New Delhi, January 25
The government today announced the Padma awards for 106 persons for their contribution to different fields on the eve of Republic Day and picked oral rehydration solution (ORS) icon Dilip Mahalanabis, former Uttar Pradesh CM Mulayam Singh Yadav and former CM of Karnataka SM Krishna for the Padma Vibhushan.
Mahalanabis had pioneered the wide use of the ORS that is estimated to have saved over five crore lives globally. Mahalanabis demonstrated the effectiveness of the ORS while serving in refugee camps during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, having returned from the United States of America to serve. He passed away at a Kolkata hospital on October 16 last year. He was 87 and had been suffering from lung infection and other age-related ailments.
