PADMA AWARDS 2013

President has approved the conferment of  108 Padma Awards. These comprise 04 Padma Vibhushan, 24 Padma Bhushan and   80 Padma Shri Awards. 24 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 11 persons in the category of Foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and  Posthumous awardees.

Padma Awards, the country’s highest civilian awards, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The Awards are given in various disciplines/ fields of activities, viz- art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc. ‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; ‘Padma Bhushan’ for distinguished service of high order and ‘Padma Shri’ for distinguished service in any field. The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year. The awards are conferred by the President of India at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhawan sometime around March/ April.

                                                                       Padma Vibhushan

Sl No.	Name	Discipline	State/ Domicile
1.	Shri Raghunath Mohapatra	Art	Orissa
2.	Shri S. Haider Raza	Art	Delhi
3.	Prof. Yash Pal	Science and Engineering	Uttar Pradesh
4.	Prof. Roddam Narasimha	Science and Engineering	Karnataka

Padma Bhushan

Sl No.	Name	Discipline	State/ Domicile
	Dr. Ramanaidu Daggubati	Art	Andhra Pradesh
	Smt. Sreeramamurthy Janaki	Art	Tamil Nadu
	Dr. (Smt.) Kanak Rele	Art	Maharashtra
	Smt. Sharmila Tagore	Art	Delhi
	Dr. (Smt.) Saroja Vaidyanathan	Art	Delhi
	Shri Abdul Rashid Khan	Art	West Bengal
	Late Rajesh Khanna	Art	Maharashtra #
	Late Jaspal Singh Bhatti	Art	Punjab #
	Shri Shivajirao Girdhar Patil	Public Affairs	Maharashtra
	Dr. Apathukatha Sivathanu Pillai	Science and Engineering	Delhi
	Dr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat	Science and Engineering	Delhi
	Dr. Ashoke Sen	Science and Engineering	Uttar Pradesh
	Dr. B.N. Suresh	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
	Prof. Satya N. Atluri	Science and Engineering	USA *
	Prof. Jogesh Chandra Pati	Science and Engineering	USA *
	Shri Ramamurthy Thyagarajan	Trade and Industry	Tamil Nadu
	Shri Adi Burjor Godrej	Trade and Industry	Maharashtra
	Dr. Nandkishore Shamrao Laud	Medicine	Maharashtra
	Shri Mangesh Padgaonkar	Literature & Education	Maharashtra
	Prof. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak	Literature & Education	USA*
	Shri Hemendra Singh Panwar	Civil Service	Madhya Pradesh
	Dr. Maharaj Kishan Bhan	Civil Service	Delhi
	Shri Rahul Dravid	Sports	Karnataka
	Ms. H. Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom	Sports	Manipur

Padma Shri

Sl No.	Name	Discipline	State/ Domicile
	Shri Gajam Anjaiah	Art	Andhra Pradesh
	Swami G.C.D. Bharti alias Bharati Bandhu	Art	Chhattisgarh
	Ms. B. Jayashree	Art	Karnataka
	Smt. Sridevi Kapoor	Art	Maharashtra
	Shri Kailash Chandra Meher	Art	Orissa
	Shri Brahmdeo Ram Pandit	Art	Maharashtra
	Shri Vishwanath Dinkar Patekar alias Nana Patekar	Art	Maharashtra
	Shri Rekandar Nageswara Rao alias Surabhi Babji	Art	Andhra Pradesh
	Shri Lakshmi Narayana Sathiraju	Art	Tamil Nadu
	Smt. Jaymala Shiledar	Art	Maharashtra
	Shri Suresh Dattatray Talwalkar	Art	Maharashtra
	Shri P. Madhavan Nair alias Madhu	Art	Kerala
	Shri Apurba Kishore Bir	Art	Maharashtra
	Shri Ghanakanta Bora Borbayan	Art	Assam
	Smt. Hilda Mit Lepcha	Art	Sikkim
	Smt. Sudha Malhotra	Art	Maharashtra
	Shri Ghulam Mohammad Saznawaz	Art	Jammu and Kashmir
	Shri Ramesh Gopaldas Sippy	Art	Maharashtra
	Ms. Mahrukh Tarapor	Art	Maharashtra
	Shri Balwant Thakur	Art	Jammu & Kashmir
	Shri Puran Das Baul	Art	West Bengal
	Shri Rajendra Tikku	Art	Jammu & Kashmir
	Shri Pablo Bartholomew	Art	Delhi
	Shri S. Shakir Ali	Art	Rajasthan
	Sh. S.K.M Maeilanandhan	Social Work	Tamil Nadu
	Ms. Nileema Mishra	Social Work	Maharashtra
	Ms. Reema Nanavati	Social Work	Gujarat
	Ms. Jharna Dhara Chowdhury	Social Work	Bangladesh *
	Late Dr. Ram Krishan	Social Work	Uttar Pradesh #
	Late Manju Bharat Ram	Social Work	Delhi #
	Prof. Mustansir Barma	Science and Engineering	Maharashtra
	Shri Avinash Chander	Science and Engineering	Delhi
	Prof. Sanjay Govind Dhande	Science and Engineering	Uttar Pradesh
	Prof. (Dr.) Sankar Kumar Pal	Science and Engineering	West Bengal
	Prof. Deepak B. Phatak	Science and Engineering	Maharashtra
	Dr. Mudundi Ramakrishna Raju	Science and Engineering	Andhra Pradesh
	Prof. Ajay K. Sood	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
	Prof. Krishnaswamy Vijayraghavan	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
	Dr. Manindra Agrawal	Science and Engineering	Uttar Pradesh
	Dr. Jayaraman Gowrishankar	Science and Engineering	Andhra Pradesh
	Prof. Sharad Pandurang Kale	Science and Engineering	Maharashtra
	Smt. Vandana Luthra	Trade and Industry	Delhi
	Ms. Rajshree Pathy	Trade and Industry	Tamil Nadu
	Shri Hemendra Prasad Barooah	Trade and Industry	Assam
	Shri Milind Kamble	Trade and Industry	Maharashtra
	Ms. Kalpana Saroj	Trade and Industry	Maharashtra
	Dr. Sudarshan K. Aggarwal	Medicine	Delhi
	Dr. C. Venkata S. Ram alias Chitta Venkata Sundara Ram	Medicine	Andhra Pradesh
	Dr. Rajendra Achyut Badwe	Medicine	Maharashtra
	Dr. Taraprasad Das	Medicine	Orissa
	Prof. (Dr.) T.V. Devarajan	Medicine	Tamil Nadu
	Prof. (Dr.) Saroj Chooramani Gopal	Medicine	Uttar Pradesh
	Dr. Pramod Kumar Julka	Medicine	Delhi
	Dr. Gulshan Rai Khatri	Medicine	Delhi
	Dr. Ganesh Kumar Mani	Medicine	Delhi
	Dr. Amit Prabhakar Maydeo	Medicine	Maharashtra
	Dr. Sundaram Natarajan	Medicine	Maharashtra
	Prof. Krishna Chandra Chunekar	Medicine	Uttar Pradesh
	Dr. Vishwa Kumar Gupta	Medicine	Delhi
	Prof. (Capt.) Dr. Mohammad Sharaf-e-Alam	Literature & Education	Bihar
	Dr. Radhika Herzberger	Literature & Education	Andhra Pradesh
	Shri J. Malsawma	Literature & Education	Mizoram
	Shri Devendra Patel	Literature & Education	Gujarat
	Dr. Rama Kant Shukla	Literature & Education	Delhi
	Prof. Akhtarul Wasey	Literature & Education	Delhi
	Prof. Anvita Abbi	Literature & Education	Delhi
	Shri Nida Fazli	Literature & Education	Madhya Pradesh
	Shri Surender Kumar Sharma	Literature & Education	Delhi
	Dr. Jagdish Prasad Singh	Literature & Education	Bihar
	Late Shaukat Riaz Kapoor Alias Salik Lakhnawi	Literature & Education	West Bengal #
	Prof. Noboru Karashima	Literature & Education	Japan *
	Shri Christopher Pinney	Literature & Education	UK *
	Smt. Premlata Agrawal	Sports	Jharkhand
	Shri Yogeshwar Dutt	Sports	Haryana
	Shri Hosanagara Nagarajegowda Girisha	Sports	Karnataka
	Subedar Major Vijay Kumar	Sports	Himachal Pradesh
	Shri Ngangom Dingko Singh	Sports	Maharashtra
	Naib Subedar Bajrang Lal Takhar	Sports	Rajasthan
	Ms. Ritu Kumar	Fashion Designing	Delhi
	Dr. Ravindra Singh Bisht	Archaeology	Uttar Pradesh

Note: * indicates awardees in the category of Foreigners / NRIs/ PIOs.

                # indicates awardees in the posthumous category.

National Communal Harmony Award 2012

The Foundation for Amity & National Solidarity, Delhi has been selected for the National Communal Harmony Award for the year 2012 by the Jury headed by the Vice-President of India.

Formed in 1984, the Foundation for Amity & National Solidarity (FANS) is a Delhi based Trust which works for spreading amity and communal harmony. It has organized numerous seminars, workshops, symposiums, inter-religious meets, youth camps, sadbhavana sabhas and rallies to promote social amity. The Foundation has instituted 'National Amity Award', which is given every year to an eminent personality. A serial 'Yeh Gulistan Hamara' produced by the Foundation on national integration was telecast on Doordarshan. It has awarded numerous scholarships under its Amity Scholarship Scheme to promote education amongst the economically backward students. It has extensively contributed for promoting solidarity and communal harmony. 

The National Communal Harmony Awards were instituted in 1996 by the National Foundation for Communal Harmony (NFCH), an autonomous organization set up by the Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, for promoting communal harmony and national integration. The ward has been instituted with a view to demonstrating due appreciation and recognition of the efforts of individuals and organisations for promotion of communal harmony and national integration in a sustained manner over a sufficiently long period of time. In addition to a citation, the award carries a cash prize of Rupees five lakh for the Organisation. 

63 Presidential Awards for IAF this Year

63 IAF Air Warriors have been decorated with Presidential Awards on the eve of Republic Day, this year. This includes Param Vishist Seva Medal (PVSM) for six Air Marshals, Ati Vishist Seva Medal (AVSM) for one Air Marshal, five Air Vice Marshal and six Air Commodores. 

PVSM has been conferred on Air Marshal Anil Chopra (Retd), Air Marshal Simha Kutty Varthaman (Retd), Air Marshal Satish Pal Singh (Retd), Air Marshal Arup Raha, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Air Command, Air Marshal Rajinder Singh, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command, Air Marshal Jagdish Chandra Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Maintenance Command respectively. 

Air Marshal Herikudru Babu Rajaram, Director General (Works and Ceremonials) has been conferred the Ati Vishist Seva Medal (AVSM). 

This year, the Vayu Sena Medal (VM) for Gallantry have been awarded to Wing Commander Gurkirat Singh Sohal, Wing Commander Chickmandya Girish Deepak and Flight Lieutenant Siddharth Chopra. While two Air Commodores, seven Group Captains, five Wing Commanders have also been conferred Vayu Sena Medal for devotion to duty. 

The Vishist Seva Medal (VSM) have been awarded to five Air Commodores, twenty Group Captains and three Wing Commanders. 

Major Abup J Manjali Selected For Second- Highest Peacetime Gallantry Award Kirti Chakra

Major Abup J Manjali of the Rashtriya Rifles was selected for the award of Kirti Chakra for his extraordinary bravery efforts in counter- terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir. Major Manjali will be awarded on 26 January 2013.
 
Major Manjali is the only soldier to receive this second- highest peacetime gallantry award Kirti Chakra on the Republic Day. Apart from him, eight other jawans as well as officers were selected to be awarded with the Shaurya Chakra.

Major Abup J Manjali belongs to the Bihar Regiment and at present is deputed to Rashtriya Rifles. It is important to note that the Kirti Chakra can be given away to military personnel as well as the civilians. This award is the peacetime gallantry award which is equivalent to Mahavir Chakra. 

Shaurya Chakra, on the other hand, is being given away to Major Sandeep Kumar of 13 Sikh Regiment for his bravery act in Northeast area. Apart from him, Navy officer will also receive Shaurya Chakra for saving lives in Mumbai fire incident.

Vulture Population Estimation-2013 Conducted in Panna Tiger Reserve

Vulture Population Estimation-2013 was conducted in Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh by the State Government. The Vulture Population Estimation-2013 started from 16 January 2013. It was found that there are 867 vultures in the Panna Tiger Reserve which include 160 migratory birds as well as 48 unidentified birds. The Technical report of Vulture Population Estimation-2013 would be submitted by February end 2013. Around 102 live nests were present in this tiger reserve. 

Yet another survey would be conducted in April-May 2013 in order to find out the success of vulture breeding in Panna Tiger Reserve. The Vulture Population Estimation is undertaken every year in January in the Panna Tiger Reserve since 2010. The population of vultures was less in comparison to the 2012 population and the reason for their decreasing number is rise in temperatures in this area. 

What was found in the Vulture Population Estimation-2013

•The Regional Director Panna Tiger Reserve informed that 659 residential vultures were present in the Panna Tiger Reserve during this Vulture Population Estimation-2013.
•Out of the 659 residential vultures, 476 were the Long Billed Vultures, 86 were the White Backed Vultures, 52 were the Egyptian Vultures and 45 were the Red-headed Vultures.
•There were 160 migratory vultures in the Reserve. Out of these, 41 were the European Griffon, 115 were the Himalayan Griffon and 4 were the vultures of cinereous species.
 
Reasons for decline in vulture population

Over the past few years, there has been a sudden decline in the vulture population. Post mortem as well as the diagnostic tests of the vultures revealed that there was a decrease in their population because of consumption of veterinary drug Diclofenac. 
Diclofenac was consumed by the vultures who fed on the carcasses of livestock. Diclofenac led to deposition of uric acid in the visceral organs of vultures which caused their sudden death.

DIARY OF EVENTS 2012

   

Space Missions

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has submitted a plan for 58 space missions to be undertaken as a part of 12th Five Year Plan, 2012-17.

A Plan outlay of Rs. 39,750 crore in 12^th Five Year Plan period has been provisionally earmarked under the Plan budget for Space Programme.  During the current year 2012-13, a sum of Rs. 5,615 crore has been allocated and the amount spent up to End October, 2012 is Rs.1,871.53 crore.

The Missions planned for 12^th Five Year plan also encompasses 33 Satellite missions and 25 Launch Vehicles missions.  The details and the objectives of each mission are as under:

Sl No	Mission		Objective
SATELLITE MISSIONS
1	SARAL	Satellite with Argos and Altimeter for Oceanography studies.
2	CARTOSAT-2C	High resolution Cartography satellite for mapping applications for special users.
3	CARTOSAT-2D
4	RESOURCESAT-2A	Satellite for Natural Resource Survey applications.
5	OCEANSAT-3	Satellite for Ocean and Coastal studies.
6	CARTOSAT-3	Advanced very high resolution cartography satellite.
7	GISAT	Geo Imaging Satellite for monitoring and Disaster Management applications.
8	GSAT-9	Communication satellite to augment the INSAT system with C band Transponders
9	GSAT-10	Communication satellites to augment the INSAT system with C and Ku band Transponders
10	GSAT-15
11	GSAT-16
12	GSAT-17
13	GSAT-18
14	GSAT-14	Experimental Communication Satellites
15	GSAT-11S
16	GSAT-6	Multi-media Mobile communication satellites for strategic applications.
17	GSAT-6A
18	GSAT-7	Communication satellite for special users.
19	GSAT-Ka	Advanced Ka band satellite for VSAT communications.
20	GSAT-11
21	GSAT-19E	New generation experimental communication satellite.
22	INSAT-3D	Advanced Meteorological Satellite
23	IRNSS-1	Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) for satellite based positioning services – The constellation consists of Seven IRNSS satellites.
24	IRNSS-2
25	IRNSS-3
26	IRNSS-4
27	IRNSS-5
28	IRNSS-6
29	IRNSS-7
30	ASTROSAT	Multi-wavelength Space Astronomy Observatory for scientific investigations.
Sl No	Mission	Objective
31	MARS ORBITER	Technological mission to reach Martian orbit and studying the surface and atmospheric features of Mars.
32	CHANDRAYAAN-2	Scientific investigations of Lunar surface with in-situ measurements.
33	ADITYA	Scientific Satellite for study of Sun and Solar Corona phenomena.
LAUNCH VEHICLE MISSIONS
34	PSLV – C20	Launching of SARAL Satellite into Polar Orbit.
35	PSLV – C 21	Launching of French satellite SPOT-6 on commercial basis.
36	PSLV – C22	For launching of IRNSS-1 satellite.
37	PSLV – C23	For launching of IRNSS-2 satellite
38	PSLV – C24	For launching of IRNSS-3 satellite
39	PSLV – C25	For launching of MARS orbiter.
40	PSLV – C26	For launching of Astrosat into near earth orbit.
41	PSLV – C27	For launching of Cartosat-2C into Polar orbit.
42	PSLV – C28	For launching of IRNSS-4 satellite.
43	PSLV – C29	For launching of IRNSS-5 satellite.
44	PSLV – C30	For launching of IRNSS-6 satellite.
45	PSLV – C31	For launching of Resourcesat-2A into polar orbit.
46	PSLV – C32	For launching of Cartosat-2D in to polar orbit.
47	PSLV – C33	Commercial Launch Service
48	PSLV – C34	For launching of IRNSS-7 satellite.
49	PSLV – C35	For launching of Oceansat-3 satellite into polar orbit.
50	PSLV- C36	For launching of Cartosat-3 satellite into Polar orbit.
51	GSLV – D5	Development flight with indigenous cryogenic stage for launching GSAT-14satellite.
52	GSLV – D6	For launching of GSAT-6 into Geosynchronous transfer orbit.
53	GSLV – F8	For launching of Chandrayaan-2
54	GSLV – F09	For launching of GSAT-9 communication satellite.
55	GSLV – F10	For launching of GISAT satellite into Geosynchronous transfer orbit.
56	GSLV – F11	For launching of GSAT-6A satellite.
57	GSLV - Mk III-X1	Experimental test flight.
58	GSLV – Mk III D1	First developmental flight of GSLV Mk III  for launching GSAT-19E satellite