Awards in News This Year: The Annual Awards Calendar

The correct answer is B, Republic Day. The list of Bharat Ratna and Padma awardees is released on 25 January, the eve of Republic Day, and the honours are conferred by the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan later in the year. Option A is wrong because Independence Day is associated with the announcement of gallantry awards and of the Prime Minister's address from the Red Fort, not with the Padma list. Option C is wrong because Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October is observed as the International Day of Non-Violence and carries no award announcement of this kind. Option D is wrong because Constitution Day on 26 November marks the adoption of the Constitution in 1949 and again has no award list attached to it. Both the Bharat Ratna and the Padma awards were instituted in 1954, and the Bharat Ratna carries no cash award.

The correct answer is B, Ashoka Chakra. India's gallantry awards come in two families. For valour in the presence of the enemy the order is Param Vir Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra and Vir Chakra; for valour otherwise than in the face of the enemy the order is Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra, so the Ashoka Chakra stands highest in peacetime. Option A is wrong because the Param Vir Chakra is the highest wartime award, first given to Major Somnath Sharma. Option C is wrong because the Kirti Chakra is second in the peacetime order, corresponding to the Maha Vir Chakra. Option D is wrong because the Shaurya Chakra is third, corresponding to the Vir Chakra. Learn the two ladders side by side, since the commonest question asks for one rank of one ladder while offering ranks of the other as distractors.

The correct answer is B, Major Dhyan Chand. The country's highest sporting honour was renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award in 2021, after the hockey player whose birth anniversary on 29 August is observed as National Sports Day. Option A is wrong because Milkha Singh, the athlete known as the Flying Sikh, has no national award named after him. Option C is wrong because Kapil Dev captained the cricket team that won the World Cup in 1983 but has no award in his name. Option D is wrong because Dhanraj Pillay is a former hockey captain who received the Khel Ratna himself. Keep the family of sports awards clear: Khel Ratna as the highest, the Arjuna Award for consistently outstanding players, the Dronacharya Award for coaches and the Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime achievement.

The correct answer is B, G. Sankara Kurup. The Jnanpith Award was instituted by the Bharatiya Jnanpith in 1961 and given for the first time in 1965 to the Malayalam poet G. Sankara Kurup for his collection Odakkuzhal. Option A is wrong because Sumitranandan Pant received the award in 1968 and was the first Hindi writer to do so, which makes him the commonest wrong answer here. Option C is wrong because Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay received it in 1966, in the second year, for Bengali. Option D is wrong because Umashankar Joshi received it in 1967 for Gujarati. The Jnanpith is the highest literary honour for an Indian writer and is given for work in a language listed in the Eighth Schedule, along with English. Note also that the Jnanpith is awarded by a private trust and not by the Government of India, which is a point papers like to test.

The correct answer is B, 10 December. The Nobel ceremonies are held on 10 December every year, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel in 1896; the prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and economic sciences are presented at Stockholm, while the peace prize is presented at Oslo. Option A is wrong because 21 October is the birth anniversary of Alfred Nobel and no ceremony falls on it. Option C is wrong because 1 January has no connection with the prizes; the winners are announced in the first half of October. Option D is wrong because 24 October is United Nations Day, which is often confused with the Nobel calendar because of the peace prize. Remember that the economics prize was not in Nobel's will and was added in 1968 by the central bank of Sweden.

The correct answer is A, Devika Rani. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was instituted in 1969 for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema, in memory of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, who made Raja Harishchandra in 1913, the first Indian feature film, and the first award went to the actress Devika Rani. Option B is wrong because Prithviraj Kapoor received the award later and posthumously. Option C is wrong because Satyajit Ray, the director of Pather Panchali, received the award in the nineteen eighties and was also honoured with the Bharat Ratna. Option D is wrong because Lata Mangeshkar received the award decades after it was instituted. The award is announced with the National Film Awards, so the year of institution, 1969, and the name Devika Rani are the two facts to carry.

The correct answer is B, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. The prize is named after Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, the first Director General of the Council, and is given by the Council to scientists working in India, usually announced around its foundation day on 26 September. Option A is wrong because the Indian National Science Academy elects fellows and gives medals of its own, but not this prize. Option C is wrong because the Department of Science and Technology funds research and runs fellowship schemes; the Council is a separate body, although both come under the same broad umbrella of science administration. Option D is wrong because the Indian Space Research Organisation is concerned with space missions and gives no general science prize. Note that the prize goes to scientists below a prescribed age, which is why it is called an award for young scientists.

The correct answer is A, Major Dhyan Chand. National Sports Day is observed on 29 August, the birth anniversary of the hockey player Major Dhyan Chand, who was part of the Indian teams that won Olympic gold in 1928, 1932 and 1936, and the national sports awards are conferred around this day. Option B is wrong because Sachin Tendulkar, born in April, was the first sportsperson to receive the Bharat Ratna but has no national day in his name. Option C is wrong because P. T. Usha is the athlete remembered for her near miss in the hurdles at the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984. Option D is wrong because Vishwanathan Anand is the chess grandmaster who was the first recipient of the Khel Ratna. Link 29 August, Dhyan Chand, National Sports Day and the sports awards as one chain.

The correct answer is C, 1995. The Gandhi Peace Prize was instituted by the Government of India in 1995, the year marking the one hundred and twenty fifth birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and it is given for social, economic and political change through non-violence, to an individual or an institution, Indian or foreign. Option A is wrong because 1969 is the year the Dadasaheb Phalke Award was instituted, on the centenary of Gandhi's birth. Option B is wrong because 1985 is the year the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development was instituted, a different prize given by a trust and presented on 19 November. Option D is wrong because 2001 has no award of this kind attached to it. The jury of the Gandhi Peace Prize is chaired by the Prime Minister, which is another fact papers ask for.

The correct answer is B, Sachin Tendulkar. The cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was named for the Bharat Ratna in 2013 and honoured in 2014, the first sportsperson to receive the highest civilian award of the country and also the youngest recipient at that time. Option A is wrong because Major Dhyan Chand, for all his three Olympic golds in hockey, has not received the Bharat Ratna; the highest sporting award and National Sports Day carry his name instead. Option C is wrong because Milkha Singh received the Padma Shri and not the Bharat Ratna. Option D is wrong because Vishwanathan Anand received the Padma Vibhushan and was the first winner of the Khel Ratna, but not the Bharat Ratna. Note that the rules for the Bharat Ratna were widened to allow any field of human endeavour, which is what made a sportsperson eligible.