The player who was awarded with Arjuna Award, Dronacharya Award, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Padma Shri is

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Correct — D, Pullela Gopichand. The former badminton champion and national coach is one of very few Indians to have received all four honours: the Arjuna Award (1999) as a player, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2000-01), the Padma Shri (2005) and the Dronacharya Award (2009) as a coach. The Dronacharya — a coaching award — is the clincher that rules the others out. (The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna was renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in 2021.)

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Holds the Arjuna Award, the Khel Ratna and the Padma Bhushan, but not the Dronacharya Award — that honour is for coaches, and he competed rather than coached.  (b) Received the Arjuna Award, the Khel Ratna, the Padma Shri and later the Bharat Ratna — but never the Dronacharya (coaching) Award.  (c) A badminton great honoured with the Arjuna Award and Padma Shri, but he did not receive either the Khel Ratna or the Dronacharya Award.

Concept: India's sporting honours have distinct purposes: the Arjuna Award (for a consistently outstanding player), the Dronacharya Award (for coaches), the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna — now the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna — (the highest sporting honour) and the Padma awards (civilian honours). Very few people hold both a player's award and the coaching Dronacharya; Pullela Gopichand did, because he first excelled as an All England champion and then as a national coach.

State PCS 2018 Q54 — Current Affairs & Sports PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2018 Q54 — Current Affairs & Sports PYQ with Answer