Eminent stone sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra and researcher Prof Yash Pal received Padma Vibhushan Award, India’s second-highest civilian award, from President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday.
Cricketer Rahul Dravid, actresses Sharmila Tagore and DRDO chief VK Saraswat were honoured with the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest award, while actress Sridevi received Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour, from the President at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan’s Darbar Hall.
Theatre personality B Jayashree, boxer Ngangom Dingko Singh of the Indian Navy, photographer Pablo Bartholomew and Subedar Major Bajrang Lal Takhar also honoured with Padma Shri.
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At the ceremony, 42 people were honoured with Padma Shri included Avnita Abbi, Sudarshan Kumar Aggarwal, Mohammad Sharfe Alam, Gajam Anjaiah, Rajendra Achyut Badwe, Memendra Prasad Barooah, GC D Bharti, Ravindra Singh Bisht, Avinash Chander, Taraprasad Das, Trichur Viswanathan Devarajan, Sanjay Govind Dhande, Saroj Chooramani Gopal, Noboru Karashima from Japan, Ram Krishan (posthumous), Salik Lakhnawi (posthumous) and Manju Bharat Ram (posthumous).
S Lakshminarayana ‘Bapu’, Vandana Luthra, SKM Maeilanandhan, Kailash Chandra Meher, Neelima Chandrashekhar Mishra, P Madhavan Nair, Sankar Kumar Pal, Brahmdeo Ram Pandit, Rajshree Pathy, Deepak Bhaskar Phatak, Mudundi Ramakrishna Raju, C Venkata S Ram, R Nageshwar Rao, Surender Sharma, Jaymala Jayram Shiledar, Rama Kant Shukla, Ajay Kumar Sood, Pt Suresh Talwalkar, Rajendar Kumar Tiku and Akhtarul Wasey also received Padma Shri.
The list of Padma awards was announced on January 25, a day before the Republic Day. Another ceremony will be held later to confer the awards to the rest of the recipients.