ILLAIYARAJA, 43 OTHERS RECEIVE PADMA AWARDS

Noted music composer Illaiyaraja, Hindustani classical singer Ghulam Mustafa Khan, Hindutva thinker P Parameswaran, Kerala Bishop Philipose Mar Chrysostom and 39 other prominent personalities were conferred the prestigious Padma awards for 2018 by President Ram Nath Kovind here on Tuesday.

Vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministerial colleagues, and several other dignitaries attended the function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Keepingitspromiseofhonouring “unsung heroes”, the government this year honoured with Padma awards several personalities who served the poor, set up free schools and popularised tribal arts globally.

Illaiyaraja, the president of the Vivekananda Kendra Kanyakumari Parameswaran, and Hindustani classical singer Ghulam Mustafa Khan were conferred the Padma Vibhusan awards.

Emeritus Metropolitan bishop of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church Philipose Mar Chrysostom, historian and archaeologist Ramachandran Nagaswamy, legal scholar Ved Prakash Nanda, and Hindustani classical musician and sitar player Pandit Arvind Parikh were conferred the Padma Bhushan awards.

Among the 37 prominent personalities who were given the Padma Shri awards are Arvind Gupta, an IIT Kanpur alumnus who inspired generations of students to learn science from trash, Lakshmikutty, a tribal woman from Kerala who prepares 500 herbal medicines from memory and helps thousands of people, especially in snake and insect bite cases.

Other awardees include internationally-acclaimed Gond artist Bhajju Shyam, who is known for depicting Europe through Gond paintings, a tribal style of painting of Madhya Pradesh; Somdev Kishore Devvarman, Indian tennis player and Subhasini Mistry, a poor woman from rural West Bengal who toiled for 20 years as housemaid and daily labourer to build a hospital in the state. The awards — Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri — are announced on the eve of Republic Day every year.

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