Padma Awards 2026 Announced: Celebrating Service Beyond the Spotlight

Ahead of Republic Day 2026, revealed a provisional list of Padma Awards 2026 awardees. The list highlights individuals who have made sustained contributions across healthcare, education, social service, traditional arts, environment, and livelihood generation. Many awardees are grassroots workers from remote and underserved regions, reflecting India’s continued focus on recognizing unsung heroes who have created lasting social impact.

Why in News?

A provisional list of Padma Awards 2026 recipients has been released ahead of Republic Day, recognizing individuals for long-standing contributions across diverse fields, with a strong focus on grassroots service and social impact.

What Are the Padma Awards?

• The Padma Awards are among India’s highest civilian honors, announced annually on the occasion of Republic Day.
• Instituted in 1954, the awards are given in three categories Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri.
• They recognize exceptional service in fields such as art, literature, science, medicine, social work, public affairs, sports, and civil service.
• The awards aim to honour excellence as well as selfless service, often spotlighting individuals whose work has remained outside mainstream attention.

Padma Vibhushan 2026: Highest Civilian Recognition

This year, five Padma Vibhushan awards were approved.

• Dharmendra Singh Deol (Posthumous) for contribution to Art.
• V S Achuthanandhan (Posthumous) for Public Affairs.
• Other recipients include eminent personalities from literature, education, and public service.

The awards acknowledge lifelong impact at the highest national level.

Padma Bhushan 2026: Distinguished Service of High Order

The Padma Bhushan category features 13 awardees.

• Mammootty was honoured for his contribution to Indian cinema.
• Playback singer Alka Yagnik received the award for Art.
• Industrialist Uday Kotak was recognised for Trade and Industry.
• Former tennis player Vijay Amritraj was awarded for Sports.

The list reflects excellence across culture, economy, and public life.

Padma Shri 2026: Wide Representation Across India

The largest group, 113 Padma Shri awards, showcases diversity and inclusion.

• Rohit Sharma was honoured for achievements in Sports.
• R. Madhavan received recognition for contributions to Art.
• Awardees include social workers, doctors, scientists, teachers, artists, and grassroots leaders.

Many recipients hail from remote regions, tribal areas, and marginalized communities, highlighting inclusive recognition.

State-wise Representation and Diversity

The highest number of awardees this year came from,

• Maharashtra (15)
• Tamil Nadu (13)
• Uttar Pradesh (11)
• West Bengal (11)
• Kerala (8)

The list also includes several posthumous awards and foreign nationals, reflecting India’s global cultural and professional influence.

Padma Vibhushan 2026 Winners (Exceptional & Distinguished Service)

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

Padma Bhushan 2026 Winners (Distinguished Service of High Order)

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

Padma Shri Awardees 2026 (Distinguished Service in Any Field)

Sports

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

Art

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

Medicine

Sr. No	Name	State/Country
45	Ms. Armida Fernandez	Maharashtra
46	Shri Guduru Venkat Rao	Telangana
47	Shri H. V. Hande	Tamil Nadu
48	Shri Kewal Krishan Thakral	Uttar Pradesh
49	Dr. Padma Gurmet	Ladakh
50	Shri Palkonda Vijay Anand Reddy	Telangana
51	Shri Prateek Sharma	USA
52	Dr. Punniamurthy Natesan	Tamil Nadu
53	Shri Rajendra Prasad	Uttar Pradesh
54	Shri Ramchandra & Ms. Suneeta Godbole	Chhattisgarh
55	Shri Saroj Mandal	West Bengal
56	Shri Shyam Sundar	Uttar Pradesh
57	Dr. Suresh Hanagavadi	Karnataka

Literature & Education

Sr. No	Name	State/Country
58	Shri Asok Kumar Haldar	West Bengal
59	Shri Charan Hembram	Odisha
60	Shri Gambir Singh Yonzone	West Bengal
61	Shri Kailash Chandra Pant	Madhya Pradesh
62	Shri Mahendra Kumar Mishra	Odisha
63	Shri Mahendra Nath Roy	West Bengal
64	Shri Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar	Delhi
65	Ms. Mangala Kapoor	Uttar Pradesh
66	Shri Naresh Chandra Dev Varma	Tripura
67	Shri Rabilal Tudu	West Bengal
68	Shri Ratilal Borisagar	Gujarat
69	Prof. Shafi Shauq	J&K
70	Shri Shashi Shekhar Vempati	Karnataka
71	Ms. Sivasankari	Tamil Nadu
72	Shri Vempaty Kutumba Sastry	Andhra Pradesh
73	Ms. Liudmila Khokhlova	Russia

Science & Engineering

Sr. No	Name	State/Country
74	Shri A. E. Muthunayagam	Kerala
75	Shri Ashok Kumar Singh	Uttar Pradesh
76	Shri Chandramouli Gaddamanugu	Telangana
77	Shri Gopal Ji Trivedi	Bihar
78	Shri Juzer Vasi	Maharashtra
79	Shri K. Ramasamy	Tamil Nadu
80	Shri Krishnamurty Balasubramanian	Telangana
81	Shri Kumarasamy Thangaraj	Telangana
82	Shri Prem Lal Gautam	Himachal Pradesh
83	Ms. Shubha Venkatesha Iyengar	Karnataka
84	Shri Veezhinathan Kamakoti	Tamil Nadu

Social Work/ Others/Public Service

Sr. No	Name	Field	State
85	Shri Anke Gowda	Social Work	Karnataka
86	Shri Brij Lal Bhat	Social Work	J&K
87	Dr. Budhri Tati	Social Work	Chhattisgarh
88	Shri Inderjit Singh Sidhu	Social Work	Chandigarh
89	Shri Hally War	Social Work	Meghalaya
90	Shri Janardan Bapurao Bothe	Social Work	Maharashtra
91	Shri Jogesh Deuri	Agriculture	Assam
92	Shri Kabindra Purkayastha	Public Affairs	Assam (Posthumous)
93	Ms. Kollakal Devaki Amma G	Social Work	Kerala
94	Shri Mohan Nagar	Social Work	Madhya Pradesh
95	Shri Narayan Vyas	Archaeology	Madhya Pradesh
96	Shri Raghupat Singh	Agriculture	Uttar Pradesh (Posthumous)
97	Shri Rama Reddy Mamidi	Animal Husbandry	Telangana (Posthumous)
98	Shri Ramamurthy Sreedher	Radio Broadcasting	Delhi
99	Sant Niranjan Dass	Spiritualism	Punjab
100	Shri Satyanarayan Nuwal	Trade & Industry	Maharashtra
101	Shri Shrirang Devaba Lad	Agriculture	Maharashtra
102	Shri T. T. Jagannathan	Trade & Industry	Karnataka (Posthumous)
103	Shri Techi Gubin	Social Work	Arunachal Pradesh

Historical Background of Padma Awards

Aspect	Details
Year of Institution	1954
Instituted	Along With Bharat Ratna
Original Categories	Pahela Varg, Dusra Varg, Tisra Varg
Renaming Year	1955
Authority for	Renaming Presidential Notification
Present Names	Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri
Nature of Awards	Civilian honours (non-military)

Categories of Padma Awards

Category	Level	Purpose
Padma Vibhushan	Second-highest civilian award	Exceptional and distinguished service
Padma Bhushan	Third-highest civilian award	Distinguished service of a high order
Padma Shri	Fourth-highest civilian award	Distinguished service in any field

Eligibility Criteria

Parameter	Details
Eligible Persons	All individuals irrespective of race, gender, occupation or position
Government Servants	Not eligible
Exceptions	Doctors and scientists employed by government
Posthumous Awards	Generally not given
Posthumous Exception	Allowed in highly deserving cases
Gap for Higher Award	Minimum 5 years
Relaxation of Gap	Allowed in exceptional cases by Awards Committee
Nomination Type	Public nomination allowed
Self-Nomination	Permitted

Selection Process

Stage	Details
Nominations Evaluated By	Padma Awards Committee
Committee Constitution	Annually by Prime Minister
Head of Committee	Cabinet Secretary
Recommendation	Submitted To Prime Minister and President
Final Approval	Authority President of India
Award Ceremony	Timing Usually March or April
Award Items	Sanad (certificate) + Medallion

Other Key Features of Padma Awards

Feature	Details
Annual Cap	120 awards per year
Exclusions from	Cap Posthumous awards, NRIs, foreign nationals, OCIs
Title Status	Does not confer a title
Usage Restriction	Cannot be used as prefix or suffix
Example (Incorrect)	Padma Shri Mohan
Nature of Honour	Recognition, not a designation
Disciplines Covered Under Padma Awards	Field. Art, Social Work, Public Affairs, Science and Engineering, Trade and, Industry, Medicine, Literature and Education, Sports, Civil Service, Other fields of public service