UPPSC 2019 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 83 of 150

Correct — C, Shot put. Deepa Malik is a para athlete in track and field, and the achievement that defines her career is the silver medal she won in the women's shot put F53 event at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games — the first Paralympic medal ever won by an Indian woman. That is the performance behind the honour named in the question: the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for 2019, India's highest sporting honour, which she shared with wrestler Bajrang Punia, making her the first female para-athlete to receive it. As of the December 2019 exam the award still carried Rajiv Gandhi's name; in August 2021 it was renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, so a present-day question will use the new name for the same award.

• (a)Badminton — Wrong discipline entirely. Deepa Malik competes in athletics (track and field), not in a racquet sport. India's para-badminton names became household ones only after the Tokyo Games, well after this exam, and none of them is Deepa Malik.
• (b)Discus throw — Right family, wrong event — and that is exactly why this is the best-built distractor in the set. Para athletics groups shot put, discus and javelin together as seated and standing throwing events, so a candidate who has stored only 'throwing event' against her name can land here. The medal that made her career, and the event she is identified with, is the shot put (class F53).
• (d)Weight lifting — Para powerlifting — the bench-press discipline in the Paralympic programme — is a separate sport from athletics, with its own classification system and its own athletes. Deepa Malik has never competed in it; the option trades on a vague association between 'strength event' and the shot put.

The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, instituted in 1991-92, is India's highest sporting honour and is given for the most outstanding performance by a sportsperson over the preceding four-year period — which is why it usually follows an Olympic or Paralympic cycle. In August 2021 the award was renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. It sits at the top of a ladder of national sports awards: the Arjuna Award for consistent outstanding performance, the Dronacharya Award for coaches, the Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime achievement, and the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar for institutions that promote sport. Para athletics uses a letter-and-number classification — F for field events, followed by a number band indicating the type and degree of impairment — so 'shot put F53' names both the event and the athlete's class.

Anchor the answer to the medal, not the award. The Khel Ratna citation is a consequence; the fact a student should hold in memory is 'Rio 2016, shot put, silver, first Indian woman to win a Paralympic medal'. Do that and the throwing-event distractor stops working. The question is also a reminder of how UPPSC uses awards: the stem gives you the honour and the year and asks for something adjacent — the sport, the state, the event — so store awards as small clusters of facts, not as isolated names. Deepa Malik shared the 2019 award with Bajrang Punia, a pairing worth remembering together.

• Deepa Malik won silver in the women's shot put F53 at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games — the first Paralympic medal won by an Indian woman.
• She received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for 2019, shared with wrestler Bajrang Punia, and was the first female para-athlete to be given the award.
• The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna was renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award in August 2021 — the honour itself is unchanged.
• The Khel Ratna recognises the most outstanding performance by a sportsperson over the preceding four years; it is distinct from the Arjuna, Dronacharya and Dhyan Chand awards.

• Storing 'throwing event' instead of the exact event — discus and javelin are the standard decoys against shot put.
• Using the old and new names of the Khel Ratna as if they were two different awards; it was renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in August 2021.
• Confusing the Khel Ratna (performance over four years) with the Dhyan Chand Award (lifetime achievement) or the Arjuna Award.

UPPSC asks 'awardee to sport/event' one-liners in the year following a big award announcement, while UPSC prefers a pairs-matching question that tests what each national sports award is given for — so revise every award year as a table of name, sport, event and award.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  At the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, Deepa Malik became the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic medal. The medal was

  • (a)Gold in javelin throw
  • (b)Silver in shot put
  • (c)Bronze in discus throw
  • (d)Silver in para powerlifting

  Answer(b) Silver in shot put — in the F53 classification at Rio 2016.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award was renamed in 2021 after which personality?

  • (a)Major Dhyan Chand
  • (b)Milkha Singh
  • (c)C. K. Nayudu
  • (d)K. D. Jadhav

  Answer(a) Major Dhyan Chand — the award became the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award in August 2021.