Seven persons hailing from Telangana were honoured with #PadmaShri this year.
Tripuraneni Hanuman Chowdary initiated the restructuring of the DOT, first by its separation from the Posts and constituting the operations into corporations. He was the first and founding Chairman and Managing Director of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), India’s International Telecommunications Corporation.
He has drafted an alternative Indian Telecom Law in 1992, to replace the Indian Telegraphs Act, 1885, and submitted it as an alternative report of the Government of India’s High Power Committee (of which he was a member) to amend the Indian Telegraph Act. He also drafted the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Bill, which has become the basis for the final TRAI Act.
Aekka Yadagiri Rao, designer of the Telangana Martyrs Memorial, is renowned sculptor and a skillful carver. He is one of the most prominent among the first generation artists of South India who opted for sculpting and received national fame by winning awards and appreciations by the leading critics.
He is the only sculptor of Telangana State who did several State–sponsored commotions of great socio-political importance, carved huge stone blocks and assembled even larger metal objects. Yadagiri Rao, retired as Professor, Department of Sculptor, Collage of Fine Arts, Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University (JNTU), Hyderabad.
Daripalli ‘Vanajeevi’ Ramaiah from Reddypally village, Khammam district, is a man on mission to plant trees and bring back the green cover. People say he has planted over a crore trees. All that became part of his pride possession over the years were a bicycle, a few iron rings with the message ‘Vriksho Rakshati Rakshitah’ painted on them and a tiny crowbar used for planting the saplings. He sets out at in the morning with his lunch pail and a minimum of 100 home grown saplings in his basket. People say he has planted over a crore trees.
He goes on planting them in school grounds, hospital premises and government offices. By the time the people recognised his service with the first media reports appearing about him some time in 2005, his mission was past a million plants and today he proudly boasts of his fete of over one crore plants grown to his credit.
Bodanapu Venkat Rama Mohan Reddy has served as Chairman, NASSCOM (The National Association of Software and Services Companies) during 2015-16 and has been engaged into various industry and government initiatives like Make in India, Digital India, Swatch Bharat. Recently, Reddy has been appointed as Honorary Consul of Federal Republic of Germany for states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
BVR Mohan Reddy is the second Indian to receive this honour from the German Government.Reddy also serves as Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT, Hyderabad since 2012. He has also been appointed as a Director on the Board of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). He is member on the Board of NIIT University, Neemrana; member of Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at IIIT Hyderabad.
Chandrakanth Pithawa is widely distinguished Scientist and retired Director, Electronics and Instrumentation Group, Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, and well regarded as an expert in nuclear instrumentation meant for nuclear power plants in country. Post retirement He was made Raja Ramanna Fellow for BARC, Mumbai and Hyderabad-based Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL). The Raja Ramanna fellowship was set up by Union government with an intention to utilise services of scientists who are involved in high quality research in specialised disciplines in units of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) or any other national laboratory. His major professional contributions include computer-based embedded control systems forKaiga-1&2, RAPP-3&4 and TAPP-3&4 nuclear power plants, Dhruva Research Reactor and High Temperature Fission Detectors & Ultrasonic camera for under sodium scanning for PFBR.
Chintakindi Mallesham from Sarajipet village, Aler mandal, Nalgonda district, invented the ‘Lakshmi Asu machine’ that reduced the time taken to weave a sari from four hours to just 90 minutes, freeing up women for more remunerative work. The machine has impacted 60 per cent of the looms that were engaged in weaving at Pochampally. Mallesham was selected for Padma Shri in the field of Science and Technology.
Mallesham is known for his continuous innovation and scaling up his weaving machine. The first machine was made in 1999, mounted on a wooden frame, next year, same was changed to steel , further many electronic components have been added thus increasing the functionality and flexibility of design. The 44-year-old school drop out also has sold his machines in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
Dr Mohammed Abdul Waheed is a dermatology specialist in Hyderabad with an experience of 25 years. Dr Waheed is a former head of the Central Research Institute of Unani Medicine in Hyderabad.
He has co-ordinated multi-centric clinical trials of Unani medicines in diabetes, hypertension, vitiligo and hepatitis with seven different institutions. He has published 26 research papers in national and international journals and presented more than 60 papers at various conferences.
Dr. Waheed was coordinating over 160 Research Projects at CRIUM Hyderabad in the domain of Preclinical (in vitro and in vivo), Clinical Research & Development, Unani Pharmacopoeial drug standardization, medicinal plants and formulation development. He was coordinating collaborative research programmes with various Institutions such as ICMR-NIN Hyderabad, CSIR-IIIM Jammu, NIPER Hyderabad.
