Tech titans to traditional traders, the Business tycoons on the Padma list

128 recipients have been selected this year for the Padma Awards -- one of the highest civilian awards of the country. 34 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 10 persons from the category of NRI and 13 Posthumous awardees.

EJ Biz puts the spotlight on trade titans who made it to the list:

• Natarajan Chandrasekaran: Chandra as he is referred to is the Chairman of the salt to software to startup conglomerate of Tata Sons. The journey of this avid marathon runner within the Tata group has taken him from a regular internship at Tata Consultancy Services in 1987, to taking over the reigns of the group.
  
  
• Cyrus Poonawalla: The chairman and managing director of the Cyrus Poonawalla Group, he is now known as the Vaccine King. Son of a horse breeder, Cyrus branched out from the family biz to found Serum in 1966 and built it into the world's largest vaccine maker,
  
  
• Krishna and Suchitra Ella: The husband wife duo are credited to making India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin. The Scientist with a business sense Krishan Ella founded Bharat Biotech in 1966 with his wife. A yeast molecular biologist by training, Ella hails from a farming family in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu.
  
  
• Satya Narayana Nadella: This tech titan hailing from Hyderabad needs no introduction. Now Chairman of Microsoft joined the firm in 1992 and in 2014 became the first non-founder CEO of Microsoft.
  
  
• Sundar Pichai: The CEO of tech giant Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc started his journey in 2004 at Google where here led the development of Google toolbar and chrome.
  
  
• Prahlad Rai Agarwala: Synonomus with India's most recognised textile brand Rupa & Company, Kolkatta based Agarwala founded the firm in 1968. Credited for being the first to bring in organisation into the textile sector in the country Agarwala's firm continues to command the hoisery market.
  
  
• Muktamani Devi: 54-year-old Moirangthem Muktamani Devi is a well-known artisan from Kakching, Manipur. In 1990 she established Mukta Shoes Industry in her locality.
  
  
• Ryuko Hira: Born in Jaipur in 1966 as Kamlesh Punjabi, moved to Japan, learnt Japanese, and today he is a wealthy Japanese businessman, better known in his Japanese avatar Ryuko Hira, and the owner of HMI Hotel Group, which runs a chain of hotels and resorts in Japan.