The awards are conferred in three categories:

The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind on March 20, 2018 presented the Padma awards to 43 eminent personalities at a Civil Investiture Ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The awards are conferred in three categories:

Padma Vibhushan: For exceptional and distinguished service.

Padma Bhushan: For distinguished service of high order.

Padma Shri: For distinguished service in any field.

The Awards are conferred to people belonging to various disciplines or fields including art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports and civil service.

This year, the second highest civilian award- the Padma Vibhushan was conferred upon three personalities including music composer Illaiyaraja, classical musician Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan and Hindutva thinker P. Parameswaran.

Following is the full list of awardees:

Padma Vibhushan
Sl. No	Name	Field	State
1.	Shri Illaiyaraja	Art-Music	Tamil Nadu
2.	Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan	Art-Music	Maharashtra
3.	Shri Parameswaran Parameswaran	Literature and Education	Kerala

	Padma Bhushan
Sl. No		Name	Field	State
1.		Shri Philipose Mar Chrysostom	Others-Spiritualism	Kerala
2.		Dr.  Ramachandran Nagaswamy	Others-Archaeology	Tamil Nadu
3.		Prof. Ved Prakash Nanda (OCI)	Literature and Education	USA
4.		Pandit Arvind Parikh	Art-Music	Maharashtra