President Ram Nath Kovind presented Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri Awards to many

President, Ram Nath Kovind on Monday presented seven Vibhushans, including to classical singer Pandit Chhannulal Mishra, 16 Padma Bhushans and 122 Padma Shri Awards for 2020.

The awards were presented at the Civil Investiture Ceremony held in two parts at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, a communique said.

Among the dignitaries present on the occasion were Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Apart from Mishra, Padma Vibhushan awards were presented to former Union Ministers George Fernandes, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, former Mauritius Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth and Vishwesha Teertha Swamiji (all posthumous) and boxer Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom.

The Padma Bhushan awardees included Bangladeshi diplomat Syed Muazzem Ali (posthumous), spiritual leader Mumtaz Ali, architect Balkrishna Doshi, former Nagaland Chief Minister and Goa Governor S.C. Jamir, environmental activist Dr Anil Prakash Joshi, former civil servant Neelakanta Ramakrishna Madhava Menon, entrepreneur Indian American Dr Jagadish N. Sheth and sportsperson P.V. Sindhu.

The other Padma Bhushan awardees included former Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffar Hussain Baig (public affairs), classical singer Pandit Ajoy Chakravarty (arts), author Manoj Das (literature and education), social activist Krishnammal Jagannath (social work), pioneer of women's health in Ladakh, Dr Tsering Landol (medicine), industrialist Anand Gopal Mahindra (industry and trade), late Defence Minister and Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar (public affairs) and TVS Motors chairman Venu Srinivasan (trade and industry).

The Padma Shri awardees were: dance exponent Shashadhar Acharya (art), plastic surgeon Dr Yogi Aeron (medicine), Surya Foundation chairperson Jaiprakash Agrawal (trade and industry), educationist Kazi Masum Akhtar (literature and Education), Air Marshal Padma Bandopadhyay (retd); 'One Rupee Doctor', Dr Sushovan Banerjee, Santhali author and tribal researcher Dr Damayanti Beshra (literature and education), Himmataram Bhambhu (social work), Gandhian and social worker Gafurbhai M. Bilakhia (trade and industry), Sufi singer Madan Singh Chauhan (art), Kathak dancer Dr Purushottam Dadheech (art), Sri Lankan linguist, Prof Indra Dassanayake (posthumous) (literature and art), former football team captain, Oinam Bembem Devi (sports), Brazilian Lia Diskin (social work), NIMHANS, Bengaluru, Director Prof B. Nanjunddaiah Gangadhar (medicine), Dr Raman Gangakhedkar (science and engineering), Bharat Goenka (trade and industry), and Harekala Hajabba (social work).

Other Padma Shri awardees also included Sadri folk dancer Madhu Mansuri Hasmukh (art), historian Dr Meenakshi Jain (literature and education); litterateur Dr Shanti Jain (for art); disability activist Bimal Kumar Jain (social work); educationist Sudhir Kumar Jain (for science and engineering), editor of one of the oldest Sanskrit dailies, Vidushi K.S. Jayalakshmi (literature and education – journalism); editor, printer of one of the oldest Sanskrit dailies, K.V. Sampathkumar (posthumous) (literature and education – journalism), actor Sarita Joshi (art), Dr Ravi Kannan R. (medicine), singer Adnan Sami (art), Indian-American economist Sriprakash Kothari (literature and education), botanist Kattungal Subramaniam Manilal (science and engineering), Beenapani Mohanty (arts), Dr Arunoday Mondal (medicine), library movement activist Sathyanarayanan Mundayoor (social work) terracotta sculptor, V.K. Munusamy (art); Hindi language scholar N. Chandrasekharan Nair (arts) and oldest working journalist from Mizoram, Lalbiakthanga Pachau (literature and education – journalism).

Other recipients were puppetry artists M. Pankajaskshi (arts), Prof Jogendra Nath Phukan (for literature and education), scientists Prof T. Pradeep (science and engineering), Radhamohan (posthumous) (agriculture), farming activists Kumari Sabarmatee (agriculture), Olympian Taarundeep Rai (sports), S. Ramakrishnan (social work), actor Kangana Ranaut (art), hockey captain Rani (sports), artist Yadla Gopal Rao (for art), educationist Shahabuddin Rathod (literature and education), farming innovator Chinthala Venkat Reddy (agriculture), fish farmer Bata Krishna Sahoo (animal husbandry), teacher Trinity Saioo (agriculture), philanthropist Vijay Sankeshwar (trade and industry) and 'Elephant Man of India' Dr Kushal Konwar Sarma (medicine).

Women's rights activist Mehboob Gous Sayed alias Sayedbhai (social work), artist Shyam Sunder Sharma (art), ENT surgeon Dr Sandra Desa Souza (medicine), Nadhaswaram exponent Kaleeshabu Mahaboob (arts); Nadhaswaram expern Sheikh Mahaboob Subhani (art), literary activist Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi (literature and education), founder of Gandhi Ashram at Bali, Agus Indra Udayana (social work), and activist Sundaram Verma (social work) were also conferred the Padma Shri.

While 61 luminaries were awarded Padma Shri in the morning session, another 61 were awarded in the afternoon part of the civil investiture ceremony.

Those who received the award in the second half included social worker known for feeding the hungry, Jagdish Lal Ahuja, Brazilian Sanskrit scholar Gloria Arieira, Professor Digambar Behera (medicine), rural development and environment activist, Popatrao Bhaguji Pawar (social work), entrepreneur industrialist Sanjeev Bikhchandani (industry and trade), British politician Robert John Blackman (public affairs), classical dancer Indira P. Bora (arts); Sulabh International President Usha Chaumar (social work), Nepali language author from Assam, Lil Bahadur Chhetri (literature and education), 'Bombay Sisters', Karnataka music exponents, Lalitha Chidambaram and Saroja Chidambaram (arts); Ghoda Nacha folk dance form revival artist from Odisha, Utsab Charan Das (arts), educationist and technocrat, H.M. Desai (literature and education), writer, musician Manohar Devadoss (arts) and hockey player M.P. Ganesh (sports).

The awardees also included: British politician Barry Strachan Gardiner (public affairs), entrepreneur Chewang Motup Goba (trade and industry), lyricist Mitrabhanu Gountia (education and literature), Karnataka environmentalist who planted 30,000 trees and tends to forest nurseries as her children, Tulsi Gowda (social work), biomedical engineer, Prof Sujay Kumar Guha (science and engineering), veteran museologists from Bangladesh, Prof Dr Enamul Haq (education and literature), industrialist Dr Nemnath Jain (trade and industry), Tripuri folk writer and litterateur Beni Chandra Jamatia (posthumous) (education and literature), film director producer Karan Johar (arts), famous gynaecologist Dr Leela Joshi (medicine), litterateur C. Kamlova (education and literature); producer Ekta Ravi Kapoor (arts), theatre artist Yazdi Naoshirwan Karanjia (arts), Gujarati author, Narayan Joshi 'Karayal' (education and literature) and cricketer Zaheerkhan Bakhtiyarkhan Khan (sports).

The other awardees included voice of Bhopal Gas Tragedy victims, Abdul Zabbar Khan (posthumous) (social work), physician Dr Professor Narendra Nath Khanna (medicine), scientist Dr Naveen Khanna (science and engineering), Dalit rights activist Acharya M.K. Kunjol (social work), Odia film maker, Dr Manmohan Mahapatra (posthumous) (arts), Ustad Anwar Khan Mangniyar (arts), bhajan singer Munna Master (arts), Sanskrit author Abhiraj Rajendra Mishra (education and literature), French national of Indian origin, Prithwindra Mukherjee (literature and education), classical music exponent and Sitar player, Pandit Manilal Nag (arts), Japanese doctor from Afghanistan, Dr Tetsu Nakamura (posthumous) (social work), author Prof Shiv Datta 'Nirmohi' (literature and education), economist based out of US, Prashant Kumar Pattnayak (literature and education), Beejmata Rahibai Soma Popere (agriculture) and author Dr Yogesh Praveen (posthumous) (literature and education).

The second half ceremony also witnessed Padma Shri awards being given to shooter Jitu Rai (sports), leather puppet artisan, Dalavayi Chalapathi Rao (arts), environmentalist Kalyan Singh Rawat (social work), gynaecologist Dr Shanti Roy (medicine) 'Shareef Chacha' Mohammad Shareef (social work), Dr Gurdeep Singh (medicine), Gandhian Ramji Singh (social work); Dr Vashishtha Narayan Singh (posthumous) (science and engineering), theatre activist Daya Prakash Sinha (arts), Javed Ahmad Tak (social work), American Buddhist author, Robert A.F. Thurman (literature and education), physicist Dr Harish Chandra Verma (science and engineering), Sribhashyam Vijayasarathi (literature and education), Indian American businessman, Dr Romesh Wadhwani (trade and industry), singer Dr Suresh Wadkar (arts) and Indian Canadian businessman V. Prem Vatsa (industry and trade).

About a dozen-odd recipients could not be present in person for the ceremonies, the communique said. (IANS/JB)

Keywords: India, Ram Nath Kovind, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri, Awards.