President presents National Sports Awards 2025, with no Khel Ratna

TL;DR in 30 sec

• President Droupadi Murmu presented the National Sports Awards 2025 at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 13 November, according to a PIB release and PTI.
• Seventeen athletes received the Arjuna Award, among them Tejaswin Shankar, Divya Deshmukh, Vidit Gujrathi and Lalremsiami, PTI reported.
• No athlete was given the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, India’s top sports award, for the first time since 2014, according to PTI.
• Five coaches received the Dronacharya Award, three in the regular category and two for lifetime achievement, ANI reported from the sports ministry’s list.

What happened

President Droupadi Murmu gave away the awards at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday, 13 November, according to a PIB Delhi release carried by IBG News. Four sets of awards were presented, the release said: the Dronacharya Awards 2025, the Arjuna Awards 2025, the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards 2024 and the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar 2025.

The ceremony ran a little over 36 minutes, according to a PTI report carried by DD India. Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Sports Secretary Hari Ranjan Rao were there too, the same report said.

The 17 Arjuna awardees, as listed by PTI, were:

• athletics: Tejaswin Shankar, Priyanka Goswami and Muhammed Ajmal;
• badminton: Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand;
• boxing: Narender;
• chess: Vidit Gujrathi and Divya Deshmukh;
• hockey: Lalremsiami and Rajkumar Pal;
• kabaddi: Surjeet and Pooja;
• shooting: Akhil Sheoran;
• rowing: Arvind Singh;
• deaf shooting: Dhanush Srikanth;
• para sport: Rudransh Khandelwal (para-shooting) and Ekta Bhyan.

Former footballer I. Arumainayagam received the Arjuna Award for lifetime achievement, PTI and ANI reported. Each Arjuna Award carries Rs 15 lakh, according to PTI.

The Dronacharya Award for coaches went to Parveer Singh (athletics), Chhote Lal Yadav (boxing) and Neha Chavan (shooting), ANI reported from the ministry’s list. Dharmendra Yadav (boxing) and Virender Kumar (wrestling) received it for lifetime achievement, according to the same list.

The Army Paralympic Node in Pune received the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar, which honours organisations that promote sport, ANI reported. The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards 2024 went to Baljeet Kaur and Skalzang Rigzin (land adventure), Rimo Saha (water adventure) and Shiv Prasad Chamoli (lifetime achievement), IANS reported in September.

“This is definitely a capstone moment for me in my sporting career,” Tejaswin Shankar said, according to PTI. Coach Chhote Lal Yadav said, “I have received a lot of motivation from this award,” PTI reported.

Why it matters for India 🇮🇳

The Arjuna is India’s second-highest sporting honour, FIDE noted in its report on the two chess awardees. Divya Deshmukh, one of them, won the FIDE Women’s World Cup in 2025, according to FIDE.

Lalremsiami, 26, from Kolasib, is the first sportsperson from Mizoram to receive the Arjuna Award, The Bridge reported.

The list was shorter this year. In 2024, 32 athletes received the Arjuna Award, 17 of them from para sports, PTI reported. This year, only two para-sport names made the list. FIDE said the 17 awardees were the smallest group since 2017. No cricketer was on the list, PTI reported.

Background

The awardees were chosen on the recommendation of a selection committee chaired by former Supreme Court judge Justice (Retd) Arun Kumar Mishra, according to ANI and PTI. The ministry announced the names on 18 August, The Bridge reported.

The awards are traditionally presented on 29 August, National Sports Day, though the date has varied since 2020, PTI reported. The committee made its recommendations in December 2025. Then, in April 2026, PTI reported that the list of Arjuna recommendations was being re-evaluated, citing unnamed sports ministry officials.

The reports don’t all spell names the same way. PTI and FIDE write Vidit Gujrathi, while ANI writes Vidit Santosh Gujarathi. ANI puts Ekta Bhyan under para-shooting; PTI puts her under para-athletics.

Different perspectives

The sports ministry. When the awards were announced, the ministry described the re-evaluation as a way to “preserve the integrity of the awards,” PTI reported. In April, PTI quoted an unnamed ministry official as saying, “The value of these awards should not get diminished, that’s the goal.” The ministry felt a points-based system could replace the selection panel, PTI reported, citing the same officials.

Athletes. Tejaswin Shankar, who went on to receive the award, wrote on X in April that the review should have come before the recommended names became public in December, IANS reported. “This delay is not just demotivating to athletes and coaches but also a sign of disrespect,” he wrote, according to IANS. Other athletes also criticised the delay, PTI reported.

None of the sources reported a statement from the ministry on why no Khel Ratna was given, or on the smaller number of para-sport awardees.

Open questions 🤔

• Will the sports ministry replace the selection panel with a points-based system, as PTI reported in April?
• Why did the ministry approve no athlete for the Khel Ratna this year?
• Will the 2026 awards be presented on National Sports Day, 29 August?

What to watch next

Lalremsiami is in India’s squad for the Women’s Asian Champions Trophy, to be played in Bhopal from 19 to 28 November, according to The Bridge.