New Delhi, Jan 26 (IANS): The government on Monday announced to confer the Padma Vibhushan award on Narinder Singh Kapany, who was known as the 'father of fiber optics', posthumously. The government also announced to confer the Padma Shri on Jagadish Chowdhury, who was known as 'Dom raja' in Uttar Pradesh, posthumously.

Kapany is among the seven people named for the Padma Vibhushan awards this year.

Kapany breathed his last in the US in December last year at the age of 94. He had more than 100 patents to his name and was the first to transmit images through fiber optics back in 1954.

The government also announced to posthumously confer the Padma Shri on Jagdish Chaudhary, who was popularly known as 'Dom raja'.

Chowdhary passed away in August last year at the age of 55 years. He was one of the proposers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's candidature from the Varanasi parliamentary constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The government also named Prakasarao Asavadi, Dharma Narayan Barma, Sujit Chattopadhyay and Srikant Datar, who work in the field of literature and education, for the Padma Shri this year.

Besides them, the government also announced to confer Padma Shri on social workers Tsultrim Chonjor, Prakash Kaur, Niru Kumar, Shyam Sundar Paliwal, Birubala Rabha, Sindhutai Sapkal, Jitender Singh Shunty, Guru Maa Kamali Soren, Marachi Subburaman, Girish Prabhune, Shanti Devi, Lakhimi Baruah, Sangkhumi Bualchhuak and Chutni Devi.

The government has announced seven names for Padma Vibhushan, 10 names for Padma Bhushan and 102 names for Padma Shri this year.