Ramakrishnan, Saina, among 130 Padma awardees

New Delhi, Jan 25: Ahead of 60th Republic Day, the Indian Government has announced the names of Padma awards.

Padma Awards, the country's highest civilian awards are conferred in three categories - Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.

The distinctive people named for the following categories are:

Padma Vibhushan: Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Apollo hospital chief Prathap Chandra Reddy and former RBI Governor Y Venugopal Reddy.

Padma Bhushan: Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan and music maestros AR Rahman, Ilaiyaaraa Raja and noted cadiac surgeon Dr Ramakant Panda.

Padma Shri: Bollywood diva Rekha, Anu Aga, hockey national Ignace Tirkey, Cricketer Virendra Sehwag, Formula 1 driver Narayan Karthikeyan, Badminton star Saina Nehwal and Sachin Tendulkar's guru Ramakant Achrekar.

The awards will be conferred by the President Pratibha Patil at a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan around Mar-Apr 2010.

This year the President has approved 130 awards including 13 in the category of Foreigners/ NRIs/ PIOs. These comprise 6 Padma Vibhushan, 43 Padma Bhushan and 81 Padma Shri awards.

OneIndia News