Eight from Karnataka get Padma award

Shatavadhani R. Ganesh and former BJP Rajya Sabha member Prabhakar B. Kore are among the eight personalities from Karnataka to feature on the list of Padma awardees this year.

While Dr. Ganesh has been awarded Padma Bhushan in the category of Art, Dr. Kore, who has been chosen in the field of Literature and Education, is among the seven from the State who have been conferred the Padma Shri awards.

An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Science, Dr. Ganesh, a writer in Kannada and Sanskrit, is credited to having revived the tradition of Avadhana in Kannada.

A three -time Rajya Sabha member, Dr. Kore recently stepped aside from the election to the Karnataka Lingayat Education Society in Belagavi that he helmed for over four decades.

Others in the list include Anke Gowda M., who runs Pusthakamane, to spread literacy by providing free access to books. He has in his collection over two million books that also includes rare manuscripts. He has received the recognition in the category of Social Work.

A recipient of Padma Shri in the category of Medicine, Suresh Hanagavadi, himself a haemophilia patient, fought against all odds and founded the Karnataka Haemophilia Society to assist those in need of medical intervention. His work in the field brought government support to meet the expenses of costly treatment.

S.G. Susheelamma co-founded Sumangali Seva Ashrama in 1975 to provide shelter to destitute women, orphan children and those from the economically weaker sections of society, and she has been conferred Padma Shri in the field of Social Work.

Aerospace scientist Shubha Iyengar, who has been chosen under the Science and Engineering category, is credited for her work in developing Drishti, an indigenously developed visibility measuring system to help navigation, and infrared detectors, which have been installed in 100 airports across the country.

Shashi Shekhar Vempati, who took the Doordarshan and Akashvani into the digital age as the youngest Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati, is among the Padma Shri recipients under the category of Literature and Education. In the category of Trade and Industry, T.T. Jagannathan who headed the TTK group, has been awarded the Padma Shri posthumously.