Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award is India?s highest sporting honour. It was instituted from the year 1991-92 in the memory of Late Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India. The award carries a medal and a scroll of honour apart from a cash component.

Related Topics:
India - 1991 - 92 - Rajiv Gandhi - Prime Minister of India

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The award honours either an individual sportsperson or a sports team for outstanding performance in the sports disciplines included in any of Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, as well as Billiards & Snooker, Cricket and Chess in a year.

Related Topics:
Olympics - Asian Games - Commonwealth Games - Billiards - Snooker - Cricket - Chess

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Typically, performances from 1 April of a year to 31 March of the next year are taken into consideration for the award. A selection committee of people affiliated to sports is constituted by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports for selecting the awardee every year. The award may not be given in a year if the committee feels that performances that year have not been up to the mark. No award was given in the year 1993-94 while the award was shared between sportspersons of different disciplines on two occasions. So far, a team event has been awarded only once.

Related Topics:
1 April - 31 March - 1993 - 94

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The cash component was Rs. 1 lakh in 1991-92. It reached Rs. 3 lakh by 2000-01 and is Rs. 5 lakh (~11,500 USD) in 2004-05.

Related Topics:
1991 - 92 - 2000 - 01 - 2004 - 05

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A key difference from the Arjuna award is that the Arjuna award is given to the best sportsperson in each sport every year, where as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna is given to the best sportsperson across all the sports disciplines in that year. Khel Ratna literally means "Sporting Gem" in Hindi.

Related Topics:
Arjuna award - Gem - Hindi

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