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Introduction

The National Sports Awards are the pinnacle of sporting honours in the Republic of India. The awards are given annually to recognize and reward excellence in sports, highlight extraordinary performance at the national and international competitive events, encourage sportsmanship and promote nation-building by creating a sense of national pride and unity in a country as diverse as India. It promotes qualities like leadership, discipline, commitment, teamwork and a passion for health and fitness in the psyche of a nation with the world’s largest youth population. The awards are administered by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Government of India.

Categories

The six categories of the National Sports Awards are:

1. Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award
2. Arjuna Award,
3. Dronacharya Award,
4. Major Dhyan Chand Award,
5. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad rolling Trophy, also called the MAKA Trophy, and
6. Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar

*Since 2004, the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award has also been given out along with the six National Sports Awards.

Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award

Considered India’s highest sporting honour, the Khel Ratna was established in 1991-92. The award is named after the Indian hockey legend, Major Dhyan Chand (1905–79) who is considered to be one of the best players to have ever played the sport of hockey. He was the star of the Indian hockey team that dominated the sport in the years before World War II. He played a key role in India’s three consecutive gold hauls at the Olympic Games - in 1928, 1932 and 1936. His mastery of the game and ball control was so dazzling that it earned him the epithets 'Hockey Wizard' and 'The Magician'.

The award is given for outstanding performances in sports spanning over a period of four years and the Khel Ratna winners receive a medallion, certificate and a cash prize. Legendary sports figures like MC Mary Kom, S. MirabaiChanu, PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Vijender Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli amongst others have received this highest sporting honour in the past.

  

Major Dhyan Chand representing India for Hockey at the Olympic Games^[1]

Pistol shooter Abhinav Bindra, who won the first-ever individual gold medal for India at the Olympics at Beijing 2008, is the youngest sportsperson to win the Khel Ratna. He won the award in 2001 when he was just 18. Olympic bronze medal-winning weightlifter Karnam Malleswari was the first Indian woman to receive the Khel Ratna in 1994-95.^[2]

In 1991-1992, the first Khel Ratna award^[3] was presented to chess grandmaster and former world chess Champion Shri Vishwanathan Anand as well as Shri Geet Sethi who dominated the English Billiards throughout the 1990s.

Arjuna Award

Named after Arjuna, the main protagonist from the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata, the Arjuna Award was instituted in 1961.^[4] It was India’s highest sporting honour before the Khel Ratna came into being.

It is awarded for consistent good performance over a period of four years. The winners of the Arjuna Award receive a statuette of Arjuna, a certificate and a cash prize.

The first Arjuna awards was conferred upon India’s football Olympian PK Banerjee who was among the 20 recipients of the Arjuna Award in its inaugural edition in 1961.

Hockey player Anna Lumsden was the first woman Arjuna Award winner.

Dronacharya Award

The Dronacharya Award, instituted in 1985, is India’s highest sports honour for coaches. It is awarded to individuals for producing medal winners at prestigious international events. This award is named after Dronacharya or Drona who was Arjuna’s guru or coach in the Indian epic Mahabharata. Awardees receive a bronze statue of Dronacharya, a certificate and a cash prize.

The first woman to win the Dronacharya award was athletics coach Renu Kohli in 2002. This Award is given for both recent accomplishments and lifetime contributions.

Wrestling coach Bhalchandra Bhaskar Bhagwat, boxing mentor Om Prakash Bharadwaj and legendary athletics coach OM Nambiar, credited for moulding Indian sprint queen PT Usha’s career, were among the first Dronacharya Award winners in 1985 when the Dronacharya Award was instituted.

Major Dhyan Chand Award

Another award named after India’s hockey magician Dhyan Chand, the Major Dhyan Chand Award represents India’s highest honour for lifetime achievements in sports. Presented for good performance and contributing towards the promotion of sports in an individual capacity since 2002, the winners get a Dhyan Chand statuette, a certificate and a cash prize. Olympian boxer Shahuraj Birajdar, Indian men’s hockey team player Ashok Diwan and Aparna Ghosh, an accomplished player and coach with the Indian women’s basketball team, were the first recipients of the Major Dhyan Chand Award.

The first Dhyan Chand award for Lifetime Achievements in Sports and Games instituted in 2002 was given to Shahuraj Birajdar for Boxing; Ashok Diwan for Hockey and Aparna Ghosh for Basketball.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy (MAKA)

The oldest National Sports Award in India, the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy or the MAKA Trophy was instituted in 1956–1957. This award is named in honour of the Indian freedom fighter and the country’s first education minister Shri Abul Kalam Azad.

It is given to an institution or university for top performance in inter-university tournaments over the last one year. The reward comprises a rolling MAKA Trophy that gets passed on to the winner each year, and a cash prize.

In 1956-57, the first Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) award was conferred upon Bombay University for promoting competitive sports, excellence in sports, and integrating sports and physical fitness in their curriculum.

Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar

Awarded to organisations or corporates (both private and public) and individuals for playing a role in the area of sports promotion and development over the last three years, the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar has been a fixture in the National Sports Awards list since 2009.

Nominees are decided in four different segments - identification and nurturing of budding and young talent, encouragement to sports through corporate social responsibility, employment of sportspersons and sports welfare measures, and sports for development. Winners from each category get a citation and a trophy. There can be multiple winners in a single category in a year.

The Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar was instituted in 2009. Tata Steel Limited received two awards for the categories of Community Sports Identification and Nurturing of Budding Talent as well as Establishment and Management of Sports Academies of Excellence on the 29^th August 2009.^[5]

Other awards:

Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award

Instituted in 1993-1994, the National Adventure Awards now known as the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award was presented for the year 1994 in 1995.^[6]

• The award in the category of land adventure was given to 19 Indian members of the successful Indo-Napalese women’s Everest expedition of 1993^[7]. It included Bachendri Pal, world’s first woman to scale Everest twice, Santosh Yadav and Dicky Dolma who at 19 became the world’s youngest woman to reach Everest. Others included Rita G. Marwah, Chandra Prabha Aitwal, Deepu Sharma, Kunga Bhatia, Radha Devi, Bimla Negi, Savita Martolia, Suman Kutiyal, Sarla
  Negi, K Saraswati, Rita Patel, Harsha Panwar, G. Anita Devi, Rajeev Sharma, Nima Norbu and Baldev Kanwar.
• The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Hukum Singh for his lifetime commitment to mountaineering.
• In 2020^[8], the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award was conferred upon seven individuals including Indian Army's Lieutenants Colonel Servesh Dhadwal and Colonel Amit Bisht. Colonel Servesh Dhadwal received it for his skydiving activities.

National Sports Awards 2023

Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports on December 20 announced the National Sports Awards 2023. The awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at a specially organized function at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 09^th January, 2024 at 1100 hours.^[9]

Selection Process

The applications were invited online and sportspersons/coaches/entities were permitted to self-apply through a dedicated Online Portal. A large number of applications/nominations were received for these awards this year, which were considered by the Selection Committee headed by Justice A. M. Khanwilkar, Retd. Judge, Supreme Court of India and consisting members from eminent sportspersons, persons having experience in sports journalism and sports administrators.

S. No.	Name of the sportsperson*	Discipline
1.	Shri Chirag Chandrashekhar Shetty	Badminton
2.	Shri Rankireddy Satwik Sai Raj	Badminton

 

Based on the recommendations of the Committee and after due scrutiny, Government has decided to confer awards upon the following sportspersons, coaches and entities this year:

Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award 2023

* The Award has been conferred to both sportspersons having similar achievements on account of Team performance.

Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2023

 

Dronacharya Award for outstanding coaches in Sports and Games 2023

Regular Category:

 

Lifetime Category:

 

Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime achievement in Sports and Games 2023:

 

Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime achievement in Sports and Games 2023:

 

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