The third highest civilian award in India, Padma Bhushan Award was incepted in the year 1954 by the Government of India. The award is presented to the extremely talented people in different fields to recognise their talents and also to appreciate their exceptional achievements. The award is given to the people from almost every field like Science & Engineering, Literature & Education, Medicine, Sports, Civil Service, Arts, Trade & Industry, Social Work, Public Affairs, etc. The award is presented to both the Indian citizens and the foreigners. The year 2004 saw 19 people receiving the Padma Bhushan Award.
The list of the 2004 Padma Bhushan Awardees is given below:
| Name | Field | State | Country |
| N. Rajam | Arts | Uttar Pradesh | India |
| Komal Kothari | Arts | Rajasthan | India |
| Gulzar | Arts | Maharashtra | India |
| Madurai Thirumalai Nambi Seshagopalan | Arts | Tamil Nadu | India |
| Soumitra Chatterjee | Arts | West Bengal | India |
| Alarmel Valli | Arts | Tamil Nadu | India |
| Thoppil Varghese Antony | Civil Service | Tamil Nadu | India |
| Tiruvengadam Lakshman Sankar | Civil Service | Andhra Pradesh | India |
| Sardara Singh Johl | Economics | Punjab | India |
| Name | Field | State | Country |
| Chennamaneni Hanumantha Rao | Literature & Education | Andhra Pradesh | India |
| Krishna Srinivas | Literature & Education | Tamil Nadu | India |
| Gopi Chand Narang | Literature & Education | Delhi | India |
| Madhav Vittal Kamath | Literature & Education | Maharashtra | India |
| Vishnu Prabhakar | Literature & Education | Delhi | India |
| Bijoy Nandan Shahi | Medicine | Delhi | India |
| Chandrashekhar Shankar Dharmadhikari | Public Affairs | Maharashtra | India |
| Yoshiro Mori | Public Affairs | - | Japan |
| Govindarajan Padmanaban | Science & Engineering | Karnataka | India |
| Poornima Arvind Pakvasa | Social Work | Gujarat | India |
