Padma Samman to 106 people including Mulayam Singh Yadav, Zakir Hussain, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Raveena Tandon

Padma Samman 2023: Padma Samman is announced every year on the occasion of Republic Day. Under this tradition, President Draupadi Murmu has announced the Padma Awards for the year 2023. This year 106 Padma Awards have been announced. Padma awardees include former UP CM and Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, famous tabla player Zakir Hussain, famous businessman and stock market expert Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon, among others. For 2023, the President has approved the conferment of 106 Padma Awards, including three double cases. The list includes 6 Padma Vibhushan, 9 Padma Bhushan and 91 Padma Shri. 19 awardees are women. All these people are conferred by the President in a formal ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The ceremony usually takes place around March/April every year.

Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, former Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna and tabla player Ustad Zakir Hussain were awarded the Padma Vibhushan on the occasion of Republic Day 2023. The other recipient of the country's second-highest civilian award is eminent architect Balkrishna Doshi - who passed away on Tuesday.

Also, Dr. Dilip Mahalanabis, who pioneered the widespread use of ORS (Oral Rehydration Solution), which is estimated to have saved over 50 million lives globally, and Indian American mathematician S.R. Srinivasa Vardhan has also received this honour.

This year, 106 Padma Awards, including 3 doubles (where the award is counted as one), have been conferred. Apart from 6 Padma Vibhushans including three posthumously, there are 9 Padma Bhushan and 91 Padma Shri awardees. These include 19 women and two foreigners/NRIs/PIOs/OCIs. Four other Padma Bhushan/Padma Shri awardees are posthumous.

Padma Bhushan winners include businessman Kumar Mangalam Birla, Kannada writer S.L. Bhairappa, singers Vani Jayaram and Suman Kalyanpur, philanthropist and author Sudha Murthy. Among the 91 Padma Shri awardees are billionaire stockbroker Rakesh Jhunjhunwala (posthumous), M.M. RRR's 'Naatu Naatu' music composer MM Keeravani, businessman and Rasna founder Araj Khambata, Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon are in the fray for Best Original Song at this year's Oscars.

Also, Iruva tribal snake catcher Vadivel Gopal and global snake keeper Kaun Masi Sadaiyan, Gandhian V.P. Appukuttan Poduval, known as the 'Gandhi of Kannur', and Ratan Chandra Kar, a retired government doctor who treated the endangered Jarawas of the Andamans during the 1999 measles epidemic and brought them back from the brink of extinction, raised the population from 76 to 270. Contributed to increasing

Sportspersons are largely absent from this year's list of awards, with only SRD Prasad, K. Shanathoiba Sharma and Gurcharan Singh having been selected for the Padma Shri. The awards recognize outstanding contributions in various disciplines/fields of activities - arts, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc.