MAM
Padma Awards 2026: Dharmendra, Satish Shah, Piyush Pandey honoured
NATIONAL: The government on the eve of Republic Day 2026 unveiled the full list of Padma awardees, celebrating distinguished contributions across cinema, advertising, business and public service. Veteran actors Dharmendra and Satish Shah were honoured posthumously for their enduring impact on Indian film.
Advertising legend Piyush Pandey was also named posthumously for shaping a distinctly Indian voice in the industry. Singer Alka Yagnik, Malayalam superstar Mammootty and banker-turned-industrialist Uday Kotak received the Padma Bhushan for their achievements in music, cinema and finance respectively.
Among the Padma Shri recipients were 75-year-old Anke Gowda and retired deputy inspector general of police Inderjit Singh Sidhu, alongside several grassroots contributors whose work has quietly transformed communities.
The Padma awards: Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri, remain among India’s highest civilian honours. While the list is traditionally announced on the Republic Day eve, the formal investiture ceremony will be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan in March or April.
The full list is attached below:
The nomination window opened on March 15 and closed on 31 July last year, with entries submitted exclusively through the Rashtriya Puraskar Portal: a digital platform designed to make the process open and citizen-driven.
The initiative aims to widen participation and spotlight outstanding achievement across diverse fields. Particular emphasis is placed on recognising talent from marginalised sections, including women, people with disabilities, members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, and individuals driving change at the grassroots.
MAM
Beacon Group appoints Dr Rajesh Patel as Group CEO
36-year healthcare veteran to lead Beacon Diagnostics, Vector Biotek, Biogeny.
MUMBAI: A new chief, a fresh diagnosis and a sharper prescription for growth. Beacon Group has appointed Dr Rajesh Patel as its Group Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1, 2026, signalling a decisive push to scale its presence in the diagnostics and IVD space. Patel steps into the role with 36 years of experience across the healthcare and diagnostics industry, bringing a career shaped by leadership roles spanning sales, marketing, business development and operational strategy. His mandate is both expansive and precise: to steer the group’s overall strategic direction while tightening coordination across its three core entities Beacon Diagnostics, Vector Biotek and Biogeny Diagnostics.
In practical terms, that means driving cross-company synergies, accelerating market expansion and strengthening organisational capability areas increasingly critical as diagnostic players compete for scale in a fragmented yet rapidly evolving healthcare ecosystem. The group is positioning itself to capture unmet demand across chain laboratories, key accounts and standalone labs, segments that remain underserved despite growing diagnostic needs.
The appointment comes at a time when the In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) sector in India is entering a more competitive and innovation-led phase, with companies focusing not just on product pipelines but also on service delivery, integration and customer-centric models. Beacon’s leadership appears to be betting that Patel’s execution-focused approach can help translate ambition into operational momentum.
Welcoming the appointment, Chairman Dr D K Joshi described Patel’s induction as a strategic move aligned with the group’s long-term vision, emphasising the role of leadership depth in navigating the next phase of growth.
For Beacon Group, the message is clear, in a sector where precision matters, leadership is the new differentiator—and this appointment is intended to set the tone for what comes next.
