Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, legendary singer S P Balasubramaniam and Muslim cleric Wahiduddin Khan were honoured with the Padma Vibhushan on Monday.
A total of seven persons were honoured with the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award in India. Dr. Belle Monappa Hegde, Narinder Singh Kapanay, B.B Lal and Sudarshan Sahoo were the other Padma Vibhushan awardees.
Meanwhile, former Chief Ministers Tarun Gogoi and Keshubhai Patel, former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan were awarded with the Padma Bhushan.
The Union Home Ministry said the President has approved conferment of 119 Padma awards --seven Padma Vibhushan, 10 Padma Bhushan and 102 Padma Shri.
Twenty-nine women are among the Padma awardees and the list also includes 10 persons from the category of foreigners, NRI, PIO AND OCI and one transgender.
Sixteen people have been given the awards posthumously.
While sand artist Sudarshan Sahoo has been named for Padma Vibhushan, former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Nripendra Misra, religious leader Kalbe Sadiq (Posthumous), and social worker Tarlochan Singh have been named for Padma Bhushan.
Former governor late Mridula Sinha and former union minister Bijoya Bijoya Chakravarty have been named for Padma Shri.
(With PTI inputs)
