President Patil to confer Sangeet Natak Akademi awards on Feb. 26

New Delhi, Feb 22 : President Pratibha Devisingh Patil will confer the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship and Akademi Awards for 2007 at a special ceremony on February 26.

The Akademi Fellowship (Akademi Ratna) and Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) are recognised as the highest national honour conferred on practicing artists, gurus and scholars and have come to stay as the most coveted honour which the artistes aspire to.

Past recipients of Akademi Fellowship and Awards, include eminent personalities such as Alauddin Khan, Hafiz Ali Khan, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyenga, Omkar Nath Thakur, T. Balasaraswati, Rukmini Devi Arundale, Kelucharan Mohapatra, Sachin Deb Burman, Satyajit Ray, Sombhu Mitra, P.L. Deshpande, C.C. Mehta, Mohan Rakesh, B.V. Karanth.

This year the most coveted honour of Akademi Fellowship (Akademi Ratna) will be conferred on eminent scholar and Professor of aesthetics, Dr. S.K. Saxena. He will receive purse money of Rs. one lakh, besides a citation, an angavastram and a tamrapatra. hirty-three eminent persons will be conferred the Akademi Awards for the year 2007 carrying purse money of Rs. 50,000, citation, angavastram and tamrapatra.

One of the important activities of the Akademi has been to give recognition and honours to artistes for setting standards in performing arts and restoring the art and artists to their rightful place in the country.

ANI