General Bipin Rawat, Kalyan Singh Awarded Padma Vibhushan Posthumously; Ghulam Nabi Azad, Buddhadeb Given Padma Bhushan

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister late Kalyan Singh and India's first Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat who died in a tragic helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu recently were awarded Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award of India, posthumously on Tuesday (25 January), according to an official release.

Meanwhile, veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and former West Bengal CM and CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee were given Padma Bhushan.

Cyrus Poonawalla of the Serum Institute of India, which manufactured COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, and Krishna Ella and Suchitra Ella of Bharat Biotech, which produced India's indigenous coronavirus vaccine Covaxin, were also given Padma Bhushan.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were conferred Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award.

Late Punjabi folk singer Gurmeet Bawa, actor Victor Banerjee and former Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi have been awarded Padma Bhushan.

Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra and singer Sonu Nigam were awarded Padma Shri.

The President approved conferment of 128 Padma Awards, including two duo cases, this year, according to a Union Home Ministry statement.

In a duo case (of Bharat Biotech's Krishna and Suchitra Ella), the award is counted as one, the ministry said.

The list comprises four Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 Padma Shri awards. Thirty-four of the awardees are women and the list also includes 10 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 13 posthumous awardees.

(With inputs from PTI)