Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award awarded by the Government of India. The award was instituted on 2 January 1954.
Bharat Ratna award is recognised for exceptional service/performance of the highest order in any field. It was initially limited to achievements in the arts, literature, science and public services, but later, the government extended it to “any field of human endeavour” in December 2011.
The Prime Minister recommends the Bharat Ratna award to the President. The award is restricted to a maximum of three nominees in a year.
The recipient will receive a Sanad (certificate) signed by the president and a peepal leaf-shaped medallion. It does not provide any monetary grant.
The rank of this award is compared to Padma Vibhushan. Bharat Ratna is given to a person of any field for the highest performance in arts and literature, science, public services, and other fields.
List of recipients of Bharat Ratna Award
Name | Year |
1954 | Chakravarti Rajgopalachari, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman(C.V. Raman) |
1955 | Jawaharlal Nehru, Bhagwan Das, M. Visvesvaraya |
1957 | Govind Ballabh Pant |
1958 | Dhondo Keshav Karve |
1961 | Bidhan Chandra Roy, Purushottam Das Tandon |
1962 | Rajendra Prasad |
1963 | Zakir Hussain, Pandurang Vaman Kane |
1966 | Lal Bahadur Shastri |
1971 | Indira Gandhi |
1975 | V. V. Giri |
1976 | K. Kamaraj |
1980 | Mother Teresa |
1983 | Vinoba Bhave |
1987 | Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan |
1988 | M. G. Ramachandran |
1990 | B. R. Ambedkar, Nelson Mandela |
1991 | Rajiv Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel, Morarji Desai |
1992 | J. R. D. Tata, Satyajit Ray |
1997 | A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Aruna Asaf Ali |
1998 | M. S. Subbulakshmi, Chidambaram Subramaniam |
1999 | Amartya Sen, Ravi Shankar, Gopinath Bordoloi |
2001 | Lata Mangeshkar, Bismillah Khan |
2008 | Bhimsen Joshi |
2014 | C. N. R. Rao (Chemist), Sachin Tendulkar (Cricketer) |
2015 | Madan Mohan Malaviya, Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
2019 | Pranab Mukherjee, Bhupen Hazarika, Nanaji Deshmukh |
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