The National Sports Awards are a collection of six individual awards presented to athletes, coaches, and organizations to recognize their accomplishments and contributions to sports development in India. They are widely regarded as the highest honor that can be bestowed in the Indian sporting community.
The Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, also known as the Khel Ratna, the Arjuna Award, the Dronacharya Award, the Major Dhyan Chand Award, the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy, also known as the MAKA Trophy, and the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar are the six core awards that makeup India's National Sports Awards.
In addition to the six National Sports Awards, which have been presented annually since 2004, the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award has also been presented annually; hence, it is considered an unofficial component of the list.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of India annually distributes the National Sports Awards.
Typically held on India's National Sports Day (August 29), which also happens to be the birthday of Indian hockey star Major Dhyan Chand, the awards for nominated athletes take place at the Presidential Palace. They are presided over by the President of India.
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List Of Sports Awards in India
Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna
The Khel Ratna Award, sometimes referred to as the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award is the most incredible honor bestowed to an Indian athlete. The Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award has been given out yearly by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports since it was first presented in the academic year 1991–1992. Those who are picked by a committee formed by the Ministry for their "spectacular and most exceptional accomplishment in the sphere of sports over a period of four years" at the world level are given the award, which consists of a medallion, a certificate, and a monetary reward of Rs 25 lakhs. In 2021, the prize formerly known as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in Sports and Games was renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in honor of Dhyan Chand, who is considered to be one of the finest field hockey players in the history of India. Over his career, which spanned over 20 years, he amassed more than 1000 points.
Viswanathan Anand, a chess grandmaster, became the first athlete ever to be honored with this national sports award in the 1991–1992 academic year. Abhinav Bindra, who was just 18 years old when he won the award in 2001, holds the record for being the youngest person to win it. He won it for producing consistently high performance.
Last year, the award was given to a total of twelve different athletes, including Neeraj Chopra (athletics), Mithali Raj (cricket), Sunil Chhetri (football), and Manpreet Singh (wrestling) (hockey). As of 2021, Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna has been bestowed to 57 athletes who competed in one of fifteen sports.
Dhyan Chand Award
There is much similarity in the titles of the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and the Dhyan Chand Award, officially known as the Major Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and Games. This award, which was presented for the first time in 2002 and given the name Dhyan Chand, was devised to honor players for the contributions to their sport that they made not only during their playing careers but also after they had finished competing. The government of Chand bestows the Dhyan Chand Award to a single recipient annually. In addition to receiving the actual award, the laureate is also presented with a trophy, a certificate, ceremonial clothing, and a monetary incentive of Rs 10 lakh.
Only contests that the Olympic Games officially sanction, Paralympic Games, Asian Games, or Commonwealth Games, may be considered for the Dhyan Chand Award. This includes the World Championships. Cricket and parasports are other types of events that fall within this category. Shahuraj Birajdar (Boxing), Ashok Diwan (Hockey), and Aparna Ghosh were the first three athletes to ever be honored with this award in the year 2002. (Basketball). The Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports is given the list of nominations, and he chooses the winners among the candidates.
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Arjuna Award
The Arjuna Award is India's second-highest sporting accolade and was bestowed in 1954. Its full name, the Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, reflects its status as the nation's second-highest sports honor. The award was first given out for the first time in 1961; however, since that year, it has undergone several rounds of revision. According to the most recent revision, which took place in 2018, the Arjuna Award is given to competitions that fall into categories such as the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games, the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games, the World Championship, the World Cup, Indigenous Games, Parasports, and cricket.
It is the responsibility of a committee that the Ministry set up to choose who would be given the awards to recognize their achievements. The award recipients are acknowledged on a global scale for their "outstanding success in the field of sports over a period of four years," which is one of the requirements for winning the prize. The award, which will be presented on an annual basis starting in the year 2020 and is named after a character from the Mahabharata epic written in Sanskrit, consists of a bronze statuette of Arjuna, a certificate, ceremonial garb, and a monetary incentive of Rs 15 lakh.
In 1961, the Arjuna Award was presented to twenty sports for outstanding achievements. This group includes the athlete's PK Banerjee, a boxer, and Salim Durani, a cricketer. People such as Shikhar Dhawan (cricket), Simranjit Kaur (boxing), Varun Kumar (hockey), and Ankita Raina were among the winners of the award in the year 2021. (tennis).
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy
The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy is awarded by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to the educational establishment that was judged to have been "the overall top performing University in sports and promoting competitive sports in University" throughout the course of the preceding calendar year. Abul Kalam Azad, a prominent figure in the struggle for Indian independence, inspired the naming of this trophy in his honor. The university that finishes in the first place will get a medal in addition to the cash prize of fifteen lakh rupees (approximately), which will be awarded to them (Rs. 15 lacks). The institutions that finish in second and third place, respectively, each get a cash award with a value of 7.5 and 4.5 prizes that of the first place institution. The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy was bestowed to the Punjab University in 2021, making this the institution's third consecutive year to receive the honor. Despite Amritsar's Guru Nanak Dev University holding the record for the most number of times it has been won, Bombay University was the first university to be honored with the rolling MAKA trophy in 1957. However, Amritsar's Guru Nanak Dev University holds the record for the first institution to receive the award (22).
Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar
The Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar is an award that recognizes "the involvement of corporates, voluntary organizations, and sports control boards in the promotion and development of sports in the country" over the course of the previous three years. The English translation of this award's name is the "National Sports Promotion Award." Since its inception in 2009, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has been responsible for bestowing the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar to deserving athletes. Awards are given to organizations that excel in one of these four categories: the identification and cultivation of burgeoning and young talent; the encouragement of sports through corporate social responsibility; the employment of sportspersons and sports welfare measures; and the use of marks for the advancement of development. The award will be presented in each category with both a citation and a trophy.
Throughout its existence, 48 of these awards have been bestowed. In 2021, the award was given to the Manav Rachna Educational Institutions for their work in spotting and developing athletic potential over the previous quarter of a century.
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Dronacharya Award
The Dronacharya Award, which is officially known as the Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games, is presented once a year by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to individuals who have done "outstanding and meritorious work consistently and enabled sportspersons to excel in international events" over the course of a period of four years. The award is given to those who have "enabled sportspersons to excel in international events." The award is presented in the form of a bronze sculpture of Dronacharya, with a ceremonial robe, diploma, and a monetary reward of Rs 15 lakh. It was given its current name after Drona, a figure from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata.
Only those competitions that are part of the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championship, and World Cup, as well as Cricket, Indigenous Games, and Parasports, are eligible for the award, which was first presented in 1985.
The list of those who were given the Dronacharya award in 2021 consisted of nine individuals. One of the winners was Shri T.P. Ouseph, who was responsible for the training of a large number of athletes competing at the national level.
Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award
Even though it is not officially recognized as a national sports award in India, the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award is worthy of special recognition for the accomplishments that it has achieved. Since 2004, when it was first introduced with the other six National Sports Awards, the award has been given out yearly. The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award is the most distinguished honor to be bestowed upon an Indian individual in adventure sports. Tenzing Norgay was one of the first two persons to reach the peak of Mount Everest. The other person to do so was Edmund Hillary.
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The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports gives this award once a year to recognize "excellent accomplishment in the sphere of land adventure, sea and air" over the preceding three years. Tenzing Norgay was one of the first two people to reach the peak of Mount Everest. The other person was Edmund Hillary. The award for involvement in daring activities consists of a bronze statue of Tenzing Norgay and a monetary incentive of Rs 5 lakh, equivalent to around $70,000. You can play online fantasy games to make real money on the Paytm app. All you need to do is have an account on the online fantasy game application of Paytm to get started.
The Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, also known as the Khel Ratna, the Arjuna Award, the Dronacharya Award, the Major Dhyan Chand Award, the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy, also known as the MAKA Trophy, and the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar are the six primary awards that makeup India's National Sports Awards. The Rashtriya Khel Pro
