Embroidery in India includes dozens of embroidery styles that vary by region and clothing styles. Designs in Indian embroidery are formed on the basis of the texture and the design of the fabric and the stitch. The dot and the alternate dot, the circle, the square, the triangle, and permutations and combinations of these constitute the design.
Kailash Chandra Meher is an Indian artist, inventor, and social activist. He is a painter of contemporary modern art paintings and traditional Tussar Pattachitra paintings of Odisha. He was a recipient of the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2013.
The Nari Shakti Puraskar is an annual award given by the Ministry of Women and Child Development of the Government of India to individual women or to institutions that work towards the cause of women empowerment. It is the highest civilian honour for women in India, and is presented by the president of India on International Women's Day at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. The award was instituted in 1999 under the title of Stree Shakti Puraskar, renamed and reorganised in 2015. It is awarded in six institutional and two individual categories, which carry a cash prize of 200,000 and 100,000 rupees, respectively.
Pannuru Sripathi in a small village near Tirupathi, Andhra Pradesh, India, is a traditional painter who won the Padma Shri Award in 2007. Sripathi obtained a diploma in Drawing in 1969. Sripathi has served the traditional craft by training more than 1000 younger generations and art lovers in India and abroad. Sripathi represented India in Japan, Russia, USA, Singapore, Austria, and Germany for festival of India.
The Chamba Rumal or Chamba handkerchief is an embroidered handicraft that was once promoted under the patronage of the former rulers of Chamba kingdom. It is a common item of gift during marriages with detailed patterns in bright and pleasing colour schemes.
V. Nanammal was India's oldest yoga teacher. She trained one million students over 45 years and taught one hundred students daily. Six hundred of her students have become yoga instructors around the world.
Rahibai Soma Popere, born in 1964, is an Indian farmer and conservationist. She helps other farmers return to native varieties of crops, preparing hyacinth beans for self-help groups. She is among three Indians on the BBC list of "100 Women 2018". Scientist Raghunath Mashelkar gave her the epithet "Seed Mother".
Tage Rita is an agricultural engineer from Ziro Valley and is India's first kiwi wine brewer. In 2018, she was honored with the Women Transforming India Awards, organized by the United Nations and NITI Aayog.
Nilza Wangmo is an Indian restaurant owner and an enthusiast for the local food of the Ladakh region of northern India. Her work in 2019 was recognised with the highest award for women in India – Nari Shakti Puraskar.
B. Codanayaguy is an Electronics & Instrumentation Engineer at the ISRO. She is responsible for the instrumentation of control systems for the solid rocket motors used in rocket launches. She was given the highest award for women in India, the Nari Shakti Puraskar, at the Presidential Palace in 2017.
Chami Murmu is an Indian environmental activist and is known for planting trees in India. She had planted 2,500,000 trees in India till she was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2019.
Subha Varier is an Indian space engineer. She has specialised in the video systems used on Indian satellite launches. In 2017 she received the Nari Shakti Puraskar, India's highest award for women after the record release of 104 satellites in one launch.
Neha Kirpal is a social entrepreneur who worked extensively at the intersection of creative arts and social sector. She founded of the India Art Fair in 2008. She sold her interest in the Fair after ten years. In 2019, Kirpal and Dr. Amit Malik co-founded Amaha, a mental health organization.
Madhuri Barthwal née Uniyal is a folk singer of Uttarakhand, India. She is the first woman to be a music composer in All India Radio. She is said to be the first female musician from Uttarakhand to become a music teacher. On International Women's Day in 2019 she was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar by Ram Nath Kovind. She was awarded the Padma ShriIndia's fourth highest civilian award in 2022 by the Indian government in the field of art.
Ajita Srivastava is an Indian singer, educationist and a social worker. Srivastava is known for popularizing and promoting the Kajari folk songs, a popular form of folk music from Mirzapur and the surrounding region. She was awarded Padma Shri in 2022 by the Government of India for her contributions in the field of arts.
Padma Yangchan is an Indian entrepreneur from Ladakh. She trained as a fashion designer. She is the owner of Namza Couture and Namza Dining and known for reviving the indigenous art and craft of Ladakh as well as the food. She has received the Nari Shakti Puraskar in recognition of her achievements.
Jodhaiya Bai Baiga is an Indian fine artist. She is Baiga and lives in Lodhha village, in Umaria district, Madhya Pradesh. She has two sons and a daughter. She used to earn money by selling compost, firewood and nuts from the forest.
Vidyanand Sarek is a Pahari litterateur and folk artist. In 2022, he was awarded Padma Shri by the Indian Government for his contribution in literature and folk.
Sabarmatee is an Indian conservationist and farmer living in Nayagarh district in the state of Odisha. She works with a non-governmental organization called Sambhav which was visualised by her father Padma Shri Prof Radhamohan that promotes organic farming and conservation of indigenous varieties besides doing many other activities. The achievements of Sabarmatee were recognised in 2018, when she received the Nari Shakti Puraskar and in 2020 with the Padma Shri.
Gamit Ramilaben Raysingbhai is a tribal social worker from Taparwada Village, Tapi district, Gujarat, India, known for her work in transforming several villages in Gujarat to open-defecation free villages. She is also known for her work for the empowerment of rural women by setting up a large number of self help groups of women. In the year 2022, the government of India honoured Gamit Ramilaben Raysingbhai by conferring the Padma Shri Award for her contribution to social work.
