About Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award
About Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (RGKR)
List of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardees
The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (RGKR) is India’s highest honour given for achievement in sports. The words "Khel Ratna" literally translate to "Sports Gem" in Hindi. The award is named after the late Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India. It carries a medal, a scroll of honour and a substantial cash component. As of 2004-05, when the award was last bestowed, the cash component stands at Rs. 500,000/- (c.11,500 USD)[1]
The award was instituted in the year 1991-92 to supply the lack of a supreme national accolade in the field of sports. Predating the RGKR are the Arjuna awards that have always been given to outstanding sportspersons in each of many sporting disciplines every year. The Khel Ratna was devised to be an overarching honour, conferred for outstanding sporting performance, whether by an individual or a team, across all sporting disciplines in a given year.
Award Information
Type Civilian
Category Sports (Individual / Team)
Instituted 1991 - 1992
First Awarded 1991 - 1992
Last Awarded 2007 - 2008
Total Awarded 16
Awarded by Govt. of India
Selection
A selection committee consisting of eminent people affiliated to sports is constituted every year by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports to evaluate sporting performances. Usually, performance between April 1 of one year to March 31 of the next year is considered. To qualify for this award, a sportsperson or team must take part in discipline that is included in the Olympic Games, the Asian Games or the Commonwealth Games. Professional sportsmen competing in billiards, snooker and chess are also eligible for this honour. A person can receive this award only once in his lifetime and must be nominated for the award by a member of parliament, state governments, the Sports Authority of India or national sports federations.[2] The committee make a recommendation to the ministry, and after this is vetted at various levels in the government, the nominee is invested with the award by the President of India.
Whereas the trend has generally been for one outstanding sportsperson to be honoured every year, that is not mandatory.[3] The award need not be bestowed if no candidate is found to have met historic standards of excellence. Two or more individuals or teams may be honoured in the same year. On two occasions, two individual sportspersons shared the accolade.
List of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardees
- The award was not conferred upon any sportsperson or team in the year 1993-94.
