Bharat Ratna to PV Narasimha Rao, Charan Singh and MS Swaminathan | Full list of awardees
The Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in the country, has been granted to 50 individuals so far, with 17 posthumously.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced that the Bharat Ratna will be conferred upon former Prime Ministers PV Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh, along with agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan.
The Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in the country, has been granted to 53 individuals so far, with 20 posthumously. Instituted in 1954, this award is open to anyone, regardless of race, occupation, position, or gender.
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It is awarded in recognition of outstanding service or performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavour. The prime minister makes recommendations directly to the President, and no formal recommendations are required. The annual awards are limited to a maximum of three per year.
Upon receiving the award, the recipient is presented with a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a medallion. The Bharat Ratna does not come with any monetary grant, according to the ministry of home affairs (MHA).
List of Bharat Ratna awardees till date
- Chakaravarti Rajagopalachari (statesman, writer, lawyer, and independence activist) - 1954
- Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (philosopher, politician and former President of India) - 1954
- Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (physicist)- 1954
- Bhagwan Das (Independence activist, philosopher, and educationist)- 1955
- Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (Civil engineer, statesman, and Diwan of Mysore) - 1955
- Jawaharlal Nehru (Independence activist, author and former Prime Minister of India)- 1955
- Govind Ballabh Pant (Independence activist) - 1957
- Dhondo Keshav Karve (Social reformer and educator)- 1958
- Bidhan Chandra Roy (physician, political leader, philanthropist, educationist, and social worker)- 1961
- Purushottam Das Tandon (Independence activist) - 1961
- Rajendra Prasad (Independence activist, lawyer, statesman, scholar and former President of India)- 1962
12. Zakir Husain (Independence activist)- 1963
13. Pandurang Vaman Kane (Indologist and Sanskrit scholar) -1963
14. Lal Bahadur Shastri (Posthumous) (Independence activist and former Prime Minister of India) - 1966
15. Indira Gandhi (politician and former Prime Minister of India) -1971
16. Varahagiri Venkata Giri (Independence activist and former Prseident of India) -1975
17. Kumaraswamy Kamraj (Posthumous) (politician and former Tamil Nadu chief minister) 1976
18. Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa) (founder of the Missionaries of Charity) - 1980
19. Vinoba Bhave (Posthumous) (Independence activist, social reformer) -1983
20. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Independence activist) -1987
21. Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran (Posthumous) (actor turned politician) -1988
22. Bhim Rao Ramji Ambedkar (Posthumous) (Social reformer) -1990
23. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (anti-apartheid activist) - 1990
24. Rajiv Gandhi (Posthumous) (politician and former Prime Minister of India) -1991
25. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (Posthumous) (Independence activist) - 1991
26. Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (Independence activist and Prime Minister of India) - 1991
27. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Posthumous) (Independence activist) -1992
28. Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai Tata (Industrialist) - 1992
29. Satyajit Ray (Filmmaker) - 1992
30. Gulzari Lal Nanda (Independence activist) - 1997
31. Aruna Asaf Ali (Posthumous) (Independence activist) - 1997
32. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (Aerospace, defence scientist and former President of India) -1997
33. Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi (Carnatic classical vocalist) -1998
34. Chidambaram Subramaniam (Independence activist) - 1998
35. Jayaprakash Narayan (Posthumous) (Independence activist, social reformer) - 1999
36. Amartya Sen (economist) - 1999
37. Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi (Posthumous) (Independence activist) - 1999
38. Ravi Shankar (sitar player) - 1999
39. Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar (playback singer) - 2001
40. Ustad Bismillah Khan (Hindustani classical shehnai player) - 2001
41. Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi (Hindustani classical vocalist) - 2009
42. C. N. R. Rao (chemist and professor) - 2014
43. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (cricketer) - 2014
44. Atal Bihari Vajpayee (politician and former Prime Minister of India) 2015
45. Madan Mohan Malaviya (Posthumous) (Scholar and educational reformer) - 2015
46. Nanaji Deshmukh (Posthumous) (social activist) - 2019
47. Bhupendra Kumar Hazarika (Posthumous) (playback singer, lyricist, musician, poet, and film-maker) - 2019
48. Pranab Mukherjee (politician and former President of India)- 2019
49. Karpoori Thakur (Posthumous) (politician and former Bihar chief minister) - 2024
50. Lal Krishna Advani (politician and former deputy prime minister)- 2024
51. Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (Posthumous) (former Prime Minister of India) - 2024
52. Chaudhary Charan Singh (Posthumous) (former Prime Minister of India) -2024
53. Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (Posthumous) (agriculture scientist) - 2024