New Delhi: Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister late Kalyan Singh and India's first Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, who died in a helicopter crash recently, were awarded Padma Vibhushan on Tuesday.
Krishna and Suchitra Ella of Bharat Biotech, who developed and produced India's indigenous Coronavirus vaccine Covaxin, and Cyrus Poonawalla of the Serum Institute of India, which manufactured the Covid-19 vaccine Covishield, were given the Padma Bhushan.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were conferred also Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award.
A total of four Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 Padma Shris were awarded. Among the Padma Shris were three from Telangana — Darshanam Mogilaiah, Padmaja Reddy and Sakini Ramachandraiah, all of them from the arts group.
Mogilaiah, popularly known as Kinnera Mogilaiah, has become hugely popular with his title song for Pawan Kalyan-starrer upcoming film Bheemla Nayak. The song has garnered 84 million views and 1.4 million likes on YouTube since its launch four months ago.
The 12-fret Kinnera folk artiste, who hails from Amrabad forest reserve in Mahbubnagar district is popular for singing ballads often interspersed with simple and short monologues.
Kuchipudi dancer G. Padmaja Reddy is known for reviving the dance form ‘Kakatiyam’ that existed 1,400 years ago in the Kakatiya dynasty.
Padmaja had been working on ‘Kakatiyam’, which reflects the essence of Telangana, for the last seven years. She was introduced to the forgotten dance form by renowned musicologist Dr Pappu Venugopala Rao, who translated Jay Senapati’s ‘Nrtta Ratnavali’ into English.
Padmaja Reddy researched on the subject for six months and studied the sculptures of Thousand Pillar Temple, Ramappa Temple, Warangal Fort, and around 50 other temples with a team of archaeologists and eventually introduced the dance form to people here which, otherwise, as she believes, would have remained in the books.
Sakini Ramachandraiah who comes from tribal Koya community excels in dhol playing. He hails from Kunavaram village in Manguru mandal in Bhadradri Kothagudem district. He specialises in telling tribal history by playing dhol. He thanked Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao for taking steps to preserve tribal arts and culture in Telangana.
Dr Krishna Ella, awarded the Padma Vibhushan, was born in 1969 into a Telugu-speaking agriculturist family in Tamil Nadu. He started off his career by joining the pharmaceutical and life sciences company Bayer, as part of its agricultural division. Later, he left to the United States to pursue his education. He returned to India and set up a small lab in Hyderabad in 1996 and named it Bharat Biotech. At present, he is the Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech International Limited.
A research scientist in Molecular Biology, Dr Ella strongly believes that innovative technology in vaccine development is essential to solve public healthcare problems caused by infectious diseases.
Under Dr Ella’s leadership, Bharat Biotech has grown to become a global leader in innovative vaccine. A serial entrepreneur with a passion for innovative ideas, Dr Ella has also ventured into veterinary vaccines, food processing, and developing biotechnology infrastructure in the country.
He has been confered with many awards including J.R.D. Tata Best Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Marico Innovation Award and University of Southern California — Asia-Pacific Leadership Award. Ella’s company is the first to manufacture a preservative-free vaccine (Revac-B mcf Hepatitis B Vaccine), and launch India’s first cell-cultured swine flu vaccine. They also manufacture the world’s cheapest Hepatitis vaccines. Bharat Biotech is the first in the world to find a vaccine for the Zika virus.
On the other hand, Padma Vibhushan winner Suchitra Ella, Joint Managing Director of Bharat Biotech and wife of Dr Krishna Ella. is a strong pillar of support and guidance at Bharat Biotech. She oversees a wide range of operations in the company and has a vast experience in experience in customer operations, finance, marketing and business development related work.
Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella, awarded the Padma Bhushan, hails from Bukkapuram in Anantapur district. He had his education in Hyderabad.
Nadella’s father Bukkapuram Nadella Yugandhar is a native of Bukkapuram village in Yellanur mandal in the district and is retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of 1962 batch who served in the Prime Minister's Office and the Planning Commission.
The Nadella family retains had its close attachment with the native village and still owns agricultural land there. Yugandar initiated development of the village by providing drinking water and other needs of native village.
