Hamsadhwani’s Distinguished Citizen Award presented to industrialist B. Santhanam

B. Santhanam, former chairman and CEO, Saint Gobain, receiving the award from Minister R. Kumar on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: S.R. RAGHUNATHAN Minister for AI, IT and Digital Services R. Kumar on Tuesday presented the Distinguished Citizen Award-2026 to industrialist B. Santhanam at the Youth Hostel here. The award was instituted by Hamsadhwani to mark its 36th anniversary.In his address, Mr. Kumar said Tamil Nadu was a land where culture and language had travelled together for ages.Today, artificial intelligence offers unprecedented opportunities to create repositories for our culture and Tamil language, he said.Hamsadhwani secretary R. Sundar said the idea of a Distinguished Citizen Award was suggested by the organisation’s founder R. Ramachandran, and the first awardee was Dr. V. Shantha