Former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe among 119 Padma winners for 2021
New Delhi: Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is among 119 recipients whom the government on Monday selected for Padma awards — one of the highest civilian awards in the country.
The Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday announced the awards that include seven Padma Vibhushan awards, 10 Padma Bhushan awards and 102 Padma Shri awards — to eminent personalities across fields of art, literature and education, medicine, trade and industry, sports, public affairs, social work and science and engineering have been recognised.
The Padma Vibhushan, the country's second-highest civilian award, has been conferred on Japan's longest-serving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the public affairs category. Tamil Nadu's veteran musician and playback singer SP Balasubramaniam also got the honour, albeit posthumously.
Popularly known as SPB, celebrated singer Balasubramaniam died on September 25, 2020, at a Chennai hospital due to COVID-19 complications at the age of 74. His career spanned five decades in the film and stage music world with hits in 16 languages, many in Tamil and his mother tongue Telugu. Since his singing debut in 1966 with the Telugu film "Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna", Balasubrahmaniam has bagged multiple National Awards and recorded over 40,000 songs in 16 Indian languages.
The singer went on to become the on-screen voice of superstars Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan and Salman Khan in several films. Veteran playback singer Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra, or simply Chithra, has been conferred the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award of the country.
The names from Indian cinema to have been named as Padma Shri recipients include Malayalam lyricist Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri, Gujarati film stars Maheshbhai and Nareshbhai Kanodia (posthumously) and singer Bombay Jayashri Ramnath.
Besides them, Karnataka's famous cardiologist Belle Monappa Hegde; Indian Islamic scholar and peace activist Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, who is known for having written a commentary on the Quran; Indian archaeologist and Hindutva historical revisionist B B Lal; and sculptor Sudarshan Sahoo is among other Padma Vibhushan recipients.
Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, politician and former Cabinet Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, former Chief Minister of Gujarat Keshubhai Patel and Indian Islamic scholar Kalbe Sadiq are among the 10 Padma Bhushan awardees who were honoured with the third-highest civilian award posthumously.
Twenty-nine women are among the Padma awardees and the list also includes 10 persons from the category of foreigners, NRI, PIO AND OCI and one transgender. Sixteen people have been given the award posthumously.
The Padma awards are announced annually on the eve of Republic Day. They are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March or April every year.
With agency inputs
