The Padma Bhushan Award is well known to be one of the most prestigious and honourable civilian awards presented in India. The award was incepted in the year 1954 by the Government of India to recognise extraordinary talents in various fields and also to appreciate their achievements. The Government has since been presenting the award on a regular basis, except a gap of 2 years from 13th July 1977 to 26th January, 1980. The award is presented to both the Indian citizens and foreigners as recognition of their great achievements in their respective fields. 33 people received the Padma Bhushan Award in the year 2008.
A list of the 2008 Padma Bhushan Awardees is given below:
| Name | Field | State | Country |
| Asad Ali Khan | Arts | Delhi | India |
| Amarnath Sehgal | Arts | Delhi | India |
| P. Susheela | Arts | Andhra Pradesh | India |
| Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar | Arts | Delhi | India |
| Sushil Kumar Saxena | Arts | Delhi | India |
| K. Padmanabhiah | Civil Service | Delhi | India |
| V. Ramachandran | Civil Service | Kerala | India |
| Name | Field | State | Country |
| Srinivasa S.R. Varadhan | Literature & Education | - | USA |
| Padma Desai | Literature & Education | - | USAÂ |
| Shayama Chona | Literature & Education | Delhi | India |
| Brijinder Nath Goswamy | Literature & Education | Chandigarh | India |
| Ji Xianlin | Literature & Education | - | China |
| Kaushik Basu | Literature & Education | - | USA |
| Srilal Shukla | Literature & Education | Uttar Pradesh | India |
| Ravindra Kelekar | Literature & Education | Goa | India |
| T. K. Oommen | Literature & Education | Haryana | India |
| Jagjit Singh Chopra | Medicine | Chandigarh | India |
| Jasdev Singh | Others | Delhi | India |
| Mian Bashir Ahmed | Public Affairs | Jammu and Kashmir | India |
| Meghnad Desai | Public Affairs | - | United Kingdom |
| Yuli Mikhailovich Vorontsov | Public Affairs | Moscow | Russia |
| Asis Datta | Science & Engineering | Delhi | India |
| Sukh Dev | Science & Engineering | Delhi | India |
| Sunita Williams | Science & Engineering | - | USA |
| Vasant Gowarikar | Science & Engineering | Maharashtra | India |
| Inderjit Kaur | Social Work | Punjab | India |
| D. R. Mehta | Social Work | Rajasthan | India |
| Dominique Lapierre | Social Work | - | France |
| Baba Neelkanth Kalyani | Trade & Industry | Maharashtra | India |
| K. V. Kamath | Trade & Industry | Karnataka | India |
| Shiv Nadar | Trade & Industry | Tamil Nadu | India |
| Suresh Kumar Neotia | Trade & Industry | Delhi | India |
| Vikram Pandit | Trade & Industry | - | USA |
