Kader Khan, Sunil Chhetri, Kariya Munda, Kuldip Nayar among others honoured with Padma Awards

The government on Friday announced the list for the Padma Awards, one of the highest civilian awards of the nation. They are conferred in three categories -- Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The awards are given in several fields of activities including art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc. 

Several personalities have been honoured with the prestigious Padma awards among which Teejan Bai (Art-Vocals-Folk from Chhattisgarh) and Ismail Omar Guelleh (Public Affairs, Djibouti) has been awarded the Padma Vibhushan. 

The Padma Bhushan has been awarded to many personalities including Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (Public Affairs, Punjab), Kariya Munda (Public Affairs, Jharkhand), S Nambi Narayan (Science & Engineering-Space, Kerala), Kuldip Nayar (Posthumous) Literature & Education (Journalism) Delhi.

Illias Ali Medicine (Surgery, Assam), Manoj Bajpayee (Art-Acting-Films, Maharashtra), Sunil Chhetri (Sports-Football Telangana), Prabhu Deva Art-Dance, Karnataka), Rajkumari Devi Others (Agriculture, Bihar), Bhagirathi Devi (Public Affairs, Bihar) and Gautam Gambhir (Sports Cricket Delhi) have been conferred with the Padma Shri.

The President of India has approved conferment of 112 Padma Awards including one duo case (in a duo case, the award is counted as one). The list comprises 4 Padma Vibhushan, 14 Padma Bhushan and 94 Padma Shri Awards. 21 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 11 persons from the category of foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI, three posthumous awardees and a transgender person.

‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; ‘Padma Bhushan’ 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. These awards are conferred by the President at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March or April every year.