Indian Americans Among India’s Padma Awardees

NEW DELHI (IANS) – India,on Jan.25 announced 128 Padma awards, including four Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 Padma Shri awards, on the eve of the country’s 73rd Republic Day.
Among the recipients are a few well known IndianAmericans including actress and doyen of Indian cuisine Madhur Jaffrey, Microsoft CEO Satya Narayana Nadella and Google’s Sundar Pichai. Jaffrey received the Padma Bhushan in the field of Culinary Arts while Pichai and Nadella received the Padma Bhushan for their achievements in Trade and Industry.
Out of the 128 Padma awardees, 13 are posthumous, 34 are women, while 10 persons are from the category of foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and OCIs.

The four Padma Vibhushan recipients are — CDS General Bipin Rawat (Civil Service, Posthumous), Prabha Atre (Art), Kalyan Singh (Public Affairs, Posthumous) and Radhyashyam Khemka (Literature & Education, Posthumous).

A total of 17 Padma Bhushan awards have been awarded. The names include Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad for Public Affairs, actor Victor Banerjee for Art, Gurmeet Bawa (Posthumous) for Art, former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for Public Affairs, Natarajan Chandrasekaran for Trade and Industry, Krishna Ella and Suchitra (Duo) for Trade and Industry, Madhur Jaffery for Culinary Skills, Devendra Jhajharia for Sports, vocalist Rashid Khan for Art, former CAG Rajiv Mehrishi for Civil Service, Cyrus Poonawala for Trade and Industry, Sanjay Rajaram (Posthumous) for Science and Technology, and Pratibha Ray, Swami Sachidananda and Vashistha Tripathi for Literature and Education.

Apart from these, a total of 107 Padma Shri awards have also been announced for eminent persons in the fields of Art, Trade and Industry, Literature and Education, Sports, Civil Services and others.

The Padma awards, the highest civilian awards of the country, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.

The Padma Vibhushan is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service, while the Padma Bhushan is for distinguished service of high order, and Padma Shri for distinguished service in any field.The awards are announced on the eve of Republic Day every year.The awards are conferred by the President of India at a ceremonial function held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March-April every year.