Padma awards go public with online nomination process

The government has for the first time thrown open the nomination process for the prestigious Padma Awards to the general public.

This marks another major step in the government's efforts to bring transparency and greater people engagement in the Padma Award process.

However, the nominators would be required to furnish their Aadhaar details for authenticity.

The Padma Awards website has released an interactive dashboard of all Padma awardees between 1954 and 2016 to enable a user to understand, explore and analyze all Padma awardees - across who was awarded, what award, in which year, and from which state and profession.

The sophisticated data visualization engine processes comprises data of the around 4400 awardees till date, into a simple and intuitive format - empowering the user to understand and engage with the data, said sources.

Padma Awards, which were instituted in the year 1954, is announced every year on the occasion of Republic Day except for brief interruption during the years 1978 and 1979 and 1993 to 1997.

The award is given in three categories namely - Padma Vibhushan for exceptional and distinguished service, Padma Bhushan for distinguished service of a high order and Padma Shri for distinguished service.

All persons, without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex, are eligible for these awards. However, the government servants including those working with PSUs, except doctors and scientists, are not eligible for these awards.

The award is normally not conferred posthumously. However, the government could in highly deserving cases consider giving an award posthumously.

A higher category of Padma award can be conferred on a person only where a period of at least five years has elapsed since conferment of the earlier Padma award. However, in highly deserving cases, a relaxation can be made by the Awards Committee.

The awards are presented by the President of India usually in the month of March/April every year where the awardees are presented a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a medallion.

The recipients are also given a small replica of the medallion, which they can wear during any ceremonial/state functions etc., if the awardees so desire. The names of the awardees are published in the Gazette of India on the day of the presentation ceremony.

The total number of awards to be given in a year (excluding posthumous awards and to NRI/foreigners/OCIs) should not be more than 120.

The award does not amount to a title and cannot be used as a suffix or prefix to the awardees' name.