PS Foundation PS Foundation
PS Foundation PS Foundation PS Foundation
 
PS Foundation
PS Foundation
PS Foundation
PS Foundation
 
 
PS Foundation
 
Dr. Pinnamaneni and Smt. Seetha Devi Foundation (PSF) started felicitating eminent persons in 1989.

Since then, 34 celebrities and visionaries received the awards till 2017. The first award was received by Prof. V. Ramalingaswamy & Shriman Sribhashyam Appalacharyulu and the latest by Dr. Tessy Thomas.

2018 - Dr. Gandhi PC Kaza

Dr. Gandhi PC Kaza

Dr.Gandhi was born on 24th January 1948, just before the martyrdom of Mahatma Gandhi coming from a family wedded to Gandhian values and traditions he was given the first name of Gandhi.

Education Qualification:
• Bachelor’s Degree in Physics from Andhra Loyola College, AP in 1966
• Master’s Degree in Physics from University of Rewa, MP in 1969
• Master’s Degree in Gandhian thought from Madurai Kamaraj University, TN in 1984
• Ph.D in Physics from Osmania University, AP in 1986
• Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from John Jay College, City University of New York, U.S.A. in 1987


Dr.Gandhi joined Govt. of India’s Intelligence Bureau and its Forensic Science Wing in 1970 and later joined AP State Police Service as Assistant Director Forensic Science Labs in 1976. He took over as APFSL’s Director in 1992 and for his distinguished services in developing it as the STATE of the Art lab, was elevated to the status of the rank of IG of Police, a distinction first of its kind in India.

Dr.Gandhi led APFSL for 15 years to make it a Model Lab in India and to get ISO 9001 in 1999 and the only FSL in India to get ISO 17025 also.

By virtue of his deep rooted commitment to selfless public service especially in law enforcement profession, he chose his career and served the central and state governments for more than 36 years later retired in 2007.

Dr.Gandhi chose to make use of his expertise and started two non-profit organizations, Crime Stoppers Foundation and Trust Foundation, to enable people to fight crime and injustice.

He established an independent forensic science laboratory in the name of Trust Labs, in Hyderabad, which is first of its kind initiative in India. Such labs were established in Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai. Trust Labs became one for the most important agency for Alternate Dispute Resolution Mechanism in India resolving more than 5000 cases across the nation in five years. Trust Labs now render services to all the Courts, Police including CBI, NIA, all Banks, Insurance Companies at home and abroad, MNCs, Law Firms, Advocates, Detective Agencies as well as individuals and several international agencies.

Achievements and Awards:
• Professional Excellence Award from Former Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister L.K.Advani in 2002
• Distinguished Fellow Award from Indian Academy of Forensic Sciences in 2002
• Life Time Achievement Award from Medical Council of India in 2004
• Distinguished Scientist Award by AOAC, USA in 2005
• Great Son of the Soil Award from All India Intellectual Committee in 2006
and many more

Currently he is Advisor to the Government of Andhra Pradesh on Forensic & Allied Police Support Services and also Managing Director of Genome Foundation.


Vision for the Future:

Dr.Gandhi ultimately wants to realize during his lifetime his vision for a society which values trust as a national character to ensure justice and equality to all in the Indian Society.

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2017 - Dr. Tessy Thomas

Dr. Tessy Thomas

Dr. Tessy Thomas, Distinguished Scientist, Director of Advances Systems Laboratory (ASC), Hyderabad took her B.Tech degree in Electrical Engineering from Calicut University in 1985. She was a very bright student during her college life and was a very vibrant youth. Apart from being studios, she brought laurels to her college by participating in many events including sports. She took her M.E., degree in Guided Missiles from Pune in 1986 and was awarded Ph.D. in Missile Guidance by JNTU, Hyderabad in 2014.

She has been conferred Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) by Kalyani University, West Bengal, Mangalayatan University, Aligrah, Hindustan University, Chennai, Sri Padmavathi Mahila Vishwavidyalaya University, Tirupathi, and ITM University, Gwalior.

Dr.Tessy Thomas could have been an IAS Officer, she even had written the test, but the Almighty planned something better when Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam appointed her in Agni Missile Program after she finished he M.E., Within few years of her coming to the Agni team she designed and advanced missile guiding system which was first of its kind in the country. As Project Director for Agni 5, she has played a major role in strategic mission planning and designing an innovative guidance for the system.

Dr.Tessy Thomas moniker “Agni Putri” or “The Missile Woman of India” hails from her work in the field of Agni 3, Agni 4 and Agni 5. She likes her title even more because her role model and mentor Dr.Kalam is called “The Missile Man of India”.

She received more than 25 awards in the last 16 years with titles like “Woman of the year award”, “Distinguished woman scientist award, outstanding woman achiever” and many such. She was the recipient of Lal Bhadur Shastri National award for her outstanding contribution for making India self-reliant in the field of missile technology. She is a fellow of more than 14 associations and she is also either President of Chair of many societies.

As Prime Minister Mr.Manmohan Singh said at the Indian Science Congress, “Mrs. Thomas is an example of a woman making her mark in a traditionally male bastion and decisively breaking the glass ceiling. She is also an example for a woman who is doing her best in a male dominated society”.

Dr.Tessy Thomas hails from the district well known the Venice of the East Alappuzha. Her father was an IFS Officer. She is married to Mr. Saroj Kumar, Former Commander in the Indian Navy and working now as DDO Fellow in Hyderabad. They have a son named TEJAS, is an anagram of his mother and father, and he does not rule out following his mother’s footsteps.

Dr.Tessy Thomas, a woman whi perfectly fits to the portrait of good Indian housewife, is a perfect mother, a perfect wise, a perfect neighbor and performs all the daily chores with finesse. She jiggles her professional and personal life perfectly. She does a tightrope walk between home and career, between being a mother and a scientist who is dedicated to her job. Indeed she is role model and inspiration for women to achieve their dreams and have their feet planted in both worlds successfully.

We find her as a loving, caring, warm and down to earth woman.

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2016 - Brahmasri Chaganti Koteswara Rao & Tamma Srinivasa Reddy

Brahmasri Chaganti Koteswara Rao

Brahmasri Chaganti Koteswara Rao is a great spiritual scholar known for his exposition in Sanathana Dharma . His Pravachanams are widely followed and Telecast by all Telugu T.V.Channels.

He was born in 1958. His parents Sri Chaganti Sundara Siva Rao and Suseelamma were blessed by the Almighty for having a son like him. He mesmerizes the audience with well refined reciting and thought provoking citations from various puranams and Ithihasas.

He is a gifted personality with Saraswathi Kataksham who ensures of great spiritual bliss to all the audience. He was felicitated with citations like Upanyasa Chakravarthi and SaradaJnana Putra.


Tamma Srinivasa Reddy

Tamma Srinivasa Reddy, born in Undavalli, the gateway of Amaravati on the banks of river Krishna, scaled several new heights and set new records. His hard work and commitment to the profession made him most popular in the world photography today. He is one of the top 10 best world photographers for the past 20 years, which makes Indian photography proud.

His photographs frame ideas and words in pictures. His amateurish stint in photography metamorphosed into a serious professionalism from 1984 onwards. Honors, awards and laurels came rolling his way. Today he chairs the photo journalism division of IIPC and conducts national and international photo salons a nd workshops.

Though scaled new heights and stands at the top of the world's top 10 photographers, he is a down to earth man. His humbleness and compassion to fellow photographers, his associates and acquaintances is admirable and is inborn.

He won prestigious competitions. Some of these awards to mention are Raja Triambak Raj Memorial Award (2003), G Thomos Memorial Award (2003), India Press Photo Award (2008) by Ramnath Goenka Foundation for excellence in Photojournalism, Benu Sen Memorial (2011), Late J N Unwala Memorial Award (2014), KG Maheshwari Memorial Award (2015), the first person from the field of photography to receive Kala Ratna Hamsa, the highest Award of the Govt. of A.P. (2016) and the very recent honour ofiCS Grand Master. His tryst with camera is a continuing saga.

Recognisations: 169 Medals, 482 Awards 832 Certificates of Merit, 4,382 Photographs and Slides are accepted and exhibited at National and International level (since 1987).

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2015 - Sri Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia & Sri Hindol Sengupta

Sri Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia

Hariprasad Chaurasia is an eminent Indian flutist who is best known for popularizing Indian Classical Music all over the world. A living legend, he is counted among the greatest masters of the North Indian Bamboo flute.

Acclaimed not just in his native country but also in the Western world, he has also worked as a music director for many films and was even featured in one of the English rock band, The Beatles’ singles. Unlike many other musicians who hail from a musically inclined family, he came from a family with no interest in music whatsoever. The son of a wrestler, he was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps. Nut the young Hariprasad had other plans for himself. Rebelling against his father who did not want his son to become a musician, he started learning classical vocal technique.

However, he switched to flute after meeting a renowned flutist-a decision that would ultimately lead him to his true calling. His early life as a musician was full of struggles but once he gained a foothold in the world of Indian classical music, there was no stopping him. He has been honoured with many prestigious awards including the Padma Vibhushan for his contribution to the world of arts.


Sri Hindol Sengupta

Hindol Sengupta is the author of six books including Recasting India : How Entrepreneurship is Revolutionizing the World’s Largest Democracy (Palgrave Macmillan, Fall 2014) which is the only Indian book ever to be shortlisted for the Hayek Prize given by the Manhattan institute for original writing in economics in memory of the Nobel laureate F A Hayek.

His next nook Being Hindu is being released by Penguin Random House in Fall 2015. He is Editor-at-Large for Fortune India and founder of the Why poll Trust which worked on India’s first women safety mobile app gender mapping of Delhi. He was invited to present his research on Hinduism and technology at the XXI World Congress of the International Association for the History of Religion. He is the co-founder of the South Asia Media Project incubated in Lund University. Sweden and an alumni of the Australia-India Youth Dialogue.

He is a TEDx speaker. He was voted by the global ideas platform IdeaMensch on their 2012 list of 33 entrepreneurs making the world a better place to live in for his work on ideating India’s first women safety mobile app. He is also a columnist for the Aspen institute.

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2014 - Dr. Achyuta Samanta

Dr. Achyuta Samanta

Dr.Achyuta Samanta, a remarkable man of our times, whose life is a saga of rise from very humble beginnings to become a Messiah for the downtrodden tribal children of Odisha and became a legendary figure in his own life time. Self-effacing and unassuming to a fault, he draws inspiration and courage from his own life of hardships he faced in his formative years.

Dr.Samanta, who was born on 20th January, 1965, in a village in Odisha, lost his father when he was only four years old. His mother struggled to support herself and her children. She lived in a dilapidated, thatch-roofed house in the village and nurtured them mostly with rice gruel and wild spinach with all her slender earning. This poverty in his childhood did not daunt the young Samantha, and, as if driven by Divine Inspiration, he has gone to the School, College and University. He obtained the degree of M.Sc. in Chemistry which gave him a lecturer job in Bhubaneswar and later Ph.D. in Social Sciences.

Though his life seemed comfortable, destiny carved out a different plan for him. His heart craved to do something for the helpless sections of society. While he was pursuing his college education, the young Samanta had augmented his paltry scholarship money by private tuitions in the night time and this led him to discover an entrepreneur in him. With what he could save till then, he started an Industrial Training Institute in 1993 in a two-roomed rented building in Bhubaneshwar. What happened thereafter is no less than a miracle and transformed a non-descript ordinary mortal into an iconic Dr.Achyuta Samanta.

While destiny had kindled in him divine virtues and with these as his innate capital, he took a twist in his life and forayed into the field of educational entrepreneurship. When the academics in the contemporary society showed signs of decadence, Mr.Samanta’s innovative mind weaved an educational institution. KIIT group of Institutions, (Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology) started a decade and half ago has become the largest educational conglomerate in the city of Bhubaneswar.

Encompassing on prime land, KIIT today stands with 7.5 million square feet of built up area in immaculately articulated buildings cut into 20 contiguous independent sprawling campuses with state-of-the art facilities. Its academic excellence was soon recognized by Govt. of India and it was granted fullfledged University status in 2004. KIIT University is reckoned today among the 15 best Universities in India. Over the years KIIT has spread its wings to have almost every branch of Technical and Professional courses. Over 25,000 students from different parts of India and abroad, study here today.

With the conviction that illiteracy breeds poverty and Education eradicates it, he established in 1993, a small school, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) within the precincts of KIIT for providing free education from KG to PG and opportunity to the poorest of the poor indigenous tribal children with free lodging and boarding facilities with all modern amenities and state-of-the art of technology – empowered independent campus to over 22,500 children and youth belonging to the poorest of the poor indigenous tribal communities, a feat hailed as only one of its kind in the whole world.

Dr.Samanta finds great satisfaction in emulating Gandhian life style. Though he could buy all the luxuries of life today, yet he leads very simple life. Money and luxury carry very little meaning for him personally. His simple vegetarian food, inexpensive dressing and endearing smile speak a lot about him. He thinks giving others is his greatest luxury in life. This is the secret of the fast growth of the two gigantic institutions and the others.

Though Dr.Samanta is a very self-effacing person, his fame spread far and wide during the past few years and he received a number of awards and prizes in India and abroad. The latest is in Gusi Peace Prize International, a Philippines based award, which he received on 26th November 2014 in the presence of 2500 distinguished people from all over the world.

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2013 - Justice P. Chandrasekhara Rao

Justice P. Chandrasekhara Rao

Dr. Patibandla Chandrasekhara Rao, popularly known as Judge P.C.Rao, born on 22nd April 1936, hails from Veerulapadu, Krisha Dist. He is an Indian Jurist and is Judge at the International Tribunal for the Law of Sea (ITLOS) from 1999 to date.

He received B.A., B.L., M.L degrees and Doctor of Laws (LL.D) from the University of Madras. He was awarded Doctor of Laws (LL.D) (Honoris Causa) from NALSAR University of law, Hyderabad.

He worked as a Research officer for Indian Society of International Law from 1963 to 1967. He was also lecturer in Indian Academy of International Law and Diplomacy from 1964 to 1967. Later he was legal advisor at the Permanent Mission of India with the United Nations in New York from 1972 to 1976. From 1976 to 1996 he worked in various positions in the Indian Ministry of Justice including as Law Secretary from 1988 to 1996.

In his capacity as Law Secretary, he was Legal Adviser to Six Prime Ministers starting with Shri Rajiv Gandhi and to all Ministers and Departments of Government of India. He played a major role in the initiation of several constitutional and legal reforms, including those connected with Panchayats, Municipalities and Human Rights.

He was the architect of the The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1966 and also the founder of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) movement in India.

Founder Secretary-General, International Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution, New Delhi (1995-1996).

Admitted to be an Advocate of the Bar Council of Delhi.

He was Sole Arbitrator in government Contracts (1979-1983).

Since 1st October 1996 to the present he is the Judge at the International tribunal for the Law of the Sea and will continue as Judge till 2017. He was also president of the International Tribunal for the law of Sea from 1999 to 2002.

He is a member of the Board of Editors, International Journal of International Law from 1970 to present. He is a member of Indian Society of International Law from 1994. He also served as Vice-president from 1994-2000.

He has served as a member of several delegations and committees at home, abroad and United Nations.

He published many articles in prestigious International Legal periodicals and publications.

He published many books including

The New Law of Maritime Zones, 1982

The Indian Constitution and International Law, 1993

The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996: A commentary, 1997

Alternative Dispute Resolution: What it means and how it works (co-ed.), 1996

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea: Law and Practice (co-ed.), 2000

The Rules of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea: A commentary (co-ed.), 2006

He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2012.

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2012 - Dr. Y. V. Reddy

Dr. Y. V. Reddy

Dr. Yaga Venugopal Reddy, better known as Y. V. Reddy, born 17 August 1941 is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1964 batch who served as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) (India's central bank) from 6 September 2003 until 5 September 2008. Dr.Reddy received his M.A. in economics from Madras University, India. He holds a PhD from Osmania University, Hyderabad. He also holds a Diploma in Economic Planning from the Institute of Social Studies, Netherlands.

Dr. Reddy was awarded Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) by Sri Venkateswara University, India; and Doctor of Civil Law (Honoris Causa) by the University of Mauritius. On 17 July 2008 Reddy was made an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Economics.

In 1996, Dr.Reddy had been appointed deputy governor of RBI. He has also worked with the International Monetary Fund as Executive Director in 2002. Prior to joining the IAS, he worked as alecturer from 1961. Dr. Venugopal Reddy was appointed the twenty-first Governor of the Reserve Bank of India on 6 September 2003 and served in that position for five years.

Dr.Reddy was Chairman of the Bank for International Settlements, Asian Consultative Council (ACC) for a term of two years from March 2007. He was the Chairperson of SAARC FINANCE, a Group of Governors of the central banks of SAARC member countries. He has held the positions of Secretary (Banking) in Ministry of Finance and Principal Secretary in Government of Andhra Pradesh and has worked with the governments of China, Bahrain, Ethiopia and Tanzania. He has been a Visiting Fellow, London School of Economics, a full-time UGC Visiting Professor in Department of Business Management, Osmania University; full-time Visiting Faculty, Administrative Staff College of India and continues to be the Honorary Senior Fellow at Centre for Economic and Social Studies at Hyderabad.

Dr. Reddy has worked on piloting a calibrated approach to financial sector reforms. New York Times has credited the tough lending standards he imposed on the Indian banks as RBI Governor for saving the entire Indian banking system from the sub-prime and liquidity crisis of 2008.

Dr.Reddy is credited to have played a crucial role in framing macro-economic policies that helped quarantine the country from the domino effect of the financial crisis encountered by the South-East Asian countries during the later part of the 1990s steered by the country to come out of the then Balance of Payments crisis.

He banned the use of bank loans for the purchase of raw land, and sharply curtailed securitisations and derivatives, and essentially prohibited off-balance sheet financing. His term was marked by an emphasis on financial inclusion with the aid of information technology. He recently authored a book titled "India And The Global Financial Crisis: Managing Money and Finance."

In 2010, he was awarded India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan.

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2011 - Sri M. S. Swaminathan

Sri M. S. Swaminathan

Prof. Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan was born on 7th August 1925, as the second son of Dr. M.K. Sambasivan and Smt. Parvathi Thangammal, at the temple town of Kumbakonam in Tanjavur District of Tamilnadu.

In 1952 he earned his Ph.D from Cambridge University, then proceeded to U.S.A for further studies in Genetics. There he turned down a professorship to return to India to produce enough food using his knowledge of Genetics.

A miracle was born in the mid-60's at Swaminathan's laboratory in New Delhi-and, a few years later, at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines which he later headed. Swaminathan brought into India seeds developed in Mexico by U.S. agricultural guru Prof. Nonnan Borlaug and, after cross-breeding them with local species, created a wheat plant that yielded much more grain than traditional types. Scientists at IRRI accomplished the same miracle for rice.

Prof. Swaminathan was director of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi, spending histime in fields with farmers trying to help improve their productivity. Fertilizers were a dead end: when the wheat plant's pod grew more seeds, its stalk collapsed under the weight. With help from the Rockefeller Foundation, Swaminathan found a cross-bred wheat seed, part-Japanese and part­Mexican, that was both fruitful and staunch. He would later marry this plant to an Indian variety to produce the golden-colored grain favored by Indians.

Prof. Swaminathan set up 2,000 model farms in villages outside New Delhi to show farmers what his seed could do. Then came the hardest part. He needed the government to help-specifically, to import 18,000 tons of the Mexican seed at a time of fiscal hardship. He lobbied then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. "He probably thought nothing could be worse," Prof. Swaminathan recalls. "Famine was imminent. There was a willingness to take risks." The first harvest with the new seeds was three times greater than the previous year's.

Political leadership was vital to solve that tangle of problems, and Prof. Swaminathan found it in Shastri's successor. "Indira Gandhi was a strong nationalist," he recalls. "She wanted an independent foreign policy, and food was a political weapon. "Gandhi bluntly asked him how India could be free of imports and gave Swaminathan a free hand to organize a new agricultural program. Today, India grows some 70 million tons of wheat a year, compared to 12 million tons in the early 60's.

Awards and Accolades - He has been decorated with many Awards. To mention a few:

35 National and 31 International
Honorary Doctorates (61-18 foreign)
Fellow of Science Academics (30-20 Foreign)
650 Research Publications and authored several books.
FAO High level committee on Food Security
IGNOU Chair on sustainable development
MSSRF, Chair at Chennai
First Recipient of World Food Prize
Padma Vibhushan by Indian Government
Awarded the Ramon Magsaysay award for Community Leadership.

Above all, he ranks as one of the world's finest exponents of human development in its proper broad sense - a paradigm linking agriculture and the development of vital human values.

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2010 - Ustad Zakir Hussain

Ustad Zakir Hussain

A child prodigy, Zakir Hussain was touring by the age of twelve, the gifted son of his great father, tabls legend Ustad Alla Rakha. Zakir Hussain went to the United Sates in 1970, embarking on an international career which includes no fewer than 150concert dates a year.

He has composed and recorded many albums and soundtracks, and has received wide spread recognition as a composer for his many ensembles and collaborations. He has composed soundtracks for the films In Custody, and the Mystic Masseur directed by Ismail Merchant, Bertolucci's Little Buddha, for which Zakir Hussain composed, performed and acted as Indian Music Advisor, Vanprastham (The Last Dance), chosen to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May, 1999, Saaz, and Everybody Says I'm fine.

Zakir received the distinct honor of co-composing the opening music for the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, 1996. He was commisioned to compose music for Alonzo King's Lines, and to compose an original work for the San Fransisco Jaaz Festival, both in 1998. He has received nemerous grants and awards, including participation in the Meet the Composer programme funded by the Pew Memorial Trust and and "Izzie" (Isadora Duncan Award) for his recomposition for Lines.

Recipient of countless honors, Zakir Hussainhas received the titles pf Padma Bhushan, in 2002, and Padma Shri, in 1998, becoming the youngest precussionist to be awarded these, given to civilians of merit, by the Indian government. In 1990, he was awarded the Indo-American Award in recognition for his outstanding cultutal contribution relations between the United Sataes of India. In April, 1991 he was presented with the Sangeet Natak Akademi youngest musicians to receive this recognision from India's governing cultural institute. In 2006, he was the recipient of the prestigious Kalidas Samman, an award for artists of exceptional achievement, from the government of Madhya Pradesh. In 2007, readers' polls from both Modern Drummer and Drum! magazines named him best World Music and Best Worldbeat Drummer respectively.

In 1987, his first solo release, Making Music, was acclimed as "one of the most inspired East-West fusion albums ever recorded". In 1992, Planet Drum, and album co-created and produced by Zakir Hussain and Mickey Hart, was awarded a Grammy for Best World Music Album.

Zakir Hussain was the recipient of the 1999 National Heritage Fellowship, the United Sates' most prestigious honour Hillary Rodham Clinton at the United States Senate on Septembet 28, 1999. In 2005, he was named as Old Dominion Fellow by the Humanities Council at Princeton University.

In 1992, Zakir Hussain founded Moment! Records which features original collaborations in the field of contemporary world music, as well as live concert performances by great masters of the classical music of India. The label presents Zakir Hussain's own world percussion ensemble. The Rhythm Experience, both North and South Indian classical recordings. Best of Shakti and Masters of Percussion series. Moment Records' 2006 release "Golden Strings of the Sarode" with Aashish Khan and Zakir Hussain was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional World Music category for that year.

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2009 - Dr. K. Srinath Reddy

Dr. K. Srinath Reddy

Prof. K. Srinath Reddy is a founding member of Public Health Foundation of India and has been providing leadership to the foundation since its inception in March 2006. Prior to this Prof. Reddy headed the Department of Cardiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi. He graduated from the Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad and was later trained at AIIMS, where he received his MD (Medicine) and DM (Cardiology) degrees with high academic honours. A clinical cardiologist also trained in epidemiology from McMaster University, Canada; he has committed his career to preventive cardiology and public health.

Prof. Reddy has been involved in several major international and national research studies that have contributed significantly to the growing discourse in both medicine and public health; including the INTERSALT global study of blood pressure and electrolytes, INTERHEART global study on risk factors of myocardial infarction, national collaborative studies on epidemiology of coronary heart disease and community control of rheumatic heart disease.

He has over 250 scientific publications in international and Indian peer reviewed-journals. He edited the National Medical Journal of India for ten years and was a member of the editorial board of several international and national journals. He has been the recipient of several prestigious literary awards like the Global Peace Essay Contest organized by Economists Allied for Arms Reduction (ECAAR) and the Times of India National Essay Contest on Human Rights. He was a prize-winning debater and quizzer at the university level.

He has been part of several WHO expert panels. He chairs the Advisory Board of the World Heart Federation and the World Economic Forum's Global Advisory Council on Chronic Diseases and is a member of the Forum's Global Health Board, the overarching advisory body on health. He has recently been appointed as the First Bernard Lown Professor of Cardiovascular Health at the Harvard School of Public Health and is also an Adjunct Professor at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University.

The President of India on the occasion of the 57th Republic Day of India (2005) conferred the prestigious national award- PADMA BHUSHAN to Prof. Reddy. At the 56th World Health Assembly (2003) he was awarded the WHO Director General's Award for Global Leadership in Tobacco Control. The Royal Society for the Promotion of Health in the United Kingdom also awarded him the Queen Elizabeth Medal (2005). Elected as Foreign Associate Member of the Institute of Medicine (US National Academies) in 2004, Prof. Reddy is the only Indian to be conferred such an honour. He received the Luther Terry Award for outstanding leadership in Tobacco Control from the American Cancer Society and the Honorary Fellowship of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2009).

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2007 - Dr. E. Sreedharan

Dr. E. Sreedharan

E. Sreedharan was born on 12th July 1932 in the Palakkad district of Kerala. His family hails from Karukaputhur, near Koottanad, Palakkad district, Kerala. He completed his studies at the Basel Evangelical Mission Higher Secondary School and then went to the Victoria College in Palghat. He later on completed his Civil Engineering from the Government Engineering College, Kakinada (known as JNTU).

For a short tenure, he worked as a lecturer in Civil engineering at the Government Polytechnic, Kozhikode and a year at the Bombay Port Trust as an apprentice.

Later he joined the Indian Railways in its Service of Engineers. His first assignment was in the Southern Railway as a Probationary Assistant Engineer in December 1954.

He was made the managing director of Delhi Metro and by mid-1995 by the Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma, all the scheduled sections were completed by their target date or before, and within their respective budgets. Sreedharan was given the sobriquet of Metro Man by the media. In 2005, he was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by the government of France. He had announced that he would retire by the end of 2005, but his tenure has been extended by another three years to oversee the completion of the second phase of Delhi Metro.

After 16 years of service with the Delhi Metro, Sreedharan retired from service on 31 December 2011. After his retirement from DMRC, Sreedharan has been appointed as Principal Advisor of the Kochi Metro Rail Project.

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2006 - Dr. K. Anji Reddy

Dr. K. Anji Reddy

Kallam Anji Reddy is an Indian entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical industry, the founder-chairman of Dr Reddy's Labs, which he established in 1984, and chairman of Dr Reddy’s Foundation (DRF), the corporate social responsibility arm of the group, established 1996.

Dr Reddy’s Foundation (DRF), is working on a three L approach (life, learning and livelihood). The foundation is being nurtured with the help of a partnership model for human and social development. The social path for the stakeholders has moments of truth through a social audit as well on its performance.

The three Ls are: Life which takes care of health, hygiene, water, sanitation; Learning which constitutes education, life skills, career education, workplace efficiencies; and Livelihood programmes such as employability, entrepreneurship, market linkages and education loans. Says Kallam Anji Reddy, chairman of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Group, “Social activities are very close to my heart and I make it a point to work with governments, private companies, NGOs and entrepreneurs to make this foundation global. Having come from a pharmaceutical background, my ultimate aim is to provide affordable healthcare”.

The Government of India, has honoured him with Padmabhushan for his contribution to the Indian Pharmaceutical industry. He is a member of the Indian Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry.

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2005 - Prof. C. N. R. Rao

Prof. C. N. R. Rao

Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao, also known as C.N.R. Rao , born on 30 June 1934, Bangalore, India, is an Indian chemist who has worked mainly in solid-state and structural chemistry. He currently serves as the Head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India.

Rao is currently the National Research Professor and Linus Pauling Research Professor and Honorary President of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, India. He is the founding President of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. He was appointed Chair of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Indian Prime Minister in January 2005, a position which he had occupied earlier during 1985–89. He is also the director of the International Centre for Materials Science (ICMS).

Earlier, he served as a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur from 1963 to 1976 and as the Director of the Indian Institute of Science from 1984 to 1994. He has also been a visiting professor at Purdue University, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and University of California, Santa Barbara. He was the Jawaharlal Nehru Professor at the University of Cambridge and Professorial Fellow at the King's College, Cambridge during 1983-1984.

Rao is one of the world's foremost solid state and materials chemists. He has contributed to the development of the field over five decades. His work on transition metal oxides has led to basic understanding of novel phenomena and the relationship between materials properties and the structural chemistry of these materials.

He was awarded the Hughes Medal by the Royal Society in 2000. He became the first recipient of the India Science Award, instituted by the Government of India and awarded in 2004 for his contributions to solid state chemistry and materials science.

He has won several international prizes and is a member of many of the world's scientific associations, including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society (London; FRS, 1982), French Academy, Japanese Academy, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Pontifical Academy. He was awarded Dan David Prize in 2005, by the Dan David Foundation, Tel Aviv University, which he shared with George Whitesides and Robert Langer. He had also been given the honours Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan by the Indian Government and Karnataka Ratna by the Karnataka state government. He is a foreign fellow of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences. He was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Calcutta in 2004.

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2004 - Dr. Jaya Prakash Narayan

Dr. Jaya Prakash Narayan

Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan was born on 14th January 1956, in Naghbir, Maharashtra and came to Godavarru Village at the age of 3, near Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, to pursue his education in Telugu Medium. He obtained his medical degree from Guntur Medical College. He was against the "Emergency" – during the dark days of Indian democracy.

Dr. Narayan joined public administration after making it to I.A.S. in 1980 as one of the top 10 in India. He worked on agriculture, irrigation, technology and youth rehabilitation projects in various capacities and in various districts of Andhra Pradesh. Some of his achievements during his 16-year-long career in government include:

• Rehabilitated 8,000 youth from displaced families of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.

• Designed the reconstruction of drainage and irrigation network in Krishna, Prakasam and Godavari deltas. He successfully mobilized the farmers on a large scale to take up irrigation schemes to bring more than two lakh acres under irrigation.

• Strengthened the credit cooperatives by making them independent of government control.

• Served as a Secretary to both the Governor and the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

He also has several major policy initiatives to his credit:

• Empowerment of parents in schools.

• Economic reforms and restructuring of AP.

• Development of the Infocity HITEC City (Hyderabad Information Technology Engineering Consultancy City) in Hyderabad to facilitate the growth of the software industry.

• Empowerment of local governments and stakeholders.

• Law for self-reliant cooperatives.

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2003 - Smt. Sudha Murty

Smt. Sudha Murty

Sudha Murthy is an Indian social worker and author. Mrs. Murthy began her professional career as a computer scientist and engineer. Currently she is the chairperson of the Infosys Foundation and member of public healthcare initiative of the Gates Foundation. In addition, she has established several orphanages, participated in rural development efforts, and supported the movement to provide all government schools in Karnataka with state-of-the-art computer and library facilities.

Sudha Murthy was born on August 19, 1950, in Shiggaon in northern Karnataka, India. The daughter of a local physician Dr. S.R. Kulkarni, Sudha Murthy and her siblings were raised by her parents and maternal grandparents of the Deshastha Brahmin Kadim Diwan-Melgiri-Ron family. These childhood experiences form the historical basis for her first notable work entitled How I Taught my Grandmother to Read & Other Stories. Two institutions of higher learning, the H.R. Kadim Diwan Building housing the Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) department at IIT Kanpur and the Narayan Rao Melgiri Memorial National Law Library at NLSIU, were both endowed and inaugurated by the Infosys Foundation.

Sudha Murthy completed B.E. in Electrical Engineering from the B.V.B. College of Engineering & Technology, standing first in her class and receiving a gold medal from the Chief Minister of Karnataka. Thereafter, she completed M.E. in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Science, standing first in her class and receiving a gold medal from the Indian Institute of Engineers.

In 2004, Sudha Murthy was presented with the Raja-Lakshmi Award "in recognition of her outstanding contribution to social work" by the Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation in Chennai.

In 2006, she was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest-ranking civilian award from the Government of India and received an honorary doctorate for her contributions in the spheres of social work, philanthropy, and education.

In 2011, Sudha Murthy and Justice Santosh Hegde were conferred honorary LL.D (Doctor of Laws) degrees for their contributions to promoting formal legal education and scholarship in India. She was the recipient of the R.K. Narayana's Award for Literature and the Padma Shri in 2006."

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2002 - Dr. Kiran Bedi

Dr. Kiran Bedi

Dr. KIRAN BEDI is the first Indian woman to storm the bastion of Indian Police Service in 1972. She became the First woman officer to become the Inspector General. Prisons, heading Tihar, administrating a predominantly male prison - the largest prison in Asia-Pacific, or in a liberal democracy anywhere in the world.

Her experience include 29 long years of tough yet responsive and interactive policing in different parts of India - District Policing, Police Administration, Traffic Control, Narcotics Control Bureau and Anti-terrorist Operations. Subsequently, she became instrumental in bringing about radical reforms in Tihar where earlier the focus was merely on headcounting. Incidentally this was the ftrst time she was the head of an institution.

Having earned the reputation of a police officer with difference, she has represented India at the United Nations, the USA, European and Asian forums on Drug Abuse, Drug Traffteking Prevention, Prison Reforms ans women's issues.

Recipient of the following awards:
The Police Medal for Gallantry - 1979
Norway based Asia Region Award - 1990 for work in the field of Drug Abuse Prevention
The Ramon Magsaysay Award - 1994, also called the Asian Noble Prize
The Swiss-German Joseph Beuys Award - 1997 for Holistic and Innovative Management
Pride of India Award - 2000, USA
Marrison - Tom Gitchoff Award - 2001, USA for significantly improving the quality of Justice in India

Her biography, I Dare, was pUblished in 1995. 'It's Always Possible' is the outcome of The Nehru Fellowhip which she was awarded after her two-year tenure at Tihar. And she put this opportunity to best use by visiting 16 prisons across the world in the UK, USA, Europe and the Asian region.

"To me perfect happiness is that which makes everybody happy"

"I am giving the prisoners my value system, that is what is learnt at home and in school"

"We had resolved to move on from retributive to reconstructive justice. I was personally convinced that retribution may assuage the hurt feeling of a victim, but it does not necessarily check the offender from getting at the next victim. In reconstructive justice we were to help move the offender from 'breaking' to 'mending'. It was a process ofself-amendment of his own thoughts feeling, actions, and reactions."

Our Foundation has been recognizing the services rendered by individuals and organizations located in our state for the benefit of the needy and underprivileged. This year we identified a physically challenged individual himself, Mr. Nalinesh Babu for providing artificial limbs to needy people, and also Care & Share India Charitable Trust for caring the street kids.

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2001 - SEWA-RURAL

SEWA-RURAL

SEWA-RURAL, an acronym for Society for Education Welfare and Action-Rural, was the brain child of the doctor couple Lata and Anil Desai, who returned from U.S.A . after nine years stay. it was initiated in 1980 along with a group of young doctors and other professionals as an attempt to answer the needs of people hased in Jhagadia. a rural tribal area of Bharuch District, Gujarat.

SEWA-RURAL derives its inspiration from the lives and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi. It was motivated by a noble sentiment and clear understanding that the educated of this country owe a great deal to the less fortunate fellowmen in reaching out to serve the poor, ultimately leading to self development. The beginning was made with provision of health care in a hospital and soon the work spilled beyond the hospital walls as a comprehensive community development programme. The manifestations of their activities resulted in the formation of a technical training centre for youth and women, tutorial classeS for potential school dropouts and income generating and savings programmes.

SEWA-RURAL's performance was so impressive that in 1985, it was chosen as a recipient or the World Health Organisation one million dollar 'Sasakawa" Award for outstanding innovative health work.

Their hospital got the National Award for best managed non-government rural hospital from the Bombay Management Association and Bajaj Group of Industries 1989.

Through the years while reaching out for the poor without compromising the values, an earnest attempt has been made by SEWA-RURAL to strive for an appropriate balance among social service, scientific approach and spiritual outlook, in the belief that this work is as imptortant for those who serve as for the served.

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2000 - Sri K. J. Yesudas

Sri K. J. Yesudas

K. J. Yesudas was born at Fort Kochi, in the erstwhile Kingdom of Cochin, into a Latin Catholic family to Augustine Joseph and Alicekutty. His father, who was a well-known Malayalam classical musician and stage actor, was his first guru. Later he joined the R.L.V. Music Academy at Thrippunithura and underwent training. Later he studied at Sree Swati Thirunal music college, Thiruvananthapuram under the late Semmangudy Sreenivasa Iyer. But he could not complete his studies due to financial constraints. For a brief period, he was with Sri Vechur Hari Hara Subramania Iyer, after which he took advanced training from Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar.

He was trained under K. R. Kumaraswamy (former principal of the Music College, Kochi), Kunjuvelan Aasan (a disciple of Nadaswara Vidwan Rajaratnam Pillai), Augustine Joseph (his father), Dekshinamoorthi Swamikal V. Dakshinamoorthy, Ramankutti Bagavathar, Sivaraman Nayar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar.

For the past 30 years Yesudas has been visiting Kollur Mookambika temple, Udupi, Karnataka on his birthday to sing keerthans of Saraswati devi, the Goddess of knowledge, music and the arts. The music festival started on his 60th birthday. The nine-day music festival begins every January at Kollur Mookambika Temple. On Sunday, January 10, 2010, he celebrated his 70th birthday at Kollur Sri Mookambika Temple with ‘Sangeetharchana’ (classical devotional songs), along with 70 singers before goddess Mookambika.

Yesudas has done the rare feat of performing the classical concert for 36 times in the 36 year old prestigious Soorya Music festival organized by Soorya Krishnamoorthy. This is one among his concerts which is highly followed by serious musical lovers and often rated as the most popular among his concerts in India.

Harivarasanam, a devotional song musical version composed by G. Devarajan, recited before closing the temple at Sabarimala was sung by Yesudas. Though there have been many different renditions of this song by many different renowned singers, Sabarimala officially uses Yesudas' voice for Harivarasanam every day.

Swaralaya Yesudas award is a prestigious award for music artists in recognition of their outstanding performance. The award is instituted jointly by Swaralaya, an organization that promotes music and Kairali Channel, based in Trivandrum, Kerala. Awards have been given annually since 2000. Yesudas presents the awards at a Gandharva Sandhya every January.

Yesudas has recorded over 50,000 songs and has won scores of accolades including the coveted Padma Shri (1975), Padma Bhushan (2002) and seven National Awards for Best Playback Singer. He is the only singer who has been accorded the title Asthana Gayakan (official singer) of Kerala State.

He has got 7 times National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer by the Government of India.

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1999 - Dr. M. S. Valiathan

Dr. M. S. Valiathan

Born in Kerala in 1934, Dr. Valiathan graduated from the Trivandrum Medical College in 1956. He received his post graduate surgical training in the University of Liverpool Hospitals and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Edinburgh in 1960 and a Master of Surgery from the University of Liverpool two years later.

Dr. Valiathan specialised in cardiac surgery at the Johns Hopkins and Georgetown University Hospitals in the United States and received the Fellowship of the Canadian Royal College in Cardiovascular and Thoracic surgery.

In cardiac surgery which has been his field of specialisation, Dr. Valiathan made notable contributions to the science and techniques of the discipline in children and adults. He pioneered the development of medical technologies such as those for the blood bag and heart valve at the Chitra Tirunal Institute, Trivandrum and created the nucleus for a medical devices industry in India.

He is a recipient of many honours for his scientific and professional work, which include the Hunterian Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Fellowships of the American College of Cardiology, Indian Academy of Sciences, RD Birla National Award in medical sciences, Dhanwantari Prize of Aryabhata Medal of the Indian National Science and Padma Bhushan.

He served as a President of the Association of Indian Universities in 1993 and joined the Manipal Academy of Higher Education as its first Vice-chancellor in the following year. Currently he is an Honorary Advisor of the Manipal Academy.

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1998 - Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam usually referred to as Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, born on 15 October 1931, is an Indian scientist and administrator who served as the 11th President of India. Kalam was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, studied physics at the St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli, and aerospace engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT), Chennai.

Before his term as President, he worked as an aerospace engineer with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Kalam is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology. He played a pivotal organizational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974. Some scientific experts have however called Kalam a man with no authority over nuclear physics but who just carried on the works of Homi J. Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai.

Kalam was elected the President of India in 2002. He is currently a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Management Indore, Chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology Thiruvananthapuram, a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Anna University (Chennai), JSS University (Mysore) and an adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research institutions across India.

Kalam advocated plans to develop India into a developed nation by 2020 in his book India 2020. Books authored by him have received considerable demands in South Korea for the translated versions. He has received several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. Kalam is known for his motivational speeches and interaction with the student community in India. He launched his mission for the youth of the nation in 2011 called the What Can I Give Movement with a central theme to defeat corruption in India.

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1997 - Sri Ramanand Sagar

Sri Ramanand Sagar

Ramanand Sagar was born at Asal Guru Ke near Lahore. His great-grandfather, Lala Shankar Das Chopra, migrated from Peshawar to Kashmir. Ramanand was adopted by his childless maternal grandmother and, although his original name was "Chandramauli," it was changed to "Ramanand" by his adoptive family. Sagar worked as a peon, truck cleaner, soap vendor, goldsmith apprentice etc. during the day and studied for his degree at night.

He was a gold medalist in Sanskrit and Persian from the University of Punjab in 1942. He was also editor of newspaper Daily Milap. He wrote many short stories, novels, poems, plays, etc. under names like "Ramanand Chopra", "Ramanand Bedi" and "Ramanand Kashmiri". In 1942 when he caught tuberculosis he wrote a subjective column “Diary of a T.B. patient” about his fight. The column was published in series in the magazine Adab-e-Mashriq in Lahore.

In 1932, Sagar started his film career as a clapper boy in a silent film, Raiders of the Rail Road. He then shifted to Bombay in 1949 after India's partition.

In 1940's, Ramanand Sagar started out as an assistant stage manager in Prithvi Theatres of Prithviraj Kapoor. Also, directed a few plays under the fatherly guidance of Kapoor.

Along with other films that Sagar himself directed, he wrote the story and screenplay for Raj Kapoor's superhit Barsaat. He founded the film and television production company known as Sagar Films (Pvt. Ltd.) a.k.a. Sagar Arts in 1950. He produced and directed many successful films. He won the 1960 Filmfare Best Dialogue Award for Paigham which was directed by S. S. Vasan and starred Dilip Kumar, Vyjayanthimala and Raaj Kumar in lead roles. In 1968 he won the Filmfare Best Director Award for Ankhen. Ankhen was a spy-thriller starring Dharmendra and Mala Sinha. It was declared a "block buster" and was amongst the Top 10 Hindi films of 1960s.

In 1985 Sagar turned towards television. His Sagar Arts began producing serials based on Hindu mythology. His most popular Ramayan aired its first episode on January 25, 1987. The series became instantly popular amongst the Indian masses and won numerous national and international awards and felicitations. His next mythological tele-serials Krishna and Luv Kush also received good responses. Apart from mythology, he made fantasy dramas like Vikram Aur Betaal and Alif Laila.

The government honoured Sagar with the Padma Shri in 2000.

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1995 - Sri R. K. Laxman & Dr H. Sudarshan

Sri R. K. Laxman

Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Iyer Laxman known as R.K. Laxman born on 24 October 1921, Mysore, is an Indian cartoonist, illustrator, and humourist. He is best known for his creation The Common Man, for his daily cartoon strip, "You Said It" in The Times of India, which started in 1951.

His father was a headmaster and Laxman was the youngest of six sons, an elder brother is the novelist, R. K. Narayan.

Laxman was engrossed by the illustrations in magazines such as The Strand Magazine, Punch, Bystander, Wide World and Tit-Bits, even before he could read. Soon he was drawing on his own, on the floors, walls and doors of his house and doodling caricatures of his teachers at school; praised by a teacher for his drawing of a peepal leaf, he began to think of himself as an artist in the making. Another early influence on Laxman were the cartoons of the world-renowned British cartoonist, Sir David Low (whose signature he misread as "cow" for a long time) that appeared now and then in The Hindu.

Laxman was the captain of his local "Rough and Tough and Jolly" cricket team and his antics inspired the stories "Dodu the money maker" and "The Regal Cricket Club" written by his brother, Narayan. Laxman's idyllic childhood was shaken for a while when his father suffered a paralytic stroke and died around a year later, but the elders at home bore most of the increased responsibility, while Laxman continued with his schooling.

After high school, Laxman applied to the J. J. School of Art, Bombay hoping to concentrate on his lifelong interests of drawing and painting, but the dean of the school wrote to him that his drawings lacked, "the kind of talent to qualify for enrolment in our institution as a student", and refused admission. He finally graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Mysore. In the meantime he continued his freelance artistic activities and contributed cartoons to Swarajya and an animated film based on the mythological character, Narada.

The government honoured with the Padma Bhusan and Padma Vibhushan.


Dr H. Sudarshan

Born on 30th December, 1950 Dr. Sudarshan took his M.B.B.S. degree and worked at Ramakrishna Mission Health Projects at Himalayas (U.P.), Belur Math (Howrah) and Ponnampet (Coorg) between 1975-79. In 1980, he started Integrated Tribal Development Prcject Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra at B.R.Hills and in 1987 founded Karuna Trust at Yelandur where he undertook leprosy, tuberculosis and epilepsy control programme. For his dedicated work for the uplift of the Soliga tribesmen who have been living in the forest regions of South Karnataka a life of uncertainty and misery. Dr. Sudarshan is being adored by them as their Messiah.

Even during his college days, Dr. Sudarshan was greatly influenced by the life and teachings of Swami Vivekananda and resolved to put the ideals of that great savant into practice by devoting all his time and energy in that direction.

Dr. Sudarshan has been associated with many organisations at the state and national level and the following are a few of them: Vice-President and Hon. Treasurer of Voluntary Health Association of Karnataka since 1984. Hony, Treasurer, for federation of Voluntary Organisation for Rural Development (1985-87). Member of Consultative Committee, Govt. of Karnataka, since 1985. Member, Bangalore University Senate (1980-90). Jt.Secretary of Voluntary Health Association of India-1988-89. Vice-President VHAI-1993-95.

Dr. Sudarshan has won wide recognition for his selfless service and the followirg are chief among them: Rajyothsava State Award for Social Work - 1995. Vivekananda Seva Puraskar - 1991 (National Award). Environment Award, Govt. of Karnataka - 1992. Dr. Ambedkar Centenary Award, Govt. of Karnataka - 1992. Karnataka Award for Best Child Welfare Organisation - 1994.

As a crowning glory of all his achievements and recognition for his outstanding work, Dr. Sudarshan received the prestigious "Right Livelihood Award (Alternate Nobel Prize)" in 1994 from Stockholm.

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1994 - Sri B. G. Verghese

Sri B. G. Verghese

Sri Boobli George Varghese was born on June 21, 1927.

He studied Economics at Delhi and Cambridge Universities.

Joined the Times of India in 1949 and served in Bombay and later in Delhi, as a leader writer and correspondent, after a period of apprenticeship with The Glasgow Herald, Glasgow, and the former News Chronicle, London.

Specialised in developmental reporting and travelled extensively through the country to write two separate series of articles which later appeared in book form : "A Journey Through India" (1959) and "Design For Tomorrow" (1965). Did a similar Socio-political report on Pakistan which again was put together in a book "Our Neighbour, Pakistan" (1964).

Information Adviser to the Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi,1966-68.

Editor, The Hindustan Times 1969-75, when eased out under Emergency pressures.

Inaugurated a fortnightly report "Our Village Chhatera", which was sustained from 1969 until 1977 and which opened a window on rural India to an urban audience.

Recipient of the Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and the Creative Communication Arts, 1975.

Rural Development Fellow, Gandhi Peace Foundation and Editor of "Voluntary Action", the monthly journal of the Association of Voluntary Agencies for Rural Development, Delhi, 1977-82.

Chairman, Working Group on Autonomy for Broadcasting set up by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, 1977-78.

Member, International Commission on Communications set up by UNESCO under Sean Mac Bride, 1977-79.

Editor, The Indian Express, 1982-86, when voluntarily retired.

He was former President of The 'Editors Guild of India and a former Chairman of the United News of India.

He was a Member of the Press Council of India and authored "Crisis and Credibility", "Media and Militancy in Punjab and Kashmir" and "Human Rights in Kashmir" under its auspices.

Member of various civil rights groups and Commonwealth Journalists Initiative, London, chaired by Ms Flora Mc Donald of Canada, which produced "Put Our World To Rights" (1991).

On the board of numerous bodies concerned with school and higher education, family planning, the media and communications, communal bormany etc.

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1993 - Lata Mangeshkarji & Sri S. P. Balasubrahmanyam

Lata Mangeshkarji

Lata Mangeshkar's first guru was her father, the well-known stage personality from Maharashtra, Master Dinanath Mangeshkar, who gave everything, he knew of music to his gifted daughter. Lata began learning classical music at the age of four and gave her first concert at the age of seven. When her father died in 1942, thirteen-year old Lata took over the responsibility of suppotting the family. Just eight days after her father's death. Lata was to prepare for a role in Master Vinavak's Marathi film PHILI MANGLAGAUR. The music director of the first song was Datta Dawjekar, under whom Lata was to sing her first song as a playback singer in 1947, in the film 'AAP KI SEVA ME'. Realizing her potential, music director Ghulam Haider introduced her to Bombay Talkies and she has not looked back since. MAJBOOR, PADMINI, ANDAZ, LAHAR, BAZAAR and BARASAAT ensured a future where she would reign supreme over the hearts of millions of music lovers. Besides singing, Lata has worked as an actress, producer and composer. However, it is in the field of music, both in and out of the cinema, that she has excelled. In the 50's and 60's she adopted the works of leading Marathi poets and set them to music. In early 70's she recorded devotional songs by Sant Tukaram. The most popular medieval Saint-singer of Maharashtra. Many consider her recording of the Bhagwad Gita in Sanskrit as her crowning achievement. She has also sung bhajans by Meerahai and Ghalib's ghazals. With her repertoire of innumerable songs in about 15 languages. Lata holds the record for singing the largest number of songs in the world.

Today Lata enjoys an important position in Indian film industry. She is the recipient of innumerable awards. She was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1969 and the Dada Saheb Phalke Award in 1989. She has bagged the National Award number of times. Above all she is a living legend.


Sri S. P. Balasubrahmanyam

Sripathi Panditharadhyula Bala Suhrahmanyam, "BALU" to his countless fans and admirers, was born on June 4th, 1946 in Kondiampal, now in Tamilnadu. He inherited music from his father, S.P. Sambamurthy, who was a fine musician and an excellent exponent of "Harikatha". Endowed with a rich and melodious voice, he has held sway over his listeners as a "Singer par excellence" in all south Indian languages and Hindi too, for mone than two decades. Balu is a household name in South India. Spotted hy well known music composer S.P. Kodandapani in 1966 S.P. rose steadily to dizzying heights of fame and popularity. Introduced as music composer by Dasari Narayana Rao in 1975. Balu subsequently composed music for many films in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi. He also acted in Fifteen films in Tamil. Telugu and Kannada and won critical acclaim as fine character-actor. With success, came awards and honours in quite succession and at the national level rcceived the "Best Playback Singer award" four times. Tamilnadu Government awarded him "Kalai Mamani" in 1981. He received Film Fare Award in 1980. Widely travelled. S.P. gave performances before packed audiences abroad. S.P. has lent his voice not only for singing but also for dubbing dialogue for various artists. A fine and humorous speaker. S.P. has composed many programmes in his unique style and won all round appreciation. S.P. known for his humility and respect for elders. He is an endearing friend to everyone.

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1992 - Sri M. Narasimham & Dr. Bindeswar Pathak

Sri M. Narasimham

Sri M Narasimham was born on 3rd June 1927 in Bangalore and was educated in Madras and Cambridge Universities. He joined Reserve Bank of India in 1958 and worked in several capacities upto 1972. He was with the International Monetary Fund as Chief of South Asia Division from 1960 to 1963. In 1967 he became the Secretary of Reserve Bank of India. In 1972, he joined Ministry of Finance, Government of India as Additional Secretary and became its Secretary in the Department of Banking in 1976. In 1977, he was elevated to the Office of the Governor of Reserve Bank of India. He was the Executive Director of International Bank for Reconstruction and International Finance Corporation, Washington before 1980 and 1982. He returned to India in 1982 and joined the Ministry of Economic Affairs as Secretary and in 1983 became the Finance Secretary. He was Principal, Administrative Staff College of India in 1983 to 1985 and then joined the Asian Development Bank of Manila, Philippines as Vice President in 1985 and worked there upto 1988. He received T.M.A. Pai Award in the field of Banking in 1989.

Sri M Narasimham has been on the Board of Governors of several institutions, Member of Indian delegation International Conferences. He has contributed articles to several professional journals in the areas of development of Economics and Finance. He has authored a book on “World Economic Environment and prospects for India”.

Currently, he is the Chairman, Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad.

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Dr. Bindeswar Pathak

Born on April 2, 1946 in Vaishali, Bihar, Dr. Pathak took his M.A. in Sociology and English, securing gold medals in both and later got his Ph.D. He was the founder of Sulabh International and Chairman of Indian Association of Action Sociologists and Member, Planning Commission’s Task Force on Scavenging. He is dedicated to the task of upliftment of the downtrodden, especially the scavengers. He founded a non-profit voluntary social organisation; Sulab International in 1970 to put the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi in practice to liberate the scavengers from the demeaning task of cleaning and carrying human excreta as head load and to enable them to take up other professions after due training.

He developed the design of pour-flush water-seal latrine suited to and accepted by rural and urban communities which has been acclaimed by the Central and State Governments and National and International Organisations like WHO, UNICEF, UNDP and World Bank.

The development of Bio-gas production from human excreta for generation of electricity is his latest valuable contribution to the society. Dr. Pathak participates in many national and international seminars as a resource person on low-cost sanitation. He visited several countries at their invitation.

Dr. Pathak was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1991 in recognition of his services to scavengers and for his humanism. Recently he was awarded the prestigious International Saint Francis prize by Basilica of St. Francis, Asisi, Italy.

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1991 - Dr. Verghese Kurien & Kalatapasvi L. V. Prasad

Dr. Verghese Kurien

Dr. Verghese Kurien was born on 26th November, 1921 in Calicut in Kerala. He took his B.E., (Hans.) in 1943 from Madras University and M.Sc., (Mech. Engg.) in 1948 from Michigan State University, U.S.A. He is a recipient of several honorary degrees from India and abroad and they include some of the prestigeous ones like D.Sc., (Honoris Causa) from Glasgow University, U.K., (1974) D.Sc., (Honoris Causa) Acadia University, Canada, (1985), and Honorary Doctorate from the Uni­versity of New England, Australia, (1989).

In his very distinguished career spanning over more than four decades, Dr. Verghese Kurien held very high positions which include the following:
Chairman, National Dairy Development Board, Anand (Since 1965) Chairman, National Co-operative Dairy Federation of India Ltd., (Since 1986) Chairman, Board of Govemors, Institute of Rural Management, Anand (Since 1979) Chairman, Technology Mission on Dairy Development (Since 1988) Chairman, XIX Inter­ national Dairy Congress (l974) Member, International Dairy Federation Brussels (1974-91).

He was awarded by the President of fudia 'Padmasri' (1965), 'Padma Bhushan' (1966) and 'Krishi Ratna' (1986).

International awards received by him include :
Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership (1963) The Carnegie Foundation "Wateler Peace Prize" Award for the year 1986 by His Royal Highness Prince Claus of the Netherlands.
The World Food Prize award for the year 1989 sponsored by General Foods Fund, Inc., USA.
His pioneering work in co-operation and white revolution has been hailed all over the world and his name has become a synonym for Rural and Dairy Devel­ opment in the Country.


Kalatapasvi L. V. Prasad

Akkineni Lakshmi Vara PrasadRao, popularly known as L.V. Prasad, was born on 17th January, 1908. His life provides an excellent example of a person from very humble beginnings rise to a top position in his chosen field of activity by dint of hard work, preservance and devotion. He left home for Bombay in his early twenties with nothing in his pocket but with a firm determination and confidence in himself to make a mark in the film world. After a great deal of suffering and literal starvation, he started with bit roles in films and step by step facing several vicissitudes scaled great heights to become a doyen of film industry in the country. Mr.Prasad has carved a niche for himself in the movie world as a person who strove relentlessly towards highest standards excellence.

Ilavelpu an Illalu in Telugu, Thayilla Pillai and Iruvar Ullam in Tamil. Mane Beligida Sosey and Thande Makkalu in Kannada and Sharda, Chhoti Bahen, Sasural Hamrahi, Beti Bete, Daadi Maa, Milan, Khilona, Ek Duuje Ke Liye and Swati in Hindi are not only very successful films at the box office but also trend-setters of clean and aesthetically satisfying movies.

Coveted and most prestigious awards received by him are:
1. Raghupati Venkaiah Award by the Government of Andhra Pradesh in 1980.
2. Dadasaheb Phalke Award by the Government of India in 1982.
3. Kalaprapurna by the Andhra University in 1985.

Mr. Prasad's concern for the poor is revealed by his munificent donation of Rs. One Crore and Sixty Lakhs to the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad in 1986 where the poor patients are being treated free of charges. He is a great humanist of whom we can be really feel proud.

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1990 - Dr. Karan Singh & Mrs. Yasho Rajya Lakshmi Karan Singh

Dr. Karan Singh                      

Mrs. Yasho Rajya Lakshmi Karan Singh

Born heir-apparent(Yuvaraj) to Maharaja Hari Singh and Maharani Tara Devi of Jammu and Kashmir, Dr. Karan Singh was catapulted into political life at the early age of eighteen when, in 1949, he was appointed Regent by his father on the intervention of Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Thereafterhe was continuously head of the Indian State of Jammu & Kashmir for eighteen years, as Regent, then as elected Sadar-i-Riyasat and as Governor. His was a unique instance of the last representative of the old order becoming, by the will of the people, the first representative ofthe new. During these years he was strikingly successful in fulfilling the delicate and onerous duties that devolved upon him.

In 1967, soon after India's fourth General Election, Dr. Karan Singh was inducted as a member of the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. At 36, he was the youngest person ever to become a Central Cabinet Minister in India. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Udhampur Parliamentary constituency in Jammu & Kashmir on behalf of the Indian National Congress by an overwhelming majority, and was 1•e-elected from here in 1971, 1977 and 1980.

Dr. Karan Singh was first assigned the portfolio ofTourism and Civil Aviation which he held for six years, where he created a marked impact by his dynamism and dedication. In 1973 he moved to the portfolio ofHealth and Family Planning. Family Planning emerged as a major national commitment after Dr. Karan Singh announced the National Population Policy in 1976. In 1979 he assumed the portfolio of Education and Culture in caretaker Government. During his tenures as minister Dr. Karan Singh neither drew any salary nor lived in Government accommodation.

When the issue of abolition of princely purses and privileges came up, Dr. Karan Singh was the only former ruler voluntarily to surrender his privy purse. He put the entire sum into the Hari Tara Charitable Trust, named after his parents, in the service of the people oflndia. He converted hisAmar Mahal Palace in Jammu into a Museum and Library containing a priceless collection of Pahari paintings as well as his personal library of over twenty thousand volumes. Dr. Karan Singh also looks after several other trusts in Jammu & Kashmir including the Dharmarth Trust which administers over a hundred Hindu shrines and temples. Recently he founded the International Centre for Science, Culture and Consciousness which is emerging as an important centre of creative thought.

Dr. Karan Singh passed t.he Senior Cambridge Examination from the Doon School, Debra Dun, with a first division. After becoming Regent, he graduated from the Jammu and Kashmir University, of which he was himself the Chancellor. In 1957 he took the M.A. examination of the Delhi University in Political Science with a first class first, creating a University record which is still unbroken. He then earned his doctorate by writing a thesis on the Political Thought of Sri Aurobindo for the Delhi Universtiy, later published as 'Prophet of Indian Nationalism', thus reaching the apex of a brilliant education career.

Dr. Karan Singh was for many years Chancellor of the Jammu and Kashmir University as well as the Banaras Hindu University, Chairman of the Central Sanskrit Board, Secretary oftheJawaharlal NehruMemorial Fund, President of the Authors Guild ofindia, the Commonwealth Society oflndia, and the Delhi Music Society, and Co-Chairman of the Temple of Understanding's International Committee. He is associated with many other cultural and academic institutions. He has been awarded several honorary degrees, including doctorates from the Banaras Hindu University, the Aligarh Muslim University and the Soka University, Tokyo. He has recently become a member of the prestigious Club of Rome, and is a lifelong conservationist, having been chairman of the Indian Board of Wildlife for many years and head ofthe spectacularly successful Project Tiger which has saved this beautiful animal from extinction.

Dr. Karan Singh has written a number of books on political Science, philosophical essays, travelogues and poems in English. His autobiography has been widely acclaimed. ONE MAN's WORLD, an important collection of his composed devotional songs in his mother-tongue, Dogri, and is a keen student of Indian classical music. He has travelled extensively throughout the country and abroad, having led Indian delegations to important international conferences, and has lectured on Indian philosophy and politics in five continents.

In 1981Dr. Karan Singh spearheaded a new reform movement called the Virat Hindu Samaj with the dual purpose of launching a crusade against untouchability and other un­ desirable customs that have weakened Hindu society for centuries, and of promoting solidarity and co-ordination among numerous organizations working in the field of reform and social service.

In the last few years, Dr. Karan Singh has been active in the Environmental and Global Consciousness movements and also in the Interfaith Dialogue. He is a renowned orator, and is fluent in English, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Dogri. With his extensive knowledge of Sanskrit and the Indian cultural tradition, as well as his wide exposure to Western civilization, he has come to be recognised as one ofindia's outstanding thinkers and leaders, in India and abroad. His appointment in August 1989 as Indian Ambassador to the United States has received extensive and extremely favorable media coverage in both countries. He holds the honorary rank of Major General in the Indian Army.

Dr. Karan Singh is married to Princess Yasho Rajya Lakshmi, grand-daughter of the last Rana Prime Minister of Nepal, Maharaja Mohun Shumsher. She received her early education privately in Nepal. She pursued her formal education in Jammu & Kashmir.

When Dr. Karan Singh became Sadr-i-Riyasat, Head of Jammu & Kashmir State, Shrimati Yasho Rajya Lakshmi became active in social and public welfare activities of the State. She was President of the Jammu & Kashmir Social Welfare Board for many years and started several socially productive welfare village projects for women & children in the Kashmir Valley, Jammu & Laddakh. In Jammu, she became and remains President of the Ladies Club, which also undertakes many social activities, as well as a welfare organization called the 'Stri Udyog Karyalaya'. She played an important role as hostess in Raj Bhawan for many years, entertaining distinguished and famous visitors to Jammu & Kashmir on one hand, and the common people and social workers on the other.

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1989 - Prof. V. Ramalingaswami & Shriman Sribhashyam Appalacharyulu

Prof V. Ramalingaswami

Prof. V.Ramalingaswamy was born on 8th August, 1921, took his M.B.B.S and M.D., degrees from Andhra University in 1944 and 1946, D.Phil and D.Sc., Degrees from Oxford University in 1951 and 1967 and acquired F.R.C.P and F.R.C Path(London) in 1969 and 1978. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, London, was conferred Dr. B.C. Roy Award for Eminent Medical Scientist in 1986, awarded 'Padmashree' and 'Padmabhushan' and was the recipient of many such Academic Honours and awards. His contributions to Medical Research, Medical Education and Research in Medical and Health Services etc., are as varied as they are highly distinguished. Having held a series of high positions throughout his career, he laid, down office as Director-General, Indian Council of, Medical Research, New Delhi in August, 1986. When he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, London, it was stated Distinguished for his studies in pathology of nutritional diseases, notably tlwse associated with protein energy malnutrition; for his contributions to the prevention of human malnutrition and for his leadership in Medical Research in the developing World.


Sriman Sribhashyam Appalacharyulu

Sriman Sribhashyam Appalacharyulu was born on 6th April, 1922, Sriramanavami Day, Punarvasu star, the same as the birth-star of Lord Sree Rama, at Padmanabham village near Vizianagaram. He took the Oriental titles of "Vyakarana Vidya Praveena" in Sanskrit and "Bhasha Praveena" in Telugu from Andhra University and M.A. Degree in Sanskrit from Banaras Hindu University. Having worked as Lecturer in Sanskrit in Presidency College, Madras, and as the first Head of the Department of Sanskrit in Government Colleges at Rajamundry and Kakinada, he earned the reputation of being a great Teacher of Sanskrit. He made a thorough study of Pathanjali's "Mahabhashyam" and published its simple rendering in Telugu. He made a deep study of the Dravidian and Sanskrit Philosophies and published commentaries on great Sanskrit works like "Mukundamala", "Aditya Hridayam",Ramanujas "Sribhashyam" etc. His scholarly lectures on "Thiruppavai" and "Sri Ramayanam", which were subsequently translated into English by Sri. C. Seetharama Murthy and published, have earned for him a prestigious position in Andhra Desa as a great "SPIRITUAL LITTERATEUR".

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