Aishwarya Rai’s daddy-in-law Amitabh Bachchan seems to be riding high since the day dearest daughter-in-law was bestowed with the honourable ‘Padma Shri’ award by the Government of India.

With Ash’s award, the count of the ‘Padma’ awards given to the Bachchan family for their contribution to Indian arts has gone up to five. Prior to this, Amitabh’s father, Shri Harivanshrai Bachchan was the first member of the Bachchan clan to receive the ‘Padma Bhushan’. After that Big B garnered two Padma awards for himself – the ‘Padma Shri’ and the ‘Padma Bhushan’. Jaya Bachchan too joined the big league after taking home a ‘Padma Shri’. 

Speaking about his daughter-in-law’s award, Amitabh Bachchan in his recent blog posting said, “How do I feel? How would anyone feel when (their) daughter wins accolade and distinction!” 

Bachchan further added by saying that “the entire family was extremely happy at Aishwarya’s grand achievement”. 

Well, with Aishwarya completing a full circle with this award, guess it’s time for Abhishek to pull up his socks, after all he is a Bachchan too, right?

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan today said she was "absolutely honoured" at being conferred the Padmashri and that she was grateful for it.

"I am very thankful for the privilege. I am humbled by it. I thank the high officers of our country because this has been accorded to me by them and our fellow people," the actress told reporters at the inauguration of the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and 
Medical Research Institute in suburban Andheri here.

"I hope to be able to live up to the promise of it. I am very grateful and will continue doing my best," the actress added.

Famous playback singer of yesteryear Shamshad Begum and director of the Central Board of Reserve Bank of India Ashok Shekhar Ganguly are among prominent persons to get the award from President Pratibha Patil on Tuesday at a special function in the Ashoka Hall of Rashtapati Bhavan. 

Patil conferred Padma Vibhushan, the country's second highest civilian award, to Kakodakar for his contributions in the field of nuclear science and technology during the function attended by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmoahn Singh and a host of other dignitaries. Kakodakar was actively involved in the Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation agreement. 

Ashok Shekhar Ganguly, a director of the Central Board of Reserve Bank of India, was also awarded with Padma Vibhushan on the occasion. Ganguly is also a member Prime Minister's council on trade and industry and a member of National knowledge Commission. 

Besides Dr. Kakodkar, the Padma Vibhushan was presented to Dr. Ashok Shekhar Ganguly, Director on the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India, Dr. Chandrika Prasad Srivastava, Secretary-General Emeritus of the International Maritime Organisation, U.N., Govind Narain, an eminent civil servant of the ICS era, and Prof. Jasbir Singh Bajaj, who heads the Academic Council of the National Academy of Medical Sciences. Sister Mary Nirmala Joshi, former Superior-General of the Missionaries of Charities, also chosen for the Padma Vibhushan award, was not present. 

The Padma Bhushan recipients included L&T chairman Anilkumar Manibhai Naik, management guru C.K. Prahalad, eminent Tamil writer D. Jayakanthan, Ayurvedic physician Vaidya Devendra Triguna, leading personality from Telugu film industry G. Krishna, member of the Northeastern Council Inderjit Kaur Barthakur and Planning Commission member Kirit Shantilal Parikh. 

Litterateur and poet Kunwar Narain, academician Minoru Hara, playback singer of yesteryears Shamshad Begum, INTACH chairman S.K. Mishra, Bharatanatyam artistes V.P. Dhananjayan and his wife Shanta Dhananjayan and sculptor and architect Vaidyanathan Ganapati Sthapati were also conferred the Padma Bhushan. 

Ms. Patil conferred the Padma Shri awards on Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachhan and Akshay Kumar, Hindi playback singer Kumar Sanu, eye surgeon Ashok Kumar Grover, Chairman, Board of Editors of Nai Dunia daily, Abhay Chhajlani, surgeon Ashok Kumar Gupta and Ghazal singer Penaz Masani.

Other recipients of the Padma Shri included B.R. Shetty, Bansilal Rathi, Prof. Birendranath Datta, C.K. Menon, Devinder Singh Rana, G. Vijayaraghavan, Geeta Kapur, Geshe Ngawang Sampen, Govind Ram Nirmalkar, Goriparthi Narasimha Raju Yadav, Gurumayum Gourakishor Sharma, Hashmat Ullah Khan, Iravatham Mahadevan, Jalees Ahmed Khan Tareen, John Ralston Marr, K. Viswanathan, K.P. Udayabhanu, Kalamandalam Gopi, Kanneganti Brahmanandam, Kiran Seth, Laxman Mane, Mattannoor Sankarankutty Marar, Niranjan Goswami, Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa, Norden Tshering Bhutian and Panchapakesa Jayaraman. 

Prakash Narain Dubey, Pratapaditya Pal, R.K. Krishna Kumar, Ram Kishore Chhipa, Shaik Khader Noordeen, Shashi Despande, Shyamlha Pappu, Sunil Kanti Roy, Sunny Varkey, Suresh Dutta, Surinder Mehta and Yash Gulati also received the Padma Shri.