Celebrating the top talent in various fields

The recipients of the State government’s Ugadi awards include Mannava Satyanarayana, a retired Telugu professor and HoD in Acharya Nagarjuna University, who held the distinction of being the first visually impaired individual in India to achieve a Ph.D. at the national level in the field of literature, and Satyavada Raghunadhamma and Satyavada Suryakumari (Satyavada Sisters), both visually impaired from birth, but have been widely acclaimed Carnatic vocal musicians and prolific writers, who published around 125 stories in various magazines by dictating their thoughts to others.

D. Sivamma, an expert in leather puppetry, who transformed the performance – only art into a globally recognised handicraft and whose efforts thereof helped 1,000 artists in securing livelihood. She had won the Shilp Guru Award, the highest honour in the handicrafts sector in 2023.

Surada Prasad, who created history as the first fisherman’s son to win the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar in 2025 in the field of literature, and Tamogna Mothukuri from Gudivada who, at just five years of age, conquered the icy waters of Lake Bodensee, swimming 6.3 km nonstop across Germany and Austria in under four hours.

Gowrabathini Ramanaiah, a legendary weaver from Venkatagiri, who holds a UNESCO Certificate of Excellence handloom weaving, Chadalavada Kiran Kumar and Chadalavada Sarath Babu of Anuradha Timbers International, who did the door works for the Ayodhya Ram Mandir, and Tappetagullu artiste Neelabonu Satyam, who trained youth from 35 villages across three districts, mentoring 15 individuals to become independent Gurus themselves.

Gorrela Krishna Murthy, an exponent of Burrakatha, who gave 5,000 shows across India and in various countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Dubai, and Bahrain, and painter Kalasagar Yellapu, whose book titled, ‘Art of Andhra Pradesh’, won accolades.