Awards of India

India doesn’t run one honours system. It runs several, side by side. Each one has its own rules for who qualifies and who decides.

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General Knowledge · Awards Map

India’s National Honours, by Track

Civilian

Bharat Ratna: highest, no tiers, 1954

Padma Vibhushan / Bhushan / Shri: 3 tiers, 1954

Gallantry

Wartime: Param Vir / Maha Vir / Vir Chakra

Peacetime: Ashoka / Kirti / Shaurya Chakra

Sports

Khel Ratna: top annual performance

Arjuna, Dronacharya, Dhyan Chand (Lifetime)

Arts & Literature

National Film Awards: cinema, since 1954

Jnanpith Award: literature, since 1965

One government, several separate tracks

Each track has its own tiers, its own rules, and often its own start date. They don’t form a single ladder. A Padma Shri winner isn’t automatically “below” an Arjuna Award winner — they’re not on the same scale at all.

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Timeline

• 1950: The wartime gallantry awards (Param Vir, Maha Vir, Vir Chakra) begin, backdated to 15 August 1947.
• 1952: Peacetime gallantry classes begin. They’re renamed Ashoka, Kirti, and Shaurya Chakra in 1967.
• 1954: The Bharat Ratna, the Padma Awards, and the National Film Awards all begin.
• 1961: The Jnanpith Award begins, first given in 1965.
• 1977–1980 and 1992–1995: The Bharat Ratna is suspended twice, for different reasons.
• 2016: Padma Award nominations open to the general public online.
• 2021: The Khel Ratna is renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.

The Four National Honour Tracks Need to Know

• India has 4 main award tracks: civilian, gallantry, sports, and arts & literature.
• Civilian awards go to service or achievement in almost any field. Bharat Ratna is the top one, with the 3-tier Padma Awards below it.
• Gallantry awards go to a specific act of courage. There are two groups: one for wartime, one for peacetime.
• Sports awards go to athletic performance and coaching. The top one is the Khel Ratna.
• Arts and literature have their own separate awards too. These include the National Film Awards and the Jnanpith Award.
• The President of India presents almost all of these awards. But each track sets its own rules, picks winners its own way, and has its own history.

How the Tracks Differ Need to Know

• The 4 tracks aren’t ranked against each other. A Padma Shri winner and an Arjuna Award winner aren’t on the same ladder at all. They stand for completely different kinds of achievement.
• Who can win also depends heavily on the track. Civilian awards are open to almost anyone. Gallantry awards need one specific act of courage, usually in the military or police. Sports awards only go to athletes and coaches.
• Few people cross tracks. Sachin Tendulkar won sports honours early in his career, the Arjuna Award and the Khel Ratna. Then, in 2014, he became the first sportsperson to win the Bharat Ratna — a civilian award, not a sports one.
• Nobody designed these tracks as one complete system from the start. Most grew slowly, award by award. Gallantry and sports both took several decades to reach their current shape.

Civilian Honours: Suspensions and a “People’s Padma” Good to Know

• The Bharat Ratna has been suspended twice. Prime Minister Morarji Desai withdrew all personal civil honours in July 1977. It came back in January 1980, under Indira Gandhi.
• A second suspension ran from 1992 to 1995. Court cases had questioned whether the award was even constitutional.
• 2024 was a record year. 5 people received the Bharat Ratna, the most in a single year since 1999.
• Until 2016, only officials and past top awardees could nominate someone for a Padma Award. That year, the process opened up. Now any citizen can nominate someone online.
• The change was dramatic. Nominations rose from about 2,200 a year in 2014 to over 50,000 by 2025. The government calls this its “People’s Padma” push.

Gallantry’s Narrow Ceiling Good to Know

• The Param Vir Chakra is India’s highest wartime gallantry award. It is extremely rare: only 21 have ever been given, and 14 of those went to people who had died in action.
• The first went to Major Som Nath Sharma. He died defending Srinagar airport on 3 November 1947. The award itself didn’t exist yet — it wasn’t set up until 1950, then backdated to cover his action.
• The peacetime gallantry awards began in 1952. Back then they were called Ashoka Chakra Class I, II, and III. In 1967, they got new names: Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra, and Shaurya Chakra.
• This is a separate scale from the civilian awards entirely. A Param Vir Chakra winner isn’t “higher” or “lower” than a Bharat Ratna winner. The two simply stand for different things.

Sports and Arts: Names That Changed Great to Know

• The Khel Ratna got a new name in 2021: the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. It honours the hockey legend who led India to Olympic gold in 1928, 1932, and 1936.
• India’s hockey team had just won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics. They hadn’t won an Olympic medal in 41 years. The announcement came days later, timed for National Sports Day, Dhyan Chand’s birthday.
• The Jnanpith Award is India’s highest literary honour. It was first given in 1965, to the Malayalam poet G. Sankara Kurup, for his poetry collection “Odakkuzhal” (The Flute).
• A useful exam habit: when a question names an award, first work out which track it belongs to. That alone rules out most wrong answers. They often come from a different track’s award names.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. Which of these is India’s highest civilian award, with no tiers?

Padma Vibhushan

Param Vir Chakra

Khel Ratna

Bharat Ratna

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Current Affairs

• 5 August 2026: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari gave the Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak to 12 rat-hole miners. They had taken part in the 2023 Silkyara tunnel rescue. For the full story, see GK0113 — Silkyara Tunnel Rescue: The Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak.
• The Jeevan Raksha Padak Series has three tiers — Sarvottam, Uttam, and the base Jeevan Raksha Padak. They’re ranked by how much danger the rescuer faced. The Ministry of Home Affairs has run this award since 1961.
• This is a separate award track from the Gallantry Awards covered elsewhere on this site. Gallantry Awards go to wartime or peacetime military and police courage. The Jeevan Raksha Padak is different: it’s a civilian award, open to any rescuer.
• The National Bravery Award recognises children for a specific act of courage. The Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) has run it since 1957.
• This is a separate award from the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar (PMRBP), the government’s own children’s award since 2018. PMRBP covers six categories, including bravery, and is presented by the President on Veer Bal Diwas, 26 December. Read more: IndGov0065 — The Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar.