Five from Kashi honoured with Padma awards

Varanasi: Five people from Varanasi received Padma awards from President Droupadi Murmu on Monday during the first civil investiture ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The awards included one Padma Vibhushan and four Padma Shri. The President presented 66 of the 131 approved Padma awards for the year.

The Padma Vibhushan was received by N Rajam, a violin virtuoso. Rajam served with distinction as a professor in the faculty of performing arts at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) for nearly four decades. She rose to become the head of the department and subsequently the dean of the faculty, earning the prestigious title of 'Emeritus Professor' by BHU.

Kumar Bose, an exponent of the tabla in contemporary Indian classical music, received the Padma Shri. A foremost torchbearer of the Banaras Gharana, Bose is the son of the legendary tabla maestro Acharya Biswanath Bose and a disciple of one of the most influential figures of the Banaras Gharana, Padma Vibhushan awardee Pandit Kishan Maharaj.

Prof Buddha Rashmi Mani, former director general of the National Museum, New Delhi, and vice chancellor of the Indian Institute of Heritage, govt of India, received the Padma Shri. He is widely recognised across the world as one of the finest excavators, art critics, epigraphists and numismatists, whose multifaceted expertise in archaeology has brought about a paradigm shift in understanding India's past.

Ashok Kumar Singh, an eminent researcher whose pioneering contributions have transformed Basmati rice cultivation in India, received the Padma Shri.

Prof Shyam Sundar, a distinguished professor (Hon) of medicine at the Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), received the Padma. He is an internationally acclaimed clinician-scientist in infectious diseases, particularly visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar). Over four decades, he has seamlessly combined patient care, teaching, translational research and has established BHU as a globally recognised centre for research on kala-azar, a neglected tropical disease.

Prof Sundar is a BHU faculty member. He set up a charity field unit - the Kala-azar Medical Research Centre (KAMRC) - in Muzaffarpur in 1993, which provides free diagnosis, treatment, food, and travel expenses to this underserved population. KAMRC has now become a model for clinical research, with high impact on the national policies in the diagnosis and treatment of kala-azar globally.