Sachin Tendulkar today became the 43rd recipient of country's highest civilian award--Bharat Ratna-- which was first conferred on three luminaries in 1954.
Tendulkar(40), whose glorious cricketing career came to an end today after his 200th test match in Mumbai, has been named by the government for the award alongwith eminent scientist C N R Rao, the man behind India's Mars mission.
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, the doyen of Indian classical music, was the last personality to be conferred with this award in 2009.
Sachin and Professor Rao today join the iconic and respectable league of these awardees which include luminaries like former President A P J Abdul Kalam, singer Lata Mangeshkar and physicist Dr C V Raman.
According to the official scheme, the Bharat Ratna "is awarded in recognition of exceptional service or performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavour."
The other awardees of the 'Bharat Ratna' include-- Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, Dr Sarvapali Radhakrishnan and Dr Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman in 1954, Dr Bhagwan Das, Dr Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya and Pt Jawaharlal Nehru in 1955, Pt Govind Ballabh Pant in 1957, Dr Dhondo Keshave Karve in 1958.
In 1961 it was awarded to Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy and Purushottam Das Tandon, Dr Rajendra Prasad in 1962, Dr Zakir Hussain and Dr Pandurang Vaman Kane in 1963, Lal Bahadur Shastri (Posthumous) in 1966, Indira Gandhi in 1971, Varahagiri Venkata Giri in 1975, Kumaraswami Kamraj (Posthumous) in 1976
Mother Mary Taresa Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa) was given the award in 1980, Acharya Vinobha Bhave (Posthumous) in 1983, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in 1987, Marudu Gopalan Ramachandran (Posthumous) in 1988, Dr Bhim Rao Ramji Ambedkar (Posthumous) and Dr Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela in 1990, Rajiv Gandhi (Posthumous), Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (Posthumous) and Morarji Ranchhodji Desai in 1991.
