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Cultivating Love for Learning
SCOPE Current Affairs
Bharat Ratna for Narasimha Rao, Charan Singh,
Swaminathan takes recipient count to 53, max awarded
in 2024
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today announced that former prime ministers PV Narasimha Rao and
Chaudhary Charan Singh and agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan will be conferred Bharat Ratna,
India's highest civilian award.
Usually, three Bharat Ratna awards are given in a year. However, this year, the government has named five
people for Bharat Ratna, including veteran BJP leader LK Advani and former Bihar chief minister Karpoori
Thakur.
PV Narasimha Rao
PV Narasimha Rao served as the prime minister from June 21, 1991 to May 16,
1996.
He was born in 1921 in Andhra Pradesh's Karimnagar and studied at Osmania
University in Hyderabad, Bombay University, and Nagpur University.
An agriculturist and an advocate, he also served as the chief minister of Andhra
Pradesh.
He was also the Minister for External Affairs from January 14, 1980, to July 18,
1984, the Minister of Home Affairs from July 1984 to December 1984, and the
Minister of Defence from December 1984 to September 1985.
Charan Singh
Born in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut in 1902, Charan Singh served as the prime
minister from July 28, 1979 to January 14, 1980.
He was first elected to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1937 from
Chhaprauli. He represented the constituency in 1946, 1952, 1962 and 1967.
He also served as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh twice, first in 1967 and then in
1970.
MS Swaminathan
Born in 1925, MS Swaminathan is popularly known as the father of the Green
Revolution in India.
He obtained a BSc degree in Zoology from the Maharajas College in
Thiruvananthapuram, and also in Agricultural Sciences from the Coimbatore
Agricultural College.
He also got his MSc degree in Agricultural Sciences (specializing in genetics and
plant breeding) from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), and PhD
degree from Cambridge University, UK.