Sports Awards of India: Khel Ratna, Arjuna and Dronacharya

The correct answer is B, the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. 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. Option A is wrong because the Arjuna Award, though the oldest of the group and highly regarded, recognises consistently outstanding performance and ranks below the Khel Ratna. Option C is wrong because the Dronacharya Award is not a player's award at all; it honours coaches whose trainees have won international honours. Option D is wrong because the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award belongs to adventure activity on land, at sea and in the air, not to competitive sport. The order worth memorising is Khel Ratna, then Arjuna, with Dronacharya for coaches alongside them.

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. Option B is wrong because Leander Paes, the tennis player, won the honour a few years later, after his Olympic bronze at Atlanta in 1996. Option C is wrong because Kapil Dev led India to the cricket World Cup in 1983, well before the award existed, and the honour is given for performance in the four years preceding it. Option D is wrong because Karnam Malleswari, the weightlifter who became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal, at Sydney in 2000, received her Khel Ratna much later. The examination pairing to remember is Anand, chess, and the first year of the award.

The correct answer is B, coaches of sportspersons. 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. Option A is wrong because lifetime achievement by a player is recognised by the Dhyan Chand Award, instituted in 2002. Option C is wrong because companies, boards and institutions that promote sport receive the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar, begun in 2009, which is not an individual award. Option D is wrong because the university with the best overall performance in inter-university tournaments takes the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy, the oldest of the sports honours. Hold the mythological cue: Arjuna the pupil for the player, Dronacharya the teacher for the coach.

The correct answer is B, 1961. 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. Option A is wrong because 1951 is the year of the first Asian Games at Delhi, a date often confused with this one. Option C is wrong because 1985 belongs to the Dronacharya Award for coaches, which came nearly a quarter of a century later. Option D is wrong because 1991, more precisely 1991 and 1992, is when the Khel Ratna was instituted as the highest sporting honour. Fix the sequence in order: Arjuna 1961, Dronacharya 1985, Khel Ratna 1991, Dhyan Chand 2002.

The correct answer is A, 29 August, the birth anniversary of Major Dhyan Chand, the hockey player who won Olympic gold with India in 1928, 1932 and 1936 and is remembered as the wizard of the game. The national sports awards are conferred by the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan on this day. Option B is wrong because 14 November is Children's Day, the birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru. Option C is wrong because 23 January is the birth anniversary of Subhas Chandra Bose, observed as Parakram Diwas. Option D is wrong because 5 September is Teachers' Day, the birth anniversary of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan; because the Dronacharya Award honours teachers of sport, this option is placed here to mislead. Tie the day to the man: Dhyan Chand, 29 August, hockey, National Sports Day.

The correct answer is B, lifetime achievement in sports. 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. Option A is wrong because no national sports award of India is based on a single season; the Khel Ratna and the Arjuna Award both look at performance across four years. Option C is wrong because excellence in coaching is the province of the Dronacharya Award of 1985. Option D is wrong because an institution or a company that promotes sport is recognised by the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar of 2009. Note the trap created in 2021: after the renaming, the Khel Ratna also bears the name of Dhyan Chand, but the lifetime award is the plain Dhyan Chand Award.

The correct answer is A, adventure on land, sea and air. 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 paragliding, and a lifetime achievement category. Option B is wrong because chess players are eligible for the ordinary sports awards, as Viswanathan Anand's Khel Ratna shows. Option C is wrong because para athletes also receive the Khel Ratna, the Arjuna Award and the rest, which are open to them on the same footing. Option D is wrong because rural and indigenous games such as kabaddi and kho-kho are covered by the regular sports awards too.

The correct answer is A, the best university in inter-university tournaments. 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. Option B is wrong because the state that hosts the National Games receives no trophy for hosting; the Games have their own championship trophy for the best performing state contingent. Option C is wrong because the Khelo India School and Youth Games have their own medal tally and awards and are unconnected with this trophy. Option D is wrong because an individual athlete's excellence is recognised by the Khel Ratna and the Arjuna Award, both of which go to persons rather than institutions.

The correct answer is C, corporate entities and institutions that promote sport. 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. Option A is wrong because individual athletes are honoured by the Khel Ratna, the Arjuna Award and the Dhyan Chand Award, each of which is a personal honour. Option B is wrong because coaches and trainers receive the Dronacharya Award of 1985, which is also personal. Option D is wrong because sports journalism has no national sports award of its own in this list; writers and commentators may instead be considered for the civilian Padma honours. The clue lies in the name, since protsahan means encouragement, that is, the promotion of sport.

The correct answer is B, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. 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. Option A is wrong because the Ministry of Home Affairs handles the gallantry awards such as the Param Vir Chakra in their civil aspects and the police medals, not sports honours. Option C is wrong because the Ministry of Culture looks after the Sangeet Natak Akademi and Lalit Kala Akademi honours in the arts. Option D is wrong because the Ministry of Education runs the national teachers' awards and the literacy programmes. The Padma awards, which some sportspersons also receive, are announced by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

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. Option A is wrong because Milkha Singh, the sprinter who came fourth in the four hundred metres at the Rome Olympics of 1960, received the Padma Shri and not the Bharat Ratna. Option C is wrong because Major Dhyan Chand, for all his three Olympic golds in hockey, was honoured with the Padma Bhushan, and the Khel Ratna was renamed after him in 2021 instead. Option D is wrong because P. T. Usha, the athlete who narrowly missed a medal at the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984, received the Padma Shri and the Arjuna Award.

The correct answer is A, Major Dhyan Chand. 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. Option B is wrong because Milkha Singh, the Flying Sikh, has stadiums and trophies named for him but not this award. Option C is wrong because K. D. Jadhav, the wrestler who won India's first individual Olympic medal at Helsinki in 1952, is honoured in the naming of other facilities. Option D is wrong because Dhanraj Pillay, the hockey forward of the nineteen nineties, is himself an Arjuna Award and Khel Ratna recipient. Note carefully that the separate lifetime achievement award of 2002 has always carried the plain name Dhyan Chand Award.