President Droupadi Murmu presided over the second civil investiture ceremony of the Padma Awards 2026 at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Tuesday evening, conferring honours on dignitaries from cinema, sport, medicine, law and public service. The ceremony, held months after the awards were first announced around this year's Republic Day, completed the presentation of all 131 names cleared by the government, with the remaining honourees recognised in this second round after an initial batch of 66 received their awards earlier.
Veteran Malayalam actor Mammootty was among the marquee names to receive the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian honour, alongside playback singer Alka Yagnik and physician Dr. Nori Dattatreya. Former Supreme Court judge Justice K.T. Thomas and senior Malayalam journalist P. Narayanan were conferred the Padma Vibhushan, the country's second-highest civilian award, recognising decades of contribution to the judiciary and journalism respectively.
For Andhra Pradesh and Telangana audiences, the ceremony carried particular resonance: veteran Telugu film actors Maganti Murali Mohan and Rajendra Prasad were both conferred the Padma Shri, joining a list of honourees that also included actor R. Madhavan and cricketer Rohit Sharma. Murali Mohan and Rajendra Prasad, who have spent decades shaping Telugu cinema across generations, were felicitated separately in Delhi a day earlier by Andhra Pradesh's Minister for IT and Human Resource Development, Nara Lokesh, who called their recognition a moment of pride for the Telugu film industry.
Tuesday's event drew a wide cross-section of India's political leadership, including Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and former President Ram Nath Kovind, alongside several Union ministers. The Padma Awards, instituted in 1954, remain among the country's highest civilian honours, recognising distinguished service in fields ranging from the arts and literature to science, sport, medicine and public affairs.
