Eight agri consultants amongst 2026 Padma award winners

On the eve of the 77th Republic Day, President Draupadi Murmu introduced the conferment of 131 Padma awards recognising distinguished service throughout fields starting from artwork and social work to science and drugs. The listing, launched by the Ministry of House Affairs, contains 5 Padma Vibhushan, 13 Padma Bhushan, and 113 Padma Shri awardees.

The laureates embody eight people devoted to agriculture, animal husbandry, and crop sciences. Whereas some are celebrated academicians who’ve helmed India’s premier agricultural universities, others are grassroots innovators engaged on the bottom.

Ashok Kumar Singh is a plant geneticist and former director of the Indian Agricultural Analysis Institute (IARI), finest identified for his work growing high-yielding Basmati rice varieties. His analysis has targeted on integrating molecular breeding with typical strategies to enhance grain high quality and illness resistance.

Gopalji Trivedi is an agricultural schooling veteran and former vice-chancellor of the Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural College in Pusa, Bihar. He helped form agricultural pedagogy within the area and championed using know-how to empower farmers in Bihar’s distinctive agro-climatic zones.

Ok. Ramasamy is an agricultural scientist who served because the vice-chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural College. He performed an essential position in modernising agricultural schooling in Tamil Nadu and served on varied nationwide committees for the ICAR and UGC.

Prem Lal Gautam is at the moment the chancellor of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural College and a famous geneticist and plant breeder. He beforehand served because the Deputy Director Basic (Crop Science) at ICAR and is credited with growing greater than 12 improved crop varieties, together with wheat and foxtail millet.

Jogesh Deuri is a sericulture professional and at the moment the Director of Sericulture for the Bodoland Territorial Council. He’s recognised for his work in selling ‘Eri’ silk farming in Assam — a method of ‘nonviolent’ silk breeding. He additionally helped modernise conventional rearing strategies to generate incomes for rural youth and tribal communities in Kokrajhar district.

Shrirang Devaba Lad hails from Maharashtra and has been recognised for his service to agriculture within the State, probably representing the group of progressive farmers driving innovation on the discipline stage.

The final two laureates, Rama Reddy Mamidi and Raghupat Singh, have been awarded posthumously. Mr. Reddy was a towering determine within the cooperative motion and based the Co-operative Improvement Basis and championed the Mulukanoor mannequin to empower rural communities by way of democratically managed dairy and credit score cooperatives in Telangana. Mr. Singh has been recognised for his contributions to grassroots agriculture in Uttar Pradesh.

Past agriculture, the ‘Science and Engineering’ class contains a various group. A.E. Muthunayagam was an architect of ISRO’s liquid propulsion techniques. Former DRDO scientist Chandramouli Gaddamanugu spent greater than three a long time main the event of the Akash missile system. Juzer Vasi from IIT Bombay has been honored for his work in photo voltaic photovoltaics.

The listing additionally contains IIT-Madras director and SHAKTI microprocessor developer V. Kamakoti; senior CSIR-CCMB scientist Kumarasamy Thangaraj, famend for his work in inhabitants genetics; and Praveen Kumar, an IIT-Mandi researcher growing AI-based early-warning techniques for landslides within the Himalaya. Rounding out the listing are Krishnamurty Balasubramanian for his work in supplies science on the Nonferrous Supplies Expertise Improvement Centre.

The only lady on the ‘Science and Engineering’ listing, Shubha V. Iyengar, has been feted for her work on the intersection of chemistry, supplies science, and aeronautical engineering.