Arjuna Award
The award was instituted in 1961. To be eligible for the award, a sportsperson should have
not only good performance consistently for the previous four years at the international level with
excellence for the year for which award is recommended, but should have also shown qualities of
leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline. The awardee is given a statuette, a
certificate, ceremonial dress and a cash award of rupees five lakh. For 2018, 20 sportspersons
were given the award in various disciplines.
Dhyan Chand Award for Life Time Achievement
This award was instituted in 2002. It is given to honour 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. The awardee is given a statuette, a certificate,
ceremonial dress and a cash award of rupees five lakh. For 2018, this award was given to four
sportspersons.
Dronacharya Award
This award was instituted in 1985 to honour eminent coaches who have successfully trained
sportspersons or teams and enabled them to achieve outstanding results in international
competitions. The awardee is given a statuette of Guru Dronacharya, a certificate, ceremonial
dress and a cash award of five lakhs. For 2018, eight persons received the honour in various
disciplines.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy
This trophy was instituted in 1956-57. The top overall performing university in the inter-
university tournaments is given the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy, which is a
rolling trophy. A small replica of the MAKA Trophy is also awarded for retention by the
university. For 2018, the Trophy was bagged by Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar
With a view to recognizing the contribution made to sports development by entities other
than sportspersons and coaches, Government has instituted a new award titled ‘Rashtriya Khel
Protsahan Puraskar’ from 2009, which has four categories, namely, identification and nurturing
of budding / young talent, encouragement to sports through corporate social responsibility,
employment of sportspersons and sports welfare measures and sports for development. The
award consists of a citation and a trophy in each of the above mentioned categories. There is no
cash award.
For 2018, awards were given for three categories - identification and nurturing of budding /
young talent, encouragement to sports through corporate social responsibility, employment of
sportspersons and sports welfare measures and sports for development.
Special Awards to winners in International Sports Events and their Coaches
This Scheme was introduced in 1986 to encourage and motivate outstanding sportspersons
for higher achievements and to attract the younger generation to take up sports as a career. Under
it, special awards are given to sportspersons and their coaches for winning medals in recognized
international sports events held in a year at the following rates:
(a) Category: Open Category Sports
S. Amount of Award