New Delhi, April 2: Honoring exemplary and extraordinary souls: today President Ram Nath Kovind presented the prestigious Padma Awards to extremely distinguished individuals who have contributed immensely to society.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to honour and speak up about the people who were awarded with Padma Awards.
Billiards player Pankaj Advani also received Padma Bhushan at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday, hosted dinner for 43 personalities, who have been honoured with the Padma Awards. He said that the country was proud of all the Padma Awardees as they had a major contribution to the nation’s progress. Congratulating them, he said that their self-less service was locally recognized till now but with these awards, it received national recognition.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of External Affairs Smt. Sushma Swaraj said that every Padma Awardee worked hard in his or her field without any expectation of returns from the society. She appealed to media to highlight their achievements which were “Adbhut, Aviswasneeya aur Akalpaniya” (Extraordinary, unbelievable and unimaginable). She specially mentioned about the contribution of Awardees from the ASEAN countries.
The first lot of 43 awardees of the Padma Awards 2018 was honoured at a special function held on March 20.
The function was graced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and many officials.
This year, the President of India approved conferment of 85 Padma Awards. The list comprises 3 Padma Vibhushan, 9 Padma Bhushan and 73 Padma Shri awards.
Here is the list of Padma Awardees:
Padma Vibhushan
Illaiyaraja -Art (Music)
Ghulam Mustafa Khan- Art (Music)
Parameswaran Parameswaran- Literature and Education
Padma Bhushan
Pankaj Advani- Sports (Billiards/Snooker)
Philipose Mar Chrysostom - Spiritualism
Mahendra Singh Dhoni- Sports (Cricket)
Alexander Kadakin (Foreigner/Posthumous) - Public Affairs
Ramachandran Nagaswamy - Archaeology
Ved Prakash Nanda (OCI) - Literature and Education
Laxman Pai - Art (Painting)
Arvind Parikh - Art (Music)
Sharda Sinha - Art (Music)
Padma Shri
Abhay Bang and Rani Bang - Medicine
Damodar Ganesh Bapat - Social Work
Prafulla Govinda Baruah - Literature and Education (Journalism)
Mohan Swaroop Bhatia - Art (Folk Music)
Sudhanshu Biswas - Social Work
Saikhom Mirabai Chanu - Sports (Weightlifting)
Pandit Shyamlal Chaturvedi - Literature and Education (Journalism)
Jose Ma Joey Concepcion III (Foreigner) - Trade & Industry
Langpoklakpam Subadani Devi - Art (Weaving)
Somdev Devvarman - Sports (Tennis)
Yeshi Dhoden - Medicine
Arup Kumar Dutta - Literature and Education
Doddarange Gowda - Art (Lyrics)
Arvind Gupta - Literature and Education
Digamber Hansda - Literature and Education
Ramli Bin Ibrahim (Foreigner) - Art (Dance)
Anwar Jalalpuri (Posthumous) - Literature and Education
Piyong Temjen Jamir - Literature and Education
Sitavva Joddati - Social Work
Malti Joshi - Literature and Education
Manoj Joshi - Art (Acting)
Rameshwarlal Kabra - Trade & Industry
Pran Kishore Kaul - Art
Bounlap Keokangna (Foreigner) -Architecture
Vijay Kichlu - Art-Music
Tommy Koh (Foreigner) - Public Affairs
Lakshmikutty - Medicine (Traditional)
Joyshree Goswami Mahanta - Literature and Education
Narayan Das Maharaj - Spiritualism
Pravakara Maharana - Art (Sculpture)
Hun Many (Foreigner) - Public Affairs
Nouf Marwaai (Foreigner) - Yoga
Zaverilal Mehta - Literature and Education (Journalism)
Krishna Bihari Mishra - Literature and Education
Sisir Purushottam Mishra - Art (Cinema)
Subhasini Mistry - Social Work
Tornio Mizokami (Foreigner) - Literature and Education
Somdet Phra Maha Muniwong (Foreigner) - Spiritualism
Keshav Rao Musalgaonkar - Literature and Education
Dr Thant Myint - U (Foreigner) - Public Affairs
V Nanammal - Yoga
Sulagitti Narasamma - Social Work
Vijayalakshmi Navaneethakrishnan - Art (Folk Music)
I Nyoman Nuarta (Foreigner) - Art (Sculpture)
Malai Haji Abdullah Bin Malai Haji Othman (Foreigner) - Social Work
Gobaradhan Panika - Art (Weaving)
Bhabani Charan Pattanaik - Public Affairs
Murlikant Petkar - Sports (Swimming)
Habibullo Rajabov (Foreigner) - Literature and Education
M R Rajagopal - Medicine (Palliative Care)
Sampat Ramteke (Posthumous) - Social Work
Chandra Sekhar Rath - Literature and Education
S S Rathore - Civil Service
Amitava Roy- Science and Engineering
Sanduk Ruit (Foreigner) - Medicine (Ophthalmology)
R Sathyanarayana - Art (Music)
Pankaj M Shah - Medicine (Oncology)
Bhajju Shyam - Art (Painting)
Maharao Raghuveer Singh Literature and Education Rajasthan
Kidambi Srikanth - Sport (Badminton)
Ibrahim Sutar - Art(Music)
Siddeshwara Swamiji - Spiritualism
Lentina Ao Thakkar - Social Work
Vikram Chandra Thakur - Science and Engineering
Rudrapatnam Narayanaswamy Tharanathan and Rudrapatnam Narayanaswamy Thyagarajan - Art (Music)
Nguyen Tien Then (Foreigner) - Spiritualism
Bhagirath Prasad Tripathi - Literature and Education Uttar Pradesh
Rajagopalan Vasudevan - Science and Engineering
Manas Bihari Verma - Science and Engineering
Panatawane Gangadhar Vithobaji - Literature and Education
Romulus Whitaker - Wildlife Conservation
Baba Yogendra - Art
A Zakia - Literature and Education.