Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for 106 Young Artists

The Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for the years 2024 and 2025 will be conferred on 106 young artists working in music, dance and drama. The Union Minister of Culture and Tourism, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, will give away the awards at 10 a.m. on 19 October 2026 at the Meghdoot Complex, Rabindra Bhavan, in New Delhi.

Who will be present

Vivek Aggarwal, Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, will attend as Guest of Honour. Dr Sandhya Purecha, Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, will preside over the ceremony. The Akademi is the national academy for the performing arts and administers this award.

About the award

The Sangeet Natak Akademi instituted the Yuva Puraskar in 2006 to recognise artists who are young in their field, and eligibility is limited to those up to the age of 40. Since its creation the honour has been given every year at a separate ceremony meant only for young performers, which keeps it distinct from the Akademi senior awards conferred on established artists. The award is named after the shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan.

What the awardee receives

• A purse of Rs 25,000
• A Tamrapatra, a copper plaque bearing the citation
• An Angavastram, a ceremonial shawl

How the artists were chosen

The selection was made by the General Council of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, its highest decision-making body, at a meeting it held in New Delhi from 22 to 26 March 2026. The Council picked the 106 names unanimously for the two years taken together, which is why one ceremony covers awards for both. Conferring two years at a single function also clears the backlog that builds up when a year selection runs late. For aspirants, the figures to carry away are the number of awardees, the year the honour began, the age ceiling and the cash component, all of which are regularly set as questions on the arts and culture portion of general awareness papers.