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Rediff.com  » News » Vidya, Leander, Iyengar: Meet this year's Padma Award winners
This article was first published 10 years ago

Vidya, Leander, Iyengar: Meet this year's Padma Award winners

January 25, 2014 22:38 IST

Image: Vidya Balan

Noted scientist R A Mashelkar and yoga guru B K S Iyengar were on Saturday chosen for this year's Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian honour in India, while cine star Kamala Haasan, author Ruskin Bond and late former chief justice J S Verma were selected for the Padma Bhushan.

National Badminton coach P Gopichand, tennis player Leander Paes, writer Anita Desai and Tamil lyricist and writer Vairamuthu were also picked for the Padma Bhushan while cricketer Yuvraj Singh and cine stars Paresh Rawal and Vidya Balan were selected for the Padma Shri.

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Meet this year's Padma Award winners

Image: Yuvraj Singh

The list included two Padma Vibhushans, 24 Padma Bhushans and 101 Padma Shri awardees. They included 27 women and seven foreigners including Non Resident Indians and Persons of Indian Origin.

Three awardees got the honour in the posthumous category and they included N A Dabholkar, an anti-superstition campaigner who was shot dead in Pune last year.

The Padma Shri awardees also included Union minister Sharad Pawar's brother Pratap Govindrao Pawar.

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Meet this year's Padma Award winners

Image: B K S Iyengar

The 71-year-old Mashelkar, a former director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, had played a crucial role in evolving science and technology policies in post-liberalised India.

Iyengar, 95, who was named once by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, has spread yoga across the globe.

Kamal Haasan, 59, was selected for Padma Bhushan for his contribution to the world of cinema. A recipient of Padma Shri in 1990, the actor-director has starred in various hit movies, mainly in Tamil.

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Meet this year's Padma Award winners

Image: Kamal Haasan in a still from the film 'Vishwaroopam'

Haasan has enjoyed a career spanning more than five decades and has over 190 films to his credit.

Verma, who pronounced the judgment in the famous Vishakha case, after which guidelines to prevent harassment of women at work place was laid, was selected for the award posthumously.

He headed a three-member commission tasked with reforming anti-rape laws after the infamous December 16, 2012 Delhi gangrape case.

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Meet this year's Padma Award winners

Image: Leander Paes

Bangladeshi national Anisuzzaman, an eminent academician of Bengali literature, was also selected for the third highest civilian award.

Singer Parveen Sultana, 63, a classical singer of the Patiala Gharana, was among the Padma Bhushan awardees.

In the field of sports, tennis star Leander Paes and badminton player-turned-coach Pullela Gopichand were selected for Padma Bhushan.

Paes, 40, who had earlier been conferred the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awards, is the most successful tennis player of the country with 14 Grand Slam titles -- eight men's doubles and six mixed doubles.

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