NEW DELHI: At a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on April 5, President Droupadi Murmu presented three Padma Vibhushan, five Padma Bhushan and 47 Padma Shri awards for the year 2023, at the second investiture ceremony.
Among the awardees of Padma Bhushan, the second highest national award in India, was Sudha Murty, wife of Infosys founder NR Narayan Murty. At the awards ceremony, she was joined by her husband, son Rohan Murty, and daughter Akshata Murty, who is married to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and her sister, Dr Sunanda Kulkarni.
According to reports, Akshata and her family had initially occupied the seats in the middle rows of the Padma ceremony with no security or security fanfare.
However, as per protocol, Government officials afterwards requested Akshata to take the front-row seat and sit next to Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar. Seated on her other side was the family of vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar. Anurag Thakur was also in the same row.