(This article is authored by Alar) 

The Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian honour, was officially presented to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who was born in Hyderabad and has been serving as the Chief of Microsoft since 2014. One of India's prestigious awards was presented to him by India's Consul General in San Francisco, Dr T V Nagendra Prasad. 

The accolade was bestowed on Satya Nadella last week. 55-year-old Nadella is the third CEO of Microsoft after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. On the occasion of Republic Day, the recipients of 128 Padma awards in the categories of education, social service, public administration, science and technology, literature, and sports were announced by the Union government.

In this list, there were 107 recipients for the Padma Shri award, 17  for the Padma Bhushan award, and 4 for the Padma Vibhushan award. Nadella was one of the 17 Padma Bhushan recipients. After receiving the award, he said that he is planning to visit India in January 2023, after a span of three years. 

 "It’s an honour to receive a Padma Bhushan Award and to be recognized with so many extraordinary people. I’m thankful to the President, Prime Minister, and people of India, and look forward to continuing to work with people across India to help them use technology to achieve more," said Nadella. 

"We are living in a period of historic economic, societal and technological change," said Nadella following his meeting with Dr Prasad. "The next decade will be defined by digital technology. Indian industries and organisations of every size are turning to technology to help them do more with less, which will ultimately lead to greater innovation, agility and resilience," he added.

Before joining Microsoft in 1992, Nadella was a member of the technology staff at Sun Microsystems. Nadella was named the third CEO in the history of Microsoft on February 4, 2014, succeeding Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates. By September 2018, Microsoft stock had tripled since Nadella took over as CEO, growing at a 27% annual rate. 

The Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan are the two highest civilian honours in the Republic of India, with the Padma Bhushan coming in third. Without regard to race, occupation, position, or sex, the honour is given for "distinguished service of a high order." Doctors and scientists are not excluded from the award criteria because they provide "service in any field, including service rendered by Government servants," but only those working for public sector enterprises are excluded.