7 from Delhi among Padma awardees

Seven luminaries from the NCT of Delhi are in the list of Padma awardees announced by the Central Government on the eve of Republic Day.

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The awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March or April every year.

Economist Bibek Debroy has been conferred the Padma Bhushan award (posthumously) for his contribution to literature and education.

Debroy passed away on November 1, 2024, at the age of 69. He served as an economic advisor to the Prime Minister and was a former member of the NITI Aayog.

Dr Neerja Bhatla, a renowned obstetrician and gynecologist from AIIMS, Delhi, was bestowed the honour of Padma Shri for her contribution to the field of medicine.

Over the last two decades, she has undertaken numerous research projects in India on cervical cancer prevention, including screening in low resource situations, human papillomavirus (HPV) epidemiology, trials on affordable HPV tests and HPV vaccine, and new strategies for the elimination of cervical cancer.

Renowned archaeologist Kailash Nath Dikshit, known for numerous works on India’s civilisation, and the organiser and director of several archaeological expeditions, was honoured with Padma Bhushan for his contribution to the field of archaeology.

Barry Godfray John and senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan were conferred the Padma Shri award for their contribution to the field of art and public affairs, respectively.

Prof Bharat Gupt, a retired Professor from the University of Delhi, and a well-known figure in the field of arts, was conferred with the Padma Shri award for his work in art.

Gupt is a classicist, theatre theorist, sitar and surbahar player, musicologist, cultural analyst and newspaper columnist. His writings have altered the perception of ancient Greek drama as the ‘origin of Western theatre’ and established its utter closeness with ancient Indian theatre as part of an Indo-European construct.

Noted poet and litterateur, Ramdarash Mishra, who has to his credit 32 collections of poems, 30 short-story collections, 15 novels, 15 books of literary criticism, four essays, travelogues and several memoirs, was conferred with Padma Shri in the field of literature and education.