New Delhi. The Government of India today announced the Prime Minister’s Shram Awards for the year 2008 to be awarded to 52 workers employed in the Departmental Undertakings & Public Sector Undertakings of the Central and State Governments and Private Sector Units employing 500 or more workers in recognition of their distinguished performances, innovative abilities, outstanding contribution in the field of productivity and exhibition of exceptional courage and presence of mind. 

This year, one nomination for the prestigious Shram Ratna Award, four nominations for the Shram Bhushan Award, seventeen nominations for Shram Vir/Shram Veerangana and thirty nominations for Shram Shree/Shram Devi Awards have been selected. Even though, the total number of Shram Awards is 33, the number of workers receiving the Awards is 52(Including 2 women), as some of the Awards have been shared by workers and/or teams of workers consisting of more than one worker. These include 35 workers from the public sector and 17 workers from the private sector. 

ThIs is the highest Award (one in number) among the Shram Awards and carries a cash award of Rs.2,00,000/- along with a ‘Sanad’. For the year 2008, the prestigious Shram Ratna Award has been awarded to Shri Nagaraja, Senior Technical Assistant, Bharat Electronics Limited Banagluru. 

Total number of Shram Bhushan Award is four. It carries a cash award of Rs. 1,00,000/- and ‘Sanad’. Four nominations were found suitable for the Shram Bhushan Award. For the year 2008, the Shram Bhushan Awards have been given in respect of Public Sector undertakings given to Shri Rajendran.S, Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited Banagluru and Shri Pilla Siva Desa Patrudu, Rashtiya Ispat Nigam Ltd., Vishakhapatnam and in respect of Private Sector, to Shri Samarendra Kumar Singh, Tata Steel Ltd., Jamshedpur and Shri Bhupendra Kumar Rathore, Vikram Cement, Madhya Pradesh. 

Total number of Shram Vir/Shram Veerangana Awards is twelve. It carries a cash award of Rs. 60,000/- and a ‘Sanad’. No female worker from Public Sector and Private Sector was found suitable for Shram Veerangana Award. The Shram Vir awardees are Shri Sagiraju Bapi Raju, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd., Visakhapatnam, S/Shri Rati Kanta Mishra, Kalu Charan Moharana, Herman Toppo, Purnanda Kumar Barik, Dusmanta Kumar Mekap, Dinabandhu Das (Jointly) (All from SAIL, Rourkela Steel Plant, Rourkela); Shri Boyina Lakshmana Raju, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd., Visakhapatnam; Shri Chidipudi. Venkata Reddy, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd., Visakhapatnam; Shri Dadi Madhava Rao, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd., Visakhapatnam; Shri Haridas Mistry, Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd., Bhopal. (All from Public Sector Unit). Shri Charles Benjamin Pereira, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd., Dahanu Thermal Power, Thane; Shri Tarun Kumar Ghosh, Tata Steel Ltd., Jamshedpur; Shri Bijan Kumar Sharma, Tata Steel Ltd., Jamshedpur; Shri Raju Sharma, Tata Steel Ltd., Jamshedpur; Shri Dharmendra Singh, Hindalco Industries Ltd., Renukoot,Uttar Pradesh; Shri V. Sathia, Ashok Leyland, Ennore, Chennai. (All from Private Sector Unit). 

Total number of Shram Shree/Shram Devi Awards is sixteen. It carries a cash award of Rs. 40,000/- and a ‘Sanad’. One female worker from Public sector and one female worker from Private Sector have been selected for Shram Devi Awards for this year. The Shram Shree/Shram Devi awardees are S/Shri Achyutanand Pandey, Brijendra Dhar Dwivedi, Amitabh Dutta, Sanjay Adavadkar, Mohan Lal (Jointly) (All from SAIL, Bhilai Steel Plant, Bhilai); Shri Mande Prabhakara Rao, Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd, Hyderabad; S/Shri Kumar Sukal Indrman, Mohd. Umar Khan, Gireendra Mohan, Anirudh Prasad Vishwakarma, Avinash Tonape, Praveen Kumar, Harish Kumar Sinha, Jasbir Singh, Madan Kumar Soni, Ramashray Ram (Jointly) (All from SAIL, Bhilai Steel Plant, Bhilai); Shri Ramadhar Gautam, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Ranipur , Haridwar; S/Shri Satyendra Kumar Dewangan, Kushank Nikhaley, Surendra kumar (Jointly) (All from SAIL, Bhilai Steel Plant, Bhilai); Shri Datla Sita Rama Raju, Naval Science & Technological Laboratory, Visakhapatnam; Smt. Mamta Dubey, ITI Ltd., Mankapur. (All from Public Sector Unit). Shri Dharm Pal Singh, Hindalco Industries Ltd., Renukoot, Uttar Pradesh; Shri Dalvinder Singh Sohal, Grasim Industries Ltd., Birlagram, Nagda, MP; Shri Laxman Singh, Tata Steel Ltd., Kalaringatta, Jajpur, Orissa; Shri Devdatta Pandurang Choudhari, Larsen & Toubro Ltd., Mumbai; Shri Takhtsingh Andrarsing Baria, Transpek Silox Industry Ltd., Vadodara; Shri Parmod Prasad, Tata Steel Ltd., Jamshedpur; Shri Ajit Kumar Joshi, ACC Ltd., Lakher Cement Works, Bundi, Rajasthan; Smt. Parwati, Tata Steel Ltd., Jamshedpur.( All from Private Sector Unit).