New Delhi, April 5 (IANS) President Pranab Mukherjee gave away 54 Padma awards at a function in the Darbar hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan here Friday.
Actors Sharmila Tagore and Sridevi and cricketer Rahul Dravid were among those who were conferred the awards.
Dravid and Sharmila Tagore received the Padma Bhushan. Sreedevi got a Padma Shri, the country’s fourth highest civilian award.
The Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second-highest civilian award, was conferred on scientist Prof. Yashpal and sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra.
Defence Research and Development Organisation chief V.K. Saraswat was conferred the Padma Bhushan. Others who got the award included Hemandra Singh Panwar (civil service), S.G. Patil (public affairs) and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (literature and education).
Others who won the award included Trichur Viswanathan Devarajan (medicine) and B. Jayashree (art).
Nobody was named for the Bharat Ratna this year too. The last awardee was the late Bhimsen Joshi in 2008.
Apart from two Padma Vibhushan awards, the president gave away 10 Padma Bhushan awards and 42 Padma Shree.
This year’s list of honours were announced Jan 25 and another ceremony is expected later for presentation of the awards to the remaining award winners.
Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Railway Minister Pawan Bansal were amonst those who attended the ceremony.
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