New Delhi: Forty-seven prominent personalities, including Malayalam actor Mohanlal, former foreign secretary S Jaishankar, Akali Dal leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and renowned journalist Kuldip Nayar (posthumous), were conferred the Padma awards by President Ram Nath Kovind here on Monday.
Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind confers Padma Shri award upon former foreign secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, at Rashtrapati Bhawan. pic.twitter.com/bLpU3GHj21
— ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2019
Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind confers Padma Bhushan award upon Sardar Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Hukumdev Narayan Yadav #PadmaAwards pic.twitter.com/nLAKTKO36V
— ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2019
Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind confers Padma Bhushan award upon actor Mohanlal. #PadmaAwards pic.twitter.com/CFZejeale6
— ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2019
Bihar leader Hukumdev Narayan Yadav (Padma Bhushan), former CEO of multinational techno giant Cisco systems John Chambers (Padma Bhushan) and renowned dancer and filmmaker Prabhu Deva (Padma Shri) were also honoured at a special function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among others.
While Viswanathan Mohanlal, Dhindsa and Nayar (posthumous) were conferred the Padma Bhushan, Jaishankar was honoured with the Padma Shri. Nayar’s wife received the award from the President.
Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind confers Padma Bhushan award (posthumous) upon veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar. His wife Bharti Nayar received the award. pic.twitter.com/NPuToZeXXk
— ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2019
Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind confers Padma Shri award upon Kabaddi team’s captain Ajay Thakur. #PadmaAwards pic.twitter.com/XI3We7wUHE
— ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2019
Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind confers Padma Shri award upon Bajrang Punia for the field of Sports- Wrestling pic.twitter.com/90HZmWL7At
— ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2019
Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind confers Padma Shri award upon table tennis player Sharath Kamal and grandmaster Harika Dronavalli. #PadmaAwards pic.twitter.com/8zbhKRFviU
— ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2019
The Padma Awards – one of the highest civilian awards of the country — are conferred in three categories: the Padma Vibhushan, the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Shri. As many as 112 ‘inspiring’ personalities were selected for this year’s Padma awards and their names were announced on the eve of Republic Day this year. The remaining awardees are likely to be conferred the honour at another function to be held on March 16, a Home Ministry official said.
Other notable awardees include renowned singer Shankar Mahadevan Narayan (Padma Shri), former Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha Karia Munda (Padma Bhushan), physicians Sandeep Guleria and Ilias Ali (both Padma Shri) and wrestler Bajrang Punia (Padma Shri).
Delhi: Indian percussionist Anandan Sivamani conferred with Padma Shri award by President Ram Nath Kovind. #PadmaAwards pic.twitter.com/ZNwHtlvfq2
— ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2019
Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind confers Padma Shri award upon singer and music director Shankar Mahadevan. #PadmaAwards pic.twitter.com/DW5FOugQHl
— ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2019
#WATCH President Ram Nath Kovind confers Padma Shri award upon director and actor Prabhu Deva for the field of Art – Dance. #PadmaAwards pic.twitter.com/3wMttMuxIx
— ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2019
This year’s awardees are from across the nation, all segments of society and the government has gone beyond excellence alone, recognising larger impact and their selfless service, an official said.
The nomination process for Padma awards was made online in 2016 and a simple, accessible and secure platform was put in place to encourage citizens at large to participate. Erstwhile ‘Government Awards’ transformed into ‘Peoples Awards’, another official said.
A record 50,000 nominations were received for the 2019 awards, over 20 times more than 2014, when there were just 2,200 nominations.
The technological intervention has made the nomination process accessible to the people at large and the emphasis of the government to confer Padma awards on unsung heroes, who are doing selfless service for the nation, have resulted into the above transformation. This is reflected in the awardees selected with an eclectic list, covering diverse fields, the official said.