First Kempegowda International Awards to SM Krishna, Narayana Murthy and Prakash Padukone

Veteran politician SM Krishna, Indian IT pioneer NR Narayana Murthy and Badminton legend Prakash Padukone have been picked for the first edition of the Kempegowda International Award instituted by the Karnataka government.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will present the awards at Vidhana Soudha on June 27 to mark the 513th Kempegowda Jayanti to honour the 16th century chieftain who founded the city of Bengaluru. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh.

Announcing the awardees here, IT/BT and Higher Education Minister CN Ashwath Narayan said all the three personalities have “contributed in their own ways to the growth and glory of Bengaluru”. Narayan is also the vice-chairman of the Kempegowda Development Authority (KDA).

The government had constituted a high-level committee headed by Karnataka Vision Group for Startups chairperson Prashanth Prakash to pick the award winners. The committee had IT veteran TV Mohandas Pai, Vivekananda Youth Movement founder R Balasubramanyam and retired IAS officer MK Shankarlinge Gowda as members. KDA commissioner R Vinaydeep was the committee’s member-secretary.

Narayan visited Krishna’s house on Saturday, given his seniority, to invite him for the award function. “Krishna agreed and expressed happiness at being chose for the award,” Narayan said.