The award is given for distinguished service of a high order in any field including service rendered by government servants.

Padma Bhushan stands third position in the hierarchy of Indian civilian awards. It comes before the Padma Sri and after the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan. The Padma Bhushan is a decoration established on the 2nd of January, 1954 by the President of India

It has the same design as Padma Vibhushan. On the obverse the word "Padma" Appears above and the word "Bhushan" below the lotus flower. The inscription "Padma Bhushan" on the obverse, the geometrical pattern on either side and the border around periphery are in burnished bronze. All embossing on either side of decoration is in standard gold.

2004
• Alarmel Valli, dancer	• Lt. Gen. Bijoy Nandan Shahi, doctor	• Hanumantha Rao, writer(Telugu)
• Madurai Seshagopalan, Carnatic vocalist	• Rajam, violinist	• Poornima Arvind Pakvasa, social worker (Gujarat)
• Chandrashekhar Shankar Dharmadhikari	• Gopi Chand Narang	• Krishna Srinivas
• Sardara Singh Johl, scientist	• Sankar	• Antony
• Yoshiro Mori, former Japanese prime minister	• Soumitra Chatterjee, Bengali film director and actor	• Kamath, journalist
• Vishnu Prabhakar	• Komal Kothari, musician	• Govindarajan Padmanabhan, scientist