Padma Awards 2026 Announced: Winners list
The Padma Awards are among the most prestigious civilian honors in India, presented in three main categories: Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri. These awards recognize outstanding contributions across a variety of fields, including art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, and civil service. The Padma Vibhushan is given for exceptional and distinguished service, the Padma Bhushan for distinguished service of a high order, and the Padma Shri for notable service in any field. Each year, the awards are announced on Republic Day.
These Awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March / April every year. For the year 2026, the President has approved conferment of 131 Padma Awards including 2 duo cases (in a duo case, the Award is counted as one) as per list below. The list comprises 5 Padma Vibhushan, 13 Padma Bhushan and 113 Padma Shri Awards. 19 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 6 persons from the category of Foreigners / NRI / PIO / OCI and 16 Posthumous awardees.
Major Recipients of Padma Awards 2026
Padma Vibhushan (Highest Category)
Awarded for exceptional and distinguished service:
- Dharmendra Singh Deol (Posthumous) – Art (Maharashtra)
- V. S. Achuthanandan (Posthumous) – Public Affairs (Kerala)
- K. T. Thomas – Public Affairs (Kerala)
- N. Rajam – Art (Uttar Pradesh)
- P. Narayanan – Literature & Education (Kerala)
Padma Bhushan
Awarded for distinguished service of a higher order:
- Mammootty – Art (Kerala)
- Alka Yagnik – Art (Maharashtra)
- Uday Kotak – Trade & Industry (Maharashtra)
- Shibu Soren (Posthumous) – Public Affairs (Jharkhand)
- Vijay Amritraj – Sports (USA/India)
- Piyush Pandey (Posthumous) – Art (Maharashtra)
- Bhagat Singh Koshyari – Public Affairs (Uttarakhand)
Padma Shri
Recognizing distinguished service in any field, including several “unsung heroes”:
- Sports: Rohit Sharma (Cricket), Harmanpreet Kaur (Cricket), Savita Punia (Hockey), and Praveen Kumar (Para-sports).
- Science & Education: A. E. Muthunayagam (ISRO scientist), Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar (Former UGC Chairman), and V. Kamakoti (IIT Madras Director).
- Medicine: Dr. Armida Fernandez (Pioneer of Asia’s first human milk bank) and Dr. Padma Gurmet (Sowa-Rigpa medicine pioneer).
- Art: R. Madhavan, Prosenjit Chatterjee, and Satish Shah (Posthumous).