He has been working closely with Western artists such as Taj Mahal, Béla Fleck and Jerry Douglas in the past. Shri Vishwa Mohan Bhatt Art-Music Rajasthan – The Grammy Award winner for the album A Meeting by the River, the instrumentalist who plays the Mohan Veena has been a name to reckon with when it comes to fusion music and pan-cultural collaborations. He is also a National Film Awardee for Best Actor for Ankur. While he started his career in films with Hindi language movies like Bhuvan Shome, Ankur and Mrigaya, he shifted focus to Oriya films. Shri Sadhu Meher Art-Cinema Odisha – One of the pioneers of parallel cinema in India in the 1980s, Sadhu Meher has worked as an actor, director, and producer in both Hindi and Odia film industries. She was always compared to the Mangeshkar singers, with the media always pitting one against the other! The singer entered the world of Bollywood in 1973 when she sang a few songs a shloka in the movie, Abhimaan starring Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan. The National Film Awardee has also lent her soulful voice to devotional songs in various languages that include Hindi, Kannada, Marwari, Pahari, Marathi, Sanskrit, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Assamese, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Nepali and Maithili. Anuradha Paudwal Art-Music, Maharashtra – Anuradha Paudwal needs no Introduction! She has been one of the most popular playback singers in Bollywood with over 6000 Hindi songs to her credit. 19 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 5 persons from the category of foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and 6 Posthumous awardees Also Read - Padma Shri Award 2021: Kangana Ranaut, Karan Johar Among 119 Recipients This Year The list comprises of 7 Padma Vibhushan, 7 Padma Bhushan and 75 Padma Shri Awardees. This year the President of India has approved conferment of Padma Awards to 89 persons. These awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March/ April every year. Also Read - Singer Shaan's Mother Sonali Mukherjee Passes Away, Kailash Kher Offers Condolences Yesudas, Anuradha Paudwal and many others from the entertainment industry have become recipients to the prestigious Padma Awards 2017. The people who are not eligible for these awards include Government servants including those working with PSUs, except doctors and scientists. The Padma Shri award is for distinguished service, the Padma Bhushan award is for distinguished service of a high order and the Padma Vibhushan award is for exceptional and distinguished service. The award is given in three categories – Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan. Every year on Republic Day (January 26) the winners are honoured. Padma Awards was instituted in the year 1954.