Kiren Rijiju, who is the Sports Minister of India, had announced in August 2020 that the government had increased the prize money for the Khel Ratna award
The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award prize money was increased to 25 lakh from the earlier amount of 7.5 lakh.
What is the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award?
The award is considered as the country’s highest sporting honour. It is named after Rajiv Gandhi, who is the former Prime Minister of India. The Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs usually gives this award to the deserving awardees. The awardees are selected by a committee which comes under the Ministry and are awarded on the basis of their amazing and outstanding performance in their respective sports internationally in the period of last four years.
Khel Ratna Award 2021 Prize Money
Up until last year the award consists of a certificate, a medallion and cash prize of Rs.25 lakhs.
Usually, the award is given on the basis of the sportperson’s performance annually. The criteria for these awards was revised by the Ministry in February 2015 as was suggested by the award selection committee in 2014 and they decided to judge the performance of the player in the four years.
The deadline for accepting the nomination for this award is usually on April 30 and on the condition that atleast two sportsperson should be nominated for each discipline of sports. The committee consists of 12 members which analyses the sportsperson’s performance for various international events like Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Asian Games etc. It is then submitted to the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs for further approval.
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Kiren Rijiju Talks About Increase In Prize Money
Kiren Rijuju in August last year addressed the media while paying tribute to the legendary Hockey player Major Dhyanchand in the Dhyan Chand Stadium. He said, “The prize money for these sports award was last reviewed in the year 2008. I think that these should be reviewed in every 10 years. The earnings of professionals in all the fields increases every year, so the earnings of sportspersons should also increase.”
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