Padma Awards 2026

Civil Investiture Ceremony Held at Rashtrapati Bhavan

President Droupadi Murmu conferred the Padma Awards 2026 during the first Civil Investiture Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 25 May 2026. Senior dignitaries including the Prime Minister and Home Minister attended the ceremony.

Key Highlights of Padma Awards 2026

• Total awardees: 131
• Categories:
  • 5 Padma Vibhushan
  • 13 Padma Bhushan
  • 113 Padma Shri
• Includes:
  • 19 women awardees
  • 16 posthumous awards
  • 6 Foreign/NRI/PIO/OCI recipients
  • 2 duo cases counted as one award each

Background of Padma Awards

The Padma Awards are among India’s highest civilian honours and are announced every year on the eve of Republic Day. They are administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Categories of Padma Awards

1. Padma Vibhushan

Awarded for:

“Exceptional and distinguished service”

This is India’s second-highest civilian award after the Bharat Ratna.

2. Padma Bhushan

Awarded for:

“Distinguished service of a high order”

This is the third-highest civilian honour.

3. Padma Shri

Awarded for:

“Distinguished service in any field”

This is the fourth-highest civilian honour.

Selection Process

The Padma Awards are recommended by the Padma Awards Committee, constituted annually by the Government of India.

Nominations

• Open to the public
• Anyone can nominate deserving individuals
• Self-nominations are also allowed
• Nominations are submitted through the official Padma Awards portal

Eligibility

Any person irrespective of race, occupation, gender, or position is eligible. However:

• Serving government officials are generally not eligible
• Exceptions include doctors and scientists

Padma Awards 2026 Overview

The Padma Awards 2026 recognised 131 individuals across various categories:

• Padma Vibhushan – 5 awardees
• Padma Bhushan – 13 awardees
• Padma Shri – 113 awardees

The awards honour excellence in fields such as Art, Literature & Education, Medicine, Science & Engineering, Sports, Public Affairs, Social Work, Trade & Industry, Civil Service, and others.

Padma Vibhushan 2026

S.No	Name	Field	State/Country
1	Dharmendra Singh Deol (Posthumous)	Art	Maharashtra
2	K. T. Thomas	Public Affairs	Kerala
3	N. Rajam	Art	Uttar Pradesh
4	P. Narayanan	Literature & Education	Kerala
5	V. S. Achuthanandhan (Posthumous)	Public Affairs	Kerala

Padma Bhushan 2026

S.No	Name	Field	State/Country
1	Alka Yagnik	Art	Maharashtra
2	Bhagat Singh Koshyari	Public Affairs	Uttarakhand
3	K. R. Palaniswamy	Medicine	Tamil Nadu
4	Mammootty	Art	Kerala
5	Dr. Nori Dattatreyudu	Medicine	USA
6	Piyush Pandey (Posthumous)	Art	Maharashtra
7	S. K. M. Maeilanandhan	Social Work	Tamil Nadu
8	Shatavadhani R. Ganesh	Art	Karnataka
9	Shibu Soren (Posthumous)	Public Affairs	Jharkhand
10	Uday Kotak	Trade & Industry	Maharashtra
11	V. K. Malhotra (Posthumous)	Public Affairs	Delhi
12	Vellappally Natesan	Public Affairs	Kerala
13	Vijay Amritraj	Sports	USA

Padma Shri 2026 

Art

S.No	Name	State/Country
1	Anil Kumar Rastogi	Uttar Pradesh
2	Arvind Vaidya	Gujarat
3	Bharat Singh Bharti	Bihar
4	Bhiklya Ladakya Dhinda	Maharashtra
5	Bishwa Bandhu (Posthumous)	Bihar
6	Chiranji Lal Yadav	Uttar Pradesh
7	Deepika Reddy	Telangana
8	Dharmiklal Chunilal Pandya	Gujarat
9	Gadde Babu Rajendra Prasad	Andhra Pradesh
10	Gafruddin Mewati Jogi	Rajasthan
11	Garimella Balakrishna Prasad (Posthumous)	Andhra Pradesh
12	Gayatri Balasubramanian & Ranjani Balasubramanian	Tamil Nadu
13	Hari Madhab Mukhopadhyay (Posthumous)	West Bengal
14	Haricharan Saikia	Assam
15	Jyotish Debnath	West Bengal
16	Kalamandalam Vimala Menon	Kerala
17	Khem Raj Sundriyal	Haryana
18	Kumar Bose	West Bengal
19	Lars-Christian Koch	Germany
20	Madhavan Ranganathan	Maharashtra
21	Maganti Murali Mohan	Andhra Pradesh
22	Mir Hajibhai Kasambhai	Gujarat
23	Nuruddin Ahmed	Assam
24	Othuvaar Thiruthani Swaminathan	Tamil Nadu
25	Pokhila Lekthepi	Assam
26	Prosenjit Chatterjee	West Bengal
27	R. Krishnan (Posthumous)	Tamil Nadu
28	Raghuveer Tukaram Khedkar	Maharashtra
29	Rajastapathi Kaliappa Goundar	Tamil Nadu
30	Sangyusang S Pongener	Nagaland
31	Sarat Kumar Patra	Odisha
32	Satish Shah (Posthumous)	Maharashtra
33	Simanchal Patro	Odisha
34	Taga Ram Bheel	Rajasthan
35	Tarun Bhattacharya	West Bengal
36	Thiruvaarur Bakthavathsalam	Tamil Nadu
37	Tripti Mukherjee	West Bengal
38	Yumnam Jatra Singh (Posthumous)	Manipur

Literature & Education

S.No	Name	State/Country
1	Asok Kumar Haldar	West Bengal
2	Charan Hembram	Odisha
3	Gambir Singh Yonzone	West Bengal
4	Kailash Chandra Pant	Madhya Pradesh
5	Liudmila Viktorovna Khokhlova	Russia
6	Mahendra Kumar Mishra	Odisha
7	Mahendra Nath Roy	West Bengal
8	Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar	Delhi
9	Mangala Kapoor	Uttar Pradesh
10	Naresh Chandra Dev Varma	Tripura
11	Prabhakar Basavprabhu Kore	Karnataka
12	Rabilal Tudu	West Bengal
13	Ratilal Borisagar	Gujarat
14	Shafi Shauq	Jammu and Kashmir
15	Shashi Shekhar Vempati	Karnataka
16	Sivasankari	Tamil Nadu
17	Vempaty Kutumba Sastry	Andhra Pradesh

Medicine

S.No	Name	State/Country
1	Armida Fernandez	Maharashtra
2	Guduru Venkat Rao	Telangana
3	H. V. Hande	Tamil Nadu
4	Kewal Krishan Thakral	Uttar Pradesh
5	Padma Gurmet	Ladakh
6	Palkonda Vijay Anand Reddy	Telangana
7	Prateek Sharma	USA
8	Punniamurthy Natesan	Tamil Nadu
9	Rajendra Prasad	Uttar Pradesh
10	Ramchandra Godbole & Suneeta Godbole	Chhattisgarh
11	Saroj Mandal	West Bengal
12	Shyam Sundar	Uttar Pradesh
13	Suresh Hanagavadi	Karnataka

Science & Engineering

S.No	Name	State/Country
1	A. E. Muthunayagam	Kerala
2	Ashok Kumar Singh	Uttar Pradesh
3	Chandramouli Gaddamanugu	Telangana
4	Gopal Ji Trivedi	Bihar
5	Juzer Vasi	Maharashtra
6	K. Ramasamy	Tamil Nadu
7	Krishnamurty Balasubramanian	Telangana
8	Kumarasamy Thangaraj	Telangana
9	Prem Lal Gautam	Himachal Pradesh
10	Shubha Venkatesha Iyengar	Karnataka
11	Veezhinathan Kamakoti	Tamil Nadu

Sports

S.No	Name	State/Country
1	Baldev Singh	Punjab
2	Bhagwandas Raikwar	Madhya Pradesh
3	Harmanpreet Kaur Bhullar	Punjab
4	K. Pajanivel	Puducherry
5	Praveen Kumar	Uttar Pradesh
6	Rohit Sharma	Maharashtra
7	Savita Punia	Haryana
8	Vladimer Mestvirishvili (Posthumous)	Georgia

Social Work

S.No	Name	State/Country
1	Anke Gowda M.	Karnataka
2	Brij Lal Bhat	Jammu and Kashmir
3	Budhri Tati	Chhattisgarh
4	Hally War	Meghalaya
5	Inderjit Singh Sidhu	Chandigarh
6	Janardan Bapurao Bothe	Maharashtra
7	Kollakal Devaki Amma G	Kerala
8	Mohan Nagar	Madhya Pradesh
9	S. G. Susheelamma	Karnataka
10	Swami Brahmdev Ji Maharaj	Rajasthan
11	Techi Gubin	Arunachal Pradesh

Trade & Industry

S.No	Name	State/Country
1	Ashok Khade	Maharashtra
2	Satyanarayan Nuwal	Maharashtra
3	T. T. Jagannathan (Posthumous)	Karnataka

Public Affairs

S.No	Name	State/Country
1	Kabindra Purkayastha (Posthumous)	Assam

Civil Service

S.No	Name	State/Country
1	K. Vijay Kumar	Tamil Nadu
2	R. V. S. Mani	Delhi

Others

S.No	Name	Category	State/Country
1	Buddha Rashmi Mani	Archaeology	Uttar Pradesh
2	Jogesh Deuri	Agriculture	Assam
3	Narayan Vyas	Archaeology	Madhya Pradesh
4	Rama Reddy Mamidi (Posthumous)	Animal Husbandry	Telangana
5	Raghupat Singh (Posthumous)	Agriculture	Uttar Pradesh
6	Ramamurthy Sreedher	Radio Broadcasting	Delhi
7	Sant Niranjan Dass	Spiritualism	Punjab
8	Shrirang Devaba Lad	Agriculture	Maharashtra

 

Important Features for UPSC

1. Recognition of “Unsung Heroes”

Recent Padma Awards increasingly focus on:

• Tribal artists
• Folk musicians
• Grassroots innovators
• Traditional healers
• Social workers from remote regions

This reflects the government’s emphasis on inclusive recognition and cultural preservation.

2. Regional Diversity

The 2026 awards showcased broad representation from:

• Northeast India
• Tribal communities
• Southern states
• Foreign Indian-origin contributors

3. Increasing Posthumous Recognition

Several prominent personalities received awards posthumously, including:

• Dharmendra
• V. S. Achuthanandhan
• Shibu Soren

 

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Constitutional & Governance Perspective 

• Padma Awards are not titles under Article 18 of the Constitution.
• The Balaji Raghavan vs Union of India (1995) upheld the constitutional validity of Padma Awards.
• Awardees cannot use titles like “Padma Shri” as prefixes to names.

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Key UPSC Takeaways