Eight eminent persons made the two Telugu States proud by bagging the Padma Shri awards, for their distinguished service in various fields.
Padma awards, one of the highest civilian awards of the country were announced on Wednesday on the eve of the Republic Day. Among the eight Padma Shri awardees, five are from Telangana and three from Andhra Pradesh and they would be conferred the awards by the President of India at a ceremonial function held at Rashtrapathi Bhavan normally in March or April. Those from Telangana to be conferred the Padma Shri are renowned sculptor Aekka Yadagiri Rao, Dr.Mohammed Abdul Waheed from the field of medicine, Chandrakant Pithowa, retired distinguished scientist and Director, Electronics and Instrumentation Group, BARC and ECIL, Daripalli Ramaiah, social worker committed to bring back India’s green cover and Bodanapu Venkat Rama Mohan Reddy, entrepreneur, founder and Executive chairman Cyient and former Chairman NASSCOM.
Mr.Tripuraneni Hanuman Chowdary from civil service, V.Koteswaramma from literature and education and Chintakindi Mallesham from Science and Engineering are the Padma Shri awardees from Andhra Pradesh.
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Sculptor Yadagiri Rao is one of the first generation artists of South India who opted for sculpting and contributed a vital share to the modern Indian sculpture dealing with monumental stone sculptures. His ability in creating remarkable three-dimensional ‘stupas’ and sculptures was clearly revealed in diverse media such as granite stone, terracotta, metal sheet, wood and bronze. One such vertical stone sculpture was erected at the Gun Park here in memory of the Telangana martyrs.
Dr.Mohammed Abdul Waheed , is a dermatologist renowned for his decades of clinical experience in the management of vitiligo and published research papers on genetic studies in vitiligo.
Daripalli Ramaiah, 68, is a man driven by inexhaustible zeal for spearheading his decades-old tree plantation drive. Known as ‘Vanajeevi’ Ramaiah, he hails from Khammam district and is estimated to have planted more than one crore saplings to expand tree cover, particularly biodiesel plants.
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Mr.B.V.R.Mohan Reddy, a recognised thought leader in IT enabled engineering services industry globally served this industry for more than four decades. Cyient the company he heads is ranked among top 15 Indian ITES companies and he also serves as Chairman, Boards of Governors, IIT, Hyderabad and through Cyient Foundation, set up 54 computer, digital library centres in Serilingampally mandal to help more than 20,000 underprivileged children.