The award carries a purse of Rs two lakh, sculpture and a citation.
A three-member panel of jury comprising literary critic M Leelavathi, novelist M Mukundan and writer C Radhakrishnan, who selected 84-year-old Padmanabhan for the award, opined that he gave a new dimension to the Malayalam short story stream, Mathrubhumi Managing Director M P Veerendrakumar and Managing Editor P V Chandran said in a release.
Padmanabhan's stories have been translated to various Indian languages and also to English, French, German and Russian.
Recipient of several honours including the Ezhuthachan Award, Vallathol Award, Vayalar Award, Lalithambika Antharjanam Award and Sahitya Parishad Award, Padmanabhan also won the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad's Award for his outstanding contributions to Indian languages.