BharatNotes RPSC's "Major awards, publications and distinguished authors" line covers far more than literary prizes (that side of the topic — Nobel, Booker, Jnanpith, Sahitya Akademi, Vyas Samman, Saraswati Samman and the Meera Puraskar — is covered in a separate chapter). This chapter covers India's civilian and national honours: the Bharat Ratna, the three-tier Padma Awards, the Gandhi Peace Prize, and the Nari Shakti Puraskar — plus two award families RPSC has directly tested that are easy to mix up with these.
Note before going further — four mix-ups worth separating immediately:
- The Gandhi Peace Prize (Government of India, Ministry of Culture, instituted 1995) is a completely different award from the privately-administered Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development (given by the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, a non-governmental body). News aggregators frequently conflate the two — if a name doesn't appear in the Gandhi Peace Prize table below, it likely belongs to the other award.
- The Nari Shakti Puraskar (Government of India, Ministry of Women & Child Development) is different from Rajasthan's own state-government Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Stree Shakti Puraskar — don't attribute a state award to the central one.
- The National Awards for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities) is a distinct annual scheme from the Padma Awards, even though both are presented by the President — see the dedicated section below.
- Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan are not the same tier — Bharat Ratna is India's single highest civilian honour with no formal category system; the Padma Awards are a separate three-tier scheme (Vibhushan > Bhushan > Shri) below it.
The Bharat Ratna (2019–2026)
India's highest civilian award has no fixed annual quota — some years see none at all, and one year in this window saw an unprecedented five.
| Year announced | Recipient | Status | Field |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Jan 2019 | Pranab Mukherjee | Living at the time (d. 2020) | Former President of India |
| 25 Jan 2019 | Bhupen Hazarika | Posthumous | Assamese singer-composer |
| 25 Jan 2019 | Nanaji Deshmukh | Posthumous | Social reformer |
| 2020–2023 | No Bharat Ratna announced in any of these four years | — | — |
| 23 Jan 2024 | Karpoori Thakur | Posthumous | Former Bihar CM; announced on the eve of his birth centenary |
| 3 Feb 2024 | Lal Krishna Advani | Living | Conferred at his residence, 31 Mar 2024 (unwell) |
| 9 Feb 2024 | Chaudhary Charan Singh | Posthumous | Former Prime Minister |
| 9 Feb 2024 | P. V. Narasimha Rao | Posthumous | Former Prime Minister |
| 9 Feb 2024 | M. S. Swaminathan | Posthumous | Agricultural scientist, "Father of the Green Revolution" |
| 2025–2026 | None announced as of this check | — | — |
Charan Singh, Rao and Swaminathan were conferred together at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 30 March 2024; Advani received his separately at his residence the next day. 2024 is the only year on record where five Bharat Ratnas were announced in one calendar year — RPSC's preferred way of testing this is a "how many" or "which of the following did NOT receive it in 2024" question. The running total after the 2024 batch stands at 53 Bharat Ratna recipients since the award's 1954 institution (Union Home Ministry figure, as reported).
UPSC/RPSC relevance: No direct RAS PYQ found yet on the 2024 batch specifically; closest adjacent — RAS Prelims 2016 Q127 tested a related but distinct fact (a foreign civilian honour conferred on an Indian PM — see the "Foreign Honours" section below), showing RPSC's general appetite for "who received India's/another country's highest civilian honour" questions. Expect similar direct treatment of the 2024 Bharat Ratna batch in upcoming papers.
The Padma Awards (2021–2026)
The Padma Awards are India's second-highest civilian honours after the Bharat Ratna, in three descending tiers — Padma Vibhushan (exceptional and distinguished service), Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of a high order), and Padma Shri (distinguished service) — announced around Republic Day each January.
Year-by-year counts
| Year | Total* | Padma Vibhushan | Padma Bhushan | Padma Shri | Women | Foreign/NRI/PIO/OCI | Posthumous |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 119 | 7 | 10 | 102 | 29 | 10 | 16 |
| 2022 | 128 | 4 | 17 | 107 | 34 | 10 | 13 |
| 2023 | 106 | 6 | 9 | 91 | 19 | 2 | 7 |
| 2024 | 132 | 5 | 17 | 110 | not confirmed† | not confirmed† | not confirmed† |
| 2025 | 139 | 7 | 19 | 113 | 23 | 10 | 13 |
| 2026 | 131 | 5 | 13 | 113 | 19 | 6 | 16 |
*Totals for 2023, 2025 and 2026 include a small number of joint/duo awards counted once per case. †The 2024 women/foreigner/posthumous sub-counts could not be confirmed against a primary source in this review — see Sources & Verification.
Exam angle: RPSC likes testing the count, not just the names — "how many Padma Vibhushan were conferred in [year]" or "which year had the highest number of Padma Shri awards" (2025 and 2026 are both close to each other at 113; 2022 had 107). Learn the Vibhushan/Bhushan/Shri counts as a memorised row, the same way the literary-awards chapter recommends learning award winners as a year-by-year series.
Padma Vibhushan recipients, full list (2021–2026)
The Vibhushan tier is small enough each year (4–7 people) to memorise by name — RPSC has a documented pattern of asking "who among the following received the Padma Vibhushan in [year]."
| Year | Name | Field | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Shinzo Abe | Public Affairs | Former Japanese PM; foreign national |
| 2021 | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam | Art | Posthumous; playback singer |
| 2021 | Belle Monappa Hegde | Medicine | |
| 2021 | B. B. Lal | Archaeology / Others | |
| 2021 | Narinder Singh Kapany | Science & Engineering | Posthumous; called the "father of fibre optics" |
| 2021 | Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | Others (spiritual leader) | Posthumous |
| 2021 | Sudarshan Sahoo | Art | Odisha sculptor |
| 2022 | Prabha Atre | Art | Kirana-gharana classical vocalist |
| 2022 | Kalyan Singh | Public Affairs | Posthumous; former Uttar Pradesh CM |
| 2022 | Gen. Bipin Rawat | Civil Service | Posthumous; former Chief of Defence Staff |
| 2022 | Radheyshyam Khemka | Literature & Education | Posthumous; Gita Press founder-editor |
| 2023 | Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi | Others | Posthumous; architect |
| 2023 | Ustad Zakir Hussain | Art | Tabla maestro |
| 2023 | S. M. Krishna | Public Affairs | Former Karnataka CM / former External Affairs Minister |
| 2023 | Dilip Mahalanabis | Medicine | Posthumous; ORS-therapy pioneer |
| 2023 | S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan | Science & Engineering | Mathematician |
| 2023 | Mulayam Singh Yadav | Public Affairs | Posthumous; former Uttar Pradesh CM |
| 2024 | Vyjayanthimala Bali | Art | |
| 2024 | Konidela Chiranjeevi | Art | |
| 2024 | M. Venkaiah Naidu | Public Affairs | Former Vice President of India |
| 2024 | Padma Subrahmanyam | Art | Bharatanatyam exponent |
| 2024 | Bindeshwar Pathak | Social Work | Posthumous; Sulabh International founder |
| 2025 | L. Subramaniam | Art | Violinist |
| 2025 | J. S. Khehar | Public Affairs | Former Chief Justice of India |
| 2025 | M. T. Vasudevan Nair | Literature & Education | Posthumous; Malayalam writer |
| 2025 | Osamu Suzuki | Trade & Industry | Posthumous; foreign national, former CEO Suzuki Motor Corp |
| 2025 | D. Nageshwar Rao | Medicine | Gastroenterologist |
| 2025 | Kumudini Lakhia | Art | Kathak exponent |
| 2025 | Sharda Sinha | Art | Posthumous; folk singer |
| 2026 | Dharmendra | Art | Posthumous; actor |
| 2026 | K. T. Thomas | Public Affairs | Retired Supreme Court judge |
| 2026 | N. Rajam | Art | Violinist |
| 2026 | P. Narayanan | Civil Service | |
| 2026 | V. S. Achuthanandan | Public Affairs | Posthumous; former Kerala CM |
Common mistake: In 2022, all four Padma Vibhushan recipients except Prabha Atre were posthumous (Kalyan Singh, Bipin Rawat, Radheyshyam Khemka) — don't assume the top civilian tier always skews toward living honourees. The 2025 batch shows the same pattern (3 of 7 posthumous), and 2026 had 2 of 5 posthumous (Dharmendra, Achuthanandan).
No Rajasthan-based Padma Vibhushan recipient appears in the 2021–2026 window — Rajasthan's only Padma Vibhushan recipient on record is industrialist Ghanshyam Das Birla (1957), well outside this exam's relevant period.
Rajasthan-specific recipients (all categories, 2021–2026)
This is the detail RPSC's Rajasthan-focused current-affairs paper prioritises above the national counts.
| Year | Name | Category | Field |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Lakha Khan Manganiar | Padma Shri | Art (Sindhi Sarangi folk music) |
| 2021 | Shyam Sundar Paliwal | Padma Shri | Social Work (founder of the "Piplantri model" of tree-planting for the girl child) |
| 2021 | Arjun Singh Shekhawat | Padma Shri | Literature & Education |
| 2022 | Devendra Jhajharia (Churu) | Padma Bhushan | Sports (Paralympic javelin gold medallist; had already held Padma Shri since 2012) |
| 2022 | Rajiv Mehrishi | Padma Bhushan | Civil Service (1978-batch IAS; former Union Home Secretary and CAG) |
| 2022 | Avani Lekhara (Jaipur) | Padma Shri | Sports (Paralympic shooting gold medallist) |
| 2022 | Ramdayal Sharma | Padma Shri | Art |
| 2022 | Chandraprakash Dwivedi | Padma Shri | Art (screenwriting/direction) |
| 2023 | Ustad Ahmed Hussain & Ustad Mohd Hussain | Padma Shri (joint) | Art (Sufi/ghazal singing duo) |
| 2023 | Moolchand Lodha | Padma Shri | Social Work |
| 2023 | Laxman Singh | Padma Shri | Social Work |
| 2024 | Janki Lal Bhand | Padma Shri | Art (puppetry) |
| 2024 | Ali Mohammed & Ghani Mohammed | Padma Shri (joint) | Art |
| 2024 | Laxman Bhatt Tailang | Padma Shri | Art |
| 2023 or 2024* | Maya Tandon | Padma Shri | Social Work |
| 2025 | Begam Batool (Batool Begam, Jaipur) | Padma Shri | Art (Maand/Bhajan folk singer) |
| 2025 | Baijnath Maharaj | Padma Shri | Others |
| 2025 | Sheen Kaaf Nizam (Shiv Kishan Bissa) | Padma Shri | Literature & Education |
| 2026 | Gafruddin Mewati Jogi | Padma Shri | Art |
| 2026 | Swami Brahmdev Ji Maharaj | Padma Shri | Social Work |
| 2026 | Taga Ram Bheel | Padma Shri | Art |
*Sources conflict on Maya Tandon's award year (some report 2023, others 2024) — treat her exact year as unconfirmed until checked against a primary MHA/Padma Awards portal citation; see Sources & Verification.
Exam angle: Devendra Jhajharia (Churu) progressing from Padma Shri (2012) to Padma Bhushan (2022) is a favourite RPSC "career trajectory" fact — the same person receiving two different Padma tiers years apart. Begam Batool's 2025 Padma Shri is also notable because she had already received the central government's Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2023 (for award-year 2022) — a genuine double-honouree worth cross-referencing with the Nari Shakti Puraskar section below.
Notable "firsts" and newsworthy items, year by year
- 2021: Foreign PM Shinzo Abe among the Padma Vibhushan class. PIB's summary described 2021 as including the country's first transgender Padma Shri recipient — the specific name could not be independently confirmed in this review, so treat that particular "first" claim with caution until verified further.
- 2022: Politically contentious year — Ghulam Nabi Azad and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's Padma Bhushan awards drew commentary, alongside a Vibhushan class that was mostly posthumous.
- 2023: Two posthumous Padma Vibhushan for former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers is not the pattern here — rather, B. V. Doshi (architect) and Mulayam Singh Yadav were both posthumous Vibhushan recipients from very different fields, alongside a large Gujarat contingent among the Padma Shri class.
- 2024: M. Venkaiah Naidu (immediate past Vice President) and film veterans Chiranjeevi and Vyjayanthimala Bali headlined the Vibhushan class; Bindeshwar Pathak's award was posthumous.
- 2025: Osamu Suzuki's posthumous Padma Vibhushan is a rare instance of the honour going to a foreign national; three of the seven Vibhushan recipients that year were posthumous.
- 2026: Dharmendra and V. S. Achuthanandan both received posthumous Padma Vibhushan; the year's 16 posthumous awards (across all tiers) ties 2021 for the highest posthumous count in this window. Coverage also names cricketer Rohit Sharma and playback singer Alka Yagnik among the year's widely-reported recipients, though this review could not independently confirm their exact award tier from a primary source.
The Gandhi Peace Prize (2018–2026)
Instituted in 1995 by the Ministry of Culture, this award has a documented, exam-relevant quirk: its announcement can lag the "award year" it is named for by several years.
| Award year | Recipient | Announcement date |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Yōhei Sasakawa (Japan) | — |
| 2019 | Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said (Oman) | — |
| 2020 | Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Bangladesh) | Reported ~22 Mar 2021 (single-source; treat with light caution) |
| 2021 | Gita Press, Gorakhpur | 18 June 2023 — roughly 2.5 years after the nominal award year |
| 2022–2026 | No recipient confirmed as of this check | — |
Gita Press accepted the Gandhi Peace Prize citation "for the year 2021" but declined the accompanying ₹1 crore cash component, citing its policy of not accepting donations — a genuinely useful detail since it demonstrates the award has a cash element that isn't always taken up. The decision was made by a jury headed by the Prime Minister, and it drew political controversy over Gita Press's historical positions.
As of 14 August 2026, the Gita Press award (for 2021, announced June 2023) remains the most recent confirmed Gandhi Peace Prize recipient found in this review — no award "for 2022," "2023," "2024" or "2025" has surfaced. RAS aspirants should treat this as an open/stalled cadence rather than assume an annual award has quietly continued.
UPSC/RPSC relevance: Directly asked — RAS Prelims 2023 Q119, "Which institution in India has been selected for Gandhi Peace Award 2021?" (Answer: Gita Press, Gorakhpur). This is one of the clearest examples in the current-affairs syllabus of RPSC testing an award exactly at the point where its "year" and its "announcement date" diverge — expect this specific gap (2021 award, 2023 announcement) to keep appearing as a distractor pattern in future papers.
The Nari Shakti Puraskar — genuinely uncertain recent status
The Nari Shakti Puraskar (Ministry of Women & Child Development) is conferred around International Women's Day (8 March) by the President.
| Award year(s) | Ceremony date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 9 Mar 2020 | Confirmed — 15 women honoured |
| 2020 + 2021 (combined) | 8 Mar 2022 | Confirmed — 29 women honoured jointly, a COVID-19-driven combination of two award years into one ceremony |
| 2022 | 8 Mar 2023 | Confirmed — includes Begam Batool (Batool Begam), Jaipur, the Maand/Bhajan folk singer who also later received the Padma Shri (2025) |
| 2023 | Reported 8 Mar 2024 | Partially confirmed — a single secondary source describes President Murmu presenting the award that day, but no full recipient list was located |
| 2024 onward | — | Not confirmed — no recipient list found |
This chapter deliberately stops short of asserting a 2024, 2025 or 2026 Nari Shakti Puraskar recipient list, because none could be verified. Two additional signals reinforce the uncertainty rather than resolve it: some tertiary sources' summary of the award list its "final" edition as 2021 (the COVID-combined ceremony), which conflicts with the confirmed 2022-award-year ceremony (Begam Batool, 8 March 2023); and official government coverage of both 8 March 2025 and 8 March 2026 describes a "Nari Shakti se Viksit Bharat" conference with panel discussions, not a Puraskar conferral. Neither observation proves the scheme has been discontinued — but neither confirms it has continued either. Treat the Puraskar's status from award-year 2023 onward as an open question, not a settled fact, until a primary Ministry source is checked closer to the exam.
Common mistake — real historical PYQ trap: RAS Prelims 2021 Q1 tested a 2018 Nari Shakti Puraskar recipient, Ruma Devi, a handicrafts entrepreneur — and the correct answer hinged on knowing she grew up in Rawatsar village, Barmer district, not "Jasrapur (Khetari)" (a real place, but in Jhunjhunu district, hundreds of kilometres away). This is exactly the kind of "right person, wrong place-name" substitution RPSC builds into Rajasthan-linked award questions — don't just learn the award and the name, learn the specific district too.
UPSC/RPSC relevance: Asked directly in RAS Prelims 2021 Q1 (Ruma Devi, Nari Shakti Puraskar 2018, Barmer district). No direct PYQ found yet on the 2019–2023 editions covered above; expect RPSC to keep testing this award primarily through its Rajasthan-recipient angle, exactly as it did with Ruma Devi.
Related but Distinct — National Awards for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities
Don't confuse this with the Padma Awards even though both are presented by the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The National Awards for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities are a separate annual scheme run by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), honouring individuals and organisations across categories like "Sarvshreshth Divyangjan" (best divyang individuals). President Droupadi Murmu presented the 2024 edition on 3 December 2024 in New Delhi.
UPSC/RPSC relevance: Directly asked — RAS Prelims 2024 Q108, a matching question pairing three 2024 Sarvshreshth Divyangjan awardees (Ananya Bijesh, Prateek Khandelwal, Priyanka Deepak Dabade) to their fields of outstanding work (Music, Accessibility, and Art & Culture respectively). This confirms RPSC treats the disability-empowerment awards as squarely within the "Major Awards" current-affairs bucket, distinct from the Padma Awards — worth a quick glance at that year's DEPwD list rather than assuming it overlaps with the Padma Awards table above.
Also Tested — Foreign Honours Conferred on Indians
Two genuine past RPSC questions show the syllabus line also covers the reverse direction — international awards given to Indians, separate from India's own award schemes:
- RAS Prelims 2021 Q133 asked who received the International Eni Award 2020 (the "Nobel Prize of energy research," from the Italian energy company Eni) — answered by Bharat Ratna Professor C.N.R. Rao, for his work on metal oxides, carbon nanotubes and graphene-family materials for energy storage. The COVID-delayed ceremony was held 14 October 2021 in Rome, though the prize itself was designated for 2020 — another instance of the "award year vs. ceremony year" gap this chapter keeps flagging.
- RAS Prelims 2016 Q127 asked which honour Afghan President Ashraf Ghani conferred on Prime Minister Narendra Modi — the Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistan's highest civilian honour, given on 4 June 2016 after the inauguration of the Afghan-India Friendship Dam in Herat.
Both are useful reminders that "major awards" in this syllabus line isn't limited to India's own honours — RPSC has tested the reverse direction too.
Important for RAS
Prelims Focus
- Learn Padma Vibhushan lists by name each year — small enough (4–7 people) to memorise fully, and RPSC has a documented pattern of testing them directly.
- Nail the Rajasthan-specific Padma recipients table above; RPSC's "special reference to Rajasthan" framing makes this the highest-yield sub-list in the whole topic.
- The 2024 Bharat Ratna batch (5 recipients in one year) and the Gandhi Peace Prize's 2021-award/2023-announcement gap are both "counter-intuitive pattern" facts RPSC likes to test with "how many" or "which year" phrasing.
- Treat the Nari Shakti Puraskar's status after the 2022 award-year as unresolved — don't answer a question about a 2024/2025/2026 recipient with a guessed name.
- Don't confuse the Gandhi Peace Prize with the Indira Gandhi Prize, or the National Awards for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities with the Padma Awards — both are documented RPSC confusion traps.
Interview Angles
- Several 2024–2026 Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna honours went posthumously to major political figures across party lines (Charan Singh, Narasimha Rao, Kalyan Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav) — a panel could ask what this pattern signals about how India's civilian-honours system engages with political legacy versus living achievement.
- Rajasthan's Padma recipients since 2021 skew heavily toward folk art, social work and disability-inclusive sport (Lakha Khan Manganiar, Shyam Sundar Paliwal, Avani Lekhara, Devendra Jhajharia) rather than mainstream politics or bureaucracy — a panel could ask what this says about which parts of Rajasthan's contribution to national life get formally recognised.
This topic sits under RPSC's Prelims-only "Current Affairs & Issues" block — there is no separate Mains "civilian honours" line, so no forced cross-paper box is needed here, though a working knowledge of Rajasthan's own award-winners can support Paper-IV cultural-awareness answers or interview conversation about the state's social and cultural contributions.
Practice — Quick Self-Check
1. How many Bharat Ratna awards were announced in the calendar year 2024?
Answer: (d) Five — Karpoori Thakur, L.K. Advani, Chaudhary Charan Singh, P.V. Narasimha Rao and M.S. Swaminathan, an unprecedented number for a single year.
2. Which institution was selected for the Gandhi Peace Prize "for the year 2021," in an announcement actually made in June 2023?
Answer: (b) Gita Press, Gorakhpur — which accepted the citation but declined the ₹1 crore cash award.
3. Devendra Jhajharia, the Paralympic javelin gold medallist from Churu, Rajasthan, received the Padma Bhushan in 2022. Which Padma tier had he already received in 2012?
Answer: (b) Padma Shri (2012) — he progressed to Padma Bhushan a decade later in 2022.
4. Ruma Devi, the 2018 Nari Shakti Puraskar recipient tested in a past RAS Prelims question, grew up in which district of Rajasthan?
Answer: (b) Barmer — specifically Rawatsar village. "Jasrapur (Khetari)," a real place in Jhunjhunu district, is the classic wrong-district distractor RPSC used in the actual question.
5. Avani Lekhara, the Jaipur-born Paralympic shooting gold medallist, received the Padma Shri in which year?
Answer: (b) 2022. (Her Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, a separate sporting honour, came in 2021 — see the National Sports Awards chapter.)
6. Which foreign national received a posthumous Padma Vibhushan in 2025?
Answer: (b) Osamu Suzuki, former CEO of Suzuki Motor Corporation. Shinzo Abe received his posthumous Padma Vibhushan in 2021, not 2025.
Practice — Statement-Based (RPSC Style)
1. Consider the following statements. 1. The Gandhi Peace Prize and the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development are two names for the same award. 2. The Gandhi Peace Prize is administered by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: (b) 2 only. Statement 1 is false — they are two distinct awards; the Indira Gandhi Prize is administered by a private trust, not the government.
2. Consider the following statements about the 2024 Bharat Ratna awardees. 1. All five were conferred the award posthumously. 2. Chaudhary Charan Singh and P.V. Narasimha Rao, both former Prime Ministers, were among the recipients. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: (b) 2 only. Statement 1 is false — L.K. Advani received his Bharat Ratna while living; the other four were posthumous.
3. Consider the following statements about the Nari Shakti Puraskar. 1. A confirmed recipient list exists for every award-year from 2019 through 2026. 2. Begam Batool of Jaipur received the award for the 2022 award-year, conferred in March 2023. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: (b) 2 only. Statement 1 is false — no confirmed recipient list could be located for award-years 2023 onward as of this chapter's last check (14 August 2026).
4. Consider the following statements about the Padma Awards 2026. 1. A total of 131 awards were conferred, including two joint/duo cases. 2. Dharmendra and V. S. Achuthanandan both received the Padma Vibhushan posthumously. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: (c) Both are correct.
Practice — "Which Is/Are NOT Correct" (Inverted Phrasing)
1. Which of the following statements about the National Awards for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities 2024 is NOT correct?
Answer: (b) is NOT correct — this is a separate DEPwD scheme, not a Padma Awards category, even though both are presented by the President.
2. Which of the following (Award – Awarding Body) pairs is NOT correctly matched?
Answer: (c) is NOT correctly matched — the Indira Gandhi Prize is administered by the private Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, not the Government of India.
3. Which of the following statements about C.N.R. Rao's International Eni Award is NOT correct?
Answer: (d) is NOT correct — the award was designated for 2020, though the COVID-delayed ceremony took place in October 2021.
Key Terms
- Bharat Ratna — India's highest civilian honour, with no fixed annual quota; 53 recipients since 1954 as of the 2024 batch.
- Padma Vibhushan / Padma Bhushan / Padma Shri — India's three-tier civilian honours below the Bharat Ratna, announced around Republic Day each January.
- Gandhi Peace Prize — Government of India (Ministry of Culture) honour, instituted 1995; distinct from the privately-administered Indira Gandhi Prize.
- Nari Shakti Puraskar — Ministry of Women & Child Development honour presented around International Women's Day (8 March); its post-2022 continuity is currently unverified.
- National Awards for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities — a separate DEPwD scheme (e.g., "Sarvshreshth Divyangjan"), not a Padma Awards category.
- International Eni Award — a foreign (Italian) energy-research honour, given to C.N.R. Rao for 2020.
Sources & Verification
All facts in this chapter were checked as of 14 August 2026, drawing on PIB-adjacent government reporting (NewsOnAir), the official Padma Awards portal and citation PDFs, Drishti IAS, and cross-checked news coverage (Deccan Herald, The Week, India TV, Sunday Guardian, Gulf News, and others), each cross-referenced across at least two independent sources where possible. Genuine RAS PYQs are cited directly from BharatNotes' verified solved-PYQ bank (RAS Prelims 2013 Q133, 2016 Q127, 2021 Q1, 2021 Q133, 2023 Q119, 2024 Q108).
Several points are explicitly flagged rather than guessed at: (1) Maya Tandon's Padma Shri award year is contested between 2023 and 2024 across sources; (2) the specific recipient of 2021's reported "first transgender Padma Shri" could not be independently confirmed; (3) the 2020 Gandhi Peace Prize's exact 22 March 2021 announcement date rests on a single secondary source; (4) the Nari Shakti Puraskar's status for award-years 2023 onward is genuinely unresolved — this chapter deliberately does not assert a recipient list past the confirmed 2022 award-year (conferred March 2023); and (5) several 2024 Padma Awards sub-counts (women, foreign nationals, posthumous) could not be confirmed against a primary source. Direct automated access to pib.gov.in and mha.gov.in was blocked during this research pass (HTTP 403); all facts above rest on cross-checked secondary and government-adjacent reporting rather than a direct primary-document read, and should be re-verified against primary MHA/PIB releases where possible closer to the exam.
