Khelo India, TOPS and Sports Policy: Exam Notes

The correct answer is B, 29 August. The day marks the birth anniversary of Major Dhyan Chand, the hockey player who was part of the Indian sides that won Olympic gold in 1928, 1932 and 1936, and it is the day on which the national sports awards are conferred at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Fit India Movement was also launched on this date in 2019. Option A, 14 August, has no connection with sport in the Indian calendar. Option C, 5 September, is Teachers Day, observed on the birth anniversary of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and it is a common distractor because both are commemorative days built on a birth anniversary. Option D, 19 November, is National Integration Day. Candidates should link 29 August, Major Dhyan Chand, the sports awards and the Fit India Movement together as one cluster.

The correct answer is C, 2018. Khelo India was launched in 2018 by merging earlier grassroots sports programmes into a single national scheme, and its first competition, the Khelo India School Games, was held at New Delhi in January of that year. From the following year the event was renamed the Khelo India Youth Games. Option A, 2014, is the year the Target Olympic Podium Scheme was launched, which is the commonest confusion in this question since both are flagship sports schemes. Option B, 2016, matches no landmark in the scheme history. Option D, 2020, is the year the first Khelo India University Games and the first Khelo India Winter Games were held, but the parent scheme was already two years old by then. Keep 2014 for TOPS and 2018 for Khelo India.

The correct answer is B, Target Olympic Podium Scheme. TOPS was launched in 2014 under the National Sports Development Fund and was thoroughly revamped in 2018. It identifies a small group of athletes judged capable of reaching the podium at the Olympic and Paralympic Games and funds each of them individually, covering a customised training plan, a foreign coach where required, international competition, equipment, sports science support and a monthly out-of-pocket allowance. Option A, Total Olympic Preparation Scheme, sounds plausible but is not the name of any scheme. Option C, Training of Professional Sportspersons, is invented and misses the Olympic focus that gives the scheme its name. Option D, Talent Oriented Promotion Scheme, describes the work of Khelo India rather than TOPS, since talent identification is a Khelo India vertical and TOPS begins where that search ends.

The correct answer is B, 1961. The Arjuna Award was instituted in 1961 to recognise consistently outstanding performance by a sportsperson over a period of years, and it remains the standard recognition for a leading active athlete who has not won the country highest sporting honour. Option A, 1951, is the year of the first Asian Games, held at New Delhi, and is a frequent distractor in sports chronology questions. Option C, 1985, is the year the Dronacharya Award for coaches was instituted, so the two years are often swapped by candidates. Option D, 1991, is when the Khel Ratna, then called the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, was instituted as the highest honour. Remember the sequence: Arjuna in 1961, Dronacharya in 1985, Khel Ratna in the early 1990s and the Dhyan Chand lifetime award in 2002.

The correct answer is B, coaches of sportspersons. The Dronacharya Award was instituted in 1985 and honours coaches who have consistently produced outstanding athletes, the name being taken from the teacher of archery in the Mahabharata. Option A is wrong because active sportspersons are recognised by the Arjuna Award for sustained performance and by the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award for the most outstanding performance overall. Option C is wrong because there is no national sports award dedicated to journalists in this group of honours. Option D is wrong because corporates and other organisations that promote sport are recognised by the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar, instituted in 2009. The clean way to remember the set is players to Arjuna, coaches to Dronacharya, retired players to the Dhyan Chand Award and organisations to the Protsahan Puraskar.

The correct answer is C, 1984. The Sports Authority of India was set up in 1984 as a society so that the stadiums and other facilities built for the Asian Games held at Delhi in 1982 would continue to be used for training rather than fall idle. It now runs the national centres of excellence, the regional training centres and the talent schemes, and it has its headquarters at New Delhi. Option A, 1961, is the year the coaching institute at Patiala, today the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, was founded. Option B, 1982, is the year of the Asian Games at Delhi and of the creation of a separate Department of Sports, so it is the closest wrong answer. Option D, 2001, is the year of the second National Sports Policy. The order to remember is 1982 for the Department, 1984 for the Authority.

The correct answer is B, Patiala, in Punjab. The institute was founded there in 1961 as the National Institute of Sports and was later named after Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose; it is the main centre for training coaches in India and now functions under the Sports Authority of India. Option A, Gwalior, is wrong but very tempting, because the Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education, established in 1957, is situated there and is the leading institution for physical education rather than for coaching. Option C, Bengaluru, hosts an important national centre of excellence of the Sports Authority of India but not this institute. Option D, Kolkata, is wrong despite the Netaji name in the title, which refers to Subhas Chandra Bose and not to the city of his birth.

The correct answer is A, Major Dhyan Chand. The award, instituted in 1991 to 1992 as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and first given to the chess player Viswanathan Anand, was renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award in 2021 in honour of the hockey player who won Olympic gold with India in 1928, 1932 and 1936. Option B, Milkha Singh, is wrong; the great sprinter is commemorated in other ways but not in the name of this award. Option C, K. D. Jadhav, is wrong, although he was the first individual Olympic medallist of independent India, in wrestling at Helsinki. Option D, C. K. Nayudu, is wrong; the cricketer name is attached to a domestic cricket tournament instead. Note that a separate lifetime achievement award has carried the Dhyan Chand name since 2002.

The correct answer is B, the best overall performing university in inter-university tournaments. The trophy was instituted in 1956 to 1957 and is a rolling award given each year to the university with the best overall record across inter-university competitions, named after the first education minister of independent India. Option A is wrong because the performance of states in the National Games is recognised through the Games own medal tally and trophies, not through this award. Option C is wrong because the Khelo India Youth Games rank participating states and union territories rather than individual schools, and no national trophy of this name is attached to them. Option D is wrong because the award for coaching excellence is the Dronacharya Award, instituted in 1985. The trophy belongs firmly to the university sports calendar.

The correct answer is B, the State List. Entry 33 of the State List in the Seventh Schedule covers sports, entertainments and amusements, so the primary responsibility for sport rests with the state governments, which is why state sports departments and state associations run most competitions and facilities. Option A is wrong because the Union List does not carry a general entry on sport; the Union Government acts through national schemes, national institutions, international participation and infrastructure of national importance. Option C is wrong, although proposals to shift sport to the Concurrent List have been discussed from time to time; a proposal is not the present position. Option D is wrong because sport is expressly named in the Seventh Schedule and is not a residuary subject. This constitutional point explains why Union schemes work in partnership with the states.

The correct answer is B, adventure on land, sea and air. Instituted in 1994 and named after the Sherpa mountaineer who reached the summit of Everest in 1953 with Edmund Hillary, this award recognises outstanding achievement in adventure activities, with separate categories for land adventure such as mountaineering, water adventure such as sailing and rafting, and air adventure such as paragliding, along with a lifetime achievement category. Option A is wrong because achievement in athletics is recognised through the Arjuna Award and the Khel Ratna. Option C is wrong because para athletes are considered for the same mainstream sports awards and have their own Khelo India Para Games. Option D is wrong because there is no national award of this name for sports medicine, although sports science support is a part of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme.