Bharat Ratna 2024: Five people have been selected for the Bharat Ratna

As of 9th February 2024, the Government of India has selected five people for India's Highest Award i.e. Bharat Ratna. These five personalities are PV Narasimha Rao, Ch Charan Singh, MS Swaminathan, LK Advani, and Karpoori Thakur. Usually, the government of India named three Bharat Ratna awards in a year, but this year (2024), the government has named five people for Bharat Ratna. With the names of these five renowned personalities, the number of Bharat Ratna goes to 53. In January 2024, the Indian Government announced the name of the former CM of Bihar, Karpoori Thakur, later LK Advani, PV Narasimha Rao, Ch Charan Singh, and M S Swaminathan. Here is the brief about the Bharat Ratna 2024 awardees.

Bharat Ratna 2024: Highlights

Bharat Ratna 2024: Highlights
Awarded by	The Government of India
First Bharat Ratna	1954
First Bharat Ratna Awardees	C. Rajagopalachari, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and C. V. Raman
Latest Bharat Ratna	2024
Latest Bharat Ratna awardees	PV Narasimha Rao, Ch Charan Singh, MS Swaminathan, LK Advani, and Karpoori Thakur
Total Number of Bharat Ratna Awardees	53

Who is PV Narasimha Rao?

• Pamulaparti Venkata Narasimha Rao (PV Narasimha Rao) was a veteran politician, who served as the prime minister of India from June 21, 1991 to May 16, 1996 for 1,791 days.

• Early life:

  • PV Narasimha Rao was born in Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh, in 1921.

  • He was born in a Telugu Niyogi Brahmin family.

  • He studied studied at Osmania University in Hyderabad, Bombay University, and Nagpur University.

  • He was an agriculturist and an advocate by profession.

• Political Career:

  • He also served a chief minister of Andhra Pradesh till 1973.

  • He served as the Minister for External Affairs from January 14, 1980, to July 18, 1984.

  • Later appointed as the Minister of Home Affairs from July 1984 to December 1984, and the Minister of Defence from December 1984 to September 1985.

  • He was credited with bringing economic reforms to India in 1991.

Who is Charan Singh?

• Chaudhary Charan Singh was a renowned Indian politician and freedom fighter, who served as the 5th prime minister of India from 28 July 1979 to 20 August 1979, for 170 days.

• He was sworn in as the fifth PM of India on July 28, 1979, and stepped down after 170 days, as his government failed to prove a majority on the floor of Parliament.

• Early Life:

  • Chaudhary Charan Singh was born on 23rd December 1902, which is observed as National Farmers Day, in Noorpur, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, British India, (present-day Uttar Pradesh).

• Political Career:

  • He was first elected to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1937 from Chhaprauli.

  • He represented the constituency in 1946, 1952, 1962 and 1967.

  • He also served as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh twice (1967 and 1970).

Who is MS Swaminathan?

• MS Swaminathan is a veteran agriculturist and popularly known as the father of the Green Revolution in India.

• He was born in 1925 and obtained a BSc degree in Zoology from the Maharajas College in Thiruvananthapuram.

• He also received a degree in agricultural Sciences from the Coimbatore Agricultural College.

• He is credited for introducing changes in farming in the 1960s and ‘70s that helped India achieve food security.

Who is LK Advani?

• Lal Kishan Advani, a BJP Leader, was also named for the Bharat Ratna 2024.

• He served as the BJP national president from 1986-90, 1993-98, and 2004-05.

• He was first the Home Minister and later, the Deputy Prime Minister in the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cabinet from 1999 to 2004.

Who is Karpoori Thakur?

• Karpoori Thakur was born on 24th January 1924 in Pitaunjhia, Bihar, and Orissa Province, British India.

• He was known for his deep connection with the backward classes.

• He joined the Quit India Movement (1942) and was jailed with other freedom fighters but kept struggling to push the Britishers out of the country.

• He served as Chief Minister of Bihar twice, first from December 1970 to June 1971 and later from December 1977 to April 1979.

• He also served as the second Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar from 5 March 1967 to 31 January 1968.

• Before this, he also served as the Education minister of Bihar.

• He also emerged as the leading backward caste leader in Bihar.

Bharat Ratna 2024: List of Bharat Ratna (1954 – 2024)

S. NO	Name of Awardee	Year	Remarks
	Chakaravarti Rajagopalachari	1954	Statesman, writer, lawyer, and independence activist
	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan		Philosopher, politician and former President of India
	Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman		Physicist
	Bhagwan Das	1955	Independence activist, philosopher, and educationist
	Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya		Civil engineer, statesman, and Diwan of Mysore
	Jawaharlal Nehru		Independence activist, author and former Prime Minister of India
	Govind Ballabh Pant	1957	Independence activist
	Dhondo Keshav Karve	1958	Social reformer and educator
	Bidhan Chandra Roy	1961	Physician, political leader, philanthropist, educationist, and social worker
	Purushottam Das Tandon	1961	Independence activist
	Rajendra Prasad	1962	Independence activist, lawyer, statesman, scholar and former President of India
	Zakir Husain	1963	Independence activist
	Pandurang Vaman Kane		Indologist and Sanskrit scholar
	Lal Bahadur Shastri (Posthumous)	1966	Independence activist and former Prime Minister of India
	Indira Gandhi	1971	politician and former Prime Minister of India
	Varahagiri Venkata Giri	1975	Independence activist and former President of India
	Kumaraswamy Kamraj (Posthumous)	1976	Politician and former Tamil Nadu chief minister
	Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa)	1980	Founder of the Missionaries of Charity
	Vinoba Bhave (Posthumous)	1983	Independence activist, social reformer
	Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan	1987	Independence activist
	Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran (Posthumous)	1988	Actor turned politician
	Bhim Rao Ramji Ambedkar (Posthumous)	1990	Social reformer
	Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela		anti-apartheid activist
	Rajiv Gandhi (Posthumous)	1991	Politician and former Prime Minister of India
	Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (Posthumous)		Independence activist
	Morarji Ranchhodji Desai		Independence activist and Prime Minister of India
	Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Posthumous)	1992	Independence activist
	Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai Tata		Industrialist
	Satyajit Ray		Filmmaker
	Gulzari Lal Nanda	1997	Independence activist
	Aruna Asaf Ali (Posthumous)		Independence activist
	A.P.J. Abdul Kalam		Aerospace, defence scientist and former President of India
	Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi	1998	Carnatic classical vocalist
	Chidambaram Subramaniam	1998	Independence activist
	Jayaprakash Narayan (Posthumous)	1999	Independence activist, social reformer
	Amartya Sen		economist
	Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi (Posthumous)		Independence activist
	Ravi Shankar		sitar player
	Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar	2001	Playback singer
	Ustad Bismillah Khan		Hindustani classical shehnai player
	Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi	2009	Hindustani classical vocalist
	C. N. R. Rao	2014	chemist and professor
	Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar	2014	Cricketer
	Atal Bihari Vajpayee	2015	Politician and former Prime Minister of India
	Madan Mohan Malaviya (Posthumous)		Scholar and educational reformer
	Nanaji Deshmukh (Posthumous)	2019	social activist
	Bhupendra Kumar Hazarika (Posthumous)		Playback singer, lyricist, musician, poet, and film-maker
	Pranab Mukherjee		Politician and former President of India
	Karpoori Thakur (Posthumous)	2024	Politician and former Bihar chief minister
	L K Advani		BJP leader
	PV Narasimha Rao (Posthumous)		Former Prime Minister of India
	Ch Charan Singh (Posthumous)		Former Prime Minister of India
	M S Swaminathan		Father of Green Revolution

India's Highest Citizen Honour: Bharat Ratna

• Instituted: 1954

• First recipient (1954): Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, and Dr. ChandrasekharaVenkata Raman

• Latest recipient (2024): Karpoori Thakur (49th)

• Recognition: The award honor to recognize exceptional service/performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavor.

• The Prime Minister of India sends the recommendation for the Bharat Ratna to the President of India.

• The number of Bharat Ratna Awards is restricted to a maximum of three in a particular year.

• The medal is in the form of a peepal leaf which is 5.8 cm long, 4.7 cm wide, and 3.1 mm thick

Bharat Ratna 2024: Frequently Asked Questions

1. How many personalities have been selected for the Bharat Ratna 2024?

Ans: In 2024, five renowned personalities have been selected for the Bharat Ratna 2024. These five people are PV Narasimha Rao, Ch Charan Singh, MS Swaminathan, LK Advani, and Karpoori Thakur.

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2. The first Bharat Ratna award was announced in which year?

Ans: The first Bharat Ratna award was announced in 1954.

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3. Who was the first recipient of the Bharat Ratna Award?

Ans: C. Rajagopalachari, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and C. V. Raman are the first recipients of the Bharat Ratna Award.

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4. As of February 2024, how many Bharat Ratna awards have been given to awardees?

Ans: Only 53, Bharat Ratna awards have been given to awardees.

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5. In which year Bharat Ratna waa given to a veteran Playback singer, Lata Mangeskar?

Ans: A veteran Playback singer, Lata Mangeskar was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2001.

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