The first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) late General Bipin Rawat, Congress chief Ghulam Nabi Azad, Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran, former Comptroller & Auditor Basic (CAG) Rajiv Mehrishi and former chairman of Gita Press late Radheshyam Khemka have been amongst 54 distinguished personalities who have been conferred the Padma awards by President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday.
Gen. Rawat and Khemka, who headed the Gita Press that’s well-known for publishing Hindu spiritual literature, got Padma Vibhushan, the second–highest civilian award, posthumously at a civil investiture ceremony held on the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The award for Gen. Rawat was obtained by his daughters whereas an in depth member of the family obtained it for Khemka.
Mr. Azad, Mr. Chandrasekaran, Mr. Mehrishi, Cyrus Poonawalla, founding father of Serum Institute of India (SII), maker of Covishield vaccine, para–athelete and javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia have been among the many eight individuals who have been honoured with Padma Bhushan, the third–highest civilian award.
Most of the Padma awardees have been “unsung heroes” together with 125-year-old yoga practitioner Swami Sivananda. The viewers clapped as a barefoot Sivananda, wearing a white kurta and dhoti, knelt earlier than Prime Minister Narendra Modi who promptly received up and bowed earlier than him to return the greeting.
Among the many dignitaries current have been Vice–President Venkaiah Naidu and Union Residence Minister Amit Shah.
Since 2014, the Narendra Modi authorities has been honouring many such “unsung heroes” who’ve been contributing to the fields of artwork, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, commerce and business, medication, literature and schooling, sports activities and civil service amongst others.
The federal government’s selection of awardees from the sphere of public affairs — Mr. Azad (Congress) and former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (CPI-M) — stirred a public debate.
Whereas Mr. Bhattacharjee refused to just accept the honour, Mr. Azad, who’s now a part of Congress G-23, a ginger group pushing for inside reforms, accepted it. Taking a dig at this, Jairam Ramesh (Congress) had tweeted that Mr. Bhattacharjee selected to be azad (free) as a substitute of being a ghulam (slave) .
Introduced on the eve of the Republic Day yearly and conferred by the President at ceremonial features held on the Rashtrapati Bhawan, this yr has 128 awards together with two duo instances (in a duo case, the award is counted as one).
The checklist of awardees includes 4 Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 Padma Shri awards. Whereas 34 of the awardees are ladies, the checklist contains 10 individuals from the class of foreigners, NRI, PIO, OCI and 13 posthumous awardees.
The second civil investiture ceremony is scheduled to be held on March 28.
