President Droupadi Murmu presented Padma Awards to 71 of 139 recipients at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Durbar Hall.
The awards honoured contributions across fields and were attended by top leaders including PM Modi, Vice-President Dhankhar, and Home Minister Shah.
Padma Vibhushan (2nd highest civilian honour) was awarded to 4 people:
Posthumously: Osamu Suzuki (Suzuki Motor), M.T. Vasudevan Nair (Malayalam writer-director)
In person: D. Nageshwar Reddy (gastroenterologist), Lakshminarayana Subramaniam (violinist)
Padma Bhushan was awarded to 10 personalities including:
Shekhar Kapur (film director), Pankaj Udhas (singer), Sushil Kumar Modi (former Bihar Dy. CM)
Nandamuri Balakrishna (Telugu actor), Ajith Kumar (Tamil actor), Vinod Dham (Pentium chip pioneer)
Pankaj Patel (Zydus Lifesciences), P.R. Sreejesh (former hockey player)
Padma Shri went to 57 recipients including:
Lakshmipathy Ramasubbaiyer (publisher, Dinamalar), Arundhati Bhattacharya (ex-SBI Chairperson),
Pawan Goenka (industrialist), Maruti Chitampalli (wildlife author), Bhimavva Shillekyathara (puppeteer)
A.K. Mahapatra (doctor), Jaspinder Narula (singer)
30 of the awardees were unsung heroes, like Libia Lobo Sardesai, a 100-year-old participant in Goa’s freedom struggle.
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