Japanese scholar gets Padma Shri from PM

Tokyo: Ill health kept him away from the ceremony in the Indian capital but eminent Japanese scholar Noburu Karashima got his Padma Shri from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here Tuesday.

Karashima was named for Padma Shri, the state's fourth highest civilian recognition, by the government this year for his contribution to the field of literature and education. Due to health reasons, he could not be in New Delhi in April to get the award from President Pranab Mukherjee.

The Prime Minister presented him with the citation and the award at an event here.

Karashima, a Professor Emeritus with the University of Tokyo, had spent several years in India as a research scholar on south Indian history and epigraphy at the University of Madras in Chennai.

Fluent in Tamil and acknowledged as an authority on medieval south Indian inscriptions, Karashima occupied the prestigious chair of South Asian history at the University of Tokyo for over 20 years.