Lokmanya Tilak National Award Winners List (1983-2026)

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Published Sep 28, 2026 Updated Sep 28, 2026 1 min read

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Name	Lokmanya Tilak National Award
Award For	To honour people who have worked for the nation’s progress and development.
Award By	Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust
First Award	1983
First Awardee	Shreedhar Mahadev Joshi
Last Award	2026
Last Awardee	Ajit Doval
Total Awarded	45
Status	active
Official URL	https://rohittilak.com/lokmanya-tilak-national-award.html

About Lokmanya Tilak National Award

The Lokmanya Tilak National Award was instituted in 1983 by the Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust in memory of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, an important leader of India’s freedom movement and a strong advocate of Swarajya, or self-rule. The award is presented every year on August 1, the death anniversary (Punyatithi) of Lokmanya Tilak. It recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to areas such as nation-building, leadership, science and technology, social reform, education, and other fields of public importance. The award reflects the values associated with Lokmanya Tilak, including courage, leadership, self-reliance, education, and commitment to national development. Over the years, it has been awarded to prominent individuals for their contributions and achievements. Lokmanya Tilak believed that education and public awareness were important for developing a strong and self-reliant society. The Lokmanya Tilak National Award commemorates his legacy by recognizing people whose work has contributed to the development of society and the nation.

Lokmanya Tilak National Award (1983-2026) Winners List

This Winners List features 45 winners of the Lokmanya Tilak National Award, from 1983 to 2026.

Image	Year	Recipient Name	Gender	Profession

	2026	Ajit Doval	male	Intelligence officer, National Security Adviser
Former IPS officer and Intelligence Bureau chief who became India's National Security Adviser in 2014. Known for counter-terrorism operations, he received the Kirti Chakra, a rare honour for a policeman.
	2025	Nitin Gadkari	male	Politician
BJP leader and Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways since 2014, known for expanding highway construction. Earlier, as Maharashtra minister, he built the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and served as BJP president.
	2024	Sudha Murty Also won: Padma Bhushan (2023)	female	Author, philanthropist
Engineer, author and philanthropist who chaired the Infosys Foundation and writes popular books in Kannada and English. She received the Padma Bhushan and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
	2023	Narendra Modi	male	Politician, Prime Minister
Prime Minister of India since 2014 and earlier Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014. A BJP leader, he received the Lokmanya Tilak National Award in Pune in 2023.
	2022	Tessy Thomas	female	Missile scientist
Missile scientist at DRDO, called the Missile Woman of India, who was project director for the Agni-IV and Agni-V missiles. She later became Director General of Aeronautical Systems.
	2021	Dr. Cyrus Soli Poonawalla Also won: Padma Bhushan (2022)	male	Industrialist, vaccine maker
Founder of the Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by doses, which supplied COVID-19 vaccines globally. He received the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to public health.
	2020	Sonam Wangchuk Also won: Ramon Magsaysay Award (2018)	male	Engineer, education reformer, innovator, environmentalist
Ladakh-based engineer who founded SECMOL in 1988 to reform Himalayan education through hands-on, ecologically grounded learning, and later invented "Ice Stupas", artificial glaciers addressing water scarcity, plus the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives Ladakh. He won the 2018 Ramon Magsaysay Award for his innovative, holistic solutions to Ladakh's education and climate challenges; his work partly inspired the film "3 Idiots".
	2019	Baba Neelkanth Kalyani Also won: Padma Bhushan (2008)	male	Industrialist
Industrialist and chairman of Bharat Forge, which he built into one of the world's largest forging companies. He has expanded the Kalyani Group into defence manufacturing and received the Padma Bhushan.
	2018	Kailasavadivu Sivan	male	Space scientist
Rocket scientist who chaired ISRO from 2018 to 2022, overseeing Chandrayaan-2. Known as the Rocket Man of India, he contributed greatly to the PSLV and GSLV launch vehicles.
	2017	Balkrishna	male	Ayurveda practitioner, businessman
Acharya Balkrishna is an Ayurveda scholar and co-founder, with Baba Ramdev, of Patanjali Ayurved, where he is managing director. He has written books on medicinal plants and Ayurvedic practice.
	2016	Sharadchandra Govindrao Pawar Also won: Padma Vibhushan (2017)	male	Politician
Veteran politician who served four times as Chief Minister of Maharashtra and as Union Minister for Defence and Agriculture. He founded the Nationalist Congress Party and received the Padma Vibhushan.
	2015	Subbiah Arunan	male	Space scientist
ISRO scientist who was project director of the Mars Orbiter Mission, Mangalyaan, which made India the first country to reach Mars orbit on its first attempt. He received the Padma Shri.
	2014	Avinash Chander	male	Defence scientist
Missile scientist who led development of the Agni ballistic missile series and served as DRDO Director General and Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister. He received the Padma Shri.
	2013	Dr. E. Sreedharan Also won: Padma Vibhushan (2008)	male	Civil engineer
Civil engineer known as the Metro Man, who built the Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro on time and within budget. He received the Padma Vibhushan for his contribution to infrastructure.
	2012	Murlidhar Devidas Alias Baba Amte Also won: Padma Vibhushan (1986) , Ramon Magsaysay Award (2008)	male	Social worker, doctor
Sons of Baba Amte who carry forward his social work. Prakash runs Lok Biradari Prakalp serving Madia Gond tribals in Hemalkasa; Vikas leads Anandwan, the leprosy rehabilitation community near Warora.
	2012	Vikas Amte	male	Social worker, doctor
Sons of Baba Amte who carry forward his social work. Prakash runs Lok Biradari Prakalp serving Madia Gond tribals in Hemalkasa; Vikas leads Anandwan, the leprosy rehabilitation community near Warora.
	2011	Kota Harinarayana	male	Aeronautical engineer
Aeronautical engineer who served as programme director and chief designer of India's Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas, at the Aeronautical Development Agency. He received the Padma Shri for his work.
	2010	Sheila Dikshit	female	Politician
Congress politician and Delhi's longest-serving Chief Minister, from 1998 to 2013, credited with modernising the city's infrastructure and transport, including the Metro and CNG buses. She was briefly Kerala Governor.
	2009	Pranab Mukherjee Also won: Padma Vibhushan (2008) , Bharat Ratna (2019)	male	Politician; 13th President of India
Mukherjee was a politician who served as the 13th President of India from 2012 until 2017. In a career spanning five decades, Mukherjee had been a leader of the Indian National Congress and had occupied several ministerial portfolios in the Government of India. Prior to his election as President, he was finance minister from 2009 to 2012.
	2008	Montek Singh Ahluwalia Also won: Padma Vibhushan (2011)	male	Economist, civil servant
Economist who served as Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission from 2004 to 2014 and Finance Secretary. A key architect of India's economic reforms, he received the Padma Vibhushan.
	2007	Dr. Apathukatha Sivathanu Pillai Also won: Padma Bhushan (2013)	male	Defence scientist
Dr. Apathukatha Sivathanu Pillai was awarded the Padma Bhushan posthumously.
	2006	G. Madhavan Nair Also won: Padma Bhushan (1998) , Padma Vibhushan (2009)	male	Space scientist
G. Madhavan Nair was awarded the Padma Bhushan posthumously.
	2005	Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda Also won: Padma Bhushan (2009)	male	Telecom engineer, policy adviser
Telecom engineer and entrepreneur who led India's telecom revolution in the 1980s through C-DOT, spreading public phone booths nationwide. He later chaired the National Knowledge Commission and advised prime ministers.
	2004	N.R. Narayana Murthy Also won: Padma Vibhushan (2008)	male	IT entrepreneur
Co-founder of Infosys, which helped put India on the global software services map. He served as its chairman and CEO, and received the Padma Vibhushan for his contribution to industry.
	2003	Ramoji Rao Also won: Padma Vibhushan (2016)	male	Media entrepreneur
Media entrepreneur who founded the Eenadu newspaper, ETV channels and Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, among the world's largest film studios. He was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan.
	2002	Varghese Kurien	male	Dairy engineer and cooperative-movement social entrepreneur
Known as the Father of the White Revolution, Kurien built Amul (Kaira District Cooperative) into a national dairy cooperative model and later chaired the National Dairy Development Board, making India the world's largest milk producer. He shared the 1963 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership with Tribhuvandas Patel and Dara Khurody for transforming India's dairy industry through farmer cooperatives and received the World Food Prize in 1989.
	2001	Dr. Monkombu Sambasiva Swaminathan	male	Agricultural scientist and geneticist
Swaminathan was an Indian agronomist, geneticist and administrator, who was as a global leader of the green revolution. He was one of the major architects of green revolution in India known for his leadership and role in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice.
	2000	Rahul Bajaj Also won: Padma Bhushan (2001)	male	Industrialist
Industrialist who led the Bajaj Group for decades, making Bajaj Auto a leading two-wheeler maker with scooters like Chetak. He was a Rajya Sabha member and received the Padma Bhushan.
	1999	Dr. Vijay Bhatkar Also won: Padma Bhushan (2015)	male	Computer scientist
Computer scientist who led development of India's first supercomputer, PARAM, as founding director of C-DAC. He received the Padma Bhushan and has led several science and education institutions.
	1998	Dr. Rajagopala Chidambaram Also won: Padma Vibhushan (1999)	male	Nuclear physicist
Nuclear physicist who played a key role in the 1974 and 1998 nuclear tests, chaired the Atomic Energy Commission and later served as Principal Scientific Adviser. He received the Padma Vibhushan.
	1997	Manmohan Singh Also won: Indira Gandhi Prize (2017)	male	Economist and politician
Former Prime Minister of India (2004-2014), earlier Finance Minister (1991-1996) credited with liberalizing India's economy, and former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. An Oxford-trained economist known for technocratic, reform-oriented governance. Awarded the Indira Gandhi Prize for 2017 for his contributions to India's economic development and governance.
	1996	Dr. Ramchandra Narayan Dandekar Also won: Padma Bhushan (1962)	male	Indologist, Sanskrit scholar
Eminent Indologist and Sanskrit scholar associated with the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune. He produced the major Vedic Bibliography and received the Padma Bhushan for his scholarship.
	1995	Tirunellai Narayanaiyer Seshan Also won: Ramon Magsaysay Award (1996)	male	Indian civil servant; Chief Election Commissioner of India
An IAS officer, Seshan served as India's Chief Election Commissioner (1990-1996), where he aggressively enforced electoral discipline, introduced voter ID requirements, imposed campaign spending limits, and disqualified candidates for violations, transforming the credibility of Indian elections. He won the 1996 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service for reasserting the independence and authority of the Election Commission.
	1994	Atal Bihari Vajpayee Also won: Padma Vibhushan (1992) , Bharat Ratna (2015)	male	Politician; Prime Minister of India
Vajpayee was a politician, who served as the Prime Minister of India three times in 1996, 1998 and from 1999 to 2004. He was a parliamentarian for over four decades and was elected nine times to the Lok Sabha, twice to the Rajya Sabha, also serving as the minister of external affairs during 1977–79.
	1993	Shankar Dayal Sharma	male	Politician, President of India
Ninth President of India from 1992 to 1997, earlier Vice-President and Chief Minister of Bhopal state. A lawyer and freedom fighter, he was respected for his constitutional scholarship.
	1992	Pandurangshastri Athavale Also won: Padma Vibhushan (1999) , Ramon Magsaysay Award (1996)	male	Philosopher, spiritual reformer
Philosopher and spiritual leader who founded the Swadhyay movement, which spread self-study and service among millions, especially fishing and rural communities. He received the Templeton Prize and Ramon Magsaysay Award.
	1991	Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras	male	RSS leader
Popularly known as Balasaheb Deoras, he was the third Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh from 1973 to 1994, and was jailed during the Emergency. He emphasised social service work.
	1990	Madhu Limaye	male	Socialist politician, writer
Socialist politician and writer who took part in the Quit India and Goa liberation movements. A four-time Lok Sabha member and renowned parliamentarian, he wrote many books on politics.
	1989	Sudha Joshi	female	Goa freedom fighter
Freedom fighter from Maharashtra who joined the Goa liberation movement against Portuguese rule and was imprisoned for years in Goa. She later worked in social causes in Pune and Goa.
	1988	Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Also won: Bharat Ratna (1987)	male	Independence activist, political leader
Khan was a independence activist, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and an advocate of Hindu–Muslim unity in the subcontinent. He was known as "Frontier Gandhi" and was part of the Khilafat Movement in 1920 and founded the Khudai Khidmatgar ("Red Shirt movement") in 1929.
	1987	Achyut Patwardhan	male	Freedom fighter, socialist
Freedom fighter and founder member of the Congress Socialist Party who went underground during the Quit India Movement. He later withdrew from politics and devoted himself to philosophy and education.
	1986	Shripad Amrit Dange	male	Trade unionist, communist leader
Founding leader of the Communist Party of India and a pioneering trade unionist who led the All India Trade Union Congress. He was imprisoned in the Kanpur and Meerut conspiracy cases.
	1985	Indira Gandhi Also won: Bharat Ratna (1971)	female	Politician, Prime Minister of India
Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India during 1966 to 1977 and 1980 to 1984. She is known as the "Iron Lady of India", as she led India during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and the concurrent Bangladesh Liberation War which led to the formation of Bangladesh.
	1984	Godavari Parulekar Also won: Sahitya Akademi Award (1972)	female	Communist activist, writer
Communist leader and writer who organised the Warli adivasi uprising in Thane district against bonded labour. Her memoir Jevha Manus Jaga Hoto, recounting that struggle, won the Sahitya Akademi Award.
	1983	Shreedhar Mahadev Joshi	male	Socialist leader, freedom fighter
Socialist leader and freedom fighter from Pune, popularly called S. M. Joshi. A key figure of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement, he later led the Samyukta Socialist Party and supported many social causes.