Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, chairperson of Tata Group Natarajan Chandrasekaran were conferred Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award.
Padma honours are awarded for exceptional service in the fields of art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, and civil service.Nadella, who was named Microsoft CEO in 2014, has reinvented the compnay after taking over the reins from Bill Gates. Hyderabad-born Nadella has been behind Microsoft's billion-dollar acquisitions like Linkedin, Nuance Communications and Zeni Max.
Pichai took over as Alphabet CEO in 2019. Alphabet is the world's fourth most valuable company.Channai-born Pichai joined Google in 2004. He developed the Google Chrome borwser.Â
Cyrus Poonawalla of the Serum Institute of India, which manufactured COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, and Krishna Ella and Suchitra Ella of Bharat Biotech, which produced India's indigenous coronavirus vaccine Covaxin, were also given Padma Bhushan.
Late Punjabi folk singer Gurmeet Bawa, actor Victor Banerjee and former Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi were also named for Padma Bhushan.
Senior Congress leader Azad, US-based culinary expert Madhur Jaffrey, Paralympic javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia, religious teacher from Gujarat Swami Sachidanand were among the 17 Padma Bhushan awardees.
-- With PTI inputs
