The Government of India has nominated Chairman and Managing Director, Vardhman Group of Industries, SP Oswal, for the Padma Bhushan award. An announcement in this regard was made in New Delhi today. The award will be conferred on him by the President at the Rashtrapati Bhawan soon.

Talking to TNS from New Delhi, Oswal said he was grateful to the state and Central governments for having chosen him for one of the highest awards.

He said, I am also grateful to society and the people in my organisation, who worked as a team to achieve greater heights. Born in 1942, Oswal passed his master degree in commerce with gold medal from Panjab University, Chandigarh. The Vardhman Group established in 1962 has today blossomed into one of the largest textile business houses in India. It has the largest yarn manufacturing capacity in the country with over 7,50,000 spindles. The group achieved a turnover of Rs 3,200 crore in 2008-09 and employs around 23,000 persons at its various plants, offices and branches.

Oswal has contribution in the area of agriculture. In 1999, 2001 and 2002, when the yield of cotton in the state had fallen to a level that scared farmers, he took the initiative of adopting a village in 2003 to test if with good practices adopted, the yield could be brought to international levels.

Subsequently, he founded consortium of mills and a bank under the name of Village cluster adoption programme to fund the project to increase coverage.