From the editor's desk This is the new India

The Padma Awards have been conferred upon the awardees in India since 1954 in three categories: Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service), Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of higher order) and Padma Shri (distinguished service). Over the last seven decades 3225 awardees have received these honours from the President of India. But the 2020 awardees have made bigger headlines and attracted a much wider publicity on the social media for being largely obscure and unknown but deeply and passionately devoted to their cause. Ranging from man curing elephants, a fruit seller who built a school from his meagre earnings, a former revenue officer who founded libraries for tribal children, a tribal woman who has planted over 30,000 trees and a botanist who translated a 17th century Latin botanical treatise.

It is the new India where many ordinary citizens with bare minimum resources, negligible social status and poor educational background have been recognised for their passion and selfless commitment to their life mission.

Some of the key awardees who received the award from President Ram Nath Kovind are:

Himmatram Bhambhu (Nagaur, Rajasthan): For raising a forest with 11,000 trees on 25 bigha land and planting more than 500,000 trees, and saving the flora and fauna from poachers.

Harekala Hajabba being awarded by President Kovind

Harekala Hajabba (Mangalore, Karnataka): A humble fruit seller who built a school for the children from his life earnings.

Tulsi Gowda (Uttara Kannada, Karnataka): An environmentalist and conservationist who has planted more than 30,000 saplings over 60 years since the age of 12. Despite never been formally education her knowledge of plants and herbs has wone her the popular title of "Encyclopedia of the Forest'.

Dr Kushal Konwar Sarma

Madhu Mansuri Hasmukh ( Jharkhand): A folk singer known for ‘Gaon Chhodab Nahi’ song who made a mark in the development sector as well.

Professor K.S. Manilal (Kerala): A botanist and taxonomist who researched, translated and annotated Hendrik van Rheede’s 17th century Latin botanical treatise, and documented extensive details of Kerala’s 700 indigenous plants and discovered 14 species with the help of his students.

Sathyanarayanan Mundayoor (Arunachal Pradesh): A former revenue officer-turned educationist, founded 13 libraries as a prt of the Home Library Movement in remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh, creating awareness and interest for decades in tribal children.

K. Munusamy (Villianur village, Puducherry): A terracotta artist known for making miniatures as small as 1.5 inches and dramatic life-size terracotta statues and training hundreds in the art.

Bata Krishna Sahoo: A fish farmer who with his earnings trained college students and farmers in spawn production.

Dr Kushal Konwar Sarma: The ‘Elephant Man of India’ or the ‘elephant surgeon’, a veterinarian and Professor of Surgery and Radiology at the College of Veterinary Science in Assam who has treated 600 plus elephants and saved 140 rogue bull elephants over the decades.

The Awards have certainly taken a new meaning and chosen those who over the years have been overlooked and not been recognised for their work. It is the new India definitely where now even the ordinary and obscure citizens can hope to be felicitated for their passion and work.