New Delhi: Among the many distinguished individuals, India conferred the fourth-highest civilian award, Padma Shri to renowned Rabindra Sangeet singer Rezwana Choudhury Bannya from Bangladesh
She is the only Bangladeshi to be included in the list of Padma Awards announced by the Indian government on Thursday. Rezwana was born on January 13, 1957, in Bangladesh's Rangpur district. She first studied at Chhayanaut and then at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, India.
The singer has already been awarded the prestigious ‘Bangabhushan’ by the West Bengal government and the Feroza Begum Memorial Gold Medal.
This year, the Padma Shri was awarded to four French nationals including 100-year-old Yoga exponent Charlotte Chopin. Chopin started learning yoga after turning 50 and has been reportedly teaching yoga since 1982. In July 2023, Chopin met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to France. In his radio broadcast, 'Mann Ki Baat', PM Modi said that everyone should learn from Chopin.
"Charlotte Chopin is a yoga practitioner and yoga teacher and is more than 100 years old. She has crossed a century. She has been practicing yoga for the last 40 years. She gives credit for her health and age to yoga," PM Modi said.
Sanskrit scholar Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat and founder of the French Institute on Indian Culture at Pondicherry has been conferred Padma Shri. Born in 1936 in France, Filliozat is a Professor of Sanskrit (emeritus) and a Member of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres in Paris.
He conducts research in several fields of Indology, Sanskrit grammar (Vyakarana), poetry and poetics, Tantra, especially the Sanskrit literature of Shaivasiddhanta school and history of Indian architecture and temples. Also, he has published books and articles in French, English, and Sanskrit on Panini’s grammar, Patanjali’s Mahabhasya, Shaivagamas, temple architecture in Hampi and others.
Originally from Gujarat, Kiran Vyas founded the Tapovan Open University of Yoga and Ayurveda in 1982. Vyas, who has been at the forefront of teaching the art of living for well-being and personal development for 40 years was awarded the Padma Shri.
Born in 1944 in pre-Independence India, he studied at Sri Aurobindo International Education Centre in Pondicherry and worked at UNESCO in the 1970s in the educational sector. He then moved to France to make Ayurveda popular in Europe.
French national Fred Negrit was conferred the Padma Shri, for literature.
Head of Global Wheat Improvement at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico, Dr Ravi Prakash Singh has dedicated almost 40 years to increasing food production across the globe. In 2021, Singh received the highest honour conferred to NRIs by the Government of India – the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award.
Born into an agrarian family in Uttar Pradesh, Singh did his schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya in Varanasi. He has been awarded the fourth-highest civilian award.
Read more
