Will Continue to Work For Health Sector: Poonawalla After Being Awarded Padma Bhushan

Apart from Cyrus Poonawalla, other recipients of the prestigious award include Krishna Ella and Suchitra Ella of Bharat Biotech. The awards were announced on the eve of Republic Day.

Pune: Hours after being conferred with the Padma Bhushan, Serum Institute of India managing director Dr Cyrus S Poonawalla on Tuesday said it was a great privilege for him to be among a prestigious list of illustrious people who have contributed to the growth of the country.

“It is a great privilege for me to be amongst a prestigious list of illustrious people who have contributed to the growth of our country. I would like to express my gratitude to the Government of India for this honour. Health is one of the strongest pillars of society, and I will continue to work towards making it equitable for all,” Poonawalla added.

It must be noted that SII is the manufacturer of the Covishield vaccine against COVID-19 and its prowess has been acknowledged across the world as nations battle the pandemic since early 2020.

Apart from Cyrus Poonawalla, other recipients of the prestigious award include Krishna Ella and Suchitra Ella of Bharat Biotech. The awards were announced on the eve of Republic Day.

Subbanna Ayyappan, Ajai Kumar Sonkar, Sanjaya Rajaram, Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, Aditya Prasad Dash, Moti Lal Madan, Anil Kumar Rajvanshi and Jyantkumar Maganlal Vyas have been awarded Padma Shri under the science and technology category.

Under the medicine category, Dr Himmatrao Bawaskar, Dr Prokar Dasgupta, Dr Lata Desai, Dr Vijaykumar Vinayak Dongre, Dr Narendra Prasad Misra (Posthumous), Dr Sunkara Venkata Adinarayana Rao, Dr Veeraswamy Seshiah, Dr Bhimsen Singhal, Dr Balaji Tambe (Posthumous), and Dr Kamlakar Tripathi were awarded Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award.

Srimad Baba Balia, Acharya Chandanaji, Shakuntala Choudhary and S Damodaran were among those awarded Padma Shri in the social work category.

The recipient list comprises four Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 Padma Shri awardees. Thirty-four of the awardees are women.