By IANS
New Delhi : Seven foreigners, including Everester Edmund Hillary from New Zealand, figure in this year’s Padma awards list announced here Friday on the eve of country’s Republic Day.
Hillary, who became the first man to climb Mt. Everest along with Tenzing Norgay, has been named for the nation’s second highest civilian award – Padma Vibhushan.
Former Soviet ambassador to India and Russia’s foreign minister Yuli Mikhailovitch Vorontsov, Chinese academic Ji Xianlin and French writer Dominic Lapierre have been honoured with Padma Bhushan.
Ji, a respected Chinese Indologist and a Peking University professor, is known for his works in Sanskrit literature and ancient Indian languages.
French author Lapierre, known for his two India-based books “City of Joy” and “It five past midnight in Bhopal” has been honoured for his social work for the destitute children in the country.
Russian artist Gennadi Mikhailovich Pechinkov, who works with indigenous Indian artists in Chhattisgarh, Canadian research biochemist Joseph H. Hulse and Swiss economist Colette Mathur have been named for Padma Shri.
Hulse is a visiting professor at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai and helped establish the advanced training facility at the Central Food Technological Research Institute Mysore. Earlier he was an advisor to the UN secretary general on global nutrition.
Mathur, a director with World Economic Forum (WEF) based in Switzerland, is known for her work at promoting investment in India. From 2001 to 2005, Colette was responsible for the general development of the WEF as a director with responsibilities for India and was also in charge of the India Economic Summit.
Both Hillary, who was at one time New Zealand’s high commissioner to India, and Vorontsov figure in the list posthumously.