & Education, Himachal Pradesh

69. Binapani Mohanty - Literature & Education, Odisha

70. Arunoday Mondal - Medicine, West Bengal

71. Prithwindra Mukherjee - Literature & Education, France

72. Sathyanarayan Mundayoor - Social Work, Arunachal Pradesh

73. Manilal Nag - Art, West Bengal

74. N. Chandrasekharan Nair - Literature & Education, Kerala

75. Tetsu Nakamura* - Social Work, Afghanistan

76. Shiv Datt Nirmohi - Literature & Education, Jammu and Kashmir

77. Pu Lalbiakthanga Pachuau - Literature & Education, Mizoram

78. Moozhikkal Pankajakshi - Art, Kerala

79. Prasanta Kumar Pattanaik - Literature & Education, US

80. Jogendra Nath Phukan - Literature & Education, Assam

81. Rahibai Soma Popere - Agriculture,    Maharashtra

82. Yogesh Praveen - Literature & Education, Uttar Pradesh

83. Jitu Rai - Sports, Uttar Pradesh

84. Tarundeep Rai - Sports, Sikkim

85. S. Ramakrishnan - Social Work, Tamil Nadu

86. Rani Rampal - Sports, Haryana

87. Kangana Ranaut - Art, Maharashtra

88. Dalavai Chalapathi Rao - Art, Andhra Pradesh

89. Shahbuddin Rathod - Literature & Education, Gujarat

90. Kalyan Singh Rawat - Social Work, Uttarakhand

91. Chintala Venkat Reddy - Agriculture, Telangana

92. Shanti Roy - Medicine, Bihar

93. Radha Mohan & Sabarmatee (Duo) - Agriculture, Odisha

94. Batakrushna Sahoo - Animal Husbandry, Odisha

95. Trinity Saioo - Agriculture, Meghalaya

96. Adnan Sami - Art, Maharashtra

97. Vijay Sankeshwar - Trade and Industry, Karnataka

98. Kushal Konwar Sarma - Medicine, Assam

99. Sayed Mehboob Shah Qadri - Social Work, Maharashtra

100. Mohammed Sharif - Social Work, Uttar Pradesh

101. Shyam Sunder Sharma - Art, Bihar

102. Gurdip Singh - Medicine, Gujarat

103. Ramjee Singh - Social Work, Bihar

104. Vashishtha Narayan Singh* - Science and Engineering, Bihar

105. Daya Prakash Sinha - Art, Uttar Pradesh

106. Sandra Desa Souza - Medicine, Maharashtra

107. Vijayasarathi Sribhashyam - Literature & Education, Telangana

108. K.S. Mahaboob & S.M. Subani (Duo) - Art, Tamil Nadu

109. Javed Ahmad Tak - Social Work, Jammu and Kashmir

110. Pradeep Thalappil - Science and Engineering, Tamil Nadu

111. Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi - Literature & Education, Arunachal Pradesh

112. Robert Thurman - Literature & Education, US

113. Agus Indra Udayana - Social Work, Indonesia

114. Harish Chandra Verma - Science and Engineering, Uttar Pradesh

115. Sundaram Verma - Social Work, Rajasthan

116. Romesh Tekchand Wadhwani - Trade and Industry, US

117. Suresh Wadkar - Art, Maharashtra

118. Prem Watsa - Trade and Industry, Canada

(*Posthumous)

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