Double Trouble for Arvind Kejriwal, Will Face Trial in Defamation Cases

• 

  Not long after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal learned today that he must face trial in a Delhi court in a criminal defamation case filed against him by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, another court has summoned him and ordered him to face trial on defamation charges. The Chief Minister has been sued by former Test cricketer Chetan Chauhan.
  
  The Delhi court hearing Mr Jaitley's allegations said Mr Kejriwal had exhibited "dilatory tactics to delay trial" and must be present in court on March 25 when charges will be framed against him and five other senior leaders of his Aam Aadmi Party.
  
  Before that he has to appear in the other Delhi court on February 18 in the case filed by Chetan Chauhan of the BJP.
  

  Mr Jaitley had in December 2015, filed civil and criminal defamation cases against Mr Kejriwal and the other AAP leaders for accusing him of corruption linked to Delhi's cricket body DDCA, which he headed for 13 years till 2013. The other AAP leaders named in the case are Ashutosh, Kumar Vishwas, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chaddha and Deepak Bajpai.
  
   Mr Jaitley has alleged that Mr Kejriwal made false allegations for "political mileage, causing irreversible damage to him." Besides filing a criminal complaint, he also filed a civil suit seeking Rs. 10 crore in damages.
  

  
  "We had always maintained that this was nothing but delay tactics and there was no basis in law for what they were asking for" said senior lawyer Siddharth Luthra who is representing Mr Jaitley.
  

  
  Chetan Chuahan has filed defamation charges against the Delhi Chief Minister and suspended BJP lawmaker Kirti Azad for alleging a sex racket in the DDCA or Delhi & District Cricket Association when Mr Chauhan was its vice president.
  
  Neither Arun Jaitley nor Arvind Kejriwal and his colleagues were present in court today. Both had moved applications through their lawyers asking for exemption from appearing.
  
  While Mr Kejriwal said he and the other AAP leaders were out campaigning in Punjab, where assembly elections will be held this week, Mr Jaitley had informed the court that he was busy with meetings and could not appear today.
  
  Mr Kejriwal's lawyer Rishikesh Kumar, said, "We will challenge the dismissal of our petition in the High court as we believe that it is the right of the persons who have been accused to be heard before declining on framing of notice or charges."
  
  Last year, both the Delhi High Court and then the Supreme Court had dismissed Mr Kejriwal's request that the Finance Minister's criminal defamation case against him be suspended.

5 Soldiers Rescued From Under Snow In Jammu and Kashmir's Macchil Die

• 

  The five soldiers who were rescued after being trapped in snow on Saturday in Jammu and Kashmir's Macchil sector, have died. The soldiers had got buried in snow after a track leading to their post had caved in. They had been taken to a hospital in Srinagar, where they were receiving medical care.
  
  The soldiers from the 56 Rashtriya Rifles were on routine counter insurgency duties when the accident took place, sources said.
  

  Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed heavy snow last week and authorities had issued warning about snow-related accidents and avalanches. Power and communication lines were cut in some areas. A large number of people were evacuated from the high-risk areas after the warning by the authorities.
  
  Four avalanches had hit the Gurez sector and Sonmarg on Wednesday, killing 15 soldiers and five civilians.
  
  Two of the avalanches had hit a military post and a patrol along the Line of Control in Gurez. Despite the hostile weather, the army rescuers had managed to take six of the soldiers to safety. The bodies of three soldiers were recovered. Another avalanche in the morning had killed a family of four in the same area.
  
  In Sonmarg, an army officer died after being buried in snow during an avalanche the same morning. A 60-year-old man died after he was buried in snow during an avalanche in Uri sector of Kashmir's Baramulla district. Though he was rescued and taken to a hospital, he did not survive.
  

  
  In 2012, a massive avalanche in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir killed 140 people.

Ex-PM Manmohan Singh Helped Vijay Mallya, Alleges BJP

• 

  Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh helped tycoon Vijay Mallya get loans, the BJP alleged today, citing letters that have been reported in the media.
  
  The BJP cited a report that said the UPA government facilitated loans to Mr Mallya after he allegedly wrote to Manmohan Singh and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram in 2011 and 2013.
  
  The letters allegedly requested that loans to Mr Mallya's defunct Kingfisher Airlines from a consortium of banks be speeded up.
  

  "From where did Vijay Mallya procure such funds? Was sinking ship (Congress) helping sinking airline (Kingfisher)" questioned BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.
  
  Mr Patra said even though the loans were not repaid, Mr Mallya was granted loans again and again.
  
  Mr Mallya moved to Britain in March last year in the middle of efforts by a group of banks to recover nearly 9,000 crores in unpaid loans to Kingfisher airlines.
  
  Indian agencies have since made several attempts to bring back the businessman, who faces warrants in courts. Mr Mallya has said he is living in "forced exile".

SAARC Member States To Meet In Nepal This Week

• 

   Senior officials of the eight member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will meet in Kathmandu this week to attend the Programming Committee.
  
  This will be the first meeting of the SAARC member countries since the postponement of the 19th SAARC summit in Islamabad last November, officials said on Sunday.
  
  During the meeting, SAARC member states will discuss a number of issues including the budget of the SAARC Secretariat and five regional centers of SAARC, Xinhua news agency quoted officials of the Nepalese Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying.
  
  Nepal, current chair of the SAARC, had decided to postpone the SAARC Summit until further notice after four nations Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh and India decided to boycott the summit in Islamabad scheduled for November 9 and 10 last year.
  
  India and three other nations had blamed Pakistan for not creating a conducive environment and not cooperating on combating cross-border terrorism in South Asia for holding the SAARC Summit, while Pakistan vehemently denied the charges.
  
  SAARC is a regional body founded in 1985 in South Asia, comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Business Affairs 

RBI removes ATM withdrawal limit for current accounts from Feb 1

• 

  Reserve Bank on Monday reversed its decision enforcing limits on cash withdrawals from bank accounts and ATMs. The limit on cash withdrawals were brought in by the RBI after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation on November 8, 2016.

  In a notification on Monday, the central bank said after a review of the pace of remonetisation, it has been decided to partially restore status quo ante as under:

  
  

  • Limits placed vide the circulars cited above on cash withdrawals from Current accounts/ Cash credit accounts/ Overdraft accounts stand withdrawn with immediate effect.
  • The limits on Savings Bank accounts will continue for the present and are under consideration for withdrawal in the near future.
  • Limits vide the circulars cited above placed on cash withdrawals from ATMs stand withdrawn from February 01, 2017. However, banks may, at their discretion, have their own operating limits as was the case before November 8, 2016, subject to 2 (ii) above.

  
  "Further, banks are urged to encourage their constituents to sustain the movement towards digitisation of payments and switching over of payments from cash mode to non-cash mode," RBI added.

Govt readies budget to soothe voters after cash crunch

• 

  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the most challenging budget of his tenure on Wednesday, as he seeks to appease voters still hurting from the radical monetary shock therapy that his government has administered.

  The 2017/18 budget comes less than three months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bold and risky gamble to outlaw high-value old currency bills, which has slammed the brakes on Asia's third-largest economy and hit the poor particularly hard.

  According to one survey, a third of people say their incomes have fallen, with nearly a tenth saying they are much worse off.

  Judging how quickly the economy will recover is a tough call, making Jaitley's revenue projections a shot in the dark.

  A delay in the launch of a new national sales tax has added to the uncertainty. The Goods and Services tax (GST) is expected to improve tax compliance and check evasion, but the union and state governments have yet to work out its details.

  Officials say his fourth budget will likely offer modest tax concessions and ramp up spending to ease the pain caused by Modi's decision in November to scrap 86 percent of the currency in circulation in a bid to purge the cash-reliant economy of illicit "black money" and expose untaxed wealth.

  Paying for those giveaways may require Jaitley to slow the pace of fiscal tightening, officials told Reuters.

  As well as buoying consumer spending, which contributes nearly 60 percent to gross domestic product, sops to voters could also shore up the fortunes of Modi's nationalist party in five regional elections for which voting begins on Saturday.

  The electoral outcome, particularly in the battleground state of Uttar Pradesh that is home to one in every six Indians, is being viewed by analysts as a mid-term "referendum" on Modi.

  If voters deliver a negative verdict on his cash clampdown, his chances of winning a second term in 2019 as prime minister would suffer.

  Yet even though the cash crunch has inflicted the most pain on the poor, Modi has said in his campaign speeches it would punish the venal rich. Bad economics may be good politics, say some analysts.

  "Indian politics is determined by intangible factors of voter perception and not necessarily just the tangible economic numbers," said Shailesh Kumar, a senior analyst with Eurasia Group.

  "For the Indian voter, demonetisation signals that Modi is trying, and is perhaps the only one doing something to address corruption."

  DEBT-FUELLED SPENDING

  Private economists expect Jaitley to plan a union fiscal deficit of 3.3-3.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2017/18.

  That is higher than the 3 percent pledged earlier but lower than 3.5 percent that the government has budgeted for the current year to the end of March.

  That would create space to invest an extra $6 billion, but would be anathema to ratings agencies concerned that India's high national debt exposes it to shocks, such as a possible spike in oil prices.

  Federal revenues are expected to increase as a share of GDP by 0.5 percent in the current fiscal year, thanks to incremental hikes in fuel duties.

  Ahead of the GST's expected launch from July 1, Jaitley may increase the service tax rate to bring it into line with the proposed standard rate under the new tax regime.

  An income tax amnesty scheme launched after Modi's banknote ban is also likely to lift receipts, but officials are reluctant to say by how much. Similarly, expansion in the formal economy following demonetisation should widen the tax base.

  "The new (financial) year is likely to be a year of direct tax buoyancy," said Pranjul Bhandari, chief India economist at HSBC.

  India, meanwhile, risks losing its status as the world's fastest-growing big economy to China. The International Monetary Fund this month cut its 2016/17 forecast by one percentage point to 6.6 percent.

  India's automobile sales saw their biggest monthly fall in 16 years in December, the first full calendar month after the note ban. Sales took the biggest hit in rural areas where cash transactions predominate.

  CMIE, an economic think tank, fears a failure to revive consumer demand will leave growth languishing at about 6 percent over the next five years, a marked slowdown from an average rate of 7.1 percent in the past three years.

  "Government (spending) has a smaller role and can contain the damage only partially," said Mahesh Vyas, chief executive officer at CMIE.

Sensex, Nifty fall amid mixed global cues

• 

  The benchmark indices opened on a flat note on the back of cautious investors anticipating Donald Trump's protectionist policies.

  On a domestic front, investors kept low awaiting the Union Budget later this week and key earnings report later in the day.

  At 9.45 AM, The S&P BSE Sensex was trading 27,826, down 55.91 points while the Nifty50 was trading 8,622, down 18.70 points.

  "The ongoing uptrend in the indices could continue further towards 8737 and 8820 in near term. However, citing the 'Union Budget 2017-2018' which is scheduled to be announced on 1st February, there could be increased volatility during the forthcoming week. Hence, traders are advised to trade with proper risk management strategies on their trading positions," said an Angel Broking report.

  L&T gained 1 per cent after the company reported a 38.86 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 972.47 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2016 against Rs 700.34 crore reported for the corresponding quarter last year.

  Among the top performers on the BSE Sensex were Airtel and Sun pharma gaining 4.42 per cent and 2.06 per cent respectively.

  However, BSE IT sector index fell 0.5 per cent after Donald Trump's immigration ban order as IT firms remained uncertain on how this will affect the H1B visa norms.

  Infosys, TCS, Wipro fell over 1 per cent each, becoming the biggest laggards on BSE Sensex.

  Budget

  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is likely to hike service tax rate to 16-18 per cent from the current 15 per cent in the Budget as a forerunner to GST rollout later this year

  The move, that will make air travel, restaurant bills, phone bills and other services expensive.

  Global Markets
  
  Among the Asian stock markets, China's Shanghai Composite Index was trading flat, up 9 points, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 13 points while Japan's Nikkei slid 0.5 per cent early on Monday.
  
  Wall Street ended on a mixed note on Friday after the initial fourth-quarter GDP read fell short of estimates, but managed to record weekly gains of around 1%. The Dow Jones slipped 10 points but held above 20,000-mark.

Demonetisation after-effect: Business expectation index declines during Q3

• 

  The Business Expectations Index (BEI), released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), indicated a decline in business sentiments in the December 2016 quarter to 101.1 from 102.7, in the second quarter of 2016-17.

  The business sentiments of the Indian manufacturing sector, as inferred from the BEI, deteriorated for the second successive quarter. It is evident that demonetisation played a significant role in causing a decline in the sentiments.

  The survey indicated slight moderation in the sentiments in demand condition for the second successive quarter. In respect of several parameters like order books, capacity utilisation and imports, the level of optimism was lower during the quarter-ended December 2016 than the preceding quarter. Other components of the index including employment, salary and financial situation saw a moderation in sentiments.

  Sentiments on cost of raw material and cost of finance saw a reduction in pessimism. With slight increase in selling price, the profit margin was perceived to have declined further. On the other hand, respondents were more optimistic about the export performance while the optimism on production remained unchanged.

  RBI calculates BEI by using weighted net responses of participants of its Industrial Outlook Survey on nine indicators. The survey provides qualitative assessment of business situation of companies in the manufacturing sector.

  It also evaluates the expectations of companies for the succeeding quarter. As per the latest round of the survey, i.e. the 76th round, the outlook on business sentiments in the expectations period (January-March 2017) indicated a pattern similar to the one during quarter-ended December 2016. Outlook for order books and production deteriorated. However, optimism was expressed in pending orders, exports and cost of finance. However, pressure from rise in cost of raw material is expected to result in deterioration of the profit margin.

Silicon Valley puts money and muscle into fighting Trump immigrant curbs

• 

  Silicon Valley took the lead over the weekend in corporate resistance to President Donald Trump's clampdown on immigration, financing legal opposition, criticizing the plan, as well as helping employees ensnared by his executive order.

  In an industry that has long depended on immigrants and celebrated their contributions - as well as championing liberal causes such as gay rights - there was little initial consensus on exactly how to respond to Trump's move on Friday.

  But, while most in the tech industry stopped short of directly criticizing the new Republican president, they went much further than their counterparts in other sectors, who were mostly silent over the weekend. Most of the major U.S. banks and auto companies, for example, declined to comment in response to Reuters inquiries.

  Trump ordered a temporary ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries and a 120-day halt to refugee resettlement. The action triggered a global backlash, and sowed confusion and anger after immigrants, refugees and visitors were kept off flights and left stranded in airports.

  Bigger companies such as Apple Inc, Google and Microsoft Corp offered legal aid to employees affected by the order, according to letters sent to staff. Several Silicon Valley executives donated to legal efforts to support immigrants facing the ban.

  And Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk and Uber head Travis Kalanick both said on Twitter that they would take industry concerns about immigration to Trump's business advisory council, where they serve.

  Kalanick has faced opposition on social media for agreeing to be part of the advisory group. Kalanick in a Facebook post on Sunday called the immigration ban "wrong and unjust" and said that Uber would create a $3 million fund to help drivers with immigration issues.

  Among those affected by the ban was Khash Sajadi, the British-Iranian chief executive of San Francisco-based tech company Cloud 66, who was stuck in London. Like many tech workers, he holds an H1B visa, which enables foreigners with special expertise to work for U.S. companies.

  Sajadi said he hoped big tech companies such as Google and Facebook would take legal action to protect affected employees. That could help set a precedent for people in similar situations - but at smaller companies.

  "Ultimately, I think them simply speaking up is not going to move the needle with people" who are not wealthy and do not live on the East or West Coasts, he said.

  'TECH AGAINST TRUMP' PROTEST

  The response from tech companies has been "as forceful as it possibly can be," said Eric Talley, a corporate law professor at Columbia Law School.

  "One of the difficult aspects of reaction to the Trump administration in its first couple of weeks is trying to balance the interest of expressing legitimate concern ... against the potential cost of being out too far ahead of everyone else," he said.

  The tech industry also has other issues where it may find itself opposed to Trump, including trade policy and cyber security.

  The president of Mountain View, California-based startup incubator Y Combinator, Sam Altman, wrote a widely read blog post urging tech leaders to band together against the immigration order. He said he has spoken with a variety of people about organizing but remains unsure about the best course of action.

  "The honest answer is we don't know yet," he said. "We are talking with legal groups and tech groups, but this is so unprecedented that I don't think anyone has a manual."

  At Lyft, co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green pledged on the company's blog to donate a million dollars over the next four years to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which won a temporary stay of part of Trump's executive order on Saturday night.

  Slack collaboration service co-founder Stewart Butterfield and Union Square Ventures partners Albert Wenger and Fred Wilson promised to match contributions to the ACLU.

  Michael Dearing, founder of venture capital firm Harrison Metal, started an effort called Project ELLIS, short for Entrepreneurs' Liberty Link in Silicon Valley, to help startups and smaller tech companies with immigration issues. "ELLIS" is a also a reference to New York Harbor's Ellis Island, where millions of immigrants arrived.

  In less than a day, the group has handled two cases, he said.

  Dearing said the idea was to "get people in touch quickly with the ... resources they would have access to if they were in a Google or an Apple or a Microsoft."

  Dave McClure, the founding partner of 500 Startups and an outspoken critic of Trump, said his venture capital firm will soon open its first fund in the Middle East and will shift its attention to supporting entrepreneurs in their native countries, if bringing them to the United States proves impossible.

  "Investing in entrepreneurs in other countries is probably one of the best things we can do to promote international awareness and understanding," he said.

  Rank-and-file employees were already prodding executives to go further over the weekend.

  Shortly after learning of Trump's order, Brad Taylor, a 37-year-old engineer for web analytics firm Optimizely, began organizing "Tech Against Trump," a protest scheduled to take place on March 14.

  In addition to holding a rally in Palo Alto, California, organizers of the event were urging tech workers at companies that have remained silent on Trump to walk out of their offices.

  Taylor said he was heartened by tech leaders' statements over the weekend but wants to see the industry go further.

  "The purpose of this is not to be against tech, but to urge them to be on the right side of history," he said.

General Awareness

Padma Awards 2017

• Padma Awards - one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The Awards are given in various disciplines/ fields of activities, viz.- art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc. ‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; ‘Padma Bhushan’ for distinguished service of high order and ‘Padma Shri’ for distinguished service in any field. The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.

  
  

              These awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March/ April every year. This year the President of India has approved conferment of Padma Awards to 89 persons as per the list below. The list comprises of 7 Padma Vibhushan, 7 Padma Bhushan and 75 Padma Shri Awardees.  19 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 5 persons from the category of foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and 6 Posthumous awardees.

  PADMA VIBHUSHAN

  Sl. No	Name	Field	State
  1.	Shri K J Yesudas	Art-Music	Kerala
  2.	Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev	Others-Spiritualism	Tamil Nadu
  3.	Shri Sharad Pawar	Public Affairs	Maharashtra
  4.	Shri Murli Manohar Joshi	Public Affairs	Uttar Pradesh
  5.	Prof. Udipi Ramachandra Rao	Science & Engineering	Karnataka
  6.	Late Shri Sunder Lal Patwa (Posthumous)	Public Affairs	Madhya Pradesh
  7.	Late Shri PA Sangma (Posthumous)	Public Affairs	Meghalaya

  
  

  Padma Bhushan

  Sl. No.	Name	Field	State
  8.	Shri Vishwa Mohan Bhatt	Art-Music	Rajasthan
  9.	Prof. (Dr.) Devi Prasad Dwivedi	Literature & Education	Uttar Pradesh
  10.	Shri Tehemton Udwadia	Medicine	Maharashtra
  11.	Shri Ratna Sundar Maharaj	Others-Spiritualism	Gujarat
  12.	Swami Niranjana Nanda Saraswati	Others-Yoga	Bihar
  13.	H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn (Foreigner)	Literature & Education	Thailand
  14.	Late Shri Cho Ramaswamy (Posthumous)	Literature & Education –Journalism	Tamil Nadu

             

  Padma Shri 

  Sl. No	Name	Field	State
  15.	Smt. Basanti Bisht	Art-Music	Uttarakhand
  16.	Shri Chemanchery Kunhiraman Nair	Art-Dance	Kerala
  17.	Smt. Aruna Mohanty	Art-Dance	Odisha
  18.	Smt. Bharathi Vishnuvardhan	Art-Cinema	Karnataka
  19.	Shri Sadhu Meher	Art-Cinema	Odisha
  20.	Shri T K Murthy	Art-Music	Tamil Nadu
  21.	Shri Laishram Birendrakumar Singh	Art-Music	Manipur
  22.	Shri Krishna Ram Chaudhary	Art-Music	Uttar Pradesh
  23.	Smt. Baoa Devi	Art-Painting	Bihar
  24.	Shri Tilak Gitai	Art-Painting	Rajasthan
  25.	Dr. Prof. Aekka Yadagiri Rao	Art-Sculpture	Telangana
  26.	Shri Jitendra Haripal	Art-Music	Odisha
  27.	Shri Kailash Kher	Art-Music	Maharashtra
  28.	Smt. Parassala B Ponnammal	Art-Music	Kerala
  29.	Smt. Sukri Bommagowda	Art-Music	Karnataka
  30.	Shri Mukund Nayak	Art-Music	Jharkhand
  31.	Shri Purushottam Upadhyay	Art-Music	Gujarat
  32.	Smt. Anuradha Paudwal	Art-Music	Maharashtra
  33.	Shri Wareppa Naba Nil	Art-Theatre	Manipur
  34.	Shri Tripuraneni Hanuman Chowdary	Civil Service	Telangana
  35.	Shri T.K. Viswanathan	Civil Service	Haryana
  36.	Shri Kanwal Sibal	Civil Service	Delhi
  37.	Shri Birkha Bahadur Limboo Muringla	Literature & Education	Sikkim
  38.	Smt. Eli Ahmed	Literature & Education	Assam
  39.	Dr. Narendra Kohli	Literature & Education	Delhi
  40.	Prof. G. Venkatasubbiah	Literature & Education	Karnataka
  41.	Shri Akkitham Achyuthan Namboothiri	Literature & Education	Kerala
  42.	Shri Kashi Nath Pandita	Literature & Education	Jammu & Kashmir
  43.	Shri Chamu Krishna Shastry	Literature & Education	Delhi
  44.	Shri Harihar Kripalu Tripathi	Literature & Education	Uttar Pradesh
  45.	Shri Michel Danino	Literature & Education	Tamil Nadu
  46.	Shri Punam Suri	Literature & Education	Delhi
  47.	Shri VG Patel	Literature & Education	Gujarat
  48.	Smt. V Koteswaramma	Literature & Education	Andhra Pradesh
  49.	Shri Balbir Dutt	Literature & Education-Journalism	Jharkhand
  50.	Smt. Bhawana Somaaya	Literature & Education-Journalism	Maharashtra
  51.	Shri Vishnu Pandya	Literature & Education-Journalism	Gujarat
  52.	Dr. Subroto Das	Medicine	Gujarat
  53.	Dr. (Smt.) Bhakti Yadav	Medicine	Madhya Pradesh
  54.	Dr. Mohammed Abdul Waheed	Medicine	Telangana
  55.	Dr. Madan Madhav Godbole	Medicine	Uttar Pradesh
  56.	Dr. Devendra Dayabhai Patel	Medicine	Gujarat
  57.	Prof. Harkishan Singh	Medicine	Chandigarh
  58.	Dr. Mukut Minz	Medicine	Chandigarh
  59.	Shri Arun Kumar Sharma	Others-Archaeology	Chhattisgarh
  60.	Shri Sanjeev Kapoor	Others-Culinary	Maharashtra
  61.	Smt. Meenakshi Amma	Others-Martial Art	Kerala
  62.	Shri Genabhai Dargabhai Patel	Others-Agriculture	Gujarat
  63.	Shri Chandrakant Pithawa	Science & Engineering	Telangana
  64.	Prof. Ajoy Kumar Ray	Science & Engineering	West Bengal
  65.	Shri Chintakindi Mallesham	Science & Engineering	Andhra Pradesh
  66.	Shri Jitendra Nath Goswami	Science & Engineering	Assam
  67.	Shri Daripalli Ramaiah	Social Work	Telangana
  68.	Shri Girish Bhardwaj	Social Work	Karnataka
  69.	Shri Karimul Hak	Social Work	West Bengal
  70.	Shri Bipin Ganatra	Social Work	West Bengal
  71.	Smt. Nivedita Raghunath Bhide	Social work	Tamil Nadu
  72.	Shri Appasaheb Dharmadhikari	Social Work	Maharashtra
  73.	Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal	Social Work	Punjab
  74.	Shri Virat Kohli	Sports-Cricket	Delhi
  75.	Shri Shekar Naik	Sports-Cricket	Karnataka
  76.	Shri Vikasa Gowda	Sports-Discus Throw	Karnataka
  77.	Smt. Deepa Malik	Sports-Athletics	Haryana
  78.	Shri Mariyappan Thangavelu	Sports-Athletics	Tamil Nadu
  79.	Smt. Dipa Karmakar	Sports-Gymnastics	Tripura
  80.	Shri P R Shreejesh	Sports-Hockey	Kerala
  81.	Smt. Sakshi Malik	Sports-Wrestling	Haryana
  82.	Shri Mohan Reddy Venkatrama Bodanapu	Trade & Industry	Telangana
  83.	Shri Imrat Khan  (NRI/PIO)	Art-Music	USA
  84.	Shri Anant Agarwal (NRI/PIO)	Literature & Education	USA
  85.	Shri H.R. Shah (NRI/PIO)	Literature & Education-Journalism	USA
  86.	Late (Smt.) Suniti Solomon (Posthumous)	Medicine	Tamil Nadu
  87.	Shri Asoke Kumar Bhattacharyya (Posthumous)	Others-Archaeology	West Bengal
  88.	Dr. Mapuskar (Posthumous)	Social Work	Maharashtra
  89.	Smt. Anuradha Koirala (Foreigner)	Social Work	Nepal