- B Muthuraman, Vice Chairman, Tata Steel Limited
NEW DELHI: The President of India has approved the conferment of Padma Awards-2012. This year the President has approved 109 awards including one duo case (counted as one) and 14 in the category of Foreigners, NRIs, PIOs, Posthumous. These comprise 5 Padma Vibhushan, 27 Padma Bhushan and 77 Padma Shri Awards. There are 19 ladies among the awardees.
Padma Awards, the country’s highest civilian awards, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The Awards are given in all disciplines of activities, viz. art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc. ‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; ‘Padma Bhushan’ for distinguished service of high order and ‘Padma Shri’ for distinguished service in any field. The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.
The awards are conferred by the President of India at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhawan sometime around March- April.
Padma Award to Trade and Industry Leaders
Padma Bhushan
Trade and Industry
1. Subbiah Murugappa Vellayan, Tamil Nadu
2. Balasubramanian Muthuraman, Maharashtra
Padma Shri
Trade and Industry
1. Ms. Priya Paul, Delhi
2. Shoji Shiba, Japan
3. Gopinath Pillai, Singapore
4. Arun Hastimal Firodia, Maharashtra
5. Dr. Swati A. Piramal, Maharashtra
- Subbiah Murugappa Vellayan
Tata Steel Vice-Chairman B Muthuraman, Subbiah Murugappa Vellayan of the Murugappa group and Chairperson of Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels, Priya Paul are among seven people selected for this year’s Padma Awards in the trade and industry category.
While Muthuraman and Subbiah have been selected for the Padma Bhushan, Paul along with Piramal Healthcare Director Dr. A. Swati Piramal, Kinetic Group Chairman Arun Hastimal Firodia have been selected for the Padma Shri awards.
Shoji Shiba, an international expert in TQM and Breakthrough Management and Gopinath Pillai, a finance, industry and trading expert too have been selected for Padma Shri under the foreign category.
Shoji Shiba is currently Professor Emeritus, University of Tsukuba, Japan, Advisory Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, and Distinguished Honorary Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He is also Chief Advisor to the Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing Programme (VLFM) in India. In July 2008, he was felicitated for his contribution to the transformation of India’s manufacturing sector and for helping to build the critical Industry, academia and government collaboration.
B. Muthuraman, also the president of industry body CII, is a B.Tech in Metallurgical Engineering from IIT Madras and completed his MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur. He had joined Tata Steel in 1966 as a graduate trainee.
- Dr Swati A. Piramal
Vellayan Subbiah, the former Chairman of the Chennai- based USD 3.8 billion the Murugappa group was also the past president of CII. He is also an alumni of Harvard Business School.
Priya Paul, kin of UK-based industrialist Lord Swraj Paul, is an economics graduate from the US. She is also president of Hotel Association of India (HAI) and a founder Member of World Travel Tourism Council – Asia Chapter (WTTC). She is also member of the Advisory Board of Directors, IIM Lucknow.
Dr Swati A. Piramal, along with her husband Ajay Piramal, brought a fledgling company Nicholas Laboratories, whose turnover was just Rs 11 crore in 1988, to the level of an Indian multinational, having operations in the US, Europe and India and selling products to over 100 countries. She was also president of industry body Assocham.
Arun H Firodia is the chairman of the Kinetic Group. He developed, India’s first totally indigenous moped – ‘Luna’ , which became an instant hit with the consumers in the 70’s and 80’s.
Gopinath Pillai, who worked as General Manager of Intraco Limited, a Singapore Government Trading Company, serves as Executive Chairman of Savant Infocomm Pte Ltd and Chairman of Gateway Distriparks. He is an expert in areas of finance, industry and trading.
