NEW DELHI: Women’s hockey team captain Rani Rampal was honoured with the Padma Shri award 2020 on Monday. Rani Rampal had led the women’s hockey team in Tokyo Olympics 2020 held earlier this year.
Padma Shri Award is the country’s fourth-highest civilian award. The ceremony for presenting Padma awards was held at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi today. Rampal was conferred with the award by President Ram Nath Kovind. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar were among the attendees. The Padma Awards are one of the highest civilian honours of India announced annually on the eve of Republic Day.
The Awards are given in three categories: Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service), Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of higher order) and Padma Shri (distinguished service). The award seeks to recognise achievements in all fields of activities or disciplines where an element of public service is involved. 119 Padma Awards will be presented by President this year.
The list comprises seven Padma Vibhushan, 10 Padma Bhushan and 102 Padma Shri Awards. 29 of the awardees are women, 16 Posthumous awardees and one transgender awardee.
