Aamir, Rahman, Saina, Sehwag Receive Padma Awards
The Ashoka Hall at Rashtrapati Bhawan rose in applause as President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday conferred the prestigious Padma awards to Nobel-laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Oscar winner A.R. Rahman and Bollywood icon Aamir Khan.
The president gave away the Padma Vibhushan – the country’s second highest civilian award – to Ramakrishnan, eminent theatre personalities Ebrahim Alkazi and Zohra Sehgal, founder chairman of Apollo Hospitals Pratap C. Reddy, former RBI Governor Yaga Venugopal Reddy and noted Mridangam exponent Umayalpuram K Sivaraman.
Oscar winner Rahman and actor Aamir Khan received the Padma Bhushan along with eminent cardiac surgeon Ramakant Panda, who performed a ‘beating heart’ surgery on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year.
Opening batsman Virender Sehwag, Olympic bronze-medal winning boxer Vijender Singh and world ranked badminton star Saina Nehwal, actor Saif Ali Khan received the Padma Shri.
The awards were announced to 130 recipients, which included six Padma Vibhushan, 43 Padma Bhushan, 81 Padma Shri, including 13 Foreigners/ NRIs/ PIOs, on the occasion of Republic Day this year.
66 awards were given away on Wednesday.
