Arjuna Award
What is the Arjuna Award?
What does the Arjuna Award include?
Who presents the Arjuna Award?
What are the eligibility criteria for the Arjuna Award?
How are nominations for the Arjuna Award made?
Arjuna Award, India’s second highest sporting honor. It was set up in 1961 by the Government of India to recognize consistently good performance in sports over a four-year period. It was India’s highest sporting honor until the establishment of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991 (later renamed to the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award). The award is named for Arjuna, an important character in the ancient Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata. Arjuna is venerated for his skills as a warrior, especially in archery. The president of India presents the award every year. The award includes a certificate, a statuette of Arjuna, a ceremonial dress, and a one-time cash prize of 1,500,000 Indian rupees (about $18,000) as of 2025.
History
Twenty athletes received the award in its inaugural year, when the honor was limited to a select number of sports such as hockey, athletics, boxing, and cricket. The award’s scope was expanded to include all recognized sporting disciplines in 1977 and further expanded to include indigenous games and sports for disabled people in 1995.
Eligibility, nomination, and selection process
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports administers the Arjuna Award to athletes from India who have displayed consistent performance at the international level in sports over a four-year period. Qualities such as discipline, leadership, and sportsmanship are also taken into consideration in addition to sporting results. Athletes penalized or under investigation for using substances to improve athletic performance, committing fraud, or engaging in criminal activities are ineligible to receive the award.
In years when the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, or Asian Games are held, the sporting achievements of athletes in these events—as well as in other international tournaments held up to the conclusion of these games—are also considered for the Arjuna Award.
The award is conferred under three broad categories:
- Sports that feature in the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, cricket, or other well-recognized global tournaments
- Indigenous sports of India
- Sports for disabled people
There is also a lifetime variant of the award to honor a sportsperson who has made contributions to the promotion of sports even after the conclusion of their active athletic career.
Nominations are invited from governing bodies including the national sports federations, state and union territory governments, the Indian Olympic Association, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Each agency is allowed to nominate up to three eligible athletes.
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Up to five nominations each are also invited from the sporting organizations of India’s defense forces, police, and select public sector companies. Prior winners of the Arjuna Award, Khel Ratna Award, and Dronacharya Award are also allowed to nominate one sportsperson each, provided the nominee competes in the same discipline in which the nominator received their award.
All nominations must be provided by the end of April each year. In the event of the Olympics, Asian Games, or Commonwealth Games, nominations are allowed up to 10 days after the conclusion of those events.
All nominations are recorded, acknowledged, and screened to verify eligibility and ensure a clean disciplinary record. The final awardees are selected by a committee constituted by the Government of India. The committee is chaired by a retired judge of the Supreme Court or a High Court and includes four sportspersons of eminence, such as former Olympians or previous recipients of the Khel Ratna or Arjuna Award. Three sports journalists, experts, or commentators are also part of the committee. In addition one member is nominated from among parasport athletes, administrators, or experts.
The committee also includes three ex officio members: the chief executive officer of the Target Olympic Podium (TOP) Scheme Secretariat, the executive director or officer-in-charge of the TEAMS Division of the Sports Authority of India, and the joint secretary (sports) of the Department of Sports, who serves as the member secretary. The other members are appointed annually and are not eligible to serve on the committee again for at least two years after their term.
Guidelines stipulate that no more than one award be given each year in each sporting discipline, though this may be relaxed in exceptional circumstances. No more than a total of fifteen awards are to be given in a year, except in extraordinary circumstances. A sportsperson can receive the Arjuna Award only once in their lifetime, though posthumous awards are permitted. Once given, awards can be annulled in the event of the sportsperson being found culpable of certain offenses.
The awards are given every year in a ceremony held on August 29, the birth anniversary of Indian hockey legend Maj. Dhyan Chand, celebrated as National Sports Day in India. In 2024, an Olympic Games year, the National Sports Awards (including the Arjuna Award) were presented on January 17, 2025, a timing permitted under the scheme’s provision that the ceremony date may be adjusted.
Awardees
The full list of awardees is available on the Government of India’s website. The list includes world champions such as former chess player Viswanathan Anand, cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli, and Olympic medalists Abhinav Bindra and P. V. Sindhu.