• The ministry of youth affairs & sports announced the National Sports Awards 2023. 

• Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award 2023 will be given to badminton stars Chirag Chandrashekhar Shetty and Rankireddy Satwik Sai Raj.

• Chirag and Satwik are Asian Games gold medallists, World Championships bronze winners and Commonwealth Games silver medallists.

• As many as 26 sportspersons, including pacer Mohammed Shami, will receive Arjuna Award for outstanding performance.

• The athletes were nominated for the awards by a government panel.

• The ministry also cleared five coaches for Dronacharya award in the regular category and three in life-time category. 

• The awards will be conferred on the sportspersons by President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 9.

Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award

• Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award is given for the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over a period of previous four years.

• It was launched in 1991-92 as Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. In August 2021, the Khel Ratna Award was renamed in the honour of hockey wizard Dhyan Chand. 

• The prize money for the Ratna Award has been increased to Rs 25 lakh from the previous amount of Rs 7.5 lakh.

Arjuna Award

It was instituted in 1961 and is given to players who have exhibited good performance consistently for the previous four years at the international level and have shown qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline. The awardees are given a statuette, a scroll of honour, ceremonial dress and award money of Rs 15 lakh.

This year’s winners:

• Ojas Pravin Deotale - Archery

• Aditi Gopichand Swami - Archery

• Sreeshankar M - Athletics

• Parul Chaudhary - Athletics

• Mohammed Hussamuddin - Boxing

• R.Vaishali - Chess

• Mohammed Shami - Cricket

• Anush Agarwalla - Equestrian

• Divyakriti Singh - Equestrian Dressage

• Diksha Dagar - Golf

• Krishan Bahadur Pathak - Hockey

• Sushila Chanu - Hockey

• Pawan Kumar - Kabaddi

• Ritu Negi - Kabaddi

• Nasreen Shaikh - Kho-Kho

• Pinki Singh - Lawn Bowls

• Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar - Shooting

• Esha Singh - Shooting

• Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu - Squash

• Ayhika Mukherjee - Table Tennis

• Sunil Kumar - Wrestling

• Antim Panghal - Wrestling

• Naorem Roshibina Devi - Wushu

• Sheetal Devi - Para Archery

• Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy - Blind Cricket

• Prachi Yadav - Para Canoe

Dronacharya Award

• It was instituted in 1985. This award honours eminent coaches who have assisted national athletes and teams in achieving outstanding results in international competitions. The awardees are given a statuette, certificate, ceremonial dress and a cash prize. 

• Awardees of Dronacharya Award (Regular Category) will receive Rs 10 lakh.  

• Awardees of Dronacharya Award (Lifetime Category) will get Rs 15 lakh.

This year’s winners:

Lifetime Category

• Jaskirat Singh Grewal - Golf

• Bhaskaran E - Kabaddi

• Jayanta Kumar Pushilal - Table Tennis

Regular Category

• Lalit Kumar - Wrestling

• R.B.Ramesh - Chess

• Mahaveer Prasad Saini - Para Athletics

• Shivendra Singh - Hockey

• Ganesh Prabhakar Devrukhkar - Mallakhamb

Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and Games

It was instituted in 2002. This award is given to honour those who have contributed to sports by their performance and continue to contribute to promotion of sports even after their retirement from an active sporting career. The awardees are given a statuette, a certificate, ceremonial dress and award money of Rs 10 lakh. 

This year’s winners: 

• Manjusha Kanwar - Badminton

• Vineet Kumar Sharma - Hockey

• Kavitha Selvaraj - Kabaddi

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy

With a view to promote competitive sports in colleges and universities, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy with a cash award of Rs 15 lakh is given to the University standing first in inter-university sports tournaments. 

This year’s winners:

• Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar - Overall winner 

• Lovely Professional University, Punjab - First runner up

• Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra - Second runner up.

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