CHENNAI: From torch-bearers of classical arts like MS Gopalakrishnan, to a leading diabetologist of the state Dr V Mohan, seven accomplished men of different fields in Tamil Nadu were on Wednesday announced as Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardees. Musicians M S Gopalakrishnan and T V Gopalakrishnan, and Subbiah Murugappa Vellayan, former chairman of the Murugappa Group, were named as Padma Bhushan awardees, while social worker Dr P K Gopal, diabetologist Dr V Mohan, theatre veteran Natesan Muthuswamy, founder of koothu-p-pattarai, and geriatrician Dr V S Natarajan have been awarded the coveted Padma Shri.Dr V Mohan, chairman and chief of Diabetology at Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre and Director of the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, has been announced as the recipient of the Padma Shri for his accomplishments in the field of diabetology. Working in the field of diabetes research for over three decades, Mohan is one of the few to have received Fellowships from all the four Royal Colleges of Physicians — London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Ireland.The Padma Shri awardee in social work is Dr PK Gopal, a leprosy-affected person himself who has championed leprosy-affected people’s cause for over four decades. Gopal played a major role in pushing the government to remove the discriminatory clause of keeping leprosy-affected children in isolation when booked under the Juvenile justice Act. Gopal continues his work for the cause of the leprosy-affected through an NGO called IDEA.Padma Shri awardee for his contribution to geriatrics, Dr V S Natarajan, is regarded as the first person to have started an exclusive Geriatric Department in India, at the Government General Hospital, Chennai, and is regarded as the first professor of Geriatric Medicine at the MMC.
Comments
0 comment