Awards & Honours

7.1 Padma Awards 2026

The Government of India approved 131 Padma Awards for 2026 in total — 5 Padma Vibhushan, 13 Padma Bhushan and 113 Padma Shri — conferred by President Droupadi Murmu across two investiture ceremonies at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Phase I (66 awardees) was attended by Prime Minister Modi, Vice President C. P. Radhakrishnan and Home Minister Amit Shah, and included 2 Padma Vibhushan, 6 Padma Bhushan and 58 Padma Shri awards. Notable names: the late Dharmendra Singh Deol received a posthumous Padma Vibhushan for his contribution to Indian cinema, alongside classical musician Dr. N. Rajam. Padma Bhushan honourees included former Uttarakhand Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari (public affairs), classical artist Dr. R. Ganesh, banker Uday Suresh Kotak (trade and industry), and physician Dr. Kallipatti Ramasamy Palanisamy (medicine). Among the Padma Shri recipients: cricketer Harmanpreet Kaur (sports), along with Taga Ram Bheel, Ratilal Mohanlal Borisagar, Swami Brahmdev and Kumar Bose, among others.

Phase II brought a further 65 Padma Awards — 2 Padma Vibhushan, 7 Padma Bhushan and 56 Padma Shri — recognising contributions across sports, cinema, music, literature, public affairs, social service, science and culture.

7.2 Global and International Awards

Indian-origin physicist Jainendra K. Jain became the first person of Indian origin to win the Wolf Prize in Physics (established 1978, Israel), honoured for his discovery of composite fermions — a concept that reshaped understanding of the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect and is often described as a precursor to Nobel recognition, since several past Wolf laureates went on to win Nobel Prizes. The award was presented by Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem.

Gautam Dey, an Indian-origin scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, received the EMBO Gold Medal 2026, sharing the honour with Switzerland's Omaya Dudin. Dey was recognised for work on the evolutionary origins of nuclear organisation and cell division, while Dudin was honoured for research into the evolutionary origins of multicellularity.

David Beckham received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the Sports Entertainment category, timed to coincide with the FIFA World Cup 2026's opening phase, just before a US–Paraguay World Cup match in California — recognising a career that spanned Manchester United, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain.

Prime Minister Modi was conferred Slovakia's highest national honour, the Order of the White Double Cross (1st Class), by President Peter Pellegrini during his Bratislava visit, in recognition of his contribution to strengthening bilateral ties.

Two Indian conservationists — Parveen Shaikh and Dr. Barkha Subba — won the Whitley Awards 2026, popularly called the "Green Oscars," at a ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society, London, presented by Princess Anne. Each winner received £50,000 to support ongoing grassroots conservation work. The awards are organised by the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN), UK.

A team of Indian teenagers — Vivaan Chhawchharia, Ariana Agarwal and Avyana Mehta — won The Earth Prize 2026, becoming the first team from India to secure this international youth environmental-innovation award, for developing Plas-Stick, a biodegradable material made from tamarind seed powder that removes microplastics from contaminated water.

Valluvan, a 58-year-old farmer from Pollachi, Tamil Nadu, was recognised as an FAO Soil Farmer Hero for turning a loss-making coconut farm into a profitable, multi-crop agroforestry enterprise. Before 2009 he spent roughly ₹500 per coconut tree annually while earning only about ₹300, resulting in continuous losses; inspired by the Cauvery Calling Initiative, he shifted to tree-based agroforestry and reversed the trend.

Sudarsan Pattnaik, Odisha's celebrated sand artist, became the first Indian to win Russia's Grand Sand Master Cup 2026, at the Second International Festival of Sand Sculpture, which brought together 12 leading sand sculptors globally. His winning work addressed the theme of global warming and environmental conservation.

The Indian Haj Mission, under the Ministry of Minority Affairs (Minister Kiren Rijiju), won two Labbaytum Awards in the Best Haj Coordination and Communication category — its first-ever win in this category — presented at the Khitamahu Misk Ceremony marking the formal conclusion of the 2026 Haj season in Saudi Arabia. Consul General Fahad Ahmed Khan Suri and Consul Haj Sadaf Choudhary represented India, under the leadership of Ambassador Dr. Suhel Ajaz Khan.

Seven Chandigarh University students received the IndiaAI Fellowship 2025-26 from MeitY, a flagship initiative under the IndiaAI Mission's Future Skills pillar, supporting engineering students working on AI and machine-learning projects.

7.3 National Recognition

Prime Minister Narendra Modi achieved a genuine longevity record: completing 4,399 consecutive days in office, surpassing Jawaharlal Nehru's earlier record of 4,398 consecutive days as an elected Prime Minister (13 May 1952 to 27 May 1964). Modi took office on 26 May 2014 and became the first non-Congress Prime Minister to complete two consecutive full-majority terms.

Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, elected seven new Akademi Fellows (Akademi Ratna) — Ramlal Bareth, A.V. Anand, Rita Ganguly, Puru Dadheech, Chittaranjan Jyotishi, Pasumarthi Rattaiah Sarma and Sudharani Raghupathy — the highest honour of the Akademi, capped at 40 fellows at any given time. The General Council also cleared 108 artists for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) covering 2024 and 2025, spanning music, dance, theatre, traditional/folk/tribal arts, puppetry, and scholarship.

Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh released the memoir of Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, titled "The Second Orbit: Belief of a Man… Dreams of 1.4 Billion Hearts," chronicling Shukla's journey from IAF fighter pilot to astronaut on the Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station.

India secured a record 7 finalist spots among the Top 10 finalists in the World's Best School Prizes 2026 (organised by T4 Education), the highest number of shortlisted schools by any country in a single year since the awards began.

Mera Yuva Bharat (MY Bharat) earned a Guinness World Records title for the highest number of users completing an online quiz in one week, through the Viksit Bharat Young Leaders Dialogue (VBYLD) Quiz, with 390,812 participants completing it during the assessment period. The certificate was presented at Shram Shakti Bhawan, New Delhi, in the presence of Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya.

7.4 Governance and Institutional Awards

Jammu and Kashmir Bank won Gold at the Finacle Innovation Awards 2026, in the category "Modern Technologies-led Innovation – Data Insights and Analytics Platform," presented at Finacle India Connect 2026 in Mumbai, received by MD & CEO Amitava Chatterjee and GM/CIO Mohammad Muzaffar Wani.

The Panchayat Advancement Index, a flagship Ministry of Panchayati Raj initiative, won Gold at the National e-Governance Awards 2026 under "Digital Transformation through Use of Data Analytics," to be presented at the 29th National Conference on e-Governance (1–2 July 2026, Jaipur), whose theme is "Viksit Bharat 2047: AI-Enabled, Data-Driven and Secure Digital Governance." The Gold Award carries a trophy, citation and ₹10 lakh cash incentive. The e-Jagriti platform, developed by the Department of Consumer Affairs, won Silver in the same awards, under "Government Process Re-engineering by Use of Technology," selected from 341 nominations; e-Jagriti is an AI-enabled unified consumer-grievance platform launched 1 January 2025, integrating four legacy systems (OCMS, e-Daakhil, NCDRC CMS and CONFONET).

42 Panchayats received the National Panchayat Awards 2025, under the Incentivization of Panchayats component of the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, across two categories: the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar, awarded to 34 Gram Panchayats across 17 states/UTs for SDG-themed performance, and the Nanaji Deshmukh Sarvottam Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar, awarded to 8 Panchayats for overall excellence.

The Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Akademi honoured 51 artistes at its SNA Samman Ceremony 2026 in Lucknow, covering classical music, folk music, dance, theatre and traditional arts, with awards spanning 2021 to 2024.

7.5 Port Performance Awards ("Sagar Aankalan Awards")

Under the "Sagar Aankalan" framework, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways recognised India's top-performing ports across cargo categories for FY 2024-25:

Category	Top Performer
Container cargo (below 0.5 million TEUs)	Deendayal Port Authority, Kandla
Dry bulk cargo (above 5 million tonnes)	Paradip Port Authority (also 3rd overall for container cargo)
Liquid bulk cargo	Sikka Port and Terminals (1st); Visakhapatnam Port Authority (2nd, among ports handling 5 million tonnes+)
Container cargo (above 0.5 million TEUs)	Mundra Port (1st); Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (2nd)

Chapter 7 Quiz

1. How many total Padma Awards were approved for 2026, broken down by category? — 131 total: 5 Padma Vibhushan, 13 Padma Bhushan, 113 Padma Shri
2. Who became the first person of Indian origin to win the Wolf Prize in Physics? — Jainendra K. Jain
3. What record did PM Modi surpass by completing 4,399 consecutive days in office? — Jawaharlal Nehru's 4,398-day record
4. Which two Indian conservationists won the Whitley Awards ("Green Oscars") 2026? — Parveen Shaikh and Dr. Barkha Subba
5. What did the Indian student team behind "Plas-Stick" win, and what problem does their invention solve? — The Earth Prize 2026; removing microplastics from water using a tamarind-seed-based material
6. Who became the first Indian to win Russia's Grand Sand Master Cup? — Sudarsan Pattnaik
7. How many fellows can the Sangeet Natak Akademi's "Akademi Ratna" honour hold at any one time? — 40
8. What Guinness World Record did Mera Yuva Bharat set, and with how many participants? — Most users completing an online quiz in one week, 390,812 participants
9. Which port topped the "Sagar Aankalan" rankings for large-scale container cargo? — Mundra Port
10. Which Indian bank won Gold at the Finacle Innovation Awards 2026? — Jammu and Kashmir Bank

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