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At a glittering ceremony at the Ashoka Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, President K R Narayanan gave away the awards to 45 eminent personalities.
Classical singers Prabha Atre and Shoba Gurtu, pioneer of India's IT revolution Faquir Chand Kohli, mountaineer Major H P S Ahluwalia, cartoon Mario De Miranda, Writer Nirmal Verma, surgeon Natesan Rangabashyam, space scientist R V Perumal, foreign industrialist Henning Holck-Larsen, yoga exponent B K S Raja Iyengar and Russian litterateur Y P Chelyshev were the other Padma Bhushan awardees.
Twenty-nine people were honoured with Padma Shri.
Three Padma Shri awardees -- Gopal Chhotray, Hrashel Sawi Luaia and Taro Nakayama -- were not present. Another 50 Padma awards would be given away on March 27.
Vice President Krishan Kant, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former president R Venkataraman, Union Ministers Lal Kishenchand Advani and Jaswant Singh and a galaxy of dignitaries were present on the occasion.
Those honoured with Padma Shri were former captain of Indian women's cricket team Diana Fram Edulji, scientists A Sivathanu Pillai, Kota Harinarayana, Amitav Mallik, Katuru Narayana, N Balakrishnan, R Cowsik, V K Sharma, and C Ganguly, filmmaker Govind Nihalani, Odissi danseuse Kiran Segal and Tamil actress Manorama.
Other Padma Shri awardees were scholar Ashok Kelkar, orthodontist A S Narayana, eye specialists D Balasubramanian and G N Rao, Zari designer Fazal Mohammad, paediatrician Karimpat Mathangi Ramakrishnan, poetess Kim Yang Shik, journalists Muzaffer Hussain and K Madhavan Kutty, American diplomat Phillips Talbot, neurologist P K Sethi, social worker P M Amte, Kashmiri folk singer Raj Begum, Bharatnatyam danseuse Saroja Vaidyanathan, oncologist S H Advani, Veena player V M Bhatt and musicologist N P Seshadri.
PTI
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