Kakodkar, Madhavan Nair, Bindra, Nirmala among Padma awardees

January 26th, 2009

NEW DELHI: Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Anil Kakodkar, who played a key role in finalising the India-U.S. civil nuclear cooperation agreement, Indian Space Research Organisation chief G. Madhavan Nair, involved in the first Chandrayaan mission, Sister Nirmala of Mother Teresa’s Kolkata-based Missionaries of Charities and noted environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna are among ten distinguished personalities honoured with Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second highest civilian award, on this year’s Republic Day.

In all, 133 personalities from various fields were named on Sunday for Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri awards on the occasion of the 60th Republic Day.

The first Olympic Gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, India’s cricket captain M.S. Dhoni, Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, and the former Miss World Aishwarya Rai figure among the Padma awardees this year.

The first chancellor of Sweden-based World Maritime University Chandrika Prasad Srivastava, noted historian D.P. Chattopadhyaya, Jasbir Singh Bajaj from Punjab and Purushotam Lal from U.P., both from the world of medicine, the former Governor and noted civil servant Govind Narain and industrialist A.S. Ganguly from Maharashtra were the other Padma Vibhushan awardees.

The country’s highest civilian award – Bharat Ratna – was already announced for noted 86-year-old vocalist Pandit Bhimsen Joshi in November last year.

Among the 30 Padma Bhushan awardees are Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Sam Pitroda, G. Sivarama Krishna Murthy, the duo of V.P. Dhananjayan and Shanta Dhananjayan, Vaidyanathan Ganapathi Sithapati, Shekhar Gupta, S.K. Misra, C.K. Prahalad and Sarojini Varadappan.

Padma Shri has been announced for 93 personalities. These include Aishwarya Rai, Akshay Kumar, Helen Khan, Alok Mehta, Abhay Chhajlani, Ameen Sayani, Harbhajan Singh, and Arumugam Sakthivel.