Five people from Gujarat, including Gandhinagar BJP MP L K Advani were named Padma award winners. While Advani was conferred with Padama Vibhushan for exceptional service in public affairs, four others were given Padma Shri for their distinguished services in their respective fields.
Those given Padma Shri are columnist Taarak Mehta, thinker, writer and novelist Gunvant Shah, nephrologist Dr H L Trivedi and cardiologist Dr Tejas Patel. Mehta is a noted humorist, columnist and playwright, known best for his column 'Duniya Na Undha Chasma” which is now a popular sitcom. He has written over 80 books. Shah is a thinker, writer and colunmist who in 1997 won Gujarat's highest literary award, Ranjitram Chandrak.
Patel, 51, is a leading cardiologist in Ahmedabad. “I am very happy that my work has been acknowledged,” said Dr Patel who is known for “trans-radial intervention” wherein heart procedures like angiography are performed using radial artery in hand over the conventional approach of entering from the artery in the groin.
Dr Patel has achieved global recognition as he has a textbook “Patel's Atlas of Trans-radial Approach” in his name along with “Patel's catheter” designed by him for cardiac procedures. Trivedi, 83, is considered the old man of transplantation sciences in Gujarat for making kidney transplant available to people of Gujarat.
