The National Sports Award ceremony took place on Monday at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi. President Droupadi Murmu conferred the prestigious Khel Ratna award to badminton players Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and the Arjuna award for 26 sports persons, including pacer Mohammed Shami. Chirag and Satwik are Asian Games gold medallists, World Championships bronze winners, and Commonwealth Games silver medallists. On the other hand, Shami was India's highest wicket-taker at the ODI World Cup 2023, where he scalped 24 wickets.
What is the prize money of Khel Ratna?
The Khel Ratna awardees get a whopping total of Rs 25 lakhs, along with a trophy and a certificate. This prize money was increased from Rs 7.5 lakhs to 25 lakhs in 2020.
What is the prize money of the Arjuna Award?
The awardees of the Arjuna Award get Rs 15 lakh. This prize money was revised from Rs 5 lakhs to 15 lakhs in 2020. Apart from this, the Dhyan Chand Award winners get Rs 10 lakhs, which was increased from Rs 5 lakhs in 2020.
What is the prize money of the Dronacharya Award?
The Dronacharya Award is given to honor the hard work and contribution made by the coaches. This award is divided into two categories. In the Regular category, the awardees get Rs 10 lakhs while the awardees in the Lifetime category, get Rs 15 lakhs.
Arjuna Awards for 2023: Ojas Pravin Deotale (archery), Aditi Gopichand Swami (archery), Murali Sreeshankar (athletics), Parul Chaudhary (athletics), Mohameed Hussamuddin (boxing), R Vaishali (chess), Mohammed Shami (cricket), Anush Agarwalla (equestrian), Divyakriti Singh (equestrian dressage), Diksha Dagar (golf), Krishan Bahadur Pathak (hockey), Sushila Chanu (hockey), Pawan Kumar (kabaddi), Ritu Negi (kabaddi), Nasreen (kho-kho), Pinki (lawn bowls), Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (shooting), Esha Singh (shooting), Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (squash), Ayhika Mukherjee (table tennis), Sunil Kumar (wrestling), Antim (wrestling), Naorem Roshibina Devi (wushu), Sheetal Devi (para archery), Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy (blind cricket), Prachi Yadav (para canoeing).
Dronacharya Award (regular category) for outstanding coaches:Lalit Kumar (wrestling), RB Ramesh (chess), Mahaveer Prasad Saini (para athletics), Shivendra Singh (hockey), Ganesh Prabhakar Devrukhkar (mallakhamb).
Dronacharya Award (life-time category) for outstanding coaches: Jaskirat Singh Grewal (golf), Bhaskaran E (kabaddi), Jayanta Kumar Pushilal (table tennis).
Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime achievement: Manjusha Kanwar (badminton), Vineet Kumar Sharma (hockey), Kavitha Selvaraj (kabaddi).
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy 2023:Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (overall winner university); Lovely Professional University, Punjab (1st runner -up), Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra (2nd runner-up).