Sports GK Quiz: Sports Awards of India

Instituted in 1991 and 1992 and renamed in August 2021, it is given for the most spectacular and outstanding performance by a sportsperson over the four preceding years and stands at the top of the national sports awards.

The correct answer is A, Viswanathan Anand, the chess grandmaster, who received the award in its very first year, 1991 and 1992, when it was still called the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.

Instituted in 1985 and named after the teacher of the Pandavas and the Kauravas, it honours coaches whose trainees have won medals and honours at international events, and it is given in a regular category and a lifetime category.

The Arjuna Award is the oldest of the individual national sports awards and is given for consistently outstanding performance over four years, together with qualities of leadership, discipline and sportsmanship; the awardee receives a bronze statuette of Arjuna, a scroll and a cash prize.

The national sports awards are conferred by the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan on this day.

The Dhyan Chand Award goes to a sportsperson who performed with distinction in the past and has continued to serve the game after retiring, whether by coaching, organising or promoting it.

The award was instituted in 1994 and is named after Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa mountaineer who stood on the summit of Everest with Edmund Hillary in 1953; it has separate categories for land adventure such as mountaineering, water adventure such as sailing and rafting, air adventure such as skydiving and…

Instituted in 1956 and 1957 and named after India's first education minister, it is a rolling trophy given to the university with the best overall performance across the inter-university competitions of the year, and it is the oldest of the national sports honours.

Instituted in 2009, it recognises companies, public sector undertakings, sports control boards and other bodies that identify and nurture young talent, employ sportspersons, build and run facilities or support sport through corporate social responsibility.

It invites nominations through the national federations, the Indian Olympic Association, the Sports Authority of India and the state governments, places them before a selection committee headed by a retired judge, and arranges the ceremony at which the President confers the awards.

The correct answer is B, Sachin Tendulkar, the cricketer, who received the Bharat Ratna in 2014, soon after retiring from international cricket, and who remains the youngest person ever to be given the highest civilian honour of the country.

In August 2021 the government renamed the award the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award in memory of the hockey player who won Olympic gold with India in 1928, 1932 and 1936 and whose birthday, 29 August, is National Sports Day.