Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, religious leader Aga Khan and 48 others given Padma awards

NEW DELHI: Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, Shia leader Prince Karim Aga Khan were among five eminent personalities who were conferred with country's second highest civilian award Padma Vibhushan by President Pranab Mukherjee here today.

Among the 50 leading lights, who were bestowed with the three categories of Padma awards, legal luminary K K Venugopal, Dharmadhikari of Karnataka's Shri Manjunatha Swamy temple Dharmasthala Veerendra Heggade, nuclear scientist M Ramaswamy Srinivasan were given Padma Vibhushan.

Cheered by actor son Abhishek, daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai, wife Jaya and daughter Shweta Nanda, her son Agastye and daughter Navya Naveli, 72-year-old Amitabh, dressed in a black 'bandhgala' suit, folded his hands in respect as he received the honour from the President to thunderous applause.

Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior Ministers, BJP patriarch L K Advani, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal were among those who were present.

Due to illness, 92-year-old veteran actor Dilip Kumar, who was also one of the Padma Vibhushan awardees, could not attend the civil investiture ceremony held at the majestic Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Prominent among the eight Padma Bhushan awardees include 12-time national award winning film maker Jahnu Barua, Canada-born mathematician Manjul Bhargava, internationally acclaimed computer scientist Vijay Bhatkar, spiritual guru Swami Satyamitranand Giri, constitutional expert Subhash C Kashyap and eminent endocrinologist Ambrish Mithal.

Head of Sree Siddaganga Mutt in Karnataka, 107-year-old Shivakumara Swamigalu, who was one of the Padma Bhushan awardees, was not present.

Women hockey player Saba Anjum, project director of India's Mars Orbiter Mission S Arunan, internationally known scholar on Indology, Austria born Bettina Sharada Baumer, whose special focus of research was on 'Kashmir Shaivism' and intellectual, spiritual and cultural traditions of Kashmir, Indian-American economist Nadarajan Raj Chetty and member of NITI Aayog Bibek Bebroy were given Padma Shri awards.

The Padma awards were announced on the eve of Republic Day. This year 104 persons were named for the awards comprising 9 Padma Vibhushan, 20 Padma Bhushan and 75 Padma Shri Awardees.

17 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 17 persons from the category of foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and 4 Posthumous awardees.

On March 30, the first lot of awards were presented by the President.

The 38 Padma Shri awardees include music maestro Ravindra Jain, renown Hindi poet Sunil Jogi, vice-chancellor of Gujarat Ayurved University Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, eminent writer and freedom fighter Lambert Mascarenhas, vocalist Tripti Mukherjee, founder of Shillong Chamber Choir Neil Herbert Nongkynrih, chairperson of Manipal Global Education Services T V Mohandas Pai and environmental activist Jadav Payeng, who single handedly turned a sandbar of Brahmaputra into a reserve forest.

Captain of Indian women cricket team Mithali Raj, Portuguese yoga grand master Jagat Guru Amrta Suryananda Maha Raja, former director of NCERT J S Rajput, South Indian film star Kota Srinivasa Rao, renowned author of Hindi literature Manu Sharma, Director of ISRO satellite centre S K Shivakumar, AIIMS, New Delhi's ophthalmologist Yoj Raj Sharma and Assamese writer Lakshmi Nandan Bora were also given with Padma Shri awards.

Two Padma Shri awardees were not present at the civil investiture ceremony.