TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
NEW DELHI: India’s highest civilian award of the Padma Vibhushan was conferred this year on renowned scientist of Goan origin, Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, while Goa’s acclaimed fashion designer Wendell Rodricks has bagged the Padma Shri award.
The Padma Vibhushan was also conferred on yoga guru B K S Iyengar from Maharashtra. Former Chief Justice of India and former NHRC chairman Justice J S Verma has bagged the Padma Vibhushan award posthumously while Pune’s activist Dr Narendra Achyut Dabholkar killed last year bagged the Padma Shri award.
Altogether, 127 Padma awards were announced by President Pranab Mukherjee that included 24 Padma Bhushan and 101 Padma Shri.
Former Chief Justice of India late Jagdish Sharan Verma, film actor Kamala Haasan, writer Ruskin Bond, littérateur Anita Desai, tennis champion Leander Paes, Justice Dalveer Bhandari, Prof Jyeshtharaj Joshi of Maharashtra are among 24 awarded the Padma Bhushan.
The Padma Shri awardees include Sakal newspaper group head Pratap Pawar (journalist), Nayana Apte Joshi from Maharashtra, sculptor Biman Bihari Das, tabla player Vijay Ghate of Maharashtra, Sarangi maestro Ustad Moinuddin Khan and neurologist Dr Ashok Panagariya of Rajasthan, film animation expert Ram Mohan and Paresh Rawal of Mumbai, fashion designer Wendell Augustine Rodricks of Goa, script writer Sooni Taraporevala, actress Vidya Balan, Sekhar Basu, Ramkrishna Hosur and Dr Ravi Bhushan Grover of Maharashtra, industrialists Rajesh Saraiya and Mallika Srinivasan, oncologist Dr Ramakant Deshpande of Mumbai, ENT surgeon Dr Milind Vasant Kirtane, cricketers Yuvraj Singh and Ms Anjum Chopra in sports, besides H Boniface Prabhu (wheelchair tennis), Ms Sunil Dabas (Kabaddi), Lover Raj Singh and Mamata Sodha (Mountaineering) and Dipika Rebecca Pakkikal (Squash).
Rodricks is the only winner in the category of the fashion world.
Cricketer Yuvraj, who made a comeback after battling cancer, has played 40 tests for India, scoring 1900 runs and 293 ODIs, scoring 8329 runs. Before him, there are over two dozen cricketers who have been conferred with the Padma awards.
