Every year, India names its finest doctors. A decade of those lists tells a different story
Synopsis: A decade of Padma awards in medicine reveals patterns that annual announcements often obscure. By examining every medicine honour conferred between 2017 and 2026, this analysis explores which doctors, institutions, specialities, diseases and regions received national recognition, and which remained largely absent. From the…
Synopsis: A decade of Padma awards in medicine reveals patterns that annual announcements often obscure. From the rise of private hospitals and recurring recognition of grassroots service to the limited visibility of mental health and state-run institutions, the awards offer an unexpected portrait of.
Every Republic Day eve, the Padma awards arrive with familiar fanfare. Dozens more quietly slip into the archives.
What Happened
Certain institutions appear again and again. Some specialities become recurring favourites.
By examining every medicine honour conferred between 2017 and 2026, this analysis explores which doctors, institutions, specialities, diseases and regions received national recognition, and which remained largely absent.
Read together, the doctors honoured between 2017 and 2026 reveal patterns that no single year’s awards can show.
Before 2022, government and central public institutions accounted for about 60 per cent of Padma Shri recipients in medicine each year.
Key Details
Entire sections of India’s health system barely surface. What begins as a collection of individual achievements gradually becomes something else: a portrait of who the Indian state has consistently chosen to honour in medicine.
After 2022, that share fell to around 38 per cent, while recognition of doctors associated with private institutions steadily increased.
Of the 102 Padma awards in medicine conferred between 2017 and 2026, 14 went to practitioners of non-allopathic systems.
For instance, Dr Raman Gangakhedkar, who played a pivotal role in India’s infectious disease surveillance through the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), received the Padma Shri in 2020 under the Science and Engineering.
Why It Matters
Over those ten years, 102 Padma awards in medicine recognised 104 individuals. Three received the Padma Vibhushan, nine the Padma Bhushan and 90 the Padma Shri.
Chandreshwar Prasad Thakur commonly known as Dr CP Thakur, whose work led to the first oral drug for kala-azar, received the Padma Bhushan in 2024.
It should be noted that Dr CP Thakur was a BJP politician and Union Health Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
What Reports Say
Coverage of the story so far points to:
Continued reporting by The South First as more details emerge
