Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation

The Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation (Telugu: శ్రీ రాజా లక్ష్మీ ఫౌండేషన్) is an Indian charitable trust that promotes arts, sciences, literature, medicine, journalism, humanities and other intellectual pursuits and to honour distinguished persons in these fields. Established in 1979 in Madras by Late P. V. Ramaniah Raja, a businessman, the foundation instituted the 'Raja-Lakshmi Award'.

Raja-Lakshmi Award
శ్రీ రాజా లక్ష్మీ ఫౌండేషన్
Awarded for	Contributions to Fine Arts, Music, Science, Journalism, Medicine, Social Service
Sponsored by	Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation
Reward(s)	₹1,00,000 (one lakh rupees)
First awarded	1979
Last awarded	2009
Highlights
Total awarded	31
First winner	Sri Sri
Last winner	Sunita Narain

Erstwhile the Raja–Lakshmi Award carried a prize amount of ₹1,00,000, a citation and a plaque. The awardees also received the Dr. K. V. Rao and Dr. Jyoti Rao Award of US$2000, in association with the Telugu Fine Arts Society, New Jersey, USA. The Foundation has also instituted the 'Ratna Rao Memorial Prize' which is awarded annually to the best student in M.Sc. Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

History

Ramaniah Raja, Managing Trustee, Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation

The organisation, along with the Raja–Lakshmi Award, instituted awards such as the Raja–Lakshmi Literary Award (1987–1999) and "Recognise the Teacher" Award. Special awards (Raja–Lakshmi Visishta Puraskar) have also been announced on a one-off basis. 'Lakshmi-Raja Vaidika Puraskar' was instituted in 1994, coinciding with the 60th birthday of Smt. Mahalakshmi Raja, founder trustee of the Foundation. This Award honours Vedic scholars, and consists of a Citation, a plaque and a cash prize of ₹25,000/-.

These Awards were announced on August 15 (birthday of Late Smt. Mahalakshmi Raja) every year and presented at a function on November 19 (birthday of Sri Ramaniah Raja) in the same year.

Activities

The Foundation is now actively involved in charitable work in areas of Education, Education improvement, Environment, Health, Culture and assistance for special children.

Recipients

Raja-Lakshmi Award

Dr. Bezawada Gopala Reddy presenting the first Raja-Lakshmi Award to Sri Sri on 19.11.1979

Smt.Mahalakshmi Raja presenting the 1985 Raja-Lakshmi Award to Mandolin Srinivas

Sadguru Sivananda Murty presenting the 2004 Raja-Lakshmi Award to Smt. Sudha Murty

Raja-Lakshmi Awards-2008, L to R: R.Sekar IPS, N.Murali, Pappu Venugopala Rao, R.Venkatraman Ghanapaati, Koneru Humpy, Balakrishna Prasad, B.S.R.Krishna, Janani Krishna

Year	Awardee	Area
1979	Sri Sri	Literature
1980	Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna	Music
1981	Vempati Chinna Satyam	Dance
1981	Nerella Venumadhav	Mimicry
1982	Bapu	Graphic art
1983	Yelavarthy Nayudamma	Science
1984	Tanguturi Suryakumari	Music and Dance
1985	Mandolin Srinivas	Music
1986	G. K. Reddy	Journalism
1987	Dr. B. Ramamurthi	Medicine
1988	C. Narayanareddy	Literature
1989	Bezawada Gopala Reddy	Politics
1990	Lata Mangeshkar	Music
1991	Nataraja Ramakrishna	Dance
1992	Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu Trust	Music
1993	P. Sainath	Journalism
1994	G. Ram Reddy	Education
1995	Dr. Ambati Balamurali Krishna	Medicine
1996	Abid Hussain	Administration
1997	A. Chennagantamma	Social service
1998	Bhanumathi Ramakrishna	Actor
1999	A. S. Raman	Journalism
1999	S. V. Rama Rao	Art
2000	K. Sivananda Murty	Social service
2001	Govindappa Venkataswamy	Medicine
2002	Nedunuri Krishna Murthy	Music
2003	Biruduraju Ramaraju	Literature
2004	Sudha Murthy	Philanthropy
2005	Malladi Chandrasekhara Sastry	Vedic Scholar
2006	S P Balasubrahmanyam	Cine Playback Singer
2007	Dr. Ch. Gnaneswar Memorial Endowment Fund	Medicine
2008	Koneru Humpy	Sports
2009	Sunita Narain	Environmental Science

Raja-Lakshmi Literary Award

Mayor Sabbam Hari presenting the 1995 Raja-Lakshmi Literary Award to Sri Mullapudi Venkata Ramana

Year	Awardee
1987	Ravuri Bharadwaja
1988	Nagabhairava Koteswara Rao
1989	Tirumala Ramachandra
1990	Ramavarapu Krishnamurthy Sastry
1991	Boyi Bhimanna
1992	Sribhashyam Appalacharyulu
1993	Mikkilineni
1994	P. S. R. Appa Rao
1995	Mullapudi Venkata Ramana
1996	Malati Chandur
1997	Mallampalli Sarabheswara Sarma
1998	K. Ramalakshmi
1999	Kothapalli Veerabhadra Rao & Dwivedula Visalakshi

Lakshmi-Raja Vaidika Puraskar

Year	Awardee
1994	Brahmasri Lanka Venkata Ramasastry Somayaji
1995	Brahmasri Sannidhanam Lakshminarayana Sastry
1996	Brahmasri Dendukoori Agnihotra Somayaji
1997	Brahmasri Remella Suryaprakasa Sastry
1998	Goda Subrahmanya Sastry
1999	Brahmasri Bhamidipati Mitranarayana Yajulu
2000	Dendukuri Venkatappa Yagnanarayana Poundarika Yajulu & Samavedam Ramagopala Sastry
2001	Brahmasri Gullapalli Anjaneya Ghanapaati
2002	Brahmasri Evani Ramakrishna Ghanaapati
2003	Brahmasri Adithe Suryanarayana Murty
2004	Dr. Vishnubhatla Subrahmanya Sastry
2005	‘Veda Vibushana’ Kuppa Siva Subrahmanya Avadhani
2006	Sripada Srirama Nrusimha & Sripada Krishnamurthy Ghanaapati
2007	Gullapalli Venkata Narayana Ghanaapati
2008	R. Venkatrama Ghanapaati
2009	Vangala Ramamurthy Ghanapaati
2010	Dendukuri Venkata Hanumadganaapati Somayaji
2011	Yanamandra Subrahmanya Somayajulu
2012	Vishnubhotla Sriramamurthy Sastry
2013	Kuppa Ramagopala Vajpeyi
2014	Dendukuri Venkateswara Ghanapaati

Raja-Lakshmi Recognise the Teacher Award

Year	Awardee
1997	Dr.Jaya Venugoapala Rao
1998	K S Anand
1999	Gulla Usha Bala

Raja-Lakshmi Visishta Puraskar

Year	Awardee
1983	Palagummi Padmaraju
1992	M. S. Bharat
1998	Bhavaraju Sarveswara Rao
2002	Gollapudi Maruthi Rao
2004	Bapu & Ramana
2008	Garimella Balakrishna Prasad

Ratna Rao Memorial Prize

Year	Awardee
2001	D. Vasumathi
2002	Iyer Karthik Srinivasan
2003	Nandini Ananth
2004	Samanwita Pal
2005	S. Ashok
2006	Sayani Chattopadhyay
2007	Rakesh Paul
2008	Krishnendu Saha
2009	Sovan Biswas
2010	Sourav Maiti
2011	Prem Kumar Chanani
2012	R.Srinivasan
2013	Avijit Baidya
2014	Sayan Dutta
2015	Manisha Samanta
2016	Anindita Mahapatra
2017	Nisha
2018	Ruchira Basu

Memorial lectures delivered

Sri T. A. Venkateswaran delivering the Memorial Lecture for the year 2007.

Year	Awardee
2002	A. Prasanna Kumar
2003	Ajeya Kallam
2004	Dr. B.P. Rajan
2005	T.V. Sairam & B.M. Rao
2006	K. Sivaprasad Gupta
2007	K. Chaya Devi, Dr. K. Venkateswarulu & T.A. Venkateswaran
2008	Dr. Perala Balamurali
2009	Dr. Kanthamani Sundharkrishnan

Publications

S.No.	Year	Name of Publication	Author
01	1985	Bhaja Govindam	Dr.Pappu Venugopala Rao
02	1986	Sundara Kandamu	Usha Sri
03	1987	Leela Krishnudu	Indraganti Srikantha Sarma
04	1988	Nityarchana	Dr.Pappu Venugopala Rao
05	1990	Sri Mata	Sri Mataji Thyagisanandapuri
06	1992	Aatma Bodha	Karidehal Venkata Rao
07	1996	Sanatsu Jateeya Sourabham	Prof.Salaaka Raghunadha Sarma
08	2000	Sivananda Lahari Hamsa	Prof.Salaaka Raghunadha Sarma
09	2006	Pratibha Panchamrutham	Rambhatla Nrusimha Sarma
10	2006	Ramadas and Thyagaraja	Prof. A. Prasanna Kumar

External links

Newspaper Articles

• Build wealth without destroying environment, The Hindu, Friday, Nov 20, 2009
• Raja-Lakshmi award for Sunita Narain, The Hindu, Saturday, Aug 15, 2009
• Stress on regular eye check-up, The Hindu, Thursday, March 12, 2009
• Raja-Lakshmi Foundation awards presented, The Hindu, Thursday, November 20, 2008
• "Raja-Lakshmi Award", Young World, The Hindu, Tuesday, August 19, 2008
• Sharath, Humpy to receive award, The Hindu, Friday, August 15, 2008
• Chess prodigy, table tennis player to get Raja-Lakshmi award , The Hindu, Thursday, August 14, 2008
• Raja-Lakshmi Award presented, The Hindu, Tuesday, November 20, 2007
• Lending it the S.P Touch, The Hindu, Nov 21, 2006
• Raja-Lakshmi award for S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, The Hindu, August 15, 2006
• Malladi Chandrasekhara Sastry selected for Raja-Lakshmi award, The Hindu, August 15, 2005
• Raja-Lakshmi Award for Sudha Murty, The Hindu, Aug 15, 2004^[usurped]
• Rewarding Eminence, The Hindu, Nov 25, 2002^[usurped]