THE AWARD WINNERS

  Air Marshal   Padma Bandopadhyay ,  PVSM ,  AVSM ,  VSM , PHS (born 4 November 1944) is a decorated former  flight surgeon  in the  Indian Air Force . She was the first woman to be promoted to the rank of  Air Marshal  in the  Indian Air Force . She is the second woman in the  Indian Armed Forces  to be promoted to a  three-star rank , after Surgeon  Vice Admiral   Punita Arora . Early Life Bandopadhyay was born as Padmavathy Swaminathan on 4 November 1944  at  Tirupathi ,  Andhra Pradesh  into a  Tamil  speaking  Iyer  family. When Padma was four or five years old, her mother contracted  tuberculosis  and eventually became bedridden. Therefore, medical issues began occupying Padma's mind space since the time she was very young, and she also became her mother's primary caregiver at a relatively young age. In addition, her neighbor in the  Gole Market ...

  Gloria Arieira  (also known as  Brahmacharini Gloria Arieira ) is a Brazilian Sanskrit scholar and Vedanta teacher. She was awarded the  Padma Shri , India's fourth highest civilian award in 2020. She founded Vidya Mandir Centro de Estudos de Vedanta e Sânscrito in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro,  Brazil  which teaches Advaita Vedanta and Sanskrit in Portuguese language.

  Kazi Masum Akhtar  (born 1971) is an educationist from  West Bengal , India. In 2020, he was conferred the  Padma Shri  India's fourth highest civilian award by the  Government of India  for his contribution to the field of literature.   He is the headmaster in the Talpukur Ara High Madarsa near  Kolkata ,  West Bengal . He was beaten up by radical Muslim clerics for asking students of his Madarsa to sing the Indian National anthem on Indian Republic Day .

  Jagdish Lal Ahuja , popularly known as  Langar Baba  (1930s – 29 November 2021), was a social worker from  Chandigarh , India.  He was known for offering free meals for hungry and poor people.  In 2020, he was awarded the  Padma Shri , fourth highest civilian award of India, for his contributions in social work. Early Life Ahuja migrated to the  Dominion of India  from  Peshawar ,  Dominion of Pakistan , at the age of 12 following the  Partition of India . His family took refuge in  Patiala  and then in  Amritsar  and  Mansa . Social work Ahuja served the poor and hungry people by organizing Langar daily for 2,500 people. He started organizing langar at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh in January 2000 when he was admitted there for treatment of cancer. He later offered free meals at the Government Medical College and Hospital, sector 32, Chan...

  Shri Jai Parkash Aggarwal  is a politician from the  Indian National Congress  party and was a Member of the  Parliament of India  representing  North East Delhi  in  Lok Sabha , the lower house of the  Indian Parliament . In the  2009 Indian general election , he defeated the  Bharatiya Janata Party  candidate by a margin of over 200,000 votes. In the  2014 Indian general election , he lost to  Bhartiya Janta Party  candidate  Manoj Tiwari  by a margin of about 380,000. He came in a distant third in the results. 1983–1984 Deputy Mayor, Delhi Chairman, Standing Committee, Municipal Corporation of Delhi Leader, Congress Party, Municipal Corporation of Delhi 1984–1989 Elected to 8th Lok Sabha Member, Estimates Committee 1989–1991 Elected to 9th Lok Sabha (2nd term) Member, Estimates Committee 1996–1998 Elected to 11th Lok Sabha (3rd term)2006–2009Elected to the...

  Yogi Aeron (born 1937) is a plastic surgeon from India. In 2020, he was conferred with the Padma Shri by the Government of India for his work in the field of medicine. Life Aeron was born in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India in 1937. He graduated from the King George Medical College where he was admitted after his fifth attempt. He took seven years to finish the four-year Bachelor course. Later, he studied plastic surgery from the Prince of Wales Medical College in Patna, Bihar in 1971. In 1973, he started working as a plastic surgeon in a district hospital in Dehradun. He went to the United States in 1982 to specialize in plastic surgery. In 1983, he bought a four-acre campus that functions as a treatment facility for the underprivileged and a learning center for children. He has been treating burn patients for free since 1985. In 2020, he was conferred with the Padma Shri by the Government of India for his work in the field of medicine. He resides in Malsi, Dehradun, Uttarakh...

  Shashadhar Acharya (born 1961) is a Chhau dance exponent from Saraikela, Jharkhand, India. In 2020, he received the Padma Shri honour from the Government of India for his contribution in the field of Arts. Life Acharya is a fifth-generation dancer from his family. He learned Chhau from his father, Lingaraj Acharya, and then from Natshekhar Bana Bihari Pattnaik, Vikram Karmakar, Kedarnath Sahu, and Sudhendranath Singhdeo. In the early 1990s, he left Saraikela to work at the Gurukul Dance Academy and then at the Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai. He is a faculty member at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune and at the National School of Drama, New Delhi. He teaches at the New Delhi-based Triveni Kala Sangam. In 2020, he received the Padma Shri honour for his contribution in the field of Arts.