National Sports Awards Schemes Revamped

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has revised the Schemes of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, Arjuna Award, Dhyan Chand Award and Dronacharya Awards. In the revised Schemes, following major amendments have been made: (i) Selection Committee for Arjuna Award will be headed by Retired Judge of Supreme Court/High Court. (ii) A sportsperson of eminence/sports administrator/sports expert belonging to para sports will be member in Selection Committee for Arjuna Awards. (iii) Not more than one sportsperson of eminence/coach from a particular sports discipline shall be a member of the Selection Committee to avoid any bias in favour of a particular discipline. (iv) Nomination agencies are expected to send nominations of most deserving sportsperson(s)/coach(es) irrespective of whether sportspersons/coaches have applied to them for awards. Last year, Selection Committee for Arjuna Awards headed by Shri Kapil Dev made several suggestions for improving the Scheme of Arjuna Awards. Most of the suggestions have been accepted by the Government. In the marks criteria, more marks will be given for medals won in individual events. For team events, marks will be computed taking into consideration strength of the team. For Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Awards and Dronacharya Awards, the weightage for performance in sports events has been reduced from 90% to 80% and weightage of marks to be given by the Selection Committee for factors like profile and standard of sports events has been increased from 10% to 20%. This will increase say of the Selection Committee in the process of selection and give sufficient paly to the profile and standard of sports events in determination of awardees. Following decisions have also been taken: (i) Proceedings of Selection Committee will be videographed. (ii) Detailed internal Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) prepared to deal with nominations received from NSFs etc. (iii) Views of discipline experts to be obtained for shortlisted nominations in team game