Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar and Bharatiya Janata Partya (BJP) veteran Murli Manohar Joshi are among the politicians who made it to the coveted list, further reported the daily.
A decision this year to open an online portal for receiving the nominations saw the proposals for the honours in a huge number. This is the first time people could nominate a person in one of the three civilian awards.
By the order of precedence, Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian honour after Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan. The awards will be announced, like every year, on the eve of Republic Day.
Shankar Mahadevan, Rishi Kapoor, Sonu Nigam, Kailash Kher and Manoj Bajpayeea are on the shortlist in the entertainment category. Dancer Lakshmi Viswanathan, Kumaoni folk artiste Basanti Bisht, craftsman Mohammed Yusef Khatri and Kathakali exponent CK Nair represent the art world.
“The government will finalise the list this week and a few names might get dropped if the Intelligence Bureau and other agencies don’t give a favorable opinion (on nominees),” a senior government official said.
The nominations are sent to these agencies for fact-check and feedback. The cleared names are then placed before the Padma awards committee constituted by the Prime Minister.
The committee comprises of veteran actress Waheeda Rehman, co-convenor of the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch S Gurumurthy, Chairman Prasar Bharti Surya Prakash, besides others including Cabinet Secretary, Home Secretary and Secretary to President.
Since the applications for the coveted awards were only made online, a lot of names of unsung heroes especially from the social sector have made it most to the list of the candidates finalised, said an official, according to a report by The New Indian Express.
Citing an example, the official said, a person who has been working for promotion of Hindi in Kerala for the last about 50 years has made it to the list.
Public figures who have been associated with the areas or issues that have been raised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his radio programme Mann ki Baat have also been duly given prominence in the list of the shortlisted candidates, the official added.
 "Padma awards, Priyanka Chopra, Sania Mirza, Rajnikanth")