 "Modi, macron, france")
Four recipients of this year’s prestigious Padma awards are French nationals, government sources said, the highest for any foreign country, underscoring the strength in the bilateral ties between New Delhi and Paris.
The Padma awards were announced on Thursday, the day French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in India as the chief guest at the Republic Day parade.
These French nationals include 100-year-old yoga exponent Charlotte Chopin and Kiran Vyas, the 79-year-old veteran yoga and Ayurveda practitioner.
The other two --- Pierre Sylvain Filliozat, and Fred Negrit – bagged the honour for their work in literature and education, according to government sources.
They were all bestowed with the Padma Shri.
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Of the 132 Padma awards announced late on Thursday night, 30 awardees are women, and 34, or nearly a fourth, are ‘unsung heroes’ hailing from Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Class (OBC) sections of the society.
In the category ‘trade and industry’, the Padma Bhushan was conferred on Young Liu, the 66-year-old chief executive officer (CEO) and Chairman of Taiwanese technology giant Hon Hai Precision Technology Group, commonly known as Foxconn. In November, Foxconn, a leading supplier for Apple, in its effort to diversify away from China, announced investments worth $1.6 billion in India.
“I firmly believe this is an affirmation of a collaboration that benefits India’s long-term development and supports the growth of local economies. I will continue to inspire my team. Let’s do our part for manufacturing in India and the betterment of society,” Liu said in his message.
Others to get the award in the ‘trade and industry’ category include Karnataka’s Sitaram Jindal, who was awarded Padma Bhushan, while banker Kalpana Morparia and entrepreneur Shashi Soni will be the recipients of Padma Shri.
Jindal is the chairman and managing director of Jindal Aluminium Limited. Morparia is the CEO of the Indian unit of global investment bank J P Morgan & Co. Soni is the chairperson of Izmo Limited, which offers interactive marketing solutions and is also closely associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Art collector and philanthropist Kiran Nadar, wife of HCL Technologies founder Shiv Nadar, has also been conferred with the Padma Shri.
