New Delhi, Jan 25 (UNI) A total 141 persons were Saturday named for the prestigious ‘Padma Awards’ which includes former Union Ministers Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and George Fernandes who have been named for Padma Vibhushan posthumously, a Home Ministry release said here.
The list of the Padma Awardy was approved by the President Ram Nath Kovind, includes seven Padma Vibhushan, 16 Padma Bhushan and 118 Padma Sri.
Notable among those named for Padma Vibhushan include sports person MC Marry Kom, Musician Chhannu Lal Mishra and former Mauritius Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth (Posthumously) and Badminton player PV Sindhu.
The prominent among the Padma Bhushan includes industrialist Anand Mahindra, noted educationist Manoj Das and politician SC Jamir.
The Padma Shri awardees include the industrialists Jay Prakash Agrawal, Sanjiv Bikhchandani, Bharat Goenka, Nenmnath Jain, sportspersons MP Ganesh, Jeetu Rai, MS Rani Rampal, film makers Karan Johar, Ekta Kapoor, playback Singer Suresh Wadkar and Adnan Sami, social activist Sundaram Verma, Jawed Ahmad Tak, Ramzee Singh, Syed Mehboob Shah Qadari, and S Rama Krishanan.
Among 141 awardees, 34 are women and the list also includes 18 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 12 posthumous awardees.
Padma Awards - one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.
The Awards are given in various disciplines, fields of activities such as art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service while ‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service.
The ‘Padma Bhushan’ award is given for distinguished service of high order and ‘Padma Shri’ for distinguished service in any field.
The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year and 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.
UNI AR/AKS SHK2152