President Murmu presents National Sports Awards 2025

President Droupadi Murmu on Friday presented National Sports Awards 2025 at Rashtrapati Bhavan. A total of 17 sportspersons were selected for Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games for the year 2025. Athletes Tejaswin Shankar and Priyanka Goswami, Chess player Divya Jitendra Deshmukh, Hockey player Rajkumar Pal and Kabaddi player Puja were among them who have been honoured with Arjuna Awards by the President. Veteran Indian footballer Isaiah Arumainayagam has received the Arjuna Award (Lifetime).
Besides, five coaches were conferred with ‘Dronacharya Award for their outstanding contribution. Parveer Singh,Chhote Lal Yadav and Neha Nandkumar Chavan received ‘Dronacharya Award in the regular category while Dharmendra Singh Yadav and Virender Kumar have been conferred in the Lifetime Category. The Army Paralympic Node, Pune, was awarded the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar for its significant contribution to the promotion and development of sports. Four persons, including Baljeet Kaur and Rimo Saha were honoured with Tanzing Norgay National Adventure Award 2024.
In 2024, a record 32 athletes were conferred the Arjuna award, which included 17 from para-sports. This time, only two names from para-sports made the final cut. Para club thrower Ekta Bhyan, who won a gold in the 2024 para world championships, and shooter Rudransh Khandelwal, who is a 2024 Para World Cup gold-medallist, were also among the awardees. Ekta also won a silver in the world championships held last year in Delhi.