Dharmendra, Achuthanandan, Harmanpreet, Akash missile developer among 2026 Padma awardees

New Delhi: Veteran actor Dharmendra and Left stalwart and former Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan have been awarded the Padma Vibhushan posthumously on the occasion of the Republic Day 2026, late JMM founder and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren, singer Alka Yagnik, and Malayalam superstar Mammotty the Padma Bhushan, and sportspersons Harmanpreet Kaur, Rohit Sharma, and Savita Punia the Padma Shri.

President Droupadi Murmu has approved the conferment of 131 Padma Awards, including 2 duo cases (where the Award is counted as one), an official statement said.

As per the list, announced on the eve of the Republic Day, five Padma Vibhushans, 13 Padma Bhushans and 113 Padma Shris have been awarded this year.

As many as 19 of the awardees are women, while the list also includes six foreigners/NRI/PIO/ OCI recipients. Sixteen awards are posthumous.

Announcing the second-highest national award for Dharmendra, it termed the late actor an “Enduring Hindi cinema legend who left an indelible influence on Indian popular culture through 300 films and a career spanning seven decades”.

The other awardees of the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest national award, are former Supreme Court judge, Justice K.T. Thomas, for contributing to judicial policy, and championing law reforms, classical violinist N Rajam, “who globalised Hindustani classical music in her 75-year career” and “pioneered Gayaki Ang vocal style and introduced Khayal Gayaki Ang” and Malayalam literateur and journalist P. Narayanan.

The Padma Bhushan awardees include former Uttarakhand Chief Minister and Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. US-based Dr Nori Dattatreyudu, late advertising maestro Piyush Pandey, tennis maestro Vijay Amritraj, banker Uday Kotak, veteran BJP leader and former MP V.K. Malhotra, and influential Kerala Ezhava community leader and SNDP Yogam supremo Vellappally Natesan.

Among the recipients of the Padma Shri are India women’s cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur Bhullar, former Indian men’s cricket team captain Rohit Sharma, space scientist A.E. Muthunayagam, veteran theatre actor Anil Kumar Rastogi, Karnataka social activist Anke Gowda, who built India’s largest free personal library of over 20 lakh books, acclaimed actor Satish Shah (posthumous), women’s hockey player Savita Punia, and Tollywood legend Prosenjit Chatterjee.

Other leading recipients include paediatrician Armida Fernandez, who established Asia’s first human milk bank and revolutionised neonatal care, significantly reducing infant mortality, veteran hockey coach Baldev Singh, who transformed the women’s hockey team, accomplished aerospace engineer Chandramouli Gaddamanugu, who directed the Akash Missile System from development to deployment in Operation Sindoor, prolific Carnatic vocalist duo Gayatri Balasubramanian and Ranjani Balasubramanian, and paralympic gold medal-winning high-jumper Praveen Kumar.

The foreign recipients of the Padma Shri include globally acclaimed German museologist Lars Christian Koch, who researched the theory and practice of North Indian classical music, acclaimed Russian Indology professor and linguist Liudmila Viktorovna Khokhlova, known for her contributions to Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, and Marwari studies, and Georgian Vladimer Mestvirishvili, the “legendary freestyle wrestling coach, who mentored Olympic medallists and helped shape India into a global wrestling powerhouse”.

The Padma Awards 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.