India elected to four United Nations agencies

India was elected to four important United Nations (UN) agencies on 8 April 2015. These agencies are United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Food Program (WFP), Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) and the Governing Council of UN-Habitat.

India was elected to these bodies at the Coordination and Management Meeting (CMM) of UNECOSOC (the United Nations Economic and Social Council) held at the UN headquarters in New York, USA.

India was elected by acclamation, which is a form of election that doesn’t use a ballot.

Results of Elections
• India, along with thirteen other nations, was elected to the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for a three year period starting from January 2016.
• India was re-elected to the Executive Board of the World Food Programme (WFP) along with five other nations for a two year period starting from January 2016. 
• India was elected to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) along with nineteen other nations for a three year period starting from January 2016. Some of the nations that were elected to CCPCJ included Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia Austria, France, Sweden and the United States.
• India was re-elected to the Governing Council of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) along with thirteen other nations for a three year period starting from January 2016.

Significance of India’s election to UN bodies

• India has a 100 percent record of winning the UNECOSOC elections. For instance, in the first week of April 2015, India was re-elected to the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council for the period of 2015-17. In October 2014, India was re-elected to ECOSOC by garnering the maximum number of votes in the Asia-Pacific group. 
• These continuous wins at various UN bodies highlights the fact that India’s role as an important and influential global power is now recognised by a vast majority of the UN membership.

PM launches first Indian Air Quality Index (AQI)

The government has unveiled the National Air Quality Index (AQI) that will give real time data regarding the level of pollutants in the air. It will inform people on the impact of air pollution on their health.

Initially, 10 cities will be covered by the index. These cities include Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Each of These cities will have a monitoring station with Air Quality Index displayed on the board.

Different studies have found high level of air pollution in India. The environmental preference index placed India at 174th position out of 178 countries for air quality last year. A study conducted by WHO has found 13 of the most polluted 20 cities in the world present in India.

The Air Quality Index is the global standard that is used to determine the quality of air. Multiple data that is already available with the country’s Central Pollution Control Board is considered and is presented on a color coded scale having six levels by it.

Dark green is the first level, which indicates good quality air where as maroon indicates severe pollution. The index identifies health impacts associated with each category.

The index gives current and 24-hour average data on particulate matter – PM2.5 and PM 10 along with other pollutants like nitrogen dioxide, ozone and carbon monoxide.

New CEC named by President

Dr Nasim Zaidi has been named as the next Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) by President Pranab Mukherjee. He will succeed H.S.Brahma, who is the current CEC.

He is a 1976 batch officer of UP cadre and has retired in July 2012 as Secretary to the Union Government in Ministry of Civil Aviation. He had also hold the position of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Bad performance for India on Social Progress Index (SPI)

India has been ranked at 101th place out of 133 countries on the Social Progress Index (SPI) in which Norway is placed at 1st position and U.S at 16th position. India s performance is very poor in the Index as even its neighbours such as Nepal and Bangladesh have secured better ranks. India s ranking is poor than it per capita GDP ranking, which is 93.

The index ranked all these countries on different indicators of wellness including health, water and sanitation, personal safety, access to opportunity, tolerance, inclusion, personal freedom and choice.

MUDRA Bank becomes reality

MUDRA Bank announced in the union budget this year has finally become a reality. It was launched by PM Modi on Wednesday. It will be functioning as a regulator for Micro-Finance Institutions and will serve as a credit provider to small entrepreneurs. The initial corpus is Rs. 20,000 crore.

MUDRA will play the role of laying down policy guidelines for the business of micro enterprise financing and registering MFI entities along with their rating and accreditation.

MUDRA Bank will be enumerating "responsible financing practices", whose will eliminate over indebtedness while ensuring proper principles of client protection and recovery methods.

It will also work to develop standards to govern last mile lending to micro enterprises.

The initial products and schemes of MUDRA will be known as  Shishu ,  Kishor  and  Tarun  signifying the level of development and need of funding for the beneficiary micro unit.

Delhi Government launched India’s first e-ration card Service

Delhi Government on 27 March 2015 launched India’s first e-ration card service. The service was launched by the Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal.

In this service, E-ration card will be linked with Aadhaar cards and it would enable the beneficiaries of Public Distribution System (PDS) to get the cards online from the government’s web portal without hassles.

The new service is expected to curb corruption and increase transparency in the system.

The service would cut down the delays in preparation of ration card and would ensure the fast delivery to the beneficiaries.

As soon as an application for providing food security is approved by the Food Supply Officer concerned, a message will go to the cellphone number of the beneficiary informing him or her about approval of application and ration card.

ISRO won Gandhi Peace Prize 2014

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 27 March 2015 won Gandhi Peace Prize 2014. The award was selected by the jury under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Besides Prime Minister, other members of the Jury that selected the ISRO for the award were Justice H L Dattu, Chief Justice of India; Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the single largest Opposition Party in the Lok Sabha; LK Advani, Member of Parliament and Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

The Indian space agency successfully launched Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) and at a very cost effective price of 450 crore rupees.

The launch makes India the first Asian country to enter the Martian sphere of influence.

ISRO became the fourth space agency after National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US, Russian Federal Space Agency (RFSA) and European Space Agency to have undertaken a mission to Mars.

Besides launching various research and communication satellites, the space agency through its cutting-edge technologies contributes to the nation's development through satellite based education, health care and connectivity to community activities for sustainable economic development.

About the Award

The Gandhi Peace Prize for social, economic and political transformation through non-violence was instituted in the year 1995 on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

It is given to individual or organisation for making social, economic and political transformation through non-violence means.

The award comprises an amount of one crore rupees and a citation.

Nobel Laureate John Nash won Abel Prize 2015 for work on partial differential equations

Nobel Laureate John F Nash Jr. won the Abel Prize 2015 for his work on partial differential equations. The prize was announced on 25 March 2015 by the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters. They will receive the Abel Prize from His Majesty King Harald at a ceremony in Oslo on 19 May 2015.

He will share the Prize with Louis Nirenberg, Professor Emeritus at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. They both will share the prize money of 760000 US dollar.

Nash and Nirenberg won the prize for striking and seminal contributions to the theory of nonlinear partial differential equations and its applications to geometric analysis. Partial differential equations are important in both pure math and describing natural phenomena.

John Nash is a senior research mathematician at Princeton University. He won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994 for his work in game theory as dramatized in the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind in which he was portrayed by actor Russell Crowe.

About the Abel Prize

The Abel Prize is an international prize presented annually by the King of Norway to one or more outstanding mathematicians. The prize was named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.

The award was established in 2001 by the Government of Norway and complements the Holberg Prize in the humanities.

The Abel Prize has often been described as the mathematician's Nobel Prize, competing in that respect with the much older Fields Medal. It comes with a monetary award of 6 million Norwegian kroner (NOK).

In 2014, it was won by Yakov G Sinai, Professor at Princeton University and Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences.

The first Abel Prize was won by Jean-Pierre Serre, Professor at Collège de France, Paris in 2003.

Establishment of PCPIRs

The Government of India has approved setting up four Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Regions (PCPIRs) in the States of Andhra Pradesh (Vishakhapatnam – Kakinada), Gujarat (Dahej), Odisha (Paradeep) and Tamil Nadu (Cuddalore – Nagapattinam) which are estimated to attract investments of around Rs.7.63 lakh crore and provide employment to around 33.96 lakh persons. These PCPIRs are at different stages of implementation. PCPIRs are the projects with long gestation period and may take around 15-20 years to achieve full potential. As on 31.01.2015, investment of approx. Rs. 1.60 lakh crore have been made and direct & indirect employment for approx 2.23 lakh persons has been generated. 

The PCPIR projects are already functional and realization of full potential is a gradual process. The Government has set up Steering Committees for monitoring the implementation of PCPIRs in various States. The PCPIRs have been promoted in domestic and international forum through exhibition, road shows and interaction with industry associations in order to attract investments. 

Gujarat Becomes The First State To Conduct Online Elections

Gujarat has been creating landmark strides in the wing of elections to the local body authorities. Earlier the Gujarat government was successful in clearing the bill which has paved the way for compulsory voting by all the voters in the local municipal and panchayat elections. The very controversial Gujarat Local Authorities Laws Bill, 2009 was passed in the previous year, which made

(a) The voting by all those voters in the electoral college mandatory
(b) Also provided for 50% reservation for women in the local authorities.

Now after making the voting mandatory, the government has decided to make some appeasements by facilitating easy voting. This, the State Election Commission plans to bring by Online Voting.

This according to the commission would facilitate all those voters who are unable to reach the polling stations. The method follows a series of steps as follows:

(1) The voters would have to register themselves in the Gujarat Election Commission Official website.(2) They would have to present themselves for the physical verification which would be carried out by the local officials who would visit the address specified by the voters.(3) The officials would collect the biometric details and along with that would also note the hardware configuration of the laptop and the desktops that would be possibly used for voting.(4) The voters would be asked to use the same hardware as checked by the officials for voting.(5) While voting the voters would receive a OTP(One Time Password) that would be sent to their mobile phones, which would be followed by a line for the purpose of verification.(6) Using these verifications the voter could cast his/her vote online. 

Govt launches E-Vaidya Scheme

The health minister launched the second electronic UPHC - Urban Primary Health Centre in the state of Andhra Pradesh. This would be the first of its kind e-Vaidya telemedicine facility launched in the country. The e-Vaidya scheme comes under the flagship- NUHM (National Urban Health Mission).

E-Vaidya is primarily a digital health unit which would serve as a primary health center, and is a highly innovative approach with a frugal combination between the offline and the online modes. It would help in enabling and provisioning of the health care for all. It operates under a cooperative partnership between the state and the central government. The scheme importantly introduces e-UPHC i.e electronic Urban Primary Health Centre.

The various important points under the scheme:

(a) Usage of videoconferencing with which the patients can directly interact with the doctors at far off places.
(b) Specialists and other consultation could be easily carried out by the technique.
(c) The Online e-UPHC at the fringe places would have the facility for video conferencing and also other basic facilities such as machinery for X-Ray, basic labs and other diagnostic technologies.
(d) The common people could consult these doctors using video conferencing and use these facilities for the various tests which are asked to be conducted on them for the purpose of diagnosis.
(e) Many plans are covered under the scheme, the patients could opt for yearly memberships from the e-Vaidya site and can consult with the doctors even while sitting at homes with internet. But the patients will have to pay a nominal fees for memberships.
(f) The fees would vary according to the kind of consultation seeked and the time period availed for such consultations. 

Union Cabinet paves the way for New Development Bank

The union cabinet has approved the establishment of New Development Bank and the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA). The Bank will help India and other member countries to raise and avail resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects. In the New Development Bank each participant country will be given one vote with none having veto power unlike the World Bank, which assigns votes based on the capital share. The BRICS CRA is aimed at providing short-term liquidity support to the members to help mitigate BOP crisis situation through currency swaps, in case such a situation arises.

Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has launched Swachh Vidyalaya Programme under Swachh Bharat Mission with an objective to provide separate toilets for boys and girls in all government schools within one year. The Ministry financially supports States/Union Territories inter alia to provide toilets for girls and boys in schools under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA). Under SSA and RMSA 88,728 toilets have been sanctioned during 2014-15. 1.58 lakh toilets as well as dysfunctional toilets have been taken up by Public Sector Undertakings/Corporates for construction/repairs. Besides an amount of Rs. 56.51crore has been allocated from the Swachh Bharat Kosh for re-construction/repairs of the dysfunctional toilets. 

National Marine Police Academy at West Coast

The Government of India has decided to establish a National Marine Police Training Institute in the land offered by the Government of Gujarat located at Pindara village in Devbhoomi Dwarka district of the State, to impart training to the marine Police personnel of all the coastal States/Union Territories in the country.  It will take, at least, 4 years to operationalise this Institute. 

3rd Tortoise Festival organised at Hajong Lake in Assam

3rd Tortoise Festival was organised at Hajong Lake in Dima Hasao district of Assam on 21 February 2015. The festival was organised to create awareness among people on the endangered tortoise species by Environment and Forest Department of Dima Hasao. 

The day-long festival saw various activities like discussions, presentation and others aimed at protection of the species. 

About Hajong Lake
• The lake is a unique tortoise habitat and is situated in the Langting Mupa forest reserve at a distance of around 300kilometres from Guwahati 
• The lake is the only natural tortoise home in Assam 
• Hajong Lake that is popularly known as the tortoise lake is a habitat of few varieties of Hill Terrapins (a rare species)
• At present, around 400 to 500 tortoises are dwelling in the Hajong Lake

87th Academy Awards (Oscar Awards 2015)

87th Academy Award, popularly called Oscar Awards, was conferred on 22 February 2015. The award ceremony was held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

The Oscar Awards for the year 2015 were presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in 24 categories.

The awards were produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan and directed by Hamish Hamilton. Actor Neil Patrick Harris hosted the ceremony for the first time.

The list of winners of 87th Academy Awards

• Best Picture: Birdman
• Best Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Birdman
• Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything
• Best Actress: Julianne Moore for Still Alice
• Best Supporting Actor: JK Simmons for Whiplash
• Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette for Boyhood
• Achievement in Costume Design: Milena Canonero for The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling: Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier for The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Best Foreign Language Film: Ida directed by Pawel Pawlikowski
• Best Live Action Short Film: The Phone Call
• Best Documentary Short Subject: Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
• Original Screenplay: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo for Birdman
• Achievement in Sound Mixing: Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, Thomas Curley for Whiplash
• Achievement in Sound Editing: Alan Robert Murray Bub Asman for American Sniper
• Achievement in Visual Effects: Ian Hunter, Scott Fisher, Andrew Lockley and Paul Franklin for Interstellar
• Best Animated Short Film: Feast directed by Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed
• Best Animated Movie: Big Hero Six 6
• Achievement in Production Design: Adam Stockhausen and Anna Pinnock for The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Achievement in Cinematograph: Emannuel Lubezki for Birdman
• Achievement in Film Editing: Tom Cross for Whipalsh
• Best Documentary Feature: Citizen Four directed by Laura Poitras
• Best Original Song: John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn for Glory
• Best Original Score: Alexandre Desplat for The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Best Adapted Screenplay: Graham Moore for The Imitation Game

Number of sugar mills in the country

As per information available with Directorate of Sugar, Ministry of Consumer Affairs,

 Food and Public Distribution, there are 513 sugar mills in the country operating in 

cooperative, private and public sector. As per the sugar season 2013-14, highest

 number of mills i.e 159 were operating in Maharashtra followed by 

Uttar Pradesh -119 and Karnataka- 61.

State-wise number of sugar mills operating during the sugar season 2013-14 

were as follows:

STATE		Public Sector	Private Sector		Coop. Sector		Total
Andhra Pradesh	-			16	8	24
Bihar	2			9	-	11
Chattisgarh	-			-	3	03
Goa	-			-	1	01
Gujarat	-			4	15	19
Haryana	-			4	10	14
Karnataka	2			39	20	61
Madhya Pradesh	-			12	3	15
Maharashtra	-			58	101	159
Odisha	-			2	3	05
Puducherry	-			1	1	02
Punjab	-			7	9	16
Rajasthan	1			-	-	01
Tamil Nadu	2			24	16	42
Telangana	-			10	-	10
Uttar Pradesh	1			95	23	119
Uttrakhand	3			5	1	09
West Bengal	-			2	-	02
Total	11			288	214	513

India – based Neutrino Observatory

The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) Project is a multi-institutional effort aimed at building a world-class underground laboratory with a rock cover of approximately 1200 meter. The underground laboratory, consisting of a large cavern of size 132m × 26m × 20m and several smaller caverns, will be accessed by a 1900 m long and 7.5 m wide tunnel. INO project is jointly supported by Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Department of Science & Technology (DST) with DAE acting as the nodal agency. 

The objective of INO is to conduct basic research on the elementary particle called neutrino. Presently 21 research institutes, Universities and IITs from all over the country are involved in this project. INO is expected to galvanise interest in basic science research in the whole country and particularly in and around Theni and Madurai districts of Tamil Nadu. Science students across the country will have opportunity to pursue cutting edge research in the field of particle physics while being located in India. 

The observatory will be located underground so as to provide adequate shielding to the neutrino detector from cosmic background radiation. Tunnel construction is very common and will not have any impact on environment, water sources or dams in the region. The project has all the required clearances from various Central and State Government authorities. A detailed geotechnical studies was also carried out by the Geological Survey of India (GSI). 

The operation of INO will have no release of radioactive or toxic substances. It is not a weapons laboratory and will have no strategic or defence applications. Certain sections of media in the recent past have reported that the INO underground laboratory and the tunnels will be used for storing nuclear waste. Such reports are not factual and are baseless. Department of Atomic Energy strongly refutes such erroneous and malicious reports. It categorically states that no nuclear waste will be stored there at any time and INO laboratory will be used only for the purpose of basic science research in the field of neutrino physics. 

Padma Awards 2015

  Padma Awards - one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, 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.

These awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March/ April every year. This year the President of India has approved conferment of Padma Awards to 104 persons as per the list below. The list comprises of 9 Padma Vibhushan, 20 Padma Bhushan and 75 Padma Shri Awardees.  17 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 17 persons from the category of foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and 4 Posthumous awardees.

 

Padma Vibhushan

S. No.	Name of the Awardee	Discipline	State/Domicile
1.	Shri L. K. Advani	Public Affairs	Gujarat
2.	Shri Amitabh Bachchan	Art	Maharashtra
3.	Shri Prakash Singh Badal	Public Affairs	Punjab
4.	Dr. D. Veerendra Heggade	Social Work	Karnataka
5.	Shri Mohammad Yusuf Khan alias Dilip Kumar	Art	Maharashtra
6.	Shri Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Rambhadracharya	Others	Uttar Pradesh
7.	Prof. Malur Ramaswamy Srinivasan	Science and Engineering	Tamil Nadu
8.	Shri Kottayan K. Venugopal	Public Affairs	Delhi
9.	Shri Karim Al Hussaini Aga Khan (Foreigner)	Trade and Industry	France/UK

Padma Bhushan

1.	Shri Jahnu Barua	Art	Assam
2.	Dr. Vijay Bhatkar	Science and Engineering	Maharashtra
3.	Shri Swapan Dasgupta	Literature and Education	Delhi
4.	Swami Satyamitranand Giri	Others	Uttar Pradesh
5.	Shri N. Gopalaswami	Civil Service	Tamil Nadu
6.	Dr. Subhash C. Kashyap	Public Affairs	Delhi
7.	Dr. (Pandit) Gokulotsavji Maharaj	Art	Madhya Pradesh
8.	Dr. Ambrish  Mithal	Medicine	Delhi
9.	Smt. Sudha Ragunathan	Art	Tamil Nadu
10.	Shri Harish Salve	Public Affairs	Delhi
11.	Dr. Ashok Seth	Medicine	Delhi
12.	Shri Rajat Sharma	Literature and Education	Delhi
13.	Shri Satpal	Sports	Delhi
14.	Shri Shivakumara Swami	Others	Karnataka
15.	Dr. Kharag Singh Valdiya	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
16.	Prof. Manjul Bhargava (NRI/PIO)	Science and Engineering	USA
17.	Shri David Frawley (Vamadeva) (Foreigner)	Others	USA
18.	Shri Bill Gates (Foreigner)	Social Work	USA
19.	Ms. Melinda Gates  (Foreigner)	Social Work	USA
20.	Shri Saichiro Misumi (Foreigner)	Others	Japan

Padma Shri

1.	Dr. Manjula Anagani	Medicine	Telangana
2.	Shri S. Arunan	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
3.	Ms. Kanyakumari Avasarala	Art	Tamil Nadu
4.	Dr. Bettina Sharada Baumer	Literature and Education	Jammu and Kashmir
5.	Shri Naresh Bedi	Art	Delhi
6.	Shri Ashok Bhagat	Social Work	Jharkhand
7.	Shri Sanjay Leela Bhansali	Art	Maharashtra
8.	Dr. Lakshmi Nandan Bora	Literature and Education	Assam
9.	Dr. Gyan  Chaturvedi	Literature and Education	Madhya Pradesh
10.	Prof. (Dr.) Yogesh Kumar Chawla	Medicine	Chandigarh
11.	Smt. Jayakumari Chikkala	Medicine	Delhi
12.	Shri Bibek Debroy	Literature and Education	Delhi
13.	Dr. Sarungbam Bimola  Kumari Devi	Medicine	Manipur
14.	Dr. Ashok Gulati	Public Affairs	Delhi
15.	Dr.  Randeep  Guleria	Medicine	Delhi
16.	Dr. K. P. Haridas	Medicine	Kerala
17.	Shri Rahul Jain	Art	Delhi
18.	Shri Ravindra Jain	Art	Maharashtra
19.	Dr. Sunil Jogi	Literature and Education	Delhi
20.	Shri Prasoon Joshi	Art	Maharashtra
21.	Dr. Prafulla Kar	Art	Odisha
22.	Ms. Saba Anjum	Sports	Chhattisgarh
23.	Smt. Ushakiran Khan	Literature and Education	Bihar
24.	Dr. Rajesh Kotecha	Medicine	Rajasthan
25.	Prof. Alka Kriplani	Medicine	Delhi
26.	Dr. Harsh Kumar	Medicine	Delhi
27.	Shri Narayana Purushothama Mallaya	Literature and Education	Kerala
28.	Shri Lambert Mascarenhas	Literature and Education	Goa
29.	Dr. (Mrs.) Janak Palta McGilligan	Social Work	Madhya Pradesh
30.	Shri Veerendra Raj Mehta	Social Work	Delhi
31.	Shri Tarak Mehta	Art	Gujarat
32.	Shri Neil Herbert Nongkynrih	Art	Meghalaya
33.	Shri Chewang Norphel	Others	Jammu and Kashmir
34.	Shri T. V. Mohandas Pai	Trade and Industry	Karnataka
35.	Dr.Tejas Patel	Medicine	Gujarat
36.	Shri Jadav Molai Peyang	Others	Assam
37.	Smt. Bimla Poddar	Other	Uttar Pradesh
38.	Dr. N. Prabhakar	Science and Engineering	Delhi
39.	Dr. Prahalada	Science and Engineering	Maharashtra
40.	Dr. Narendra Prasad	Medicine	Bihar
41.	Shri Ram Bahadur Rai	Literature and Education	Delhi
42.	Ms. Mithali Raj	Sports	Telangana
43.	Shri P. V.  Rajaraman	Civil Service	Tamil Nadu
44.	Prof.  J. S. Rajput	Literature and Education	Uttar Pradesh
45.	Shri Kota Srinivasa Rao	Art	Andhra Pradesh
46.	Prof. Bimal Roy	Literature and Education	West Bengal
47.	Shri Shekhar Sen	Art	Maharashtra
48.	Shri Gunvant Shah	Literature and Education	Gujarat
49.	Shri Brahmdev Sharma (Bhaiji)	Literature and Education	Delhi
50.	Shri Manu Sharma	Literature and Education	Uttar Pradesh
51.	Prof. Yog Raj Sharma	Medicine	Delhi
52.	Shri Vasant Shastri	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
53.	Shri S. K. Shivkumar	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
54.	Ms. P. V. Sindhu	Sports	Telangana
55.	Shri Sardara Singh	Sports	Haryana
56.	Ms. Arunima Sinha	Sports	Uttar Pradesh
57.	Shri Mahesh Raj Soni	Art	Rajasthan
58.	Dr.Nikhil Tandon	Medicine	Delhi
59.	Shri H. Thegtse Rinpoche	Social Work	Arunachal Pradesh
60.	Dr.Hargovind Laxmishanker Trivedi	Medicine	Gujarat
61.	Shri Huang Baosheng (Foreigner)	Others	China
62.	Prof. Jacques Blamont (Foreigner)	Science and Engineering	France
63.	Late Shri Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin (Posthumous)	Others	Maharashtra
64.	Shri Jean-Claude Carriere (Foreigner)	Literature and Education	France
65.	Dr. Nandrajan “Raj” Chetty (NRI/PIO)	Trade and Industry	USA
66.	Shri George L. Hart (Foreigner)	Others	USA
67.	Jagat Guru Amrta Suryananda Maha Raja (NRI/PIO)	Others	Portugal
68.	Late Shri Meetha Lal Mehta (Posthumous)	Social Work	Rajasthan
69.	Ms. Tripti Mukherjee (NRI/PIO)	Art	USA
70.	Dr. Dattatreyudu Nori (NRI/PIO)	Medicine	USA
71.	Dr. Raghu Rama Pillarisetti (NRI/PIO)	Medicine	USA
72.	Dr. Saumitra Rawat (NRI/PIO)	Medicine	UK
73.	Prof. Annette Schmiedchen (Foreigner)	Literature and Education	Germany
74.	Late Shri Pran Kumar Sharma alias Pran (Posthumous)	Art	Delhi
75.	Late Shri R. Vasudevan (Posthumous)	Civil Service	Tamil Nadu