General Bipin Rawat awarded Padma Vibhushan, country's second-highest civilian award, posthumously

General Bipin Rawat, who was India's first Chief of Defence Staff, died in a helicopter crash in December last year. General Rawat's wife Madhulika Rawat and twelve other defence force personnel had also died in the helicopter crash.

Pic courtesy: PTI

New Delhi: India's first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, who died in a helicopter crash in December last year, will be posthumously conferred Padma Vibhushan, the country's second-highest civilian award. The Home Ministry announced the Padma Awards on the eve of 73rd Republic Day. General Rawat was headed to Defence Services Staff College in Wellington to address the faculty and student officers of the Staff Course when his chopper crashed in Tamil Nadu. He was India's, longest-serving four-star General. General Rawat's wife Madhulika Rawat and twelve other defence force personnel had also died in the helicopter crash.

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Hindutva poster boy late Kalyan Singh was also awarded Padma Vibhushan, the country's second-highest civilian award, posthumously. Veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and former West Bengal CM and CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee were given Padma Bhushan. Cyrus Poonawalla of the Serum Institute of India, which manufactured COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, and Krishna Ella and Suchitra Ella of Bharat Biotech, which produced India's indigenous coronavirus vaccine Covaxin, were also given Padma Bhushan.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were conferred Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award.
Late Punjabi folk singer Gurmeet Bawa, actor Victor Banerjee and former Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi have been awarded Padma Bhushan. Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra and singer Sonu Nigam were awarded Padma Shri.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the President approved the conferment of 128 Padma Awards, including two duo cases, this year. In a duo case, the award is counted as one. The list comprises 4 Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 Padma Shri awards. Thirty-four of the awardees are women and the list also includes 10 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 13 posthumous awardees.