Venkaiah Naidu, Vyjayantimala, K Chiranjeevi & Foxconn's Liu among others to be conferred with Padma awards

New Delhi: Former Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, actors Vyjayantimala Bali and K Chiranjeevi, danseuse Padma Subramanyam and late social worker Bindeshwar Pathak were on Thursday chosen for the country's second highest civilian award Padma Vibhushan on the eve of Republic day.

They were among 134 people who were chosen for Padma awards, which also includes 17 Padma Bhushan and 110 Padma Shri awards. Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; ‘Padma Bhushan’ for distinguished service of high order and ‘Padma Shri’ for distinguished service in any field.

The Padma Bhushan awardees included late Tamil actor and politician Vijayakanth, actor-turned-BJP leader Mithun Chakrabarty, Kerala BJP leader O Rajagopal, singer Usha Uthup, media house owners Kundan Vyas and Hormusji N Cama and Taiwanese electronics major Foxconn’s Chairman Young Liu.

Thirty of the awardees are women while eight are from the category of foreigners, NRI, Person of Indian Origin or Overseas Citizen of India. Nine persons, including Pathak, were given the award posthumously.

While four of the five Padma Vibhushan were shared by Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, five of the 17 Padma Bhushans went to Maharashtra while Bengal got three and Kerala two. Karnataka figured once in Padma Bhushan list with industrialist Sitaram Jindal winning the coveted award.

Country's first woman Supreme Court judge Justice M Fathima Beevi (late) and former UP Governor and BJP leader Ram Naik were also among the Padma Bhushan winners.

Among the Padma Shri winners are seven sportspersons and coaches, including tennis star Rohan Bopanna, squash player Joshna Chinapa and hockey coach Harbinder Singh.

Besides Cama and Vyas who won Padma Bhushan, veteran Hindi journalist Surendra Kishore won Padma Shri. Punjabi film and theatre actor Nirmal Rishi and Punjabi theatre Pran Sabharwal was another Padma Shri winner.

Yoga practitioners Charlotte Chopin and Kiran Vyas, who are based in France, were separately chosen for Padma Shri awards besides Ayurveda practitioners Manohar Krishana Dole and Dayal Mavjibhai Parmar.

Besides Jindal and Bopanna, seven more from Karnataka were chosen for Padma awards. Prema Dhanraj, Anupama Hosekere, Sridhar M Krishnamurthy, KS Rajanna, Chandrashekar Rajannachar, Somanna and Shashi Soni won Padma Shri.

Gopinath Swain, who hails from Odisha's Ganjam and a renowned Krishna Leela singer, is the oldest among the unsung heroes at 105 years followed by Chopin, who is 100 years.

India's first female elephant mahout who overcame stereotypes to create a space for herself in a traditionally male-dominated field, Parbati Baruah was also chosen for Padma Shri, as she "stood out for her commitment towards mitigating human-elephant conflict with help of application of scientific practices".