Bharat Biotech's Krishna Ella, Wife Suchitra Ella & SII's Cyrus Poonawalla Get Padma Bhushan
Dr Krishna Ella and Suchitra Ella, the couple behind Bharat Biotech, which developed India's first indigenous vaccine for COVID-19, have been awarded Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award in the country.
The award for co-founders of the Hyderabad-based company was announced on the eve of 73rd Republic Day.
Dr Krishna Ella is the Chairman and Managing Director of the biotechnology company while his wife is Joint Managing Director. They will receive the award for distinguish service of high order in the field of trade and industry.
The Hyderabad-based firm rolled out the vaccine early last year and it has since been the part of India's Covid vaccination programme.
COVAXIN founders
The vaccine maker developed Covaxin in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research's National Institute of Virology (NIV).
Krishna and Suchitra Ella founded Bharat Biotech in 1996. A gold medalist at university, Krishna Ella worked as a research faculty at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston after earning his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A research scientist in Molecular Biology, he believes that innovative technology in vaccine development is essential to solve public healthcare problems caused by infectious diseases. Under his leadership, Bharat Biotech has grown to become a global leader in innovative vaccines.
Also on the Padma Award list is Cyrus Poonawalla, the founder of Serum Institute of India, which is manufacturing the other COVID-19 vaccine, Covishield in India.
Received Padmi Shri in 2005
Poonawalla, the Chairman of Cyrus Poonawalla Group was conferred the Padma Shri in 2005.
Founded by Poonawalla in 1966, SII went on to become the biggest vaccine maker by capacity, globally.
SII's production line has been crucial not just for India but for the global supply of COVID-19 vaccines since last year.
Other than the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is marketed as Covishield in India, SII has also joined hands with Novavax and Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute to manufacture their COVID-19 vaccines.
The other awardees of the Padma Bhushan in the trade and industry category included Chairman of Tata Sons, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, and CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai.
Besides, Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, will be conferred upon the Executive Chairman of knitwear company Rupa, Prahlad Rai Agarwala, Chairman of Chardikala Time TV Group, Jagjit Singh Dardi, and entrepreneur from Manipur, Muktamani Devi.
Also, Ryuko Hira, Chairman of HMI Hotel, will be conferred with Padma Shri.
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