The Government of India has announced the Padma Awards 2022. This year vaccine makers Bharat Biotech's Dr Krishna Ella (Chairman & Managing Director) and Suchitra Ella (Joint Managing Director) and Serum Institute of India's Dr Cyrus Poonawala (Chairman) will receive the Padma Bhushan (in the trade and industry category).

While the Serum Institute of India (SII) has been working continuously towards manufacturing COVID-19 vaccine- Covishield since 2020, Bharat Biotech has developed India's first 'indigenous coronavirus vaccine'- Covaxin.

In addition, Dr Himmatrao Bawaskar and Dr Vijaykumar Vinayak Dongre, Dr Bhimsen Singhal from Maharashtra, Dr Prokar Dasgupta from the UK, Dr Lata Desai from Gujarat, Dr Sunkara Venkata Adinarayana Rao from Andhra Pradesh, Dr Veeraswamy Seshiah from Tamil Nadu and Dr Kamlakar Tripathi from Uttar Pradesh will receive the Padma Shri in medicine.

Dr Narendra Prasad Misra from Madhya Pradesh and Dr Balaji Tambe from Maharashtra will receive the award posthumously, in the filed of medicine.

These awards will be conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March/ April every year. This year the President has approved conferment of 128 Padma Awards.

Padma Awards - one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. ‘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.