The Punyabhushan award (translation: Jewel of Pune) is awarded every year to an eminent personality from the field of art, music, culture, science, industry, social service, or sports in a special public function in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, India.
The award is announced every year by the Punyabhushan Foundation on 23 March with a view to commemorate the memory of Indian revolutionary martyrs Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru. Alongside the main award, the foundation felicitates serving soldiers and veteran freedom fighters at the presentation ceremony.
List of awardees The recipients of the Punyabhushan are:
Year Name Field of Work 1989 Bhimsen Joshi Music 1990 Dinkar Kelkar Archaeology 1991 Shantanurao Kirloskar Industry 1992 Banoo Coyaji Medicine 1993 P. L. Deshpande Literature, drama and arts 1994 Babasaheb Purandare History 1995 B. K. S. Iyengar Yoga 1996 R. N. Dandekar Oriental studies 1997 Mohan Dharia Environmentalism 1998 Jayant Narlikar Astronomy 1999 Pratap Godse Social work 2000 Chandu Borde Sport 2001 Jayantrao Tilak Journalism 2002 Jabbar Patel Drama and film 2003 Rahul Bajaj Industry 2004 K. B. Grant Medicine 2005 Rohini Bhate Dance 2006 Baba Adhav Labour union activism 2007 Shreeram Lagoo Marathi drama and film 2008 Raghunath Mashelkar Science 2009 S. B. Mujumdar Education 2010 R. C. Dhere Literature 2011 H. V. Sardesai Medicine 2012 Nirmala Purandare Women and child welfare 2013 Sudhir Gadgil Anchoring and compering 2014 Cyrus Poonawalla Serum and vaccinations 2015 Pratap Pawar Journalism and media 2016 Bhai Vaidya Socialist activism 2017 K. H. Sancheti Medicine 2018 Prabha Atre Classical music 2019 G. B. Deglurkar Indian archaeology 2021 Baba Kalyani Industry 2022 Nitin Desai Entrepreneurship and social activism 2023 Mohan Agashe Drama and film 2024 Vijay Bhatkar Information technology 2025 Vijay Kelkar Economics 2026 Abhay Firodia Automobile industry
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