Padma Awards 2023: Mulayam Yadav, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Dilip Mahalanabis among 6 awarded Padma Vibhushan
The government on Wednesday announced the Padma Awards ahead of Republic Day 2023 and listed out six names for Padma Vibhushan, nine for Padma Bhushan and 91 for Padma Shri Awards. ORS icon Dilip Mahalanabis (Medicine), Samajwadi Party founder and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav (Public Affairs) and architect Balakrishna Doshi (Others-Architecture)have been picked to be awarded Padma Vibhushn posthumously.
Mahalanabis had pioneered the wide use of ORS (Oral Rehydration Solution) that is estimated to have saved more than 5 crore lives globally. According to his profile in the list of 2023 Padma awardees released by the government, Mahalanabis demonstrated the effectiveness of ORS while serving in Refugee camps during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, having returned from USA to serve. Mahalanabis passed away at a Kolkata hospital on October 16 last year. He was 87 and had been suffering from lung infection and other age-related ailments.
Apart from the three, others who have also been included in the list of Padma Vibhushan awardees are: Zakir Hussain in art, S M Krishna in Public Affairs and Srinivas Varadhan in Science & Engineering.
Among the nine people to be awarded Padma Bhushan are S L Bhyrappa in Literature & Education; Kumar Mangalam Birla in Trade & Industry; Deepak Dhar in Science & Engineering; Vani Jairam in Art; Swami Chinna Jeeyar in Others – Spiritualism; Suman Kalyanpur in Art; Kapil Kapoor in Others – Spiritualism; Sudha Murty in Social Work; Kamlesh D Patel in Others – Spiritualism.
Ninety-one other people engaged in public service, who have selected for Padma Shri, are physician Ratan Chandra Kar (Medicine), who contributed towards uplifting and treating Jarawa tribe of Andaman; Hirabai Lobi (Social Work), a tribal social worker and leader, who has dedicated her life for the betterment of the Siddi community in Gujarat; Tula Ram Upreti (Agriculture), a 98-year-old self-sustained small farmer, practising organic farming using only traditional methods, among others.
Announced every year on the eve of Republic Day, Padma awards are given in three categories: Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service), Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of higher order) and Padma Shri (distinguished service). The award seeks to recognise achievements in all fields of activities or disciplines where an element of public service is involved.
