BharatNotes India's National Sports Awards sit at the intersection of two RPSC syllabus lines — "Major Awards, Publications and Eminent Authors" and "Important Events and Achievements in Sports and Games" — but this chapter treats them as an awards topic: who received which honour, in which year, and (most importantly for a Rajasthan-focused paper) which recipients are from Rajasthan. For the state's own Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Stree Shakti Puraskar and general sporting-event coverage, see the separate Sports & Games current-affairs material.
There are four national sports-honour tiers, presented annually by the President: the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award (the highest), the Arjuna Award (for sustained outstanding performance), the Dronacharya Award (for coaches), and — until a 2024 rationalisation folded it into the Arjuna Award — the Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Renaming History — an exam-critical starting point
Common mistake: Coaching material frequently claims the Khel Ratna was renamed on Dhyan Chand's birth anniversary (29 August, also National Sports Day). This is incorrect. The actual trigger was different, and RPSC has every reason to test the correct one.
| Award | Change | Exact date | Verified context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Khel Ratna | Renamed from Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award to Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award | 6 August 2021 | Announced by PM Modi, one day after the Indian men's hockey team won Olympic bronze at Tokyo 2020 (match played 5 August 2021) — not Dhyan Chand's birthday. |
| Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement | Discontinued and folded into a new "Arjuna Award (Lifetime)" category | Announced 24 October 2024 | A Sports Ministry "rationalisation" of award categories; first applied from the National Sports Awards 2024 cycle. The same rationalisation also broadened Dronacharya (Regular) eligibility to grassroots/development-level coaches. |
| Arjuna Award | No rename (instituted 1961) | — | Structural change only: gained the absorbed "Lifetime" sub-category in 2024. |
| Dronacharya Award | No rename (instituted 1985) | — | Retains separate Regular and Lifetime sub-categories; Regular-category eligibility was broadened in the October 2024 rationalisation. |
Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award (2020–2026)
| Year | Recipients | Count | Conferred |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Rohit Sharma (Cricket), Mariyappan Thangavelu (Para-athletics), Manika Batra (Table Tennis), Vinesh Phogat (Wrestling), Rani Rampal (Hockey) | 5 | 29 Aug 2020 — first Khel Ratna ceremony held virtually, from Rashtrapati Bhavan, due to COVID-19 |
| 2021 | Neeraj Chopra (Athletics), Ravi Kumar Dahiya (Wrestling), Lovlina Borgohain (Boxing), P.R. Sreejesh (Hockey), Sunil Chhetri (Football), Manpreet Singh (Hockey), Mithali Raj (Cricket), Avani Lekhara (Para-shooting), Pramod Bhagat (Para-badminton), Krishna Nagar (Para-badminton), Sumit Antil (Para-athletics), Manish Narwal (Para-shooting) | 12 | 13 Nov 2021, Rashtrapati Bhavan, President Kovind |
| 2022 | Achanta Sharath Kamal (Table Tennis) | 1 | 30 Nov 2022, Rashtrapati Bhavan, President Murmu |
| 2023 | Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty (Badminton, doubles) | 2 | 9 Jan 2024, Rashtrapati Bhavan |
| 2024 | Manu Bhaker (Shooting), Harmanpreet Singh (Hockey), D. Gukesh (Chess), Praveen Kumar (Para-athletics) | 4 | Announced 2 Jan 2025; conferred 17 Jan 2025 |
| 2025 | Not finalised as of this check — Hardik Singh (Hockey) named sole nominee on 24 Dec 2025, but the Sports Ministry had not issued a final confirmed award/ceremony as of mid-2026, reportedly due to a "re-evaluation of Arjuna names" causing an unusual delay | — | Pending |
| 2026 | Not yet due — National Sports Day 2026 (29 Aug) had not occurred as of this chapter's last check | — | — |
24 Khel Ratna recipients are confirmed across the five completed award-years (2020–2024). Note the ceremony-date drift: the award moved off its traditional 29 August (National Sports Day) slot starting with the 2021 cycle, and by 2023–2024 had shifted to a January-of-the-following-year pattern — itself a testable sequencing fact.
Rajasthan callout (highest priority): The 2021 batch of 12 included two Jaipur-born Paralympic gold medallists — Avani Lekhara (para-shooting, Tokyo 2020 10m air rifle standing SH1; India's first woman to win a Paralympic gold; repeated gold at Paris 2024; also Padma Shri 2022) and Krishna Nagar (para-badminton SH6, Tokyo 2020 gold). Mithali Raj (cricket, also 2021) was born in Jodhpur, but this is birthplace only — her entire domestic and international playing career represented Hyderabad/Telangana/Andhra Pradesh, not Rajasthan. If a question asks which Khel Ratna recipients are "from Rajasthan," include Lekhara and Nagar; treat Mithali Raj's Rajasthan connection as a birthplace-only technicality, since RPSC likes exactly this kind of nuance as a trap.
UPSC/RPSC relevance: No direct RAS PYQ found yet specifically on the Khel Ratna; closest adjacent — RAS Prelims 2013 Q120 tested the related Arjuna Award (see below), showing RPSC's general interest in this award family. Given Avani Lekhara and Krishna Nagar's strong Rajasthan/Paralympic-gold profile, expect a direct Khel Ratna question naming one of them in an upcoming paper.
Arjuna Award (2020–2026)
| Year | Total recipients (reported) | Rajasthan recipient(s) confirmed |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 27–29 (sources conflict on the exact count) | None identified |
| 2021 | 35 | None identified |
| 2022 | ~25 | Om Prakash Mitharwal (Sikar) — Shooting (10m air pistol/50m pistol) |
| 2023 | 26 | Divyakriti Singh Rathore (Jaipur) — Equestrian Dressage; part of India's gold-medal dressage team, Asian Games 2022, India's first equestrian Asiad gold in 41 years; first Indian woman to receive the Arjuna Award in Equestrian |
| 2024 | 32–34 (sources conflict on the exact count) | Mona Agarwal (Sikar) — Para-shooting (10m air rifle SH1), Paris 2024 Paralympic bronze in the same event Avani Lekhara won gold |
| 2025 | 24 nominees announced 24 Dec 2025 (final list delayed/unconfirmed, same cycle as the Khel Ratna above) | Not verifiable — state-of-origin data was not published for the full nominee list |
| 2026 | Not yet due | — |
Exam angle — a real trap to flag explicitly: Some low-quality sources describe Divyakriti Singh Rathore (2023) as "the first woman from Rajasthan" to win an Arjuna Award — this is false, contradicted by earlier Rajasthan Arjuna winners on record (for example Krishna Poonia, 2010). Her correctly-sourced "first" is narrower and still exam-worthy: first Indian woman to receive the Arjuna Award specifically in Equestrian. Don't broaden a specific "first" into a general one.
Similarly, Sakshi Kumari (Kabaddi, Arjuna 2022) is sometimes miscited as a Rajasthan recipient because she is employed by Rajasthan Police — she is actually native of Haryana. Employment by a state sports department does not make an athlete "from" that state; watch for this exact substitution.
UPSC/RPSC relevance: Directly asked — RAS Prelims 2013 Q120, identifying the boxer awarded the 2014 Arjuna Award after intervention by the Delhi High Court (Answer: Manoj Kumar, a 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, whom the Kapil Dev-led selection committee had initially overlooked over a mistaken doping-case belief). This is a genuinely useful precedent: RPSC has already shown interest in controversies around Arjuna Award selection, not just clean winner lists — a good angle to watch for in future Rajasthan-linked selection disputes too.
Dronacharya Award (2020–2026)
The award retains two active sub-categories throughout this window: Regular (outstanding coaching within a recent window; eligibility broadened to grassroots/development-level coaches from the October 2024 rationalisation) and Lifetime (20+ years of coaching contribution).
| Year | Regular category | Lifetime category |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Jude Felix Sebastian (Hockey), Jaspal Rana (Shooting), Yogesh Malviya (Mallakhamb), Kuldeep Handoo (Wushu), Gaurav Khanna (Para-badminton) | Vijay Munishwar (Para-powerlifting), Dharmendra Tiwary (Archery), and others — full list of all reported recipients not independently confirmed |
| 2021 | Radhakrishnan Nair (Athletics), Sandhya Gurung (Boxing), Pritam Siwach (Hockey), Jai Prakash Nautiyal (Para-shooting), Subramanian Raman (Table Tennis) | Not confirmed in this review |
| 2022 | Jiwanjot Singh Teja (Archery), Mohammed Ali Qamar (Boxing), Suma Shirur (Para-shooting), Sujeet Maan (Wrestling) | Dinesh Lad (Cricket), Bimal Ghosh (Football), Raj Singh (Wrestling) |
| 2023 | Lalit Kumar (Wrestling), R.B. Ramesh (Chess), Mahaveer Prasad Saini (Para-athletics), Shivendra Singh (Hockey), Ganesh Devrukhkar (Mallakhamb) | Not confirmed as awarded this cycle |
| 2024 | Subhash Rana (Para-shooting), Deepali Deshpande (Shooting), Sandeep Sangwan (Hockey) | S. Muralidharan (Badminton), Armando Colaco (Football) |
| 2025 | Not finalised as of this check | Not finalised |
Rajasthan callout: Mahaveer Prasad Saini, a para-athletics coach from Suratgarh, Rajasthan, received the Dronacharya Award (Regular category) in 2023 — the only Rajasthan-linked Dronacharya Award recipient identified in the 2020–2026 window. He is credited with training Rajasthan-origin para-athletes including Sundar Singh Gurjar and Rakesh Bhera.
UPSC/RPSC relevance: No direct RAS PYQ found yet on the Dronacharya Award; closest adjacent — the Arjuna Award PYQ above (2013 Q120) demonstrates RPSC's general interest in coach/athlete honour selection. Given Mahaveer Prasad Saini's clear Rajasthan tie, treat this as a strong candidate for a future direct question.
Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement (2020–2023, then discontinued)
| Year | Recipients | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Kuldip Singh Bhullar, Jincy Philips, Pradeep Gandhe, Trupti Murgunde, Usha Nagisetty, Lakha Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Ajit Pal Singh, Manpreet Singh (hockey coach), Ranjith Kumar Jayaseelan, Satyaprakash Tiwari, Manjeet Singh, Sachin Nag, Nandan Bal, Netarpal Hooda | ~13–15 (source count inconsistent) |
| 2021 | Lekha K.C., Abhijit Kunte, Davinder Singh, Vikas Kumar, Sajan Singh | 5 |
| 2022 | Ashwini Akkunji, Dharamvir Singh, B.C. Suresh, Nir Bahadur Gurung | 4 |
| 2023 | Manjusha Kanwar, Vineet Kumar Sharma, Kavitha Selvaraj | 3 |
| 2024 onward | Discontinued — recipients from this point (Sucha Singh, Murlikant Petkar in the 2024 cycle) fall under the new "Arjuna Award (Lifetime)" category instead; see the renaming table above | — |
No Rajasthan-origin recipient was identified in the 2020–2023 Dhyan Chand Award lists reviewed.
Other National Sports Honours (brief)
Two further honours remain part of the awards architecture as of the most recently fully-confirmed (2024) cycle:
- Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar — for organisations/entities that promote sport (instituted 2009); the 2024 cycle recognised the Physical Education Foundation of India.
- Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy — for the university with the best overall sporting performance; its scope was explicitly tied to Khelo India University Games performance in the October 2024 rationalisation.
A Naming-Convention Trap Worth Flagging
Content published online sometimes labels the 2024-cycle awards (Manu Bhaker, D. Gukesh, Harmanpreet Singh, Praveen Kumar — presented 17 January 2025) as "National Sports Awards 2025," because the ceremony fell in January 2025. They are correctly the 2024-cycle awards; the true 2025-cycle awards were still pending finalisation as of mid-2026 (Hardik Singh named the sole Khel Ratna nominee in December 2025, with no confirmed final award as of this chapter's last check). Watch for this distinction — RPSC's own question-writers have to navigate the same ambiguity, and a well-set question could easily test which year a given athlete's award actually belongs to.
Important for RAS
Prelims Focus
- The Khel Ratna's 6 August 2021 renaming (triggered by the Tokyo hockey bronze, not Dhyan Chand's birthday) and the 24 October 2024 Dhyan-Chand-to-Arjuna-Lifetime rationalisation are the two most testable "sequence of events" facts in this topic.
- Memorise the Rajasthan table below as a standalone unit — it is the highest-yield content in this chapter for RPSC's Rajasthan-focused paper.
- Watch for the two documented traps: Mithali Raj's Rajasthan tie is birthplace-only, and Sakshi Kumari's Rajasthan Police employment does not make her Rajasthan-origin.
- Learn the ceremony-date drift (29 Aug → November → January-of-next-year) as its own testable pattern.
Interview Angles
- Rajasthan's Khel Ratna and Arjuna recipients since 2020 are concentrated in para-sports and shooting (Lekhara, Nagar, Mitharwal, Agarwal) rather than mainstream Olympic team sports — a panel could ask what this concentration suggests about the state's sporting infrastructure and talent pipelines.
- The 2024 rationalisation that folded the Dhyan Chand Award into the Arjuna Award raises a fair discussion question: does consolidating award categories simplify recognition, or does it risk diluting the distinct honour once given specifically for lifetime service?
This topic sits under RPSC's Prelims-only "Current Affairs & Issues" block; there is no separate Mains "sports awards" line, so no forced cross-paper box is needed here.
Master Rajasthan Summary Table
| Name | Hometown | Award | Year | Sport |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avani Lekhara | Jaipur | Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna | 2021 | Para-shooting |
| Krishna Nagar | Jaipur | Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna | 2021 | Para-badminton |
| Mithali Raj* | Jodhpur (birthplace only) | Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna | 2021 | Cricket |
| Om Prakash Mitharwal | Sikar | Arjuna Award | 2022 | Shooting |
| Divyakriti Singh Rathore | Jaipur | Arjuna Award | 2023 | Equestrian (Dressage) |
| Mona Agarwal | Sikar | Arjuna Award | 2024 | Para-shooting |
| Mahaveer Prasad Saini | Suratgarh | Dronacharya Award (Regular) | 2023 | Para-athletics (coach) |
*Birthplace only — her competitive career represented Hyderabad/Telangana/Andhra Pradesh, not Rajasthan.
Practice — Quick Self-Check
1. What event triggered the renaming of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award to the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award?
Answer: (b) The renaming was announced on 6 August 2021, one day after India's men's hockey team won Olympic bronze at Tokyo — not on Dhyan Chand's birthday (29 August).
2. Which two Jaipur-born Paralympic gold medallists both received the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in 2021?
Answer: (a) Avani Lekhara (para-shooting) and Krishna Nagar (para-badminton), both Tokyo 2020 gold medallists born in Jaipur.
3. In which sport did Divyakriti Singh Rathore of Jaipur become the first Indian woman to receive the Arjuna Award?
Answer: (b) Equestrian (Dressage) — Arjuna Award 2023, following India's gold-medal dressage-team performance at the 2022 Asian Games.
4. Which sports honour was discontinued in October 2024 and folded into a new "Arjuna Award (Lifetime)" category?
Answer: (b) The Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement.
5. Mahaveer Prasad Saini, a para-athletics coach from Suratgarh, Rajasthan, received the Dronacharya Award (Regular) in which year?
Answer: (c) 2023.
6. Boxer Manoj Kumar was awarded the 2014 Arjuna Award only after intervention by which body — a fact tested in a past RAS Prelims paper?
Answer: (b) The Delhi High Court, after the selection committee had initially overlooked him over a mistaken doping-case belief.
Practice — Statement-Based (RPSC Style)
1. Consider the following statements. 1. Mithali Raj's Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna (2021) reflects a cricket career built representing Rajasthan. 2. She was born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: (b) 2 only. Statement 1 is false — her playing career represented Hyderabad/Telangana/Andhra Pradesh, not Rajasthan; Jodhpur is only her birthplace.
2. Consider the following statements about Sakshi Kumari, a 2022 Arjuna Award recipient in Kabaddi. 1. She is native to Rajasthan. 2. She is employed by the Rajasthan Police. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: (b) 2 only. Statement 1 is false — she is native of Haryana; her Rajasthan Police employment is a commonly-miscited reason people wrongly call her "from Rajasthan."
3. Consider the following statements about the National Sports Awards 2024 cycle. 1. It was presented on 17 January 2025. 2. Recipients included Manu Bhaker, D. Gukesh and Harmanpreet Singh. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: (c) Both are correct — this is the 2024-cycle batch, sometimes miscited online as "2025" because of its January 2025 ceremony date.
Practice — "Which Is/Are NOT Correct" (Inverted Phrasing)
1. Which of the following statements about the Dronacharya Award is NOT correct?
Answer: (c) is NOT correct — the Dronacharya Award has never been renamed; only the Khel Ratna (2021) and the Dhyan Chand Lifetime Achievement Award (folded into Arjuna, 2024) underwent naming/structural changes.
2. Which of the following statements about the 2021 Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna batch is NOT correct?
Answer: (c) is NOT correct — the 2021 batch was conferred on 13 November 2021 at Rashtrapati Bhavan, not on National Sports Day; the ceremony had already drifted off the 29 August slot by that cycle.
Key Terms
- Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award — India's highest sporting honour, renamed from the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award on 6 August 2021.
- Arjuna Award — for sustained outstanding performance across a recent period; gained a "Lifetime" sub-category in October 2024.
- Dronacharya Award — for coaches, in Regular and Lifetime sub-categories; Regular-category eligibility broadened to grassroots coaches in October 2024.
- Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement — discontinued from the 2024 cycle onward; its mandate now sits inside the Arjuna Award (Lifetime).
- Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar — honours organisations that promote sport.
- Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy — for the best-performing university in inter-university sport.
Sources & Verification
All facts in this chapter were checked as of 14 August 2026, drawing on PIB-adjacent government reporting (NewsOnAir, Olympics.com), news coverage (The Bridge, Republic World, UNI India, Tribune India, Business Standard, WION, Shillong Times, DT Next), Rajasthan's own state sports department pages (yas.rajasthan.gov.in), and Wikipedia cross-checks. A genuine RAS PYQ is cited directly from BharatNotes' verified solved-PYQ bank (RAS Prelims 2013 Q120).
Several points are explicitly flagged rather than guessed at: (1) the exact total Arjuna Award count for 2020 (27 vs. 29) and 2024 (32 vs. 34) is contested across sources; (2) full Dronacharya Lifetime-category name lists for 2020 and 2021, and whether a Lifetime award was given at all in 2023, could not be fully confirmed; (3) the National Sports Awards 2025 cycle remains unfinalised as of this chapter's last check — only Hardik Singh's nomination for Khel Ratna is known, with no confirmed final winners, and no Rajasthan name could be verified among the 24 (unconfirmed) Arjuna nominees; (4) direct automated access to pib.gov.in was blocked during this research pass (HTTP 403) — all facts above rest on cross-checked secondary and government-adjacent reporting rather than a direct primary-document read, and should be re-verified against primary PIB/Sports Ministry releases where possible closer to the exam, particularly once the delayed 2025 cycle is finally confirmed.
