On January 25, 2022, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has announced the Padma Awards 2022. The Padma Awards, one of the highest civilian Awards of India are conferred under 3 categories namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri.
Padma Awardees 2022:
- On the occasion of 73rd Republic Day (on January 26, 2022), the President (Ram Nath Kovind) has approved the conferment of 128 Padma Awards including 2 duo cases (in a duo case, the award is counted as one).
- The list includes 4 Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 Padma Shri Awards.
- 34 of the awardees are women and also includes 10 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI (Non-resident Indian)/PIO (Person of Indian Origin)/OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) and 13 Posthumous awardees.
About Padma Awards:
a.Background:
i.The Government of India instituted two civilian awards-Bharat Ratna & Padma Vibhushan in 1954.
ii.The Padma Vibhushan had 3 classes namely Pahela Varg, Dusra Varg and Tisra Varg. These were subsequently renamed Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri on January 8, 1955.
b.Awards announcement:
i.Padma Awards are announced every year on the occasion of Republic Day except during the years 1978, 1979 and 1993 to 1997.
ii.The awards are conferred on the recommendation of the Padma Awards Committee which is constituted by the Prime Minister annually.
- The Padma Awards Committee is headed by the Cabinet Secretary and includes Home Secretary, Secretary to the President and four to six eminent persons as members. (Current Cabinet Secretary – Rajiv Gauba)
iii.Usually, the President will confer the awards around March/ April every year, where the awardees are presented a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a medallion.
c.Categories:
The Awards are given in various disciplines/ fields of activities, viz.- art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc.
- Padma Vibhushan – It is the second-highest civilian award of India, (after the Bharat Ratna) and is conferred for exceptional and distinguished service.
- Padma Bhushan – It is the third-highest civilian award and is conferred for distinguished service of a high order.
- Padma Shri – It is the fourth-highest civilian award and is conferred for distinguished service.
d.Number of Awards: The total number of awards to be given in a year (excluding posthumous awards and to NRI/foreigners/OCIs) should not be more than 120.
e.Eligibility: All persons without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex are eligible for the awards. However, Government servants including those working with PSUs (Public Sector Undertaking), except doctors and scientists, are not eligible for the Awards.
List of Padma Awardees 2022:
Padma Vibhushan (4):
| S.no | Name | Field | State/Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prabha Atre | Art | Maharashtra |
| 2 | Radheyshyam Khemka (Posthumous) | Literature and Education | Uttar Pradesh |
| 3 | General Bipin Rawat (Posthumous) | Civil Service | Uttarakhand |
| 4 | Kalyan Singh (Posthumous) | Public Affairs | Uttar Pradesh |
Key Personalities: Kalyan Singh (the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister) and General Bipin Rawat, India’s 1st Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of Indian Armed Force, who died in a helicopter crash in December 2021, were conferred with Padma Vibhushan.
Padma Bhushan (17):
| S.no | Name | Field | State/Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Ghulam Nabi Azad | Public Affairs | Jammu and Kashmir |
| 6 | Victor Banerjee | Art | West Bengal |
| 7 | Gurmeet Bawa (Posthumous) | Art | Punjab |
| 8 | Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee | Public Affairs | West Bengal |
| 9 | Natarajan Chandrasekaran | Trade and Industry | Maharashtra |
| 10 | Krishna Ella and Suchitra Ella (Duo case so counted as one) | Trade and Industry | Telangana |
| 11 | Madhur Jaffery | Others-Culinary | United States of America |
| 12 | Devendra Jhajharia | Sports | Rajasthan |
| 13 | Rashid Khan | Art | Uttar Pradesh |
| 14 | Rajiv Mehrishi | Civil Service | Rajasthan |
| 15 | Satya Narayana Nadella | Trade and Industry | United States of America |
| 16 | Sundararajan Pichai | Trade and Industry | United States of America |
| 17 | Cyrus Poonawalla | Trade and Industry | Maharashtra |
| 18 | Sanjaya Rajaram (Posthumous) | Science and Engineering | Mexico |
| 19 | Pratibha Ray | Literature and Education | Odisha |
| 20 | Swami Sachidanand | Literature and Education | Gujarat |
| 21 | Vashishth Tripathi | Literature and Education | Uttar Pradesh |
Key Personalities who were conferred with Padma Bhushan:
i.Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, Chairperson of Tata Group Natarajan Chandrasekaran.
ii.Covid-19 Vaccine makers: 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.
iii.Former Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, Late Punjabi folk singer Gurmeet Bawa, and Bengali actor Victor Banerjee were also named for the award.
iv.The other awardees include Paralympic javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia, US-based culinary expert Madhur Jaffrey, and a religious teacher from Gujarat Swami Sachidanand.
Padma Shri (107):
| S.no | Field | Name | State/Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | Art | Kamalini Asthana and Nalini Asthana (Duo case so counted as one) | Uttar Pradesh |
| 23 | Madhuri Barthwal | Uttarakhand | |
| 24 | S Ballesh Bhajantri | Tamil Nadu | |
| 25 | Khandu Wangchuk Bhutia | Sikkim | |
| 26 | Sulochana Chavan | Maharashtra | |
| 27 | Lourembam Bino Devi | Manipur | |
| 28 | Shyamamani Devi | Odisha | |
| 29 | Arjun Singh Dhurve | Madhya Pradesh | |
| 30 | Chandraprakash Dwivedi | Rajasthan | |
| 31 | Gosaveedu Shaik Hassan (Posthumous) | Andhra Pradesh | |
| 32 | Sowcar Janaki | Tamil Nadu | |
| 33 | H R Keshavamurthy | Karnataka | |
| 34 | Shivnath Mishra | Uttar Pradesh | |
| 35 | Darshanam Mogilaiah | Telangana | |
| 36 | Thavil Kongampattu A V Murugaiyan | Puducherry | |
| 37 | R Muthukannammal | Tamil Nadu | |
| 38 | Tsering Namgyal | Ladakh | |
| 39 | A K C Natarajan | Tamil Nadu | |
| 40 | Sonu Nigam | Maharashtra | |
| 41 | Ram Sahay Panday | Madhya Pradesh | |
| 42 | Sheesh Ram | Uttar Pradesh | |
| 43 | Ramachandraiah | Telangana | |
| 44 | Padmaja Reddy | Telangana | |
| 45 | Ram Dayal Sharma | Rajasthan | |
| 46 | Kaajee Singh | West Bengal | |
| 47 | Konsam Ibomcha Singh | Manipur | |
| 48 | Ajita Srivastava | Uttar Pradesh | |
| 49 | Lalita Vakil | Himachal Pradesh | |
| 50 | Durga Bai Vyam | Madhya Pradesh | |
| 51 | Trade and Industry | Prahlad Rai Agarwala | West Bengal |
| 52 | Jagjit Singh Dardi | Chandigarh | |
| 53 | Muktamani Devi | Manipur | |
| 54 | Ryuko Hira | Japan | |
| 55 | Literature and Education | Najma Akhtar | Delhi |
| 56 | T Senka Ao | Nagaland | |
| 57 | J K Bajaj | Delhi | |
| 58 | Sirpi Balasubramaniam | Tamil Nadu | |
| 59 | Akhone Asgar Ali Basharat | Ladakh | |
| 60 | Harmohinder Singh Bedi | Punjab | |
| 61 | Maria Christopher Byrski | Poland | |
| 62 | Khalil Dhantejvi (Posthumous) | Gujarat | |
| 63 | Dhaneswar Engti | Assam | |
| 64 | Narasimha Rao Garikapati | Andhra Pradesh | |
| 65 | Girdhari Ram Ghonju (Posthumous) | Jharkhand | |
| 66 | Shaibal Gupta (Posthumous) | Bihar | |
| 67 | Narasingha Prasad Guru | Odisha | |
| 68 | Avadh Kishore Jadia | Madhya Pradesh | |
| 69 | Tara Jauhar | Delhi | |
| 70 | Rutger Kortenhorst | Ireland | |
| 71 | P Narayana Kurup | Kerala | |
| 72 | V L Nghaka | Mizoram | |
| 73 | Chirapat Prapandavidya | Thailand | |
| 74 | Vidyanand Sarek | Himachal Pradesh | |
| 75 | Kali Pada Saren | West Bengal | |
| 76 | Dilip Shahani | Delhi | |
| 77 | Vishwamurti Shastri | Jammu and Kashmir | |
| 78 | Tatiana Lvovna Shaumyan | Russia | |
| 79 | Siddhalingaiah (Posthumous) | Karnataka | |
| 80 | Vidya Vindu Singh | Uttar Pradesh | |
| 81 | Raghuvendra Tanwar | Haryana | |
| 82 | Badaplin War | Meghalaya | |
| 83 | Sports | Sumit Antil | Haryana |
| 84 | Pramod Bhagat | Odisha | |
| 85 | Neeraj Chopra | Haryana | |
| 86 | Sankaranarayana Menon Chundayil | Kerala | |
| 87 | Faisal Ali Dar | Jammu and Kashmir | |
| 88 | Vandana Kataria | Uttarakhand | |
| 89 | Avani Lekhara | Rajasthan | |
| 90 | Brahmanand Sankhwalkar | Goa | |
| 91 | Science and Engineering | Subbanna Ayyappan | Karnataka |
| 92 | Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay | West Bengal | |
| 93 | Aditya Prasad Dash | Odisha | |
| 94 | Moti Lal Madan | Haryana | |
| 95 | Anil Kumar Rajvanshi | Maharashtra | |
| 96 | Ajay Kumar Sonkar | Uttar Pradesh | |
| 97 | Jyantkumar Maganlal Vyas | Gujarat | |
| 98 | Social Work | Acharya Chandanaji | Bihar |
| 99 | Shakuntala Choudhary | Assam | |
| 100 | S Damodaran | Tamil Nadu | |
| 101 | Basanti Devi | Uttarakhand | |
| 102 | Savaji Bhai Dholakia | Gujarat | |
| 103 | Om Prakash Gandhi | Haryana | |
| 104 | K V Rabiya | Kerala | |
| 105 | Gamit Ramilaben Raysingbhai | Gujarat | |
| 106 | Prabhaben Shah | Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Damanand Diu | |
| 107 | Prem Singh | Punjab | |
| 108 | Baba Iqbal Singh Ji | Punjab | |
| 109 | Srimad Baba Balia | Odisha | |
| 110 | Medicine | Dr. Himmatrao Bawaskar | Maharashtra |
| 111 | Dr. Prokar Dasgupta | United Kingdom | |
| 112 | Dr. Lata Desai | Gujarat | |
| 113 | Dr. Vijaykumar Vinayak Dongre | Maharashtra | |
| 114 | Dr. Narendra Prasad Misra (Posthumous) | Madhya Pradesh | |
| 115 | Dr. Sunkara Venkata Adinarayana Rao | Andhra Pradesh | |
| 116 | Dr. Veeraswamy Seshiah | Tamil Nadu | |
| 117 | Dr. Bhimsen Singhal | Maharashtra | |
| 118 | Dr. Balaji Tambe (Posthumous) | Maharashtra | |
| 119 | Dr. Kamlakar Tripathi | Uttar Pradesh | |
| 120 | Public Affairs | Malji bhai Desai | Gujarat |
| 121 | Civil Service | Guruprasad Mohapatra (Posthumous) | Delhi |
| 122 | Others -Grassroots Innovation | Abdul Khader Nadakattin | Karnataka |
| 123 | Others – Agriculture | Amai Mahalinga Naik | Karnataka |
| 124 | Shri Seth Pal Singh | Uttar Pradesh | |
| 125 | Others – Spiritualism | Guru Tulku Rinpoche | Arunachal Pradesh |
| 126 | Sadguru Brahmeshanand Acharya Swami | Goa | |
| 127 | Others – Animal Husbandry | Sosamma Iype | Kerala |
| 128 | Others – Yoga | Sivananda | Uttar Pradesh |
Key Personalities who were conferred with Padma Shri:
i.Olympians Neeraj Chopra, who won India’s first-ever track-and-field gold in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Pramod Bhagat, and Vandana Kataria, and singer Sonu Nigam were named for the award Padma Shri.
ii.Prominent athlete Sumit Antil, who won gold medal with a world record throw of 68.55m in the javelin F64 event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics also comes under the list.
Additional info – No names were announced for the highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna, which was last awarded in 2019 to former President Pranab Mukherjee, social reformer Nanaji Deshmukh, and singer Bhupen Hazarika.
Note –Former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and playback singer Sandhya Mukherjee have refused the Padma awards.
Recent Related News:
In November 2021, the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, felicitated the awardees of the cleanest cities of India at the ‘Swachh Amrit Mahotsav’ hosted as part of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 (SBM-U 2.0) by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
Nizamuddin Revival Project, India’s project on the holistic urban revitalisation of the historic Nizamuddin Basti community, in New Delhi, Delhi has won the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation 2021 under 2 categories: Award of Excellence and Special Recognition for Sustainable Development.
About Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA):
Union Minister – Amit Shah (Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat)
Minister of State – Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur, Bihar); Ajay Kumar Mishra (Kheri, Uttar Pradesh) ; Nisith Pramanik (Coochbehar, West Bengal)
