Republic Day 2023: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs announced the Padma Awards -- one of the highest civilian awards of the country -- on Wednesday. The list comprises six Padma Vibhushan, nine Padma Bhushan and 91 Padma Shri Awards. Nineteen of the awardees are women and the list also includes two persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and seven posthumous awardees.

The Padma Awards, the highest civilian awards of the country after Bharat Ratna, are conferred in three categories — Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The awards announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year are given in various disciplines and fields of activities such as art, science and engineering, sports, social work, public affairs, medicine, trade and industry, literature and education, civil service etc.

While ‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service, ‘Padma Bhushan’ is given for distinguished service of a high order. ‘Padma Shri’ is awarded for distinguished service in any field. 

The President of India confers these awards at a ceremonial function usually held around March/April every year at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

The Padma Awards, established in 1954, are announced annually on the occasion of Republic Day, with the exception of brief interruptions in 1978 and 1979, and from 1993 to 1997.

The Padma Awards are open to all individuals, regardless of their race, profession, status, or gender. However, government employees, including those working for public sector companies, are not eligible for the awards, with the exception of doctors and scientists.

Here's the full list of Padma awardees:

PADMA VIBHUSHAN (6)

1. Mulayam Singh Yadav (Posthumous)2. Balkrishna Doshi (Posthumous)3. Zakir Hussain4. SM Krishna5. Dilip Mahalanabis (Posthumous)6. Srinivas Varadhan

PADMA BHUSHAN (9)

1. SL Bhyrappa2. Kumar Mangalam Birla3. Deepak Dhar4. Vani Jairam5. Swami Chinna Jeeyar6. Suman Kalyanpur7. Kapil Kapoor8. Sudha Murty9. Kamlesh D Patel

PADMA SHRI (91)

Sukama AcharyaJodhaiyabai BaigaPremjit BariaUsha BarleMunishwar ChanddawarHemant ChauhanBhanubhai ChitaraHemoprova ChutiaNarendra Chandra Debbarma (Posthumous)Subhadra DeviKhadar Valli DudekulaHem Chandra GoswamiPritikana GoswamiRadha Charan GuptaModadugu Vijay GuptaAhmed Hussain & Mohd Hussain (Duo)Dilshad HussainBhiku Ramji IdateC I IssacRattan Singh JaggiBikram Bahadur JamatiaRamkuiwangbe JeneRakesh Radheshyam Jhunjhunwala (Posthumous)Ratan Chandra KarMahipat KaviM M KeeravaaniAreez Khambatta (Posthumous)Parshuram Komaji KhuneGanesh Nagappa KrishnarajanagaraMaguni Charan KuanrAnand KumarArvind KumarDomar Singh KunvarRisingbor KurkalangHirabai LobiMoolchand LodhaRani MachaiahAjay Kumar MandaviPrabhakar Bhanudas MandeGajanan Jagannath ManeAntaryami MishraNadoja Pindipapanahalli MunivenkatappaProf. (Dr.) Mahendra PalUma Shankar PandeyRamesh Parmar & Shanti Parmar (Duo)Nalini ParthasarathiHanumantha Rao PasupuletiRamesh PatangeKrishna PatelK Kalyanasundaram PillaiV P Appukuttan PoduvalKapil Dev PrasadS R D PrasadShah Rasheed Ahmed QuadriC V RajuBakshi RamCheruvayal K RamanSujatha RamdoraiAbbareddy Nageswara RaoPareshbhai RathwaB Ramakrishna ReddyMangala Kanti RoyK C RunremsangiVadivel Gopal & Masi Sadaiyan (Duo)Manoranjan SahuPatayat SahuRitwik SanyalKota Satchidananda SastrySankurathri Chandra SekharK Shanathoiba SharmaNekram SharmaGurcharan SinghLaxman SinghMohan SinghThounaojam Chaoba SinghPrakash Chandra SoodNeihunuo SorhieDr. Janum Singh SoyKushok Thiksey Nawang Chamba StanzinS SubbaramanMoa SubongPalam Kalyana SundaramRaveena Ravi TandonVishwanath Prasad TiwariDhaniram TotoTula Ram UpretiGopalsamy VeluchamyIshwar Chander VermaCoomi Nariman WadiaKarma Wangchu (Posthumous)Ghulam Muhammad Zaz