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The Government of India will honour five distinguished persons with the Bharat Ratna Award for the year 2024.

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Bharat Ratna Awardee 2024

• Bharat Ratna Awards 2024: Bharat Ratna To Karpoori Thakur

• • Popularly known as ‘Jan Nayak’, Karpoori Thakur was an Indian politician who served as the 11th Chief Minister of Bihar twice, from 1970-71 and 1977-79.
  • Hailing from Nai community, which is an Extremely Backward Class (EBC) among OBCs, Thakur initiated measured for upliftment of Backward Classes.
  • He introduced a reservation model, which allocated 26% of reservations with specific quotas for OBCs, EBCs, women, and economically backward classes among upper castes.

• Bharat Ratna Awards 2024: Bharat Ratna To Lal Krishna Advani

  • Lal Krishna Advani is an Indian politician, who served as the 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004. He was one of the co-founders of Bharatiya Janata Party and served as the president of the party three times.
  • Advani was the initiator of the Ram Rath Yatra from Somnath in Gujarat and concluding in Ayodhya, to advocate for the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

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• Bharat Ratna Awards 2024: Bharat Ratna To PV Narasimha Rao

• • PV Narasimha Rao was an Indian lawyer, politician and statesman who served as the 9th prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996. 
  • Rao was the first Prime Minister from the South of India and the second Prime Minister from a non-Hindi speaking region.
  • He, along with the then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, initiated economic reforms agenda primarily focused on ‘liberalisation, privatisation, globalisation‘, often referred to as LPG.
  • This move is said to have pulled back the country from the economic brink it was facing at the height of a severe foreign exchange crisis.
    

• Bharat Ratna Awards 2024: Bharat Ratna To Chaudhary Charan Singh

• • Chaudhary Charan Singh was a farmer leader and the 5th Prime Minister of India. He is hailed as the champion of Indian peasants.
  • Charan Singh is credited for inventing and executing the well-known Zamindari Abolition Act.
  • He also initiated the Land Holding Act 1960 which was aimed at lowering the ceiling on land holdings to make it uniform throughout the State.

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• Bharat Ratna Awards 2024: Bharat Ratna To MS Swaminathan

• • MS Swaminathan was an agronomist, agricultural scientist, plant geneticist, administrator, and humanitarian, who is widely known as the ‘father of the Green Revolution’ in India.
  • The Bharat Ratna is being awarded in recognition of his monumental contributions to India’s agriculture and farmers’ welfare. 
  • Dr Swaminathan is considered to have played a pivotal role in helping India achieve self-reliance in agriculture and also made outstanding efforts towards modernizing Indian agriculture.

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Bharat Ratna Award

• About: Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award in India. 
• Origin: The award was constituted in 1954, to be conferred in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order, without discrimination on the basis of race, occupation, position, or sex. 
• Eligibility: Initially, the award was restricted to achievements in the arts, literature, science, and public services.
  • Since 2011, the awards criteria have been expanded to include any field of human endeavour.
  • There is no written provision to award Bharat Ratna to only Indian citizens.
  • Previously, the award was not conferred posthumously. This criterion was changed in 1966.
• Cap on Recipients: The number of recipients of Bharat Ratna Awards is restricted to a maximum of three in a particular year.
  • It is not mandatory to give Bharat Ratna every year.
• Recommendation: Unlike Padma Awards where there is a committee to select recipients, the Bharat Ratna award is directly recommended by the Prime Minister of India to the President.
• Award Constituents: The award includes a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a medallion. There is no monetary grant.
• The Medallion: The medallion is in the shape of a peepal leaf with ‘Bharat Ratna’ inscribed in Devanagri script under a sunburst figure.
  • The reverse side of the medallion features the phrase ‘Satyameva Jayate’ written in Hindi under an inscription of the state emblem.
  • The emblem, the sun and the rim of the Bharat Ratna award are made using platinum metal while the inscriptions are in burnished bronze.

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Bharat Ratna Award Winners List From 1954 to 2024

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Miscellaneous Facts About Bharat Ratna

• 1st Recipients: C. Rajagopalachari, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Sir C. V. Raman, were the first recipients of the Bharat Ratna in 1954.
• Foreign Recipients: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Nelson Mandela are the foreigners awarded with the Bharat Ratna. A naturalised Indian citizen, Mother Teresa was conferred with the award in 1980.
• Woman Recipient: Indira Gandhi was the first woman Bharat Ratna recipient.
• Youngest Recipient: Sachin Tendulkar is the youngest Bharat Ratna recipient.
• Highest Recipients in a Year: The five Bharat Ratna awards given in 2024 marks the highest number of Bharat Ratna awarded in a single year, surpassing the four awarded in 1999.
• Use as a Prefix: Under Article 18 (1) of the Indian Constitution, the award cannot be used as a prefix or suffix to the recipient’s name.
  • However, they are eligible to add ‘Awarded Bharat Ratna by the President’ or ‘Recipient of Bharat Ratna Award’ in their biodata, visiting card, letter head, etc.