List of Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri Award 2020

Every year, right around Republic Day, India pauses to recognise a set of people who have quietly (or not so quietly) done something remarkable. That’s what the padma awards 2020 are all about. This isn’t the kind of recognition tied to a job title or a government post — it’s given to people from every walk of life, from doctors and scientists to folk singers and farmers, who have gone above and beyond in their own field.

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, approved a total of 141 awards that year, and that number includes four duo cases, where two people working together were honoured as one unit. Out of these 141 names, 34 were women, 18 belonged to foreign nationals, NRIs, PIOs or OCIs, and 12 were given posthumously — a reminder that some of the most deserving names only get their due after they’re gone.

What Are the Padma Awards, Actually?

Before jumping into the padma award winners list, it helps to understand how the three tiers work, because people often mix them up.

The Padma Vibhushan is the second-highest civilian honour in the country (right after the Bharat Ratna), and it goes to people for exceptional and distinguished service — no restriction on occupation, gender, or background. It was first instituted on 2 January 1954. One thing worth knowing: people working in public sector undertakings are not considered for this award. The process itself runs quietly in the background for months — between 1 May and 15 September each year, recommendations are gathered and sent to a Padma Awards Committee set up by the Prime Minister. From there, the list goes to the PM and then the President for final sign-off, and the names are made public on Republic Day, 26th January.

Then there’s the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour, which comes right after Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan in the order of precedence. This one was also set up in 1954 and is meant to recognise people for standout work in areas like sports, medicine, literature, social service, and public affairs. Interestingly, this award isn’t limited to Indian citizens — people from other countries who’ve contributed to India in some way have received it too. Anyone can nominate a candidate for the Padma Shri through the government’s online nomination platform, which is a nice touch of openness in an otherwise formal process.

Breaking Down the Numbers

So how did the padma awards 2020 shape up in terms of numbers? There were 7 Padma Vibhushan awards, 16 Padma Bhushan awards, and 118 Padma Shri awards that year. Put together, that’s the full padma award winners list for 2020.

Padma Vibhushan 2020 — The Highest Honours of the Year

The padma vibhushan 2020 list had some genuinely moving names on it, several of them posthumous. Shri George Fernandes from Bihar was honoured for public affairs, as was Shri Arun Jaitley from Delhi and Smt. Sushma Swaraj from Delhi — all three recognised after their passing. Sir Anerood Jugnauth, the veteran Mauritian statesman, was recognised for public affairs as well, showing how the award also reaches beyond India’s borders.

On the sports side, boxer M.C. Mary Kom from Manipur received the honour, and in the arts, Chhannulal Mishra from Uttar Pradesh was recognised for his contribution to classical music. Rounding off the list was Sri Vishveshateertha Swamiji of Pejavara Adhokhaja Matha in Karnataka, honoured in the spiritualism category, again posthumously. Seven names, seven very different stories, but all tied together by a lifetime of work in their respective fields.

Padma Bhushan 2020 — A Mix of Public Life, Business and the Arts

Moving to the padma bhushan 2020 list, this one had 16 names spanning a much wider mix of professions. Sri M (Shri M. Mumtaz Ali) from Kerala was recognised for his work in spiritualism, while Shri Syed Muazzem Ali from Bangladesh received the honour posthumously for public affairs. Jammu and Kashmir’s Shri Muzaffar Hussain Baig and Nagaland’s Shri S.C. Jamir were both honoured in the same category.

Business and industry had a strong showing too — Anand Mahindra from Maharashtra and Venu Srinivasan from Tamil Nadu were both honoured for trade and industry. On the sports front, badminton star P.V. Sindhu from Telangana made the padma bhushan 2020 list, a well-deserved nod after her string of international medals. Social work was represented by Krishnammal Jagannathan from Tamil Nadu and Anil Prakash Joshi from Uttarakhand, both known for decades of grassroots work. Two more posthumous honours went to N.R. Madhava Menon from Kerala and Manohar Parrikar, the former Goa Chief Minister, both for public affairs. Dr. Tsering Landol from Ladakh completed the list, honoured for her work in medicine.

Padma Shri 2020 — The Largest and Most Diverse List

This is where the padma shri 2020 list really shows the range of what the award stands for. With 118 names, it touched nearly every field imaginable — medicine, sports, literature, social work, science, agriculture, and the arts, and it included people from as far away as Brazil, Sri Lanka, the UK, the USA and Indonesia.

Sports had a good showing too, with names like Rani Rampal, captain of the Indian women’s hockey team, and shooter Jitu Rai receiving the Padma Shri. But what really makes this list worth reading closely are the names most people outside their communities may never have heard of — people like Harekala Hajabba, an orange seller from Karnataka who built a school for underprivileged children with his own savings, or Tulasi Gowda, known as the “encyclopedia of forests” for her deep knowledge of plants despite having no formal education. There’s also Rahibai Soma Popere, a farmer from Maharashtra recognised for her work preserving traditional seed varieties, and Dr. Tetsu Nakamura, honoured posthumously for decades of humanitarian work in Afghanistan.

Medicine, science and education were represented by dozens of doctors, researchers and teachers from across the country — people like Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar, Dr. Digambar Behera, and Harish Chandra Verma, whose physics textbooks have shaped generations of Indian students. It’s a long list, and honestly, that’s the point — the padma shri 2020 winners aren’t just celebrities, they’re teachers, farmers, doctors, and social workers who rarely get a public stage.

Why This List Matters

Reading through the full padma awards 2020 list, you start to notice something — this isn’t a celebration reserved for the famous. Alongside actors and cricketers and business tycoons, you’ll find a woman who spent her life protecting native seeds, a man who sold fruit to fund a school, and researchers who worked away from any spotlight. That mix is really what the Padma Awards are meant to represent — a cross-section of the country’s quiet achievers, not just its loud ones.

If you’re looking to explore the complete, detailed roll of names by state and field, the website bharatstories.com has published the full list with all the details laid out clearly.

List of Padma Awardees 2020:

• 7 Padma Vibhushan,
• 16 Padma Bhushan
• 118 Padma Shri Awards.

Out of 141 awardees, 34 are women and the list also includes 18 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 12 Posthumous awardees.

List of 2020 Padma Vibhushan Awardees

 

SN	Name	Field	State/Country
1.	Shri George Fernandes (Posthumous)	Public Affairs	Bihar
2.	Shri Arun Jaitley (Posthumous)	Public Affairs	Delhi
3.	Sir Anerood Jugnauth GCSK	Public Affairs	Mauritius
4.	Smt. M. C. Mary Kom	Sports	Manipur
5.	Shri Chhannulal Mishra	Art	Uttar Pradesh
6.	Smt. Sushma Swaraj (Posthumous)	Public Affairs	Delhi
7.	Sri Vishveshateertha Swamiji Sri Pejavara      Adhokhaja                    Matha Udupi (Posthumous)	Others-Spiritualism	Karnataka

 

List of Padma Bhushan Awardees 2020

 

SN	Name	Field	State/Country
8.	Shri M. Mumtaz Ali (Sri M)	Others-Spiritualism	Kerala
9.	Shri Syed Muazzem Ali (Posthumous)	Public Affairs	Bangladesh
10.	Shri Muzaffar Hussain Baig	Public Affairs	Jammu               and Kashmir
11.	Shri Ajoy Chakravorty	Art	West Bengal
12.	Shri Manoj Das	Literature                  and Education	Puducherry
13.	Shri Balkrishna Doshi	Others-Architecture	Gujarat
14.	Ms. Krishnammal Jagannathan	Social Work	Tamil Nadu
15.	Shri S. C. Jamir	Public Affairs	Nagaland
16.	Shri Anil Prakash Joshi	Social Work	Uttarakhand
17.	Dr. Tsering Landol	Medicine	Ladakh
18.	Shri Anand Mahindra	Trade and Industry	Maharashtra
19.	Shri    Neelakanta   Ramakrishna Madhava Menon (Posthumous)	Public Affairs	Kerala
20.	Shri      Manohar     Gopalkrishna Prabhu Parrikar (Posthumous)	Public Affairs	Goa
21.	Prof. Jagdish Sheth	Literature                  and Education	USA
22.	Ms. P. V. Sindhu	Sports	Telangana
23.	Shri Venu Srinivasan	Trade and Industry	Tamil Nadu

 

List of Padma Shri Awardees of 2020

 

SN	Name	Field	State/Country
24.	Guru Shashadhar Acharya	Art	Jharkhand
25.	Dr. Yogi Aeron	Medicine	Uttarakhand
26.	Shri Jai Prakash Agarwal	Trade and Industry	Delhi
27.	Shri Jagdish Lal Ahuja	Social Work	Punjab
28.	Kazi Masum Akhtar	Literature and Education	West Bengal
29.	Ms. Gloria Arieira	Literature and Education	Brazil
30.	Khan Zaheerkhan Bakhtiyarkhan	Sports	Maharashtra
31.	Dr. Padmavathy Bandopadhyay	Medicine	Uttar Pradesh
32.	Dr. Sushovan Banerjee	Medicine	West Bengal
33.	Dr. Digambar Behera	Medicine	Chandigarh
34.	Dr. Damayanti Beshra	Literature and Education	Odisha
35.	Shri Pawar Popatrao Bhaguji	Social Work	Maharashtra
36.	Shri Himmata Ram Bhambhu	Social Work	Rajasthan
37.	Shri Sanjeev Bikhchandani	Trade and Industry	Uttar Pradesh
38.	Shri Gafurbhai M. Bilakhia	Trade and Industry	Gujarat
39.	Shri Bob Blackman	Public Affairs	United Kingdom
40.	Ms. Indira P. P. Bora	Art	Assam
41.	Shri Madan Singh Chauhan	Art	Chhattisgarh
42.	Ms. Usha Chaumar	Social Work	Rajasthan
43.	Shri Lil Bahadur Chettri	Literature and Education	Assam
44.	Ms.    Lalitha     &     Ms.    Saroja Chidambaram (Duo)*	Art	Tamil Nadu
45.	Dr. Vajira Chitrasena	Art	Sri Lanka
46.	Dr. Purushottam Dadheech	Art	Madhya Pradesh
47.	Shri Utsav Charan Das	Art	Odisha
48.	Prof. Indra Dassanayake (Posthumous)	Literature and Education	Sri Lanka
49.	Shri H. M. Desai	Literature and Education	Gujarat
50.	Shri Manohar Devadoss	Art	Tamil Nadu
51.	Ms. Oinam Bembem Devi	Sports	Manipur
52.	Ms. Lia Diskin	Social Work	Brazil
53.	Shri M. P. Ganesh	Sports	Karnataka
54.	Dr. Bangalore Gangadhar	Medicine	Karnataka
55.	Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar	Science and Engineering	Maharashtra
56.	Shri Barry Gardiner	Public Affairs	United Kingdom
57.	Shri Chewang Motup Goba	Trade and Industry	Ladakh
58.	Shri Bharat Goenka	Trade and Industry	Karnataka
59.	Shri Yadla Gopalarao	Art	Andhra Pradesh
60.	Shri Mitrabhanu Gountia	Art	Odisha
61.	Ms. Tulasi Gowda	Social Work	Karnataka
62.	Shri Sujoy K. Guha	Science and Engineering	Bihar
63.	Ms. Harekala Hajabba	Social Work	Karnataka
64.	Shri Enamul Haque	Others-Archaeology	Bangladesh
65.	Shri Madhu Mansuri Hasmukh	Art	Jharkhand
66.	Shri Abdul Jabbar (Posthumous)	Social Work	Madhya Pradesh
67.	Shri Bimal Kumar Jain	Social Work	Bihar
68.	Ms. Meenakshi Jain	Literature and Education	Delhi
69.	Shri Nemnath Jain	Trade and Industry	Madhya Pradesh
70.	Ms. Shanti Jain	Art	Bihar
71.	Shri Sudhir Jain	Science and Engineering	Gujarat
72.	Shri Benichandra Jamatia	Literature and Education	Tripura
73.	Shri K. V. Sampath Kumar & Ms. Vidushi Jayalakshmi K.S. (Duo)*	Literature                                  and Education-Journalism	Karnataka
74.	Shri Karan Johar	Art	Maharashtra
75.	Dr. Leela Joshi	Medicine	Madhya Pradesh
76.	Ms. Sarita Joshi	Art	Maharashtra
77.	Shri C. Kamlova	Literature and Education	Mizoram
78.	Dr. Ravi Kannan R.	Medicine	Assam
79.	Ms. Ekta Kapoor	Art	Maharashtra
80.	Shri Yazdi Naoshirwan Karanjia	Art	Gujarat
81.	Shri Narayan J. Joshi Karayal	Literature and Education	Gujarat
82.	Dr. Narindar Nath Khanna	Medicine	Uttar Pradesh
83.	Shri Naveen Khanna	Science and Engineering	Delhi
84.	Shri S. P. Kothari	Literature and Education	USA
85.	Shri        V.        K.        Munusamy Krishnapakthar	Art	Puducherry
86.	Shri M. K. Kunjol	Social Work	Kerala
87.	Shri Manmohan Mahapatra (Posthumous)	Art	Odisha
88.	Ustad Anwar Khan Mangniyar	Art	Rajasthan
89.	Shri     Kattungal     Subramaniam Manilal	Science and Engineering	Kerala
90.	Shri Munna Master	Art	Rajasthan
91.	Prof. Abhiraj Rajendra Mishra	Literature and Education	Himachal Pradesh
92.	Ms. Binapani Mohanty	Literature and Education	Odisha
93.	Dr. Arunoday Mondal	Medicine	West Bengal
94.	Dr. Prithwindra Mukherjee	Literature and Education	France
95.	Shri Sathyanarayan Mundayoor	Social Work	Arunachal Pradesh
96.	Shri Manilal Nag	Art	West Bengal
97.	Shri N. Chandrasekharan Nair	Literature and Education	Kerala
98.	Dr. Tetsu Nakamura (Posthumous)	Social Work	Afghanistan
99.	Shri Shiv Datt Nirmohi	Literature and Education	Jammu               and Kashmir
100.	Shri Pu Lalbiakthanga Pachuau	Literature                  and Education-Journalism	Mizoram
101.	Ms. Moozhikkal Pankajakshi	Art	Kerala
102.	Dr. Prasanta Kumar Pattanaik	Literature and Education	USA
103.	Shri Jogendra Nath Phukan	Literature and Education	Assam
104.	Ms. Rahibai Soma Popere	Others-Agriculture	Maharashtra
105.	Shri Yogesh Praveen	Literature and Education	Uttar Pradesh
106.	Shri Jitu Rai	Sports	Uttar Pradesh
107.	Shri Tarundeep Rai	Sports	Sikkim
108.	Shri S. Ramakrishnan	Social Work	Tamil Nadu
109.	Ms. Rani Rampal	Sports	Haryana
110.	Ms. Kangana Ranaut	Art	Maharashtra
111.	Shri Dalavai Chalapathi Rao	Art	Andhra Pradesh
112.	Shri Shahbuddin Rathod	Literature and Education	Gujarat
113.	Shri Kalyan Singh Rawat	Social Work	Uttarakhand
114.	Shri Chintala Venkat Reddy	Others-Agriculture	Telangana
115.	Smt. (Dr.) Shanti Roy	Medicine	Bihar
116.	Shri     Radhammohan    &     Ms. Sabarmatee (Duo)*	Others-Agriculture	Odisha
117.	Shri Batakrushna Sahoo	Others-Animal Husbandry	Odisha
118.	Ms. Trinity Saioo	Others-Agriculture	Meghalaya
119.	Shri Adnan Sami	Art	Maharashtra
120.	Shri Vijay Sankeshwar	Trade and Industry	Karnataka
121.	Dr. Kushal Konwar Sarma	Medicine	Assam
122.	Shri Sayed Mehboob Shah Qadri alias Sayedbhai	Social Work	Maharashtra
123.	Shri Mohammed Sharif	Social Work	Uttar Pradesh
124.	Shri Shyam Sunder Sharma	Art	Bihar
125.	Dr. Gurdip Singh	Medicine	Gujarat
126.	Shri Ramjee Singh	Social Work	Bihar
127.	Shri Vashishtha Narayan Singh (Posthumous)	Science and Engineering	Bihar
128.	Shri Daya Prakash Sinha	Art	Uttar Pradesh
129.	Dr. Sandra Desa Souza	Medicine	Maharashtra
130.	Shri Vijayasarathi Sribhashyam	Literature and Education	Telangana
131.	Smt. Kalee Shabi Mahaboob & Shri Sheik Mahaboob Subani (Duo)*	Art	Tamil Nadu
132.	Shri Javed Ahmad Tak	Social Work	Jammu               and Kashmir
133.	Shri Pradeep Thalappil	Science and Engineering	Tamil Nadu
134.	Shri Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi	Literature and Education	Arunachal Pradesh
135.	Shri Robert Thurman	Literature and Education	USA
136.	Shri Agus Indra Udayana	Social Work	Indonesia
137.	Shri Harish Chandra Verma	Science and Engineering	Uttar Pradesh
138.	Shri Sundaram Verma	Social Work	Rajasthan
139.	Dr.          Romesh          Tekchand Wadhwani	Trade and Industry	USA
140.	Shri Suresh Wadkar	Art	Maharashtra
141.	Shri Prem Watsa	Trade and Industry	Canada

 

FAQs

How many people received the Padma Awards in 2020?

A total of 141 awards were given, including four duo cases where two people were honoured together as one unit. This included 7 Padma Vibhushan, 16 Padma Bhushan, and 118 Padma Shri awards.

Who received the Padma Vibhushan in 2020?

Seven people received it that year, including George Fernandes, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj (all posthumously), Mauritian leader Anerood Jugnauth, boxer M.C. Mary Kom, classical singer Chhannulal Mishra, and spiritual leader Sri Vishveshateertha Swamiji.

Were any foreigners honoured in the Padma Awards 2020?

Yes, 18 of the 141 awardees were foreign nationals, NRIs, PIOs or OCIs, including recipients from Mauritius, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the UK, the USA, Brazil and Indonesia.

How many women received Padma Awards in 2020?

Out of the 141 total recipients, 34 were women.

Who decides who gets a Padma Award?

Recommendations come from state governments, union territories and central ministries, and are reviewed by a Padma Awards Committee formed by the Prime Minister. The final list is approved by the Prime Minister and the President before being announced on Republic Day.