New Delhi: President Ramnath Kovind conferred Padma award to the awardees on Monday at Rashtrapathi Bhavan in New Delhi. The Government of India announced on Sunday that four separate ceremonies would be held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on October 8 and October 9 to honour recipients of the Padma awards. The list comprises 7 Padma Vibhushan, 10 Padma Bhushan and 102 Padma Shri awardees. Sixteen awards have been conferred posthumously.

The list of awardees includes 29 women and one transperson.         The Padma awards were conferred to 119 recipients in 2021. A ceremony to honour the awardees could not be held in 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic. President Ramnath Kovind on Monday conferred the Padma awards to shuttler PV Sindhu, footballer Oinam Bembem Devi, singer Pandit Channulal Mishra and journalist Lalbiakthanga Pachuau, among others.

Watch how the Padma Awards have transformed into People’s Awards under the Modi government!#PadmaAwards #PadmaAwards2021 pic.twitter.com/FrV74RRD1F

— DD News (@DDNewslive) November 8, 2021

A man who cures elephants, a fruit seller who built a school, a former revenue officer who started libraries for tribal children, and a botanist who translated a 17th century Latin botanical treatise are among the lesser known Padma Shri awardees for the 2020.

Himmatram Bhambhu from Rajasthan’s Nagaur district, Clad in a simple white cotton shirt and a dhoti, when Harekala Hajabba from Mangalore in Karnataka. His ‘Gaon Chhodab Nahi’ song from the last decade made him famous in the development sector but for the 1948-born folk-singer Madhu Mansuri Hasmukh from Jharkhand, keeping the flame alive for traditional songs from his region, earned him the prestigious award.

Padma Shri awardee Professor K.S. Manilal is a name to reckon with in the field of botany but not for the masses. The award recognises his tremendous work as a botanist and taxonomist, for his research, translation and annotation of Hendrik van Rheede’s 17th century Latin botanical treatise documenting extensive details of Kerala’s 700 indigenous plants and discovery of 14 species along with his students.

Former revenue officer turned educationist, Kerala-born Sathyanarayanan Mundayoor started 13 libraries and the Home Library Movement in remotest villages in Arunachal Pradesh. The Terracotta artist V.K. Munusamy from Villianur village, near Puducherry, who is known not just for making miniatures as small as 1.5 inches and dramatic life-size terracotta statues but also training scores of others to earn livelihood.

Elephant Man of India Dr Kushal Konwar Sarma, a veterinarian and Professor of Surgery and Radiology at the College of Veterinary Science in Assam. For more than a decade, he has treated 600 plus elephants and saved 140 rogue bull elephants.