The President of India conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards for 2016 to an eminent group of musicians, dancers, and theatre artists at a ceremony to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Noted theatre personality Ram Gopal Bajaj, dancer and historian Sunil Kothari, Carnatic music exponent R Vedavalli and famous Sitar player Arvind Parikh were conferred Sangeet Natak Akademi's fellowships (Akademi Ratna)
The President presented Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) to 43 eminent artists in five categories for the year 2016.
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The Sangeet Natak Akademi established by the Government of India in 1953, is India’s National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama. It is responsible for the promotion and preservation of the performing arts of the country, and works to achieve these goals by means of specially designed programmes in various fields.