The government conferred the Padma Vibhushan on Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Wipro chairman Azim Premji for their contribution to public affairs and trade and industry, respectively. Padma Bhushan is the second highest civilian award.
Other Padma Vibhushan awardees include Former National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra, technocrat Vijay Kelkar, the late Gandhian economist LC Jain, scientists PK Iyengar & PR Rao, educationist AR Kidwai, culture czarina Kapila Vatsyayan, first woman photo journalist Homai Vyarawalla, litterateurs ONV Kurup & Sitakant Mahapatra and film director A Nageshwara Rao.
The corporate world reaped a rich harvest in the Padma Bhushan category. Featuring in the list of awardees of the country's third highest civilian honour this year are ITC chairman YC Deveshwar, ICICI MD and CEO Chanda Kochar, Ranbaxy's Analjit Singh, Infosys CEO S (Kris) Gopalakrishnan and Dr Reddy Laboratories' founder-chairman K Anji Reddy. Pioneer of the GVK group, GVK Reddy, NIIT founder Rajendra Singh Pawar and HCL's Ajai Chowdhary.
Aditya Birla Group director Rajashree Birla was conferred the Padma Bhushan. Wife of the late Aditya Birla, she has been looking after ABG's social commitments. Grasim has taken up the education of villagers around Ngada. Indian Rayon has involved itself in medical projects and Tanfac is rehabilitating TB and leprosy patients. Birla has been overseeing each of these social projects.
There was no Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian award, for the third year running. The last person to get it was Bhimsen Joshi in 2008. The music maestro passed away on Monday. The Padma awards are conferred by the Government of India to eminent personalities each year on the eve of the Republic Day. The Padma list has 128 names this year - 13 Padma Vibhushans, 31 Padma Bhushans and 84 Padma Shri awards. There are 31 women in the list.
The Padma Bhushans were dominated also by 12 personalities from art and cinema, including ailing Bollywood actor Shashi Kapoor and Waheeda Rahman, music director Khayyam, theatre personality Satyadev Dubey and eminent painters Krishen Khanna and Arpita Singh. No mediaperson figures in the 2010 Padma list.
Among the current crop of stars, actresses Kajol and Tabu and actor Irfan Khan, remembered for his role in Maqbool, walked away with the Padma Shri. Pop singer Usha Uthup also won the Padma Shri in the music category.
Even as talk of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar getting the Bharat Ratna proved to be speculation, the sports category had its own share of Padma honours. Cricketer VVS Laxman was awarded the Padma Bhushan for his successful performance as a batsman, as were wrestler Sushil Kumar, weightlifter N Kunjarani Devi, ace shooter Gagan Narang and discus thrower Krishna Poonia.
In the civil services category, former foreign secretary Shyam Saran, who was part of the nuclear deal negotiations with the US, former cabinet secretary Surendra Singh and MN Buch, known for his work on urban planning, were honoured with the Padma Bhushan.
Among scientists who have made it to the list are Professor M Annamalai, Mahesh Haribhai Mehta, CNR Raghavendran, Suman Sahai and EA Siddiq. All of them were honoured with the Padma Shri. In medicine, the late K Raghavan Thirumulpad was conferred the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to ayurveda and the late Keki Byramjee Grant for his work in cardiology.
Among the educationists, Krishna Kumar and former Delhi University vice-chancellor Upendra Baxi were honoured with the Padma Shri.
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