List of Padma Bhushan award recipients (1980–1989)

[1] Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service of a high order", without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex.

[a] After assuming office as Prime Minister of India in 1977, Morarji Desai withdrew all the civilian awards, reckoning them as "worthless and politicized".

[6] As a result, the Padma Bhushan award was not conferred to any person from 1978 until 1980 when the suspension was rescinded on 25 January by Indira Gandhi, Desai's predecessor who had returned to office.

Individuals from nine different fields were awarded, which includes twenty-eight from literature and education, twenty-five from civil services, twenty-three artists, twenty from science and engineering, thirteen from medicine, ten from public affairs, eight from social work, four from trade and industry, and three from sportspersons.

[8] Pushpa Mittra Bhargava, scientist and founder-director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) who had received the award in 1986 in the field of medicine, returned it in 2015 in protest of the Dadri mob lynching and out of concern at the "prevailing socio-politico situation" in the country.

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Cricketer Sunil Gavaskar (awarded in 1980) is widely considered one of the greatest opening batsmen of all time. He is the first batsman to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket . [ 10 ]
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In a career spanning over sixty years, filmmaker Richard Attenborough (awarded in 1983) is best known for his eight Academy Award -winning film Gandhi (1983) and is considered "one of Britain's best-known actors and directors". [ 11 ]
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Mathematician K. G. Ramanathan (awarded in 1983) is widely known for his works in number theory , mainly the analytic and arithmetic theory of quadratic forms over division algebras with involution . [ 12 ]
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Known for his "bold depiction of socially controversial themes", writer and playwright Vijay Tendulkar (awarded in 1984) has 28 full-length plays to his credit, which include Sakharam Binder and Ghashiram Kotwal . [ 13 ]
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Founder of Self Employed Women's Association , Ela Bhatt (awarded in 1986) was consultant to UNICEF for the Bangladesh Women's Department in 1977 and was also presented with a Ramon Magsaysay Award . [ 14 ]
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Aerospace scientist Roddam Narasimha (awarded in 1987) is a former Director of the National Aerospace Laboratories and the Chairman of the Engineering Mechanics Unit at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research . He has authored more than 250 scientific papers and fifteen books. [ 15 ]
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British politician Fenner Brockway, Baron Brockway (awarded in 1989) was co-founder of No-Conscription Fellowship . [ 16 ]
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Scientist Ashesh Prasad Mitra (awarded in 1989) contributed towards research in fields of ionosphere and earth's near-space environment using ground-based and space technology. He was Director of the National Physical Laboratory of India (1982–86), Director-General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (1986–91), fellow of the Royal Society of London . He is often referred as "the doyen of upper atmospheric research in India." [ 17 ]
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Japanese politician Yoshio Sakurauchi (awarded in 1989) was chairman of the Japan-India Association for over 25 years. In that capacity, and as the Foreign Affairs Minister , he helped strengthen cultural and economic ties of India and Japan . [ 18 ]