Padma hall of fame: Eight from Andhra & Telangana get big honour

HYDERABAD: Eight people from the two states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were honoured with the Padma Shri, which were announced in the national capital on Wednesday. No individual from the Teluguspeaking states got either the

Padma Vibhushan

or the Padma Bhushan.

The list of recipients comprised Prof Aekka Yadagiri Rao, Tripuraneni Hanuman Chowdary,

V Koteshwaramma

, Dr Mohammed Abdul Waheed, Chandrakant Pithawa, Chintakindi Mallesham, Daripalli Ramaiah and Mohan Reddy Venkatrama Bodanapu.Their work, in their individual areas of expertise, has been widely acclaimed both at home and outside.

On January 3, the Times of India, Hyderabad, carried a detailed report about the work being done by from Aler in Telangana. The report described a grassroots innovator's struggle in creating his patented Laxmi ASU machine, athread processing device. The 44-year-old was struggling with funding and had managed to get a meagre Rs 6,500 of the Rs 3.5 lakh he was trying to raise through a crowd-funding platform to subsidise his machine for poor weavers. His fortunes, after Wednesday's announcement, will hopefully change for the better.

The Padma awards are given every year to people for their outstanding contribution in various disciplines such as art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry , medicine, literature and education, sports and civil service.