President Ram Nath Kovind conferred Padma awards for the year 2022, at the Civil Investiture Ceremony-II at Rashtrapati Bhavan, today.

Amongst the prominent awardees at today’s Investiture ceremony are  Padma Vibhushan recipients – Dr Prabha Atre and Kalyan Singh (Posthumous), Padma Bhushan recipients Victor Banerjee, Sanjaya Rajaram (Posthumous), Pratibha Ray and Acharya Vashishtha Tripathi. The Civil Investiture Ceremony – I was held on March 21.

Dr Balaji Tambe got Padma Shri posthumously, while Padma Shri was conferred on Sulochana Chavan.  And Singer Sonu Nigam.

Padam Vibhushan awardee Dr Prabha Atre is an internationally renowned, senior and front-ranking vocalist.  Dr Balaji Tambe was a   world-renowned Ayurveda physician and public educator.  Sulochana Kadam is an Indian singer, known for her “Lavanis” in Marathi.

Sonu Nigam is a singer, music director and actor. He is well-known for his fiery, passionate and pitch-perfect stage performances.  Sonu, co-created and coined ‘Saregama’ in 1995 which was the first Musical Competition Television program in the world.

The program changed the concept of music in the minds of the common and brought together the Veterans and Maestros of Film Music and Classical music along with the budding younger talents on one platform

The recipients in the Padma Bhushan category are, Natarajan Chandrasekaran and  Cyrus Poonawalla.

Today’s Padma Shri awardees include Dr Himmatrao Bawaskar, Vijaykumar Vinayak Dongre, Dr Bhimsen Singhal and   Anil Kumar Rajvanshi.

Padma Awards – one of the highest civilian Awards in the country, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The Awards are given in various disciplines/ fields of activities, viz. art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc.

‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; ‘Padma Bhushan’ for distinguished service of high order and ‘Padma Shri’ for distinguished service in any field. The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.