Adoor, Nilekani, Nirmala Deshpande conferred Padma Awards

New Delhi, Mar 20 (UNI) The majestic Ashoka Hall at Rashtrapati Bhavan reverberated with prolonged applause as this year's Padma awardees, including filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande, Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani, national award-winning Malayalam actress Shobana, film actor A K Hangal and bureaucrat C R Krishnaswamy Rao, received the coveted awards from President A P J Abdul Kalam today.

Adoor, Ms Deshpande and C R Krishnaswamy Rao (Civil Service) and agricultural scientist Dr Norman E Borlaug, were conferred the Padma Vibhushan while Bollywood character actor A K Hangal, Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan (Art), HDFC chief Deepak Parekh, writer Dinesh Nandini Dalmia, Nilekani and social worker G P Birla received the Padma Bhushan and actress Shobana received the Padma Shri.

At the Investiture Ceremony, 42 personalities, including two posthumously, were bestowed the Padma Awards.

Although 50 prominent Indians were to receive the awards this evening, eight of them, including Dr Borlaug and tennis icon Sania Mirza (Padma Shri) could not make it.

Another 56 personalities will be conferred the awards on March 29. In all, 106 personalities, including three foreigners, have been selected for Padma Awards, 2006.

The half-hour function was attended by Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Home Minister Shivraj Patil and other dignitaries.

Dr Kalam came down from dais to bestow the awards on three senior citizens---Dr Dinesh Nandini Dalmia (Literature), Gayatri Shankaran (Art) and K C Panicker (Kathakali).

The Padma Bhushan was conferred on South Indian melody queen of yesteryears, P Leela, and Mumbai industrialist Dr Gunter Kruger posthumously.

Filmmaker Sai Paranjpaye was bestowed the Padma Bhushan while Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy's wife Sudha Murthy received the Padma Shri award.

This year, there are nine winners of the Padma Vibhushan, 36 for Padma Bhushan and 61 for Padma Shri.

Raymonds owner Vijaypat Singhania, who last year created a new world record for flying at the highest altitude in a hot air balloon, received the Padma Bhushan in the sports category.

Senior editor Sucheta Dalal was among the winners in the Padma Shri category.

There were also a few foreign nationals among the awardees this year. Czech litterateur Dusan Zbavitel and Russian writer Gregory Maximovich Bongrad-Levin reveived the Padma Bhushan while Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Abdulla al-Mahmoud of Qatar was conferred the Padma Shri.

UNI PMD/SN/SKS/FZ LR KN1934