Five Padma Bhushan and four Padma Shri award for US NRIs- Record breaking event

New Delhi, Jan 26, 2008
Surinder Malhotra/ Gary Singh, LA

Every year, award Bharat Ratna, the Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushans and Padma Shri are given to Indian citizens to recognize their distinguished contribution in various spheres of activity including the Arts, Education, Industry, Literature, Science, Sports, Social Service and public life by the Government of India . This year, Five Padma Bhushan and four Padma Shri were awarded to US NRIs.

• Padma Desai is an American professor and director of the Center for Transition Economies at Columbia University, USA, has been awarded Padma Bhushan. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and was U.S. Treasury. She is advisor to the Russian Finance Ministry, president of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies (2001) and US Treasury’s Advisor to the Russian Finance Ministry (1995).
  She said, "I am delighted to be honoured by India and also feel proud to have broken into what I thought was a male preserve in my husband's family."
  
• Padma Desai's husband Jagdish Bhagwati has been awarded Padma Vibhushans.
  
• Kaushik Basu, an economist at Cornell University and author who has been named for Padma Bhushan. Mr. Basu said, "It feels extra good to be honoured by one's own country. I feel very connected as I visit India every three months or so."
  
• Srinivasa S R Varadhan, a mathematician with New York University received the Padma Bhushan. He said, "The Indian diaspora is becoming more visible back home.
  
• Nirupam Bajpai, named among the Padma Shri awardees, is director of the South Asia Programme, Centre on Globalisation and Sustainable Development at The Earth Institute, Columbia University. Nirupam said, "The honour is an encouragement for us at Columbia focusing on India's economy and economic reforms."
  
• Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit, Hollywood film-maker Manoj Night Shyamalan, who created waves with his blockbuster Sixth Sense, actor Tom Alter, national football captain Baichung Bhutia and former marathon swimmer Bula Chowdhury were in the list of 71 Padma Shri awardees.
  
• Astronaut Sunita Williams , Vikram Pandit Citigroup's chief executive are named the Padma Shri list.
  
• Sant Singh Virmani is rice scientist with the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and he has worked with the Washington-based Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research

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Padma awards for Pranab, Sachin, Asha Bhosle

Statesman News Service
New Delhi, Jan. 25, 2008

External affairs minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee, cricket genius Sachin Tendulkar, melody queen Asha Bhosle and industrialist Mr Ratan Tata were today chosen for Padma Vibhushan, the nation’s second highest civilian award, but no one was named for highest award Bharat Ratna around which there has been a political controversy.
Noted enviromentalist Mr RK Pachauri, Delhi Metro chief Mr E Sreedharan and world chess champion Vishwanathan Anand figure in the list of 13 personalities selected for the coveted Padma Vibhushan for 2008.
Mr Mukherjee is the first ever serving Cabinet minister to get a Padma award. Indian-born American astronaut Sunita Willams, ICICI chief Mr KV Kamath, new Citibank head Mr Vikram Pandit, noted commentator Jasdev Singh and Centre’s interlocutor for Naga talks Mr K Padmanabhiah were among the 35 persons named for Padma Bhushan awards.
Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit, Hollywood film-maker Manoj Night Shyamalan, who created waves with his blockbuster Sixth Sense, actor Tom Alter, national football captain Baichung Bhutia and former marathon swimmer Bula Chowdhury were in the list of 71 Padma Shri awardees.
Ignoring the clamour for Bharat Ratna triggered by BJP leader Mr LK Advani’s letter to the Prime Minister proposing Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee's name, government decided against naming anyone for the award for the seventh consecutive year.
Bharat Ratna was last given in 2001 to Lata Mangeshkar and Ustad Bismillah Khan.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Miss Mayawati had demanded that the award be given to BSP mentor Kanshi Ram posthumously, while the CPI-M had made out a case for party stalwart Mr Jyoti Basu, who said he was not in the race.
Former Chief Justice of India Mr Justice AS Anand, who was also the chairman of National Human Rights Commission, was in the list of personalities selected for Padma Vibhushan. Steel tycoon and the richest Indian, Mr Lakshmi Narayan Mittal, Infosys chief mentor Mr NR Narayana Murthy and renowned hotelier PRS Oberoi would be conferred with country's second highest civilian award later this year.
The first man to step on the world’s highest peak Mount Everest Sir Edmund Hillary was selected for the Padma Vibushan posthumously as also former bureaucrat and principle secretary to the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, PN Dhar.
The others, who were selected for Padma Bhushan awards for 2008 included former diplomat Mr Chadrashekhar Dasgupta, former bureaucrat Mr V Ramachandran, noted Gujjar leader from Jammu and Kashmir Mian Bashir Ahmed and economist Lord Meghnad Desai were named for Padma Bhushan.
Former Russian Ambassador to India and the US in the cold-war era and great champion of Indo-Soviet relation Yuri Mikhailovitch was selected for Padma Bhusan award posthumously.
HCL chief Mr Shiv Nadar and principal of DPS Mr RK Puram (Delhi) Shyama Chona, and Amarnath Sehgal (posthumous), Ustad Asad Ali Khan and Ustad Rahim F Dagar -- all from the field of arts were selected for Padma Bhushan.
Noted litterateur TK Oommen, French writer Dominique Lapierre and medical experts Jagjit Singh Chopra and Nirmal Kumar Ganguly have been chosen for the Padma Bhushan award.
Leading television journalists Barkha Dutt (NDTV), Rajdeep Sardesai (CNN-IBN) and Vinod Dua (NDTV-India), vice-chancellor of Jammu University Amitabh Mattoo and playback singer Jawahar Wattal are among other Padma Shri awardees. UGC Chairman Sukhdeo Thorat and FICCI General Secretary Amit Mitra have been named for Padma Shri awards.

 

 

 

 

Padma Desai is an American professor and director of the Center for Transition Economies at Columbia University

Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit,