As the Republic Day is approaching, the union home ministry is getting ready with the finalisation of list for Padma Awards. According to sources, the government has prepared a list of 150 names. Maratha strongman and Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar and Bharatiya Janata Party veteran Murli Manohar Joshi are among the politicians who made it to the coveted list.

From Telugu states, Olympian P V Sindhu and Microsoft head Satya Nadella, are said to be figured. Other Olympians in the list are Sakshi Malik and Paralympian Deepa Malik, Google chief Sundar Pichai and Indian American governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina are also said to be in the list.

Maratha strongman and NCP leader Sharad Pawar and BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi are among the politicians who made it to the coveted list. The 83-year-old former Union minister Joshi is a member of the ruling BJP’s “margdarshak mandal”, a party advisory panel comprising its elders.

Asha Parekh, Shankar Mahadevan, Rishi Kapoor, Sonu Nigam, Kailash Kher and Manoj Bajpayee are on the shortlist in the entertainment category. Dancer Lakshmi Viswanathan, Kumaoni folk artiste Basanti Bisht, craftsman Mohammed Yusef Khatri and Kathakali exponent CK Nair represent the art world.

The prestigious awards invoke interest and controversy alike, as the selection process involved a close group. This triggered allegations of a crony culture of influence and lobbying. But this year for the first time the government opened the nomination process for public scrutiny to make it transparent. Any Indian can now recommend an achiever for the Padma awards, which were until now being a prerogative of a select few.