The Centre today announced the list of Padma awardees. Among the huge list of 1,730 nominations the Centre has shortlisted 150 recipients for the prestigious award.

The awardees of the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award are:

Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli
First female Paralympics medallist Deepa Malik
Gymnast Dipa Karmarkar
Discus thrower and Shot putter Vikas Gowda
Hockey goalkeeper PR Sreejesh
AIDS researcher DR Suniti Solomon
Film critic Bhavna Somaiya
Singer Anuradha Paudwal

The awardees of the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, are:

Mohanveena maestro Vishwa Mohan Bhat
Olympian Sakshi Malik, the first Indian woman to win a medal in Olympics in Wrestling.
PV Sindhu, the first Indian woman to win silver medal at the Olympics and also the youngest recipient of the award.
Former captain and skipper MS Dhoni. He has been awarded Padma Shri in 2009 and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 2007.
Chief National Badminton coach Pullela Gopichand
Veteran singer Asha Parekh
Playback singer and composer Shankar Mahadevan
Singer Sonu Nigam
Film actor and director Rishi Kapoor
Playback singer Kailash Kher
Film actor Manoj Bajpayee
Dancer Lakshmi Vishwanathan
Fork artist Basanti Bisht
Craftsman Mohammed Yusef Khatri
Kathakali dancer CK Nair

The awardees of the Padma Vibushan, second highest civilian award are:

Maratha strongman and NCP leader Sharad Pawar
83-year-old BJP veteran and former Union Minister Murli Manohar Joshi. He is a member of BJP’s ‘Margdarshak Mandal’, an advisory panel of the ruling party comprising of senior leaders.
Late Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed
Late former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma
Late Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Sunder Lal Patwah
Legendary singer KJ Yesudas

Apart from these well-known personalities, the Centre this year will also felicitate a large number of ‘unsung heroes’. The award ceremony will be held on the 68th Republic Day. There’s also a buzz that the India’s highest civilian award the ‘Bharat Ratna’ will not be awarded in 2017.