Padma Awards 2020: Jaitley, Sushma conferred Padma Vibhushan; Anand Mahindra, Manohar Parrikar get Padma Bhushan; Karan Johar gets Padma Shri

Ahead of the 71 Republic Day celebrations, the government announced the names of Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri awardees on Saturday.

The Padma Vibhushan was awarded to seven prominent personalities, including Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, George Fernandes while 16 were conferred the Padma Bhushan and 118 have been given the Padma Shri, officials said.

The names were announced by the government on the eve of Republic Day.

Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Mary Kom are among the seven recipients of Padma Vibhushan Awards

Padma Vibhushan

Eminent personalities, including former Union ministers Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and George Fernandes, Olympian boxer Mary Kom, former Mauritius prime minister Anerood Jugnauth, classical singer from Varanasi Chhannulal Mishra and Sri Vishveshateertha Swamiji Sri of the Pejavara Matha in Udupi have been honoured with the Padma Vibhushan.

Jaitley, Swaraj and Fernandes have been given the Padma Vibhushan award posthumously, the officials said.

Thirty-six-year-old Mary Kom, also a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament, won a bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics while also being crowned as world champion six times in an illustrious career.

Padma Bhushan Awards

The government also announced names of 16 Padma Bhushan award recipients

Former defence minister Manohar Parrikar, industrialists Anand Mahindra and Venu Shrinivasan, Olympian badminton player PV Sindhu, former Nagaland chief minister SC Jamir and Muzaffar Hussain Baig are among the sixteen awarded the Padma Bhushan, officials said.

The 24-year-old Sindhu is a silver medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics and is also the only Indian world champion in badminton. Sindhu has also won four other World Championships medals — 2 silver and 2 bronze — besides the gold, she won last year.

Baig, 73, is a former deputy chief minister and finance minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. A founder leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Baig was one of the few politicians who was not detained by the Union government after the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 on 5 August.

The politician has been awarded for his contribution to public affairs and is among the 16 people who have been honoured with the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award after Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan.

The other recipients of Padma Bhushan awards are:

Padma Shri Awards: Karan Johar, Kangna Ranaut and Zaheer Khan among 118 named

The Padma Shri for this year has been awarded to a total of 118 eminent personalities across fields of art, literature and education, medicine, trade and industry, sports, public affairs, social work and science and engineering. Some of the prominent recipients of the awards include filmmakers Karan Johar and Ekta Kapoor, actor Kangana Ranaut, cricketer Zaheer Khan and Naukri.com founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani, among others.

In the sports category, besides Zaheer also named for the Padma Shri awards are current Indian women's hockey captain Rani Rampal, former Indian men's hockey player MP Ganesh, shooter Jitu Rai, former Indian women's football team captain Oinam Bembem Devi and archer Tarundeep Rai.

The 41-year-old Zaheer is one of the country's finest fast bowlers and is only behind the legendary Kapil Dev in terms of wickets among Indian pacers in the traditional Test format. He also won the 2011 World Cup with the Indian team.

The 25-year-old Rani Rampal has played more than 200 matches for India and she recently helped the country secure a Tokyo Olympics berth by beating the United States in the qualification match.

Singers Suresh Wadkar and Adnan Sami, as well as veteran TV actor Sarita Joshi have also been conferred with the fourth highest civilian award of the country.

Lucknow-based historian and journalist Yogesh Praveen; Assam-based historian Jogendra Nath Phukan are also awarded with Padma Shri, officials said.

Jagdish Lal Ahuja, who serves free food to patients and attendants outside PGI hospital in Chandigarh, Mohammed Sharif from Faizabad, who has performed last rites of over 25,000 unclaimed bodies, and elephant doctor from Assam Kushal Konwar Sarma are among unsung heroes awarded the coveted Padma Shri award this year, officials said on Saturday.

The awardees, announced on the eve of Republic Day, also include Javed Ahmad Tak, a differently-abled social worker from Jammu and Kashmir working for differently-abled children for over two decades, providing free education, material aid and motivation to over 100 children of 40 villages in Anantnag and Pulwama, they said.

Seventy-two-year-old Tulasi Gowda from Karnataka, who earned the sobriquet "encyclopedia of forests" because of her vast knowledge of diverse plants species in spite of lacking formal education, has also been given the award, they said.

Sathyanarayan Mundayoor, known as Uncle Moosa of Arunachal Pradesh, who has been promoting education and reading culture in remote areas of northeastern states for last four decades; Abdul Jabbar aka 'voice of Bhopal' (posthumously), known for fighting for the cause of victims and survivor of 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy; and Usha Chaumar, a Dalit social worker working in the field of sanitation in Rajasthan, have also been given the award.

Poptarao Pawar of Ahmednagar (Maharashtra), known for reviving groundwater of in drought-prone Hiware Bazar area; Harekala Hazabba, a 64-year-old social worker from Karnataka providing affordable education to poor children; Arunoday Mondal, a doctor from West Bengal who treats patients in remote Sunderbans; Radha Mohan and his daughter Sabarmatee, both Gandhians who have converted a piece of degraded land into a vast food forest in Odisha by using only organic techniques are among the Padma Shri awardees, it said.

A school and tribal farmer from Meghalaya, Trinity Saioo, who is spearheading a turmeric farming movement, Ravi Kannan, an oncologist from Chennai who is treating cancer patients in Assam's Barak Valley, S Ramakrishnan, a differently-abled social worker who has rehabilitated more than 14,000 differently-abled people in over four decades in Tamil Nadu have also been given the coveted prize.

The government has also conferred Padma Shri to 68-year old environmentalist Sundaram Verma, who planted 50,000 trees in Rajasthan; Munna Master, a Muslim bhajan singer from the state; Yogi Aeron, an 81-year old doctor from Uttarakhand who has been treating burn and bite victims for free for last 35-years; and Rahibai Soma Popere, a self-taught tribal woman famous globally for her work in agro-biodiversity conservation.

Modi congratulates winners

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday congratulated the Padma awardees, saying they include extraordinary people.

"Congratulations to all those who have been conferred the Padma Awards," he tweeted.

The prime minister said the awardees include "extraordinary individuals who have made exceptional contributions to our society, nation and humanity".