Telangana Today
These include spiritual leader Chinna Jeeyar Swami and Kamlesh D Patel, popular as Daaji, for the Padma Bhushan. Both of them are being awarded in the Spiritualism category.
Published Date – 09:55 PM, Wed – 25 January 23
Hyderabad: Five persons from the State have been selected for the prestigious Padma awards this year.
These include spiritual leader Chinna Jeeyar Swami and Kamlesh D Patel, popular as Daaji, for the Padma Bhushan. Both of them are being awarded in the Spiritualism category.
The Padma Shri, meanwhile, will be awarded to Modadugu Vijay Gupta (Science & Engineering) Hanumantha Rao Pasupuleti (Medicine) and B Ramakrishna Reddy (Literature & Education).
Chinna Jeeyar Swami, formally known as Sri Tridandi Srimannarayana Ramanuja Chinna Jeeyar Swami, is known for his spiritual discourses on Sri Vaishnavism. He subscribes to the Thenkalai tradition of Sri Vaishnavism, and is the designer of the Statue of Equality here.
Kamlesh D Patel, the leader of the Heartfulness Movement, is known for his value-based self-development programmes offered to students and faculty in over 2,500 schools, universities, and colleges. Heartfulness organisations offer free meditation training in 130 countries.
For the year 2023, the President has approved conferment of 106 Padma Awards, one of the highest civilian Awards of the country. The list comprises six Padma Vibhushan, nine Padma Bhushan and 91 Padma Shri awards. Nineteen of the awardees are women and the list also includes two persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and seven Posthumous awardees.