Sreedharan, Mittal, Anand receive Padma Vibhushan awards

New Delhi, May 10 (UNI) President Pratibha Devisingh Patil today presented the Padma Vibhushan awards to former Chief Justice of India A S Anand, Dr E Sreedharan of Delhi Metro, steel tycoon L N Mittal, industrialist Ratan Tata and World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand.

The other recipients of the award were Dr Rajendra Kumar Pachauri and Prof Prithvi Nath Dhar.

The awards, the second highest civilian honour, were presented at a glittering function at Rashtrapati Bhavan which was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Cabinet colleagues, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and others.

The Padma Bhushan awardees were: Ustad Asad Ali Khan, Baba Neelkanth Kalyani, Mian Bashir Ahmed, Dr Inderjit Kaur, Mr Jasdev Singh, Mr Kantipudi Padmanabhaiah, Prof Kaushik Basu, Prof Lord Meghnad Jagdishchandra Desai, Prof Nirmal Kumar Ganguly, Dr P Susheela, Prof Padma Desai, Mr Ravindra Kelekar, Prof Sushil Kumar Saxena, Mr Viswanathan Ramachandran and Yuli Mikhailovich Vorontsov (posthumous).

Padma Shri: Baichung Bhutia, Tom Alter, Ms Barkha Dutt, Madhuri Dixit, Dr Aheibam Jayanta Kumar Singh, Prof Amitabh Mattoo, Prof Bholabhai Patel, Prof C U Velmurugendran, Ms Colette Mathur, Mr Gennadi Mikhailovich Pechnikov, Dr Pandit Gokulotsavji Maharaj, Mr Hans Raj Hans, Ms Heisnam Sabitri, Dr Indu Bhushan Sinha, Mr Jawahar Wattal, Prof K S Nisar Ahmed, Haji Kaleem Ullah Khan, Ms Karuna Mary Braganza, Prof Kasturi Lal Chopra, Mr Kekoo M Gandhy, Dr Kutikuppala Surya Rao, Mr M M Sabharwal, Manoj Night Shyamalan, Prof Mohan Chandra Pant, Guru Moozhikkulam Kochukuttan Chakyar, Dr Rakesh Kumar Jain, Dr Sant Singh Virmani, Dr Sheela Barthakur, Dr Sirkazhi G Siva Chidambaram, Prof Sukhadeo Kisanrao Thorat, Mr Surjya Kanta Hazarika, Mr V R Gowrishankar, Prof Y V Rao and Mohammed Yusuf Taing.

Padma Bhushan awardees Sunita L Williams and Suresh Kumar Neotia did not turn up receive the honour and these would be delivered to them.

UNI SN RR RAI2033