• India’s first chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat, who died in a helicopter crash recently, and former Uttar Pradesh CM Kalyan Singh were awarded Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second-highest civilian award, posthumously.

• Indian classical vocalist Prabha Atre and the late Radheshyam Khemka, former chairman of Geeta Press, were also awarded Padma Vibhushan.

• The President approved conferment of 128 Padma Awards, including two duo cases, this year. In a duo case, the award is counted as one.

• The list comprises 4 Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 Padma Shri awards. As many as 34 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 10 persons from the category of foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 13 posthumous awardees.

• No names were announced for Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award, which was last awarded in 2019 to former President Pranab Mukherjee, social reformer Nanaji Deshmukh and noted singer Bhupen Hazarika. 

• Cyrus Poonawalla of the Serum Institute of India, which manufactured COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, and Krishna Ella and Suchitra Ella of Bharat Biotech, which produced India’s indigenous coronavirus vaccine Covaxin, were given Padma Bhushan.

• Veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and former West Bengal CM and CPM leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee were given Padma Bhushan.

• Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were conferred Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award.

• Late Punjabi folk singer Gurmeet Bawa, actor Victor Banerjee and former Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi have been awarded Padma Bhushan.

• Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra and singer Sonu Nigam were awarded Padma Shri.

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).

• 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.

Bharat Ratna

Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the country. It is awarded in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavour. It is treated on a different footing from Padma Award. The recommendations for Bharat Ratna are made by the Prime Minister to the President. No formal recommendations for Bharat Ratna are necessary. The number of Bharat Ratna Awards is restricted to a maximum of three in a particular year. 

When were the awards instituted?

• The government instituted two civilian awards - Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan in 1954. 

• Padma Vibhushan 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, Siddha, 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 award is normally not conferred posthumously. However, in highly deserving cases, the government could consider giving an award posthumously.

A higher category of Padma award can be conferred on a person only where a period of at least five years has elapsed since conferment of the earlier Padma award. However, in highly deserving cases, a relaxation can be made by the Awards Committee.

The awards are presented by the President usually in March/April in a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The awardees are presented a certificate signed by the President and a medallion.

The award does not amount to a title and cannot be used as a suffix or prefix to the awardees’ name.

This year’s awardees:

Padma Vibhushan

• Prabha Atre - Art - Maharashtra

• Radheyshyam Khemka (Posthumous) - Literature and Education - Uttar Pradesh

• General Bipin Rawat (Posthumous) - Civil Service - Uttarakhand

• Kalyan Singh (Posthumous) - Public Affairs - Uttar Pradesh

Padma Bhushan

• Ghulam Nabi Azad - Public Affairs - Jammu & Kashmir

• Victor Banerjee - Art - West Bengal

• Gurmeet Bawa (Posthumous) - Art - Punjab

• Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee - Public Affairs - West Bengal

• Natarajan Chandrasekaran - Trade and Industry - Maharashtra

• Krishna Ella and Suchitra Ella (Duo) - Trade and Industry - Telangana

• Madhur Jaffery - Others - Culinary - United States of America

• Devendra Jhajharia - Sports - Rajasthan

• Rashid Khan - Art - Uttar Pradesh

• Rajiv Mehrishi - Civil Service - Rajasthan

• Satya Narayana Nadella - Trade and Industry - United States of America

• Sundararajan Pichai - Trade and Industry - United States of America

• Cyrus Poonawalla - Trade and Industry - Maharashtra

• Sanjaya Rajaram (Posthumous) - Science and Engineering - Mexico

• Pratibha Ray - Literature and Education - Odisha

• Swami Sachidanand - Literature and Education - Gujarat

• Vashishth Tripathi - Literature and Education - Uttar Pradesh

Padma Shri

• Prahlad Rai Agarwala - Trade and Industry - West Bengal

• Prof. Najma Akhtar - Literature and Education - Delhi

• Sumit Antil - Sports - Haryana

• T. Senka Ao - Literature and Education - Nagaland

• Kamalini Asthana and Nalini Asthana (Duo) - Art - Uttar Pradesh

• Subbanna Ayyappan - Science and Engineering - Karnataka

• J.K. Bajaj - Literature and Education - Delhi

• Sirpi Balasubramaniam - Literature and Education - Tamil Nadu

• Srimad Baba Balia - Social Work - Odisha

• Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay - Science and Engineering - West Bengal

• Madhuri Barthwal - Art - Uttarakhand

• Akhone Asgar Ali Basharat - Literature and Education - Ladakh

• Dr. Himmatrao Bawaskar - Medicine - Maharashtra

• Harmohinder Singh Bedi - Literature and Education - Punjab

• Pramod Bhagat - Sports - Odisha

• S. Ballesh Bhajantri - Art - Tamil Nadu

• Khandu Wangchuk Bhutia - Art - Sikkim

• Maria Christopher Byrski - Literature and Education - Poland

• Acharya Chandanaji - Social Work - Bihar

• Sulochana Chavan - Art - Maharashtra

• Neeraj Chopra - Sports - Haryana

• Shakuntala Choudhary - Social Work - Assam

• Sankaranarayana Menon Chundayil - Sports - Kerala

• S. Damodaran - Social Work - Tamil Nadu

• Faisal Ali Dar - Sports - Jammu & Kashmir

• Jagjit Singh Dardi - Trade and Industry - Chandigarh

• Dr. Prokar Dasgupta - Medicine - United Kingdom

• Aditya Prasad Dash - Science and Engineering - Odisha

• Dr. Lata Desai - Medicine - Gujarat

• Maljibhai Desai - Public Affairs - Gujarat

• Basanti Devi - Social Work - Uttarakhand

• Lourembam Bino Devi - Art - Manipur

• Muktamani Devi - Trade and Industry - Manipur

• Shyamamani Devi - Art - Odisha

• Khalil Dhantejvi (Posthumous) - Literature and Education - Gujarat

• Savaji Bhai Dholakia - Social Work - Gujarat

• Arjun Singh Dhurve - Art - Madhya Pradesh

• Dr. Vijaykumar Vinayak Dongre - Medicine - Maharashtra

• Chandraprakash Dwivedi - Art - Rajasthan

• Dhaneswar Engti - Literature and Education - Assam

• Om Prakash Gandhi - Social Work - Haryana

• Narasimha Rao Garikapati - Literature and Education - Andhra Pradesh

• Girdhari Ram Ghonju (Posthumous) - Literature and Education - Jharkhand

• Shaibal Gupta (Posthumous) - Literature and Education - Bihar

• Narasingha Prasad Guru - Literature and Education - Odisha

• Gosaveedu Shaik Hassan (Posthumous) - Art - Andhra Pradesh

• Ryuko Hira - Trade and Industry - Japan

• Sosamma Iype - Others - Animal Husbandry - Kerala

• Avadh Kishore Jadia - Literature and Education - Madhya Pradesh

• Sowcar Janaki - Art - Tamil Nadu

• Tara Jauhar - Literature and Education - Delhi

• Vandana Kataria - Sports - Uttarakhand

• H.R. Keshavamurthy - Art - Karnataka

• Rutger Kortenhorst - Literature and Education - Ireland

• P. Narayana Kurup - Literature and Education - Kerala

• Avani Lekhara - Sports - Rajasthan

• Moti Lal Madan - Science and Engineering - Haryana

• Shivnath Mishra - Art - Uttar Pradesh

• Dr. Narendra Prasad Misra (Posthumous) - Medicine - Madhya Pradesh

• Darshanam Mogilaiah - Art - Telangana

• Guruprasad Mohapatra (Posthumous) - Civil Service - Delhi

• Thavil Kongampattu A V Murugaiyan - Art - Puducherry

• R. Muthukannammal - Art - Tamil Nadu

• Abdul Khader Nadakattin - Others - Grassroots Innovation - Karnataka

• Amai Mahalinga Naik - Others - Agriculture - Karnataka

• Tsering Namgyal - Art - Ladakh

• A.K.C. Natarajan - Art - Tamil Nadu

• V.L. Nghaka - Literature and Education - Mizoram

• Sonu Nigam - Art - Maharashtra

• Ram Sahay Panday - Art - Madhya Pradesh

• Chirapat Prapandavidya - Literature and Education - Thailand

• K.V. Rabiya - Social Work - Kerala

• Anil Kumar Rajvanshi - Science and Engineering - Maharashtra

• Sheesh Ram - Art - Uttar Pradesh

• Ramachandraiah - Art - Telangana

• Dr. Sunkara Venkata Adinarayana Rao - Medicine - Andhra Pradesh

• Gamit Ramilaben Raysingbhai - Social Work - Gujarat

• Padmaja Reddy - Art - Telangana

• Guru Tulku Rinpoche - Others - Spiritualism - Arunachal Pradesh

• Brahmanand Sankhwalkar - Sports - Goa

• Vidyanand Sarek - Literature and Education - Himachal Pradesh

• Kali Pada Saren - Literature and Education - West Bengal

• Dr. Veeraswamy Seshiah - Medicine - Tamil Nadu

• Prabhaben Shah - Social Work - Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu

• Dilip Shahani - Literature and Education - Delhi

• Ram Dayal Sharma - Art - Rajasthan

• Vishwamurti Shastri - Literature and Education - Jammu & Kashmir

• Tatiana Lvovna Shaumyan - Literature and Education - Russia

• Siddhalingaiah (Posthumous) - Literature and Education - Karnataka

• Kaajee Singh - Art - West Bengal

• Konsam Ibomcha Singh - Art - Manipur

• Prem Singh - Social Work - Punjab

• Seth Pal Singh - Others - Agriculture - Uttar Pradesh

• Vidya Vindu Singh - Literature and Education - Uttar Pradesh

• Baba Iqbal Singh - Social Work - Punjab

• Dr. Bhimsen Singhal - Medicine - Maharashtra

• Sivananda - Others - Yoga - Uttar Pradesh

• Ajay Kumar Sonkar - Science and Engineering - Uttar Pradesh

• Ajita Srivastava - Art - Uttar Pradesh

• Sadguru Brahmeshanand Acharya Swami - Others - Spiritualism - Goa

• Dr. Balaji Tambe (Posthumous) - Medicine - Maharashtra

• Raghuvendra Tanwar - Literature and Education - Haryana

• Dr. Kamlakar Tripathi - Medicine - Uttar Pradesh

• Lalita Vakil - Art - Himachal Pradesh

• Durga Bai Vyam - Art - Madhya Pradesh

• Jyantkumar Maganlal Vyas - Science and Engineering - Gujarat

• Badaplin War - Literature and Education - Meghalaya.

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