MPPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 55 of 100

Correct — D, the Dronacharya Award. The Dronacharya Award is India's national honour for coaches, not for players, and P.R. Sreejesh — the goalkeeper of the Indian men's hockey team — has not received it. His decorations are all player awards: the Arjuna Award in 2015, the Padma Shri in 2017, the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in 2021 (the year of the Tokyo bronze), and the Padma Bhushan announced in January 2025, just weeks before this paper was set. He retired from international hockey after the Paris 2024 Olympics and has since moved into coaching Indian junior hockey, but that is a role, not this award. (Note: option B is printed in the booklet as 'Dyan Chand Khel Ratna Award' — the commission's own typographical slip. The award's correct name is the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.)

• (a)Arjuna Award — He received it in 2015. The Arjuna Award recognises consistently outstanding performance by a sportsperson over four years.
• (b)Dyan Chand Khel Ratna Award — He received the Khel Ratna in 2021. India's highest sporting honour was renamed from the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna to the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in August 2021 — the same year it went to Sreejesh.
• (c)Padma Bhushan — He was named for the Padma Bhushan in the Republic Day 2025 list; he had already held the Padma Shri since 2017.

India's sports honours are separated strictly by purpose, and every 'which award did X not get' question is really testing that split. The Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna is the highest sporting honour, for the most spectacular performance by a player over the previous four years. The Arjuna Award is for consistently outstanding performance over four years. The Dronacharya Award is exclusively for coaches. The Dhyan Chand Award (instituted 2002) is the lifetime-achievement honour for players. The Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar goes to organisations and corporates that promote sport. Running alongside, and awarded by a different process, are the civilian Padma honours.

Sreejesh is an unusually rich test case because he has collected almost every player-side honour available — Arjuna, Padma Shri, Khel Ratna and Padma Bhushan. That makes the coaching award the only remaining gap, which is exactly what the commission exploits. If you know the purpose of each award, you can answer this question without knowing a single date from his career.

• P.R. Sreejesh's awards: Arjuna Award 2015, Padma Shri 2017, Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna 2021, Padma Bhushan 2025.
• The Dronacharya Award honours coaches; Sreejesh has not received it.
• The Khel Ratna was renamed from Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna to Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in August 2021.
• Sreejesh kept goal for the Indian men's hockey team that won bronze at Tokyo 2020 and again at Paris 2024.
• The Dhyan Chand Award (2002) is the lifetime-achievement award for players — a different award from the Khel Ratna.

• Assuming a decorated player must also hold the Dronacharya — it is strictly a coaching award
• Confusing the Khel Ratna (best performance over four years) with the Dhyan Chand Award (lifetime achievement)
• Forgetting that Padma awards are civilian honours from the Home Ministry's process, separate from the sports ministry's award list

Two formats recur: 'which award has X NOT received', and 'match the award to its purpose'. Learn the purpose of each award first — that alone cracks most of them, and dates become optional.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Dronacharya Award is conferred for excellence in which of the following?

  • (a)Coaching
  • (b)Lifetime achievement by a player
  • (c)Sports journalism
  • (d)Promotion of sports by corporate bodies

  Answer(a) Coaching — it honours coaches who have trained sportspersons or teams to outstanding results.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In which year was the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award?

  • (a)2018
  • (b)2020
  • (c)2021
  • (d)2023

  Answer(c) 2021 — the renaming was announced in August 2021.