Among the Padma Shri awardees, renowned folk artist Vijayalakshmi Navaneethakrishnan, 64, has been recognised for her contribution to the preservation and propagation of folk art. Rajagopalan Vasudevan, a professor from Madurai who developed and patented a method to reuse plastic waste to construct roads has been honoured for his innovation and the selfless act of providing the technology to the Indian government for free, is another name on the Padma Shri list.

The awardees also include 98-year-old yoga practitioner and instructor Gnanammal of Coimbatore who has also won the Nari Shakti Puraskar Award last year. ‘Snake Man of India’ Romulus Whitaker for preserving bio-diversity in Tamil Nadu, has also been recognised in the list. Former tennis player Somdev Devvarman, who hails from Tripura, but has spent most of his player career in Chennai, also is a recipient.

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