On the eve of the 76th Republic Day, as per tradition, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs announced the names of the 2025 Padma awardees. Bharat Ratna and Padma Awards are the highest civilian awards conferred by the government of India to Indian and foreign citizens for their distinguished contributions in fields of activities or disciplines where an element of public service is involved.

The award is conferred to the recipient in March/April of the same year at a ceremonial function held at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi by the President of India.

In 2025, the President will confer 139 Padma Awards including a duo case (in a duo case, the Award is counted as one). It includes 7 Padma Vibhushan, 19 Padma Bhushan, and 113 Padma Shri Awards.

This year 23 of the awardees are women,10 persons are from the category of Foreigners/Non-Resident Indians/Persons of Indian Origin/Overseas Citizen of India and 13 are Posthumous awardees.

Normally not more than 120 Padma awards are conferred in a year but exceptions can be made.

About the Civilian Awards

The Bharat Ratna and Padma Awards were instituted by the government of India in 1954.

Initially, the Padma Award was known as the Padma Vibhushan Award and it has three classes Pahla Varg, Dusra Varg, and Tisra Varg on 8 January 1955 the government of India named them Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri respectively.

Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award in India, followed by Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.

Bharat Ratna and Padma awards are annual awards but it was suspended in 1978 and 1979 and from 1993 to 1997.

Who Decides the Award?

In the case of the Bharat Ratna, the recommendation of the name of the person is made to the President by the Prime Minister himself.
In a year normally not more than three people are given the Bharat Ratna award.
In the case of the Padma Awards, the recommendations of the winner's name are made by the Padma Awards Committee, which is constituted by the Prime Minister every year.
The head of the Padma Award Committee is the Cabinet Secretary and it submits its recommendation to the Prime Minister and the President of India.
A higher category of Padma award can be conferred on a person only where at least five years have elapsed since the conferment of the earlier Padma award but in exceptional cases the Award Committee can relax this rule.

Categories of Padma Award

Based on the hierarchy, the Padma Awards are divided into three categories ;

Padma Vibhushan (highest) - for exceptional and distinguished service;
Padma Bhushan- for distinguished service of a high order; and
Padma Shri- for distinguished service.

Is the Award a Title?

There has been a controversy in the country about whether the Bharat Ratna or the Padma Award is a title or not as per Article 18 of the Indian Constitution.

Clause 1 of Article 18 of the Constitution states, "No title, not being a military or academic distinction, shall be conferred by the State."

In the Balaji Raghavan/S.P.Anand vs Union Of India 1995, a 5-judge bench Supreme Court held that Bharat Ratna and Padma Awards are not titled as per the Article 18 of the constitution and can be conferred by the government.

However, according to the government of India, the award cannot be used as a suffix or prefix to the awardees’ name.

What does the Awardee get?

The awareness is presented with a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a medallion. The awardees are also given a small replica of the medallion, which they can wear during any ceremonial/State functions etc. The names of the awardees are published in the Gazette of India on the day of the presentation ceremony.

List of the 2025 Padma Awardee

Padma Bhushan Awardee (Seven)

S.No	Awardee Name	Field	State/Country
	Duvvur Nageshwar Reddy	Medicine	Telangana
	Justice (Retd.) Shri Jagdish Singh Khehar	Public Affairs	Chandigarh
	Mrs. Kumudini Rajnikant Lakhia	Art	Gujarat
	Lakshminarayana Subramaniam	Art	Karnataka
	M. T. Vasudevan Nair (Posthumous)	Literature and Education	Kerala
	Osamu Suzuki (Posthumous)	Trade and Industry (founder of Maruti Suzuki)	Japan
	Sharda Sinha (Posthumous)	Art (Bihar Kokila)	Bihar

Padma Bhushan Awardee (19)

S.No	Awardee Name	Field	State/Country
	A Surya Prakash	Literature and Education-Journalism	Karnataka
	Anant Nag	Art	Karnataka
	Bibek Debroy(Posthumous)	Literature and Education (former Chairman Prime Minister Economic Advisory Council)	NCT Delhi
	Jatin Goswami	Art	Assam
	Jose Chacko Periappuram	Medicine	Kerala
	Kailash Nath Dikshit	Others-Archaeology	NCT Delhi
	Manohar Joshi(Posthumous)	Public Affairs	Maharashtra
	Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti	Trade and Industry	Tamil Nadu
	Nandamuri Balakrishna	Art (Telugu film actor)	Andhra Pradesh
	P R Sreejesh	Sports (Ex Goalkeeper of Indian hockey team)	Kerala
	Pankaj Patel	Trade and Industry	Gujarat
	Pankaj Udhas(Posthumous)	Art (Ghazal Singer)	Maharashtra
	Rambahadur Rai	Literature and Education-Journalism	Uttar Pradesh
	Sadhvi Ritambhara	Social Work	Uttar Pradesh
	S Ajith Kumar	Art	Tamil Nadu
	Shekhar Kapur	Art (Film Director)	Maharashtra
	Shobana Chandrakumar	Art	Tamil Nadu
	Sushil Kumar Modi(Posthumous)	Public Affairs	Bihar
	Vinod Dham	Science and Engineering (Father of Pentium Chip of Intel)	United States of America

Padma Shri Awardee (113)

S.No	Awardee Name	Field	State/Country
	Adwaita Charan Gadanayak	Art	Odisha
	Achyut Ramchandra Palav	Art	Maharashtra
	Ajay V Bhatt	Science and Engineering	United States of America
	Anil Kumar Boro	Literature and Education	Assam
	Arijit Singh	Art (Hindi film singer)	West Bengal
	Mrs. Arundhati Bhattacharya	Trade and Industry	Maharashtra
	Arunoday Saha	Literature and Education	Tripura
	Arvind Sharma	Literature and Education	Canada
	Ashok Kumar Mahapatra	Medicine	Odisha
	Ashok Laxman Saraf	Art	Maharashtra
	Ashutosh Sharma	Science and Engineering	Uttar Pradesh
	Ashwini Bhide Deshpande	Art	Maharashtra
	Baijnath Maharaj	Others-Spiritualism	Rajasthan
	Barry Godfray John	Art	NCT Delhi
	Begam Batool	Art	Rajasthan
	Bharat Gupt	Art	NCT Delhi
	Bheru Singh Chouhan	Art	Madhya Pradesh
	Bhim Singh Bhavesh	Social Work	Bihar
	Mrs. Bhimavva Doddabalappa Shillekyathara	Art	Karnataka
	Budhendra Kumar Jain	Medicine	Madhya Pradesh
	C S Vaidyanathan	Public Affairs	NCT Delhi
	Chaitram Deochand Pawar	Social Work	Maharashtra
	Chandrakant Sheth(Posthumous)	Literature and Education	Gujarat
	Chandrakant Sompura	Others-Architecture	Gujarat
	Chetan E Chitnis	Science and Engineering	France
	David R Syiemlieh	Literature and Education	Meghalaya
	Durga Charan Ranbir	Art	Odisha
	Farooq Ahmad Mir	Art	Jammu And Kashmir
	Ganeshwar Shastri Dravid	Literature and Education	Uttar Pradesh
	Mrs. Gita Upadhyay	Literature and Education	Assam
	Gokul Chandra Das	Art	West Bengal
	Guruvayur Dorai	Art	Tamil Nadu
	Harchandan Singh Bhatty	Art	Madhya Pradesh
	Hariman Sharma	Others-Agriculture	Himachal Pradesh
	Harjinder Singh Srinagar Wale	Art	Punjab
	Harvinder Singh	Sports (first para archer to get this award.won gold at 2024 Paris Paralympics)	Haryana
	Hassan Raghu	Art	Karnataka
	Hemant Kumar	Medicine	Bihar
	Hriday Narayan Dixit	Literature and Education	Uttar Pradesh
	Hugh and Colleen Gantzer(Posthumous)(Duo)	Literature and Education-Journalism	Uttarakhand
	Inivalappil Mani Vijayan	Sports (former captain of the Indian football team)	Kerala
	Jagadish Joshila	Literature and Education	Madhya Pradesh
	Mrs.Jaspinder Narula	Art (singer)	Maharashtra
	Jonas Masetti	Others-Spiritualism	Brazil
	Joynacharan Bathari	Art	Assam
	Jumde Yomgam Gamlin	Social Work	Arunachal Pradesh
	K. Damodaran	Others-Culinary	Tamil Nadu
	K L Krishna	Literature and Education	Andhra Pradesh
	Mrs. K Omanakutty Amma	Art	Kerala
	Kishore Kunal(Posthumous)	Civil Service (IPS)	Bihar
	L Hangthing	Others-Agriculture	Nagaland
	Lakshmipathy Ramasubbaiyer	Literature and Education-Journalism	Tamil Nadu
	Lalit Kumar Mangotra	Literature and Education	Jammu And Kashmir
	Lama Lobzang(Posthumous)	Others-Spiritualism	Ladakh
	Mrs. Libia Lobo Sardesai	Social Work	Goa
	M D Srinivas	Science and Engineering	Tamil Nadu
	Madugula Nagaphani Sarma	Art	Andhra Pradesh
	Mahabir Nayak	Art	Jharkhand
	Mrs. Mamata Shankar	Art	West Bengal
	Manda Krishna Madiga	Public Affairs	Telangana
	Maruti Bhujangrao Chitampalli	Literature and Education	Maharashtra
	Miriyala Apparao(Posthumous)	Art	Andhra Pradesh
	Nagendra Nath Roy	Literature and Education	West Bengal
	Narayan (Bhulai Bhai)(Posthumous)	Public Affairs	Uttar Pradesh
	Naren Gurung	Art	Sikkim
	Mrs. Neerja Bhatla	Medicine	NCT Delhi
	Mrs. Nirmala Devi	Art	Bihar
	Nitin Nohria	Literature and Education	United States of America
	Onkar Singh Pahwa	Trade and Industry	Punjab
	P Datchanamoorthy	Art	Puducherry
	Pandi Ram Mandavi	Art	Chhattisgarh
	Parmar Lavjibhai Nagjibhai	Art	Gujarat
	Pawan Goenka	Trade and Industry	West Bengal
	Prashanth Prakash	Trade and Industry	Karnataka
	Mrs. Pratibha Satpathy	Literature and Education	Odisha
	Purisai Kannappa Sambandan	Art	Tamil Nadu
	R Ashwin	Sports (Cricketer)	Tamil Nadu
	R G Chandramogan	Trade and Industry	Tamil Nadu
	Mrs. Radha Bahin Bhatt	Social Work	Uttarakhand
	Radhakrishnan Devasenapathy	Art	Tamil Nadu
	Ramdarash Mishra	Literature and Education (2021 Saraswati Samman winner)	NCT Delhi
	Ranendra Bhanu Majumdar	Art	Maharashtra
	Ratan Kumar Parimoo	Art	Gujarat
	Reba Kanta Mahanta	Art	Assam
	Renthlei Lalrawna	Literature and Education	Mizoram
	Ricky Gyan Kej	Art (three-time Grammy Award winner, music composer)	Karnataka
	Sajjan Bhajanka	Trade and Industry	West Bengal
	Mrs. Sally Holkar	Trade and Industry	Madhya Pradesh
	Sant Ram Deswal	Literature and Education	Haryana
	Satyapal Singh	Sports (Para Athlete Coach)	Uttar Pradesh
	Seeni Viswanathan	Literature and Education	Tamil Nadu
	Sethuraman Panchanathan	Science and Engineering	United States of America
	Mrs.Sheikha Shaikha Ali Al-Jaber Al-Sabah	Medicine	Kuwait
	Sheen Kaaf Nizam (Shiv Kishan Bissa)	Literature and Education	Rajasthan
	Shyam Bihari Agrawal	Art	Uttar Pradesh
	Mrs. Soniya Nityanand	Medicine	Uttar Pradesh
	Stephen Knapp	Literature and Education	United States of America
	Subhash Khetulal Sharma	Others-Agriculture	Maharashtra
	Suresh Harilal Soni	Social Work	Gujarat
	Surinder Kumar Vasal	Science and Engineering	Delhi
	Swami Pradiptananda (Kartik Maharaj)	Others-Spiritualism	West Bengal
	Syed Ainul Hasan	Literature and Education	Uttar Pradesh
	Tejendra Narayan Majumdar	Art	West Bengal
	Mrs. Thiyam Suryamukhi Devi	Art	Manipur
	Tushar Durgeshbhai Shukla	Literature and Education	Gujarat
	Vadiraj Raghawendracharya Panchamukhi	Literature and Education	Andhra Pradesh
	Vasudeo Kamath	Art	Maharashtra
	Velu Aasaan	Art	Tamil Nadu
	Venkappa Ambaji Sugatekar	Art	Karnataka
	Vijay Nityanand Surishwar Ji Maharaj	Others-Spiritualism	Bihar
	Mrs.Vijayalakshmi Deshamane	Medicine	Karnataka
	Vilas Dangre	Medicine	Maharashtra
	Vinayak Lohani	Social Work	West Bengal