NEW DELHI: The Padma awards – Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri – bestowed to honour works of distinction and achievements in a diverse range of fields, will be announced on Thursday.
Established in 1954, the awards are announced on Republic Day each year.
The highest award of honour is Padma Vibhushan, followed by Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.
In 2017, Padma Vibhushan was awarded to Murli Manohar Joshi, Sharad Pawar, Udupi Ramachandra Rao, Jaggi Vasudev, K. J. Yesudas and posthumously on Sunder Lal Patwa and P. A. Sangma.
Padma Bhushan 2017 awards went to Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Deviprasad Dwivedi, Ratnasundarsuri, Niranjanananda Saraswati, Cho Ramaswamy, Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and Tehemton Erach Udwadia.
Padma Shri 2017 awards went to 75 indivuals: Anant Agarwal, Eli Ahmed, Meenakshi Amma, Girish Bharadwaj, Asoke Kumar Bhattacharyya, Nivedita Raghunath Bhide, Basanti Bisht,
Mohan Reddy Venkatrama Bodanapu, Sukri Bommagowda , Krishna Ram Chaudhary, Tripuraneni Hanuman Chowdary, Michel Danino , Subroto Das, Baoa Devi, Appasaheb Dharmadhikari, Balbir Dutt, Bipin Ganatra, Tilak Gitai, Madan Madhav Godbole, Jitendra Nath Goswami, Vikas Gowda, Karimul Haque, Jitendra Haripal, Sanjeev Kapoor, Dipa Karmakar, Imrat Khan, Kailash Kher, Narendra Kohli, Virat Kohli, Anuradha Koirala, V. Koteswaramma, Deepa Malik, Sakshi Malik, Chintakindi Mallesham, Mapuskar, Sadhu Meher, Mukut Minz, Aruna Mohanty, Birkha Bahadur Limboo Muringla, T K Murthy, Shekhar Naik, Chemanchery Kunhiraman Nair, Chemanchery Kunhiraman Nair, Akkitham Achyuthan Namboothiri, Mukund Nayak, Wareppa Naba Nil, Kashi Nath Pandita, Vishnu Pandya, V. G. Patel, Devendra Dayabhai Patel, Genabhai Dargabhai Patel, Anuradha Paudwal, Chandrakant Pithawa, Parassala B. Ponnammal, Daripalli Ramaiah, Aekka Yadagiri Rao, Ajoy Kumar Ray, Balbir Singh Seechewal, H. R. Shah, Arun Kumar Sharma, Chamu Krishna Shastry, P. R. Shreejesh, Kanwal Sibal, Laishram Birendrakumar Singh, Harkishan Singh, Suniti Solomon, Bhawana Somaaya, Punam Suri, Mariyappan Thangavelu, Harihar Kripalu Tripathi, Purushottam Upadhyay, G. Venkatasubbiah, Bharathi Vishnuvardhan, T. K. Viswanathan, Mohammed Abdul Waheed, and Bhakti Yadav.
For 2018, more than 15,700 people applied for the awards.
Recommendations can also be made by the state governments, Union territories, ministries and departments of the government of India, Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan awardees, central and state ministers, chief ministers, state governors and Members of Parliament.
The nominations are placed before the Padma Awards Committee, constituted by the prime minister every year, which takes the final decision.
