Padma Awards 2022: Hyderabad-origin Microsoft chief Satya Nadella, Google’s Sunder Pichai conferred Padma Bhushan

Indian origin tech leaders including Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella and Alphabet and Google’s Sundar Pichai featured among the 17 awardees of Padma Bhushan this year. The President of India has approved conferment of 128 Padma Awards for 2022.

Satya Nadella, who was born and brought up in Hyderabad, and Chennai-born Sundar Pichai have been honored for their contribution in the ‘trade and industry’ category.

Prabha Atre (Art) Late General Bipin Rawat, the country’s first Chief of Defense Staff who died in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu in December last year, and former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh, who passed away in August 2021, and Radheshyam Khemka (Literature and Education) have been awarded the Padma Vibhushan this year.

From Telangana, Padmaja Reddy, Ramachandraiah, Darshanam Mogilaiah have been conferred Padma Shri in Art category and from Andhra Pradesh, Garikapati Narsimha Rao (Literature & Education), Dr Sunkara Venkata Adinarayana and Gosaveedu Shaik Hussain (posthumous) got the Padma Shri honor.

Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the country, after Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan. Pichai Sundararajan, popularly known as Sundar Pichai was Born on June 10, 1972 in Madras (now Chennai). He earned his degree from IIT Kharagpur in metallurgical engineering.

After moving to the US, he earned an MS from Stanford University in materials science and engineering and further earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Pichai began his career as a materials engineer. After a short stint at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co, he joined Google in 2004, and the rest is history.

Pichai was picked up as the next CEO of Google on August 10, 2015, after previously being appointed Product Chief by CEO Larry Page. He was appointed to the Alphabet Board of Directors in 2017.

Pichai was included in Time’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in 2016 and 2020. Pichai is married to Anjali Pichai and has two children. His recreational interests include cricket and football.

Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Narayana Nadella was born on August 17, 1967 in Hyderabad (present-day Telangana). His mother Prabhavati was a Sanskrit lecturer, and his father, Bukkapuram Nadella Yugandhar, was an IAS officer of the 1962 batch.

Satya studied at the Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet, before receiving a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka in 1988. He later moved to the US to study for an MS in computer science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, earning the degree in 1990. Later, he received an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 1997.

Satya Nadella is currently the Executive Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, succeeding Steve Ballmer in 2014 as CEO and John W. Thompson in 2021 as Chairman. Before becoming the CEO, he was the Executive Vice President of Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise group, responsible for building and running the company’s computing platforms.

Late CDS Bipin Rawat, ex-CMs Kalyan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Buddhadeb among Padma awardees

General Bipin Rawat, the country’s first Chief of Defense Staff who died in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu in December last year, and former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh, who breathed his last in August 2021, have been awarded the Padma Vibhushan this year.

The other two members in the Padma Vibhushan list are Radheyshyam Khemka (posthumous), the leading light of Gita Press in Gorakhpur that has played a key role in popularizing Hinduism; and Indian classical vocalist from Maharashtra Prabha Atre.

The Padma Bhushan 2022 list, comprising 17 names, has two former chief ministers from the Opposition camp, Ghulam Nabi Azad who headed the erstwhile Congress government in Jammu and Kashmir and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who ruled the Left Front government in West Bengal before it was trounced by Trinamool Congress. This is in keeping with the practice that Modi government has followed of honoring people from across the political divide, including Pranab Mukherjee who was conferred the Bharat Ratna in 2019 and Tarun Gogoi who was awarded the Padma Vibhushan posthumously last year.

Among the 117 Padma Shri winners are Tokyo Olympics gold medalist and javelin athlete Neeraj Chopra who was doubly blessed with with Param Vishisht Seva Medal on Tuesday; top goal scorer from Indian women’s hockey team in 2020 Olympics Vandana Kataria, Bollywood playback singer Sonu Nigam, veteran Tamil actress S Janaki, first woman vice-chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia Najma Akhtar, late IAS officer Guruprasad Mohapatra who ensured oxygen availability during Covid, even from his hospital bed but finally succumbed to the virus; and film director and actor who portrayed the role of Chanakya Chandraprakash Dwivedi.

Bengali film actor Victor Banerjee, who has also acted in many Hindi films, was named for Padma Bhushan award.

The founders of the two companies making the Covid-19 vaccine in India – Cyrus Poonawalla of Serum Institute of India and Dr Krishna Ella and Suchitra Ella of Bharat Biotech – figure among the Padma Bhushan awardees. The Padma Bhushan list also features Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Narayana Nadella and Google CEO Sundarrajan Pichai, both born in India, apart from Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran.

Padma Vibhushan awardee Kalyan Singh, who was the chief minister of UP at the time of Babri Masjid demolition and had defiantly refused to order police to fire on kar sevaks, was an important OBC face and had played a role in BJP’s return to political prominence with Amit Shah relying on his playbook.

Punjab folk singer Gurmeet Bawa, paralympic Javelin athlete Devendra Jhajharia, Hindustani classical singer Rashid Khan, former CAG of India Rajiv Mehrishi, Indian-origin scientist from Mexico Sanjay Rajaram who was awarded World Food Prize in recognition of his role in developing hundreds of high-yielding wheat varieties; Odia author Pratibha Ray, social reformer known for his work in disaster relief Swami Sachindanand, jurisprudence scholar Vashishth Tripathi, and US-based culinary expert Madhur Jaffrey were honored with Padma Bhushan on R-Day 2022.

Four paralympic sports persons were named for Padma awards this year. They are medal winner for javelin throw across 3 paralympic games Devendra Jhajhaia who has been conferred Padma Bhushan and para-javelin thrower Sumit Antil, World no. 1 para-badminton player Pramod Bhagat and India’s first female paralympic gold medalist for air rifle shooting Avani Lakhera, who shall receive Padma Shri.

The Padma Shri list includes Akhone Asgar Ali Basharat, Balti poet from Kargil; Himmatrao Bawaskar who is globally acclaimed for his research on scorpion and snake bites; Tangkha painter from Sikkim Khandu Wangchuk Bhutia; Jain spiritual leader and social worker from Rajgir Acharya Chandanaji; Lavani singer from Kolhapur Sulochana Chavan; 102-year old Gandhian from Kamrup Shakuntala Choudhary; veteran Kalaripayattu guru from Thrissur Sankaranarayana Menon Chundayil; Kashmiri martial arts coach from Bandipore Faisal Ali Dar; water conservationist in drought-prone Maharashtra Savjibhai Dholakia; Karbi author Dhaneswar Engti; Nadaswaram player Gosaveedu Shaik Hassan; Bundeli and Braj author Avadh Kishore Jadia; tribal Kinnera player Darshanam Mogilaiah; Buddhist spiritual leader and former abbot of Tawang Monastery Guru Tulku Rinpoche; and prominent social worker from Mohali working with leprosy patients Prem Singh.

The medical professionals conferred Padma Shri include Narendra Prasad Mishra who developed treatment protocols for victims of Bhopal gas tragedy (posthumous), veteran orthopedic surgeon from Visakhapatnam Sunkara Venkata Adinarayana Rao, ‘Bhishma Pitamah’ of pregnancy diabetes Veeraswamy Seshiah, veteran neurologist known for his work on multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease Bhimsen Singhal; and veteran nephrologist from UP Kamlakar Tripathi.