Amitabh Bachchan, Sushma Swaraj among national SIES award winners

Actor Amitabh Bachchan, technology expert Sam Pitroda, politician Sushma Swaraj and Swami Tejomayananda of Chinmaya Mission were honoured with the South Indian Education Society (SIES) Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati National Eminence award on Tuesday at the Shanmukhananda Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati auditorium in presence of the present Kanchi seer Sri Jayendra Saraswati.  

The awards were instituted by the South Indian Education Society in the year 1998 in memory of the late Seer of Kanchi Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati who passed away in 1994 at the age
of 100. The awards were given in the fields of community leadership, science and technology, public leadership and to social thinkers. Each award carries a cash prize of Rs2.5 lakh, a citation, a huge ornamental lamp and a scroll.

The awards were instituted by SIES to honour those Indians who had made outstanding contributions in the four fields. So far, 48 people have been honoured which includes 13 each in science and technology and community leadership and 11 each in public leadership and social thinkers.

Some of the previous awardees include Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Dr Jayant Narlikar, Dr Varghese Kurien, Dr MS Subbulakshmi, Dr Lata Mangeshkar, Sunil Dutt and Dilip Kumar.