What are India’s National Sports Awards?
A collection of six honours constitutes the National Sports Awards. Know about each of them.
Considered the pinnacle of sporting honours in India, the National Sports Awards are a collection of six different awards given out to sportspersons, coaches or organisations for their achievements and contribution towards the growth of Indian sports.
The six core awards which constitute India’s National Sports Awards are the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award or simply the Khel Ratna, the Arjuna Award, the Dronacharya Award, the Major Dhyan Chand Award, the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy, also called the MAKA Trophy, and the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar.
Since 2004, the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award has also been given out along with the six National Sports Awards, making it an informal part of the list.
The National Sports Awards are allocated annually by India’s Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
Nominated sportspersons receive their awards from the President of India at the Presidential Palace, generally on India’s National Sports Day - August 29 – which marks the birthday of Indian hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand.
National Sports Awards
Here’s a more detailed look at each of the sports awards in India.
Khel Ratna Award
Considered India’s highest sporting honour, the Khel Ratna was established in 1991-92 as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award before it was renamed to Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award in 2021. The Khel Ratna is awarded for outstanding performances in sports spanning over a period of four years and winners get a medallion, a certificate and a cash prize.
Indian chess Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand was the first Khel Ratna winner. A slew of legendary sporting figures like MC Mary Kom, PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Vijender Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli are among other winners.
Pistol shooter Abhinav Bindra, who won the first-ever individual gold medal for India at the Olympics at Beijing 2008, is the youngest to win the Khel Ratna. Bindra 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.
Arjuna Award
Named after Arjuna, the main protagonist from the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata, the Arjuna Award was set up in 1961. It was India’s highest sporting honour before the Khel Ratna came into being.
Given out 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.
India’s football Olympian PK Banerjee was among the 20 recipients of the Arjuna Award in its inaugural edition in 1961. Hockey player Anna Lumsden was the first woman to win the Arjuna Award.
As per current rules, a Khel Ratna winner cannot be nominated for the Arjuna Award. However, an Arjuna winner can be nominated for the Khel Ratna.
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.
Interestingly, Dronacharya or Drona was Arjuna’s guru or coach in the Mahabharata. Awardees receive a bronze statue of Dronacharya, a certificate and a cash prize.
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.
The first woman to win the Dronacharya Award was athletics coach Renu Kohli in 2002.
The Dronacharya Award is given out for both recent accomplishments and lifetime contributions.
Arjuna Award Lifetime (formerly Major Dhyan Chand Award)
The Arjuna Award Lifetime 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, the Lifetime Award was originally constituted in 2002 and was called the Major Dhyan Chand Award till 2023. In 2024, it was rechristened as the Arjuna Award Lifetime by the Indian sports ministry in a bid to 'rationalise' the various sporting honours of the country.
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.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy
The oldest National Sports Awards in India, the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy or the MAKA Trophy was instituted in 1956–1957.
Named in honour of Indian freedom fighter and the country’s first education minister Abul Kalam Azad, the award is given to the university for top performance in inter-university tournaments over the last one year.
Bombay University claimed the inaugural award but since then, the Guru Nanak Dev University from Amritsar, Punjab, has dominated the winners’ list, clinching 22 of the 64 awards given out. The reward comprises a rolling MAKA Trophy, that gets passed on to the winner each year, and a cash prize.
Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar
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 Puruskar has been a fixture in the National Sports Awards list since 2009.
The name of the award, translated from Hindi to English, means National Sports Promotion Award.
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.
Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award
Tenzing Norgay, an Indian of Nepali origin, and Kiwi mountaineer Edmund Hillary were the first two men to scale Mount Everest – the world’s highest peak.
Established in Norgay’s memory in the year 1994, the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award seeks to recognise outstanding achievements in the field of adventure activities or sports on land, sea and air. Activities like mountaineering, skydiving, open water swimming and sailing are considered.
The adventure sports equivalent of the Arjuna Award, the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure awards have been conferred alongside the six core national awards since 2004. Before the award was established, accomplishments in adventure sports were also honoured with the Arjuna Award.
Typically, the award is divided into four categories each year - land adventure, water (sea) adventure, air adventure and lifetime achievement.