The Government of India gives some very important and prestigious sports awards to the sportspersons for their brilliance in their field of sport. Amongst these honourable awards, a few awards really have the specialty in them and means a lot to all the sportspersons of India. These awards can be listed as the "Arjuna Award", the "Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy", the "Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award", the "Dronacharya Award", the "Arjuna Award" and the "Dhyan Chand Award". At the beginning, the Government used to give these awards to the sportspersons for their performances in all types of competitions. However, from the year of 2001, the award is given only in those disciplines that fall under the categories like the Olympic games or the Asian Games or Commonwealth Games or the World Cup or World Championship Disciplines and also in Cricket. These awards are also given for the Indigenous competitions and for the Sports for the Physically Challenged.

To talk about these prestigious awards, the award that should be considered amongst the most prestigious ones is the "Arjuna Award". The Government of India established the Arjuna Awards in the year of 1961 for the outstanding performance from the sportspersons in sports and games. The Government has modified the format of "Arjuna Award" very recently and as per the revised schematic guidelines a sportsperson must have very good consistent performances for the previous three years at the international level to be considered as eligible for the Award. The person should also have excellence in his/her respective field of sport for the year for which the Award is recommended he/she should show some extraordinary qualities like the leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline in his/her own field throughout his/her career. The Government gives a statuette of the legendary warrior Arjuna, a scroll of honour, a ceremonial dress and also a cash award of an amount of Rs.3.00 lakhs to the Awardee.

The MAKA award is given mainly to the top overall winners in the Inter-University Tournaments, as these tournaments are a very much integral and important part of games and sports in the universities and colleges and they also play a very important role in supplying the talents to the country. This is actually a rolling trophy and a small replica of the Trophy is also awarded to the University for retention. A Committee that is constituted by the AIU recommends the award of the MAKA Trophy. They usually send their recommendation to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of India each year. They recommend the names of 4 Universities according to the order of merit mentioning their score and also giving the calculation sheet. It is the Government who takes the final decision about the winner(s) of the MAKA Trophy.

The winner of the MAKA Trophy receives a cash award of an amount of Rs. 2 lakhs and the university that gets the second place gets an amount of Rs. 1 lakh. The third place winner gets Rs. 50,000 as a cash award. All the winners are bound to spend the cash amount only for the purpose of the development of games and sports. The winners can also get other awards given by the same Ministry along with this MAKA Trophy. However, the Government of India has the extreme authority to cancel or annul or withdraw the Award if there found any types of practice of fraud or misrepresentation. The Government also enjoys the right to restore the MAKA Trophy after the annulment or cancellation or withdrawal, if it reckons so.

There is another award in India that is named as the "Dronacharya Award" and the Government of India instituted this honourable award in the year of 1985. The award is named after the very famous Archery Coach of the epic of India known as the `Mahabharat`. This very award is not related with the sportspersons who are still playing in the field, instead this is related to those eminent Coaches of any particular sport. These Coaches are selected by their performance of being successful to train the sportspersons or teams and also help them to achieve the outstanding results in the international competitions. The person, who gets the award, receives a statuette of the great Guru Dronacharya, a scroll of honour, a ceremonial dress and also a cash prize of an amount of Rs. 3.00 lakhs.

The award that is given to the veteran sportspersons of India for their lifetime achievement in their respective field of sport is named as the "Dhyan Chand Award For Life Time Achievement In Sports And Games". This is new award that is instituted by the Government of India in the year of 2002. The main objective of the award is to show honour to those sportspersons who have contributed a lot to their respective sports by their performance and still continue to contribute to the promotion of sports even after their retirement from the active sporting career. The Awardee here receives a cash award of an amount of Rs. 1.50 lakh, a plaque and also a scroll of honour on behalf of the Government of India.

Apart from the awards that have been discussed so far in this article, there are some other special awards from the Government of India as well that are being given to the medal winners in the international sports events. In this category of the award, the Government gives away some Cash awards that ranges from Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 1,00,00,000. These cash awards are given for winning medals in the international championships like the Olympic Games or the World cup or World Championships or the Asian and Commonwealth Games or Championships. The players who become victorious in the game of Chess and Billiards or Snooker as well as the Junior sportspersons who win medals in the World, Asian and Commonwealth Championships, are also given these awards. The basic and primary objective of these awards is to provide an incentive to the achievers and to inspire the upcoming sports persons. To help the sportspersons of outstanding calibre in maintaining themselves with dignity is also another intention of these awards. By this the Government of India tries to make sure that these achievers or upcoming stars continue to give their best thrust in further pursuit of the sports of their choice.

The Government of India has always been tried to encourage the extraordinarily talented sportspersons of the country and ensure their talent to flourish in the best way. These awards are only the part of this very objective.

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award
The scheme was launched from the year 1991-92 with the objective of honouring most outstanding sportspersons to enhance their general status and to give them great dignity and place of honour in society.

Arjuna Award
The Arjuna Award was instituted in 1961 as the highest national recognition of distinguished sportspersons. The awardee is given a bronze statuette of Arjuna, a scroll, and a cash prize along with a monogram, a blazer and a tie.

Dronacharya Awards
Dronacharya Award was instituted in 1985 to honour eminent coaches who have done outstanding and meritorious `work on consistent basis, to motivate them to dedicate themselves with a singularity of purpose for raising the standards of sportspersons to highest performance in international events and bring glory to the country.

The Dhyanchand Award instituted by the government of India to encourage players from different games. The 2007 Dhyanchand Award is given to Varindar Singh for Hockey Shamsher Singh for Kabbadi and Rajendra Singh for wrestling.