• Double Olympic-medallist Manu Bhaker, chess world champion D. Gukesh, men’s hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh and para-athlete Praveen Kumar were named recipients of this year’s Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award — the country’s highest sporting honour.

• The 22-year-old Bhaker became independent India’s first athlete to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympics with her bronze-winning show in the 10m air pistol individual and 10m air pistol mixed team events in August 2024.

• In the same Games, Hamranpreet led the Indian hockey team to its second consecutive bronze medal.

• The 18-year-old Gukesh became the youngest ever World champion while also helping the Indian team win a historic gold in the Chess Olympiad.

• The fourth recipient will be para high-jumper Praveen, who was crowned the T64 champion in the Paris Paralympics. The T64 classification is for athletes who have one or both legs missing below the knee and rely on a prosthetic leg for running.

• The Sports Ministry named an unprecedented 17 para-athletes in the list of 32 Arjuna awardees to honour their resounding success at the Paris Paralympics with 29 medals, including seven gold and nine silver.

• The Dronacharya award in the lifetime category will be conferred on former India football manager Armando Colaco and badminton coach S Muralidharan.

• India’s first Paralympic gold-medallist Murlikant Petkar, who won the top honours in the 50m freestyle swimming event of the 1972 Heidelberg Paralympics, was named for the Arjuna Awards (Lifetime).

• The awards will be conferred on the athletes by President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 17.

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:

1) Jyothi Yarraji - Athletics

2) Annu Rani - Athletics

3) Nitu Ghangas - Boxing

4) Saweety Boora - Boxing

5) Vantika Agrawal - Chess

6) Salima Tete - Hockey

7) Abhishek Nain - Hockey

8) Sanjay - Hockey

9) Jarmanpreet Singh - Hockey

10) Sukhjeet Singh - Hockey

11) Rakesh Kumar - Para-Archery

12) Preeti Pal - Para-Athletics

13) Jeevanji Deepthi - Para-Athletics

14) Ajeet Singh - Para-Athletics

15) Sachin Sarjerao Khilari - Para-Athletics

16) Dharambir - Para-Athletics

17) Pranav Soorma - Para-Athletics

18) H. Hokato Sema - Para-Athletics

19) Simran - Para-Athletics

20) Navdeep Singh - Para-Athletics

21) Nitesh Kumar - Para-Badminton

22) Thulasimathi Murugesan - Para-Badminton

23) Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan - Para-Badminton

24) Manisha Ramadass - Para-Badminton

25) Kapil Parmar - Para-Judo

26) Mona Agarwal - Para-Shooting

27) Rubina Francis - Para-Shooting

28) Swapnil Suresh Kusale - Shooting

29) Sarabjot Singh - Shooting

30) Abhay Singh - Squash

31) Sajan Prakash - Swimming

32) Aman Sehrawat - Wrestling.

Arjuna Awards (Lifetime) 

Arjuna Award (Lifetime) is given to honour and motivate those sportspersons who have contributed to sports by their performance and continue to contribute to promotion of sports even after their retirement from active sporting career.

This year’s winners:

Sucha Singh - Athletics

Murlikant Rajaram Petkar - Para-Swimming.

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:

Regular Category

• Subhash Rana - Para-Shooting

• Deepali Deshpande - Shooting

• Sandeep Sangwan - Hockey

Lifetime Category

• S. Muralidharan - Badminton

• Armando Agnelo Colaco - Football.

Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar

• With a view to recognise the contribution made to sports development by entities other than sportspersons and coaches, the government has instituted an award since 2009 entitled Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar.

• It is given to corporate entities (both in private and public sector), sports control boards, NGOs — including sports bodies at the state and national level who have played a visible role in the area of sports promotion and development.

This year’s winner:

• Physical Education Foundation of India.

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:

• Chandigarh University - Overall winner

• Lovely Professional University, Punjab - First runner up

• Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar - Second runner up.

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