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President Draupadi Murmu presented the first Padma Awards for 2026 at the Republic Pavilion of Rashtrapati Bhavan on Monday. Actually, the government had announced the names of 131 Padma Award winners on January 25, a day before Republic Day. In this sequence, 66 celebrities of the country were honored in the first phase. Whereas, the remaining winners will be given awards in the second phase.

President Murmu conferred 2 Padma Vibhushan, 6 Padma Bhushan and 58 Padma Shri awards in the first phase on Monday. Celebrities who have been awarded the Padma Bhushan include actor R Madhavan, cricketer Rohit Sharma, women’s cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur and hockey player Savita Poonia besides para-athlete Praveen Kumar.

The special thing is that 19 women are also included among the Padma Award winners. Along with this, there are 16 such celebrities who have been given awards posthumously.

Padma Vibhushan awards have been given to 5 personalities including late actor Dharmendra, former Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan and former Supreme Court judge KT Thomas. While 13 personalities including famous singer Alka Yagnik and former Jharkhand CM Shibu Soren were honored with Padma Bhushan. Apart from this, Padma Shri award was given to 113 celebrities including actor R Madhavan, Indian cricket team player Rohit Sharma, hockey player Savita Punia.

President Draupadi Murmu posthumously awarded Padma Vibhushan to actor Dharmendra at Rashtrapati Bhavan. His wife Hema Malini received the award.

On being selected for the award, Indu Devi, wife of Bihar’s Padmashree awardee Vishwa Bandhu (posthumously), said that she thanked the government wholeheartedly for recognizing it and honoring her with the Padmashree. We are all feeling very proud. We are also emotional, tears of happiness are coming in our eyes. The entire family is very happy, feeling proud and we are grateful to the government.

Many big leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah were present in the program.