Padma awards list is a sneak-peek into modern India’s journey: Here’s what data shows.

In 2026, science and engineering recorded their highest tally of Padma awardees in 12 years, while medicine logged its biggest haul in a decade. The two categories had 11 and 15 names, respectively, among the 131 recipients of India’s highest civilian honours announced by the government on Sunday evening ahead of Republic Day.

Together, the 26 Padma awardees in science, engineering and medicine made up one-fifth of the list, the highest share since 2016, shows a historical analysis by Mint. Their combined share had peaked at 40% in 2014. While these fields exceeded the 20% mark more often than not in the decades after the awards were instituted in 1954, their share has remained consistently below that threshold since 2017.

Just four names from India Inc.

Meanwhile, only four business leaders featured on the 2026 list, marking another decline after a brief rebound last year.

Uday Kotak, the founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank, received a Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour. The other three were: Ashok Khade, managing director of DAS Offshore Engineering; Satyanarayan Nuwal, founder-chairman of Solar Industries India Ltd; and T.T. Jagannathan, chairman emeritus of the TTK Group. They got a Padma Shri, the fourth-highest honour. Jagannathan was given the title posthumously, following his death in October 2025. The kitchen mogul was widely known for building Prestige into one of India’s most recognisable consumer brands.

The “trade and industry category category has gained prominence in the 21st century, reflecting the rising stature of business leaders in post-liberalization India: nearly two-thirds of the 234 Padma honours ever awarded to businesspersons have come since 2000. But the trend has been uneven in recent years. In 2026, it was the second-smallest of all major categories, and the annual tally has reached double digits only twice in the past decade—2020 and 2025.

Out of the total 5,510 titles given since 1954, just 4.3% have been from ‘trade and industry’. One in every three of them has hailed from Maharashtra, while nearly 10% have been foreigners. Industrialist J.R.D. Tata remains the sole business figure to have received the Bharat Ratna (1992).

Padma awards list: 2026

Five of the 131 awardees named on Sunday will get the Padma Vibhushan, 13 the Padma Bhushan, and 113 the Padma Shri. The names are officially announced on the eve of Republic Day, but are actually conferred upon in person later in the year.

Actor Dharmendra, who died last year, was named Padma Vibhushan, along with V.S. Achuthanandan (also posthumously), the former chief minister of Kerala. Other prominent awardees include former Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren (posthumously) and singer Alka Yagnik, both of whom received the Padma Shri. The 2026 list is the seventh longest: Last year, 139 names were announced, the highest after 1972 (with 148 recipients) and 2020 (141 recipients).

What our analysis shows

The field of arts continued to dominate the list (44 names), followed by literature and education (18): these two categories together accounted for nearly half of the 131 names. This pattern has strengthened over time. In the early decades after Independence, civil service officers and public-affairs figures were as frequent, or more, recipients, but their relative presence has since diminished.

Arts covers a range of cultural fields, from cinema to music and dance. It remains the highest awarded category, accounting for nearly 24% of the total Padma awards ever given.

Public affairs—which mostly refers to political or judicial figures—accounts for a relatively small share of awards historically: just 5.4%. But it dominates the list of the top two civilian honours, with nearly 60% of all Bharat Ratna awards going to this category so far. Social work is the other common field on these lists, with nearly 10% of all recipients since inception, and a similar share named in 2026.

In 2024, a record five Bharat Ratnas were conferred in a single year—on Karpoori Thakur, L.K. Advani, M.S. Swaminathan, Chaudhary Charan Singh and P.V. Narasimha Rao. No Bharat Ratna recipients have been named since.

Historically, some of the most dominant states in the fields of politics, business and culture have had a lion’s share. Maharashtra has had 873 names on these lists so far, the highest of all: that’s a 16% share. Delhi closely follows with 847 awards (15%). But both these states are no longer as dominant: they have only had a combined 13% share in the 2020s (down from 30% in the 2010s), as states such as Gujarat, Odisha, and Bihar have gained visibility at the highest level.

In addition, 330 titles have gone to foreigners and Indian-origin individuals, 124 of them to those based in the US. The 2026 list has six foreigners, including two Padma Bhushans from the US: Dr. Nori Dattatreyudu (medicine) and Vijay Amritraj (sports).

The UK, France, Japan, and Russia are also among major foreign recipients.

Last year, Osamu Suzuki, Japanese businessman and the chairman of Suzuki Motor Corp., was conferred with the Padma Vibhushan posthumously. Four Bharat Ratnas have been given to foreign nationals over the years: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Pakistan), Nelson Mandela (South Africa), Amartya Sen (who was based in the UK at the time of the award), and Pandit Ravi Shankar (US).