The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, officially known as Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in Sports and Games is the highest sporting honour of the Republic of India. The award is named after Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India. It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The recipient(s) is/are selected by a committee constituted by the Ministry and is honoured for their "spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports over a period of four years" at international level. As of 2016, the award comprises a medallion, a certificate, and a cash prize of Rs. 7.5 lakh.
Usually
conferred upon only one sportsperson in a year, a few exceptions have been made
when multiple recipients were awarded in a year. As of 2016, thirty-two
recipients from fourteen sport disciplines have been awarded the Rajiv Gandhi
Khel Ratna Award. In 2016 for the first time in the history of National Sports
Awards, four athletes were chosen for the Khel Ratna honour including Olympic
silver medalist P.V. Sindhu, gymnast Dipa Karmakar, shooter Jitu Rai and
Olympic bronze medalist Sakshi Malik who received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna
Award from the President Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi on 29th August 2016.
