2009 PADMA AWARD WINNERS IN INDIA
Every year, on the eve of Republic day, Government of India will announce the Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushans and Padma Shree awards to those Indian people for their distinguished contributions in various fields like arts, education, industry, literature, science, sports, social service and public life etc. Padma Vibhushan award is considered as India’s second highest civilian award. Padma Bhushan is the country’s third highest civilian award and the Padma Shri is the fourth. This year President of India announced 133 Padma awards including 10 Padma Vibhushan, 30 Padma Bhushan and 93 Padma Shri awards on the Eve of Republic day. Many famous people got this prestigious award. Scientists G. Madhavan Nair and Anil Kakodkar, an environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna and Missionaries of Charity’s head Sister Nirmala etc are some people who got Padma Vibhushan award. Padma Bhushan award winners include shooter Abhinav Bindra, educationist C.K. Prahlad, former bureaucrat S.K. Mishra, journalist Shekhar Gupta, historian Ramchandra Guha etc. Malayalam cinema actor Thilakan, Bollywood stars Aishwarya rai Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Helen,singers Udit Narayan, Kumar Shanu and Penaz Masani ,composer Hridaynath Mangeshkar and kollywood actor Vivek, cricketers Mahendra Singh Dhoni,Harbhajan Singh etc are the list of persons who got Padma Shri award. Winners were received these awards from Indian President Pratibha Patil on 31st March 2009 at a special function in the Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Details of these award winners are given below,
LIST OF PADMA SREE AWARD WINNERS
Aishwarya rai Bachchan
The former Miss World Aishwarya Rai is the most talented actress and one of the most beautiful actresses in Bollywood Industry. She showed her talent in super hit Bollywood movies like Taal, Devadas, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Guru etc. She also acted in hollywood movies like The Last Legion, Bride & Prejudice, Mistress of Spices and Pink Panther 2. She was acted in at least forty movies in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, and English. She recently won ‘Top 48 Most Desirable Woman in the World ‘ award and another is ‘Padma Shri’ award for her contribution to the Indian Cinema. Bachchan’s family is very happy with this achievement of Aiswarya. Because by winning this award, she becomes the 4th family member of the Bachchan family to receive the Padma Shri. Amitabh Bachchan’s father late Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan are already won Padma Shri award. Aishwarya says that she is respected by the Padma Shri award and told thanks to all high officers who recommended her for this award.
Akshay Kumar
Bollywood’s action hero Akshay Kumar was born in Punjab. He started his career as an action hero in ‘Saugandh’ which becomes super hit film. “Khiladi”, “Mohra”, “Main Khiladi Tu Anari”, Dhadkan,Ek Rishtaa etc are his super hit films. He also showed his talent in comedy films like “Hera Pheri”, “Mujhse Shaadi Karogi”, “Garam Masala” and “Namastey London”. His recent film ‘Singh is Kinng ‘ earned nearly Rs 500 crore at the box office. He acted in almost 80 Hindi films and many movies are scoring a good collection of Box Office. He got awards like film fare best villain award in 2002 and film fare best comedian award in 2006. He did not win many awards in his career, but he was honored by Govt of India by giving Padma Shri award for his contribution to the cinema. It shows that he is really ‘King’ of Bollywood.
Thilakan
He is a very famous actor in the Malayalam cinema and also in India. He is well known for his performance in character roles. He started his acting career as a theater artist and his first film is “Ulkadal” in 1979. He has acted in more than south Indian language movies and most of them in Malayalam Movies. His famous movies are `Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal’,'Mookkilla Rajyathu’,`Chenkol’, `Randam Bhavam’, Kaattu Kuthira, Perumthachan,`Sphadikam’etc.His other notable movie is `Kireedam‘ which is a milestone in his career. He handled every role very easily, and we can see true commitment in his roles. Now he completed his 50-year service to the film Industry and also got many awards in his career. He received the first state award in 1981 for his role in Yavanika and recently won the Indian National Film Special Jury Award for the film “Ekantham”. Now he honored by India Government with Padma Shri award. K.P. Udayabhanu is another Malayalee person who won the Padmasree Award for the year 2009 .
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Government of India honored Mahendra singh Dhoni with Padmasree Award in 2009 for his outstanding contribution to cricket. Dhoni is a great cricket player and the current captain of the Indian team. He was born in Ranchi, Jharkhand as the son of Pan Singh and Devaki Devi. He is considered as the coolest captain, powerful right handed batsman and wicket keeper. Under his leadership, Indian team won many championships like 2007 ICC World Twenty20, CB Series of 2007-08, Border-Gavaskar trophy 2008 etc. He got many awards like ODI Player award in 2008 and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. Now, he is the winner of Padmasree Award, and he is the first person of Jharkhand to get this award. Harbhajan Singh has also won the Padmasree award for his contribution to cricket. Former Billiards champion Pankaj Advani, former hockey player Balbir Singh Khullar was among the 93 eminent personalities named for Padma Shri.
Other people who received this prestigious award are in the following,
Dr Ameena Ahmed Ahuja, Devayani Chaymotty , Hashmat Ullah Khan, Iravatham Mahadevan, Dr. Subrahmanyam Krishnaswamy, Abhay Chhajlani, Dr Birendranath Datta, Laxman Bapu Mane, :Dr. Utpal K. Banerjee, Dr. Ashok Kumar Grover, P.R. Krishna Kumar, Dr. Shyamlha Pappu, Cheril Krishna Menon, Sunil Kanti Roy , Surinder Mehta, Arunmugam Sakthivel, Dr. Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty , Shri R.K. Krishna Kumar, K. Viswanathan , Dr. Yash Gulati, Udit Narayan , Norden Tshering etc.
LIST OF PADMA BHUSHAN WINNERS
Abhinav Bindra
Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra has been awarded the Padma Bhushan. He really deserves that award, because he fulfilled the dreams of all Indians by winning first ever Olympic gold in an individual event in Beijing Olympics in 10-metre Air Rifle. He dedicated this honor for the sportsmen and women of India, in which he represents. He was born in Sikh Punjabi family. Bindra’s talent started when he participated at the 1998 Commonwealth Games at the age of 15. In 2002 Commonwealth Games, he won Gold in the Pairs event and Silver in the individual event. In 2001, he became the first Indian shooter to win a World Championship and also got Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in this year. Now he is honored by India Government with Padma Bhushan award.
Other people who received this prestigious award are in the following,
Historian Ramachandra Guha, Lt Gen (retd) Satish Nambiar (for national security affairs), National Knowledge Commission chairman Sam Pitroda (science and engineering), Shamshad Begum, G Sivarama Krishna Murthy alias Krishna, Prof Ramanlal C Mehta, V P Dhananjayan and Shanta Dhananjayan (duo), Vaidyanathan Ganapathi Sthapati (all from the field of art); S K Misra (civil service); Prof Alappat Sreedhara Menon, C K Prahlad, D Jayakanthan, Dr Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Kunwar Narain and Prof Minoru Hara (literature and education); Dr Brijendra Kumar Rao, Vaidya Devendra Triguna and Dr Khalid Hameed (medicine); Dr Inderjit Kaur Barthakur, Dr Kirit Shantilal Parikh (public affairs), Dr Bhakta B Rath, Conjeevaram Srirangachari Seshadri, Dr Gurdip Singh Randhawa, Prof (Dr) Sarvagya Singh Katiyar and Prof Thomas Kailath (science and engineering), Dr Naganath Nayakawadi, Dr Sarojini Varadappan (social work); Anil Manibhai Naik (trade and industry).
LIST OF PADMA VIBHUSHAN WINNERS
This year’s Padma Vibhushan winners are in the following,
Dr. Chandrika Prasad Srivastava (Civil Service), Shri Sunderlal Bahuguna (Environment Conservation), Prof. D.P.Chattopadhyaya (Literature & Education), Prof. Jasbir Singh Bajaj (Medicine), Dr. Purshotam Lal (Medicine), Shri Govind Narain(Public Affairs), Dr. Anil Kakodkar(Science & Engineering), Shri G. Madhavan Nair(Science & Engineering), Sister Nirmala(Social Work), Dr. A.S. Ganguly (Trade & Industry).