Six districts of winners featuring for first time in Padma awards

With President Droupadi Murmu awarding the Padma awards on Wednesday, officials noted that the winners hail from every corner of the country with 40 districts being represented by more than 50 awardees.

Six of these 40 districts had never featured in the Padma awards earlier, they said.

Two of them -- Anakapalle and Kakinada -- are from Andhra Pradesh, while four others are Umaria from Madhya Pradesh, Ratnagiri from Maharashtra, Khowai from Tripura and Chikkaballapur from Karnataka.

The theme of the Padma award is that those who have dedicated their lives to a particular field have been recognised and honoured, officials said.

Ten awardees are over 90 years of age, while 14 of them are in their 80s, they noted.

Former Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna, noted industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and famous playback singer Suman Kalyanpur were given the Padma awards by Murmu at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Besides them, billionaire stock market investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, who had passed away last year, was given the Padma Shri posthumously.

Jodhaiya Bai Baiga, a prominent artist of Baiga painting; Usha Barle, performer of Pandwani and Panthi art forms of Chhattisgarh; and Raman Cheruvayal, a tribal farmer from Kerala who is known for his contribution to sustainable agriculture and preservation of biodiversity, were given the Padma Shri.

The Narendra Modi government has been honouring many unsung heroes who have been contributing to society in different ways with the Padma honour since 2014 when it came to power for the first time.