*Dronacharya Award*

The Dronacharya Award is been recognized officially as Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports & Games is an honor for the Sports Coaching of the Republic of India. As the name signifies the award is been named after “Drona” who is been referred to be “Guru Drona” or “Dronacharya”, which is one of the characters in the Sanskrit Epic Mahabharata of the ancient history of India. He has been the renowned master of the Advance Military Warfare and also has been appointed as the trainer to the Pandava and the Kaurava princes the arts of astras and military.

 It is awarded to the deserving coach annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The awardees are been chosen by the committee constituted by the Ministry and are been honored to the Coaches who have had a phenomenal and meritorious work on the consistent basis and facilitating sportsmen to excel in their desired events”, in a slab of 4 years. Well, there you go with the two awards that are been awarded to the person who has dedicated to the coaching as the lifetime, achievements wherein producing the phenomenal sportspersons over the span of 20 years. As of now, the award comprises of the Bronze Statuette of Dronacharya, a ceremonial dress, a certificate and a cash prize of Rupees 5 Lacs.

Established in the year of 1985, the award is only been awarded to the regimen included in the occasion like Paralympic Games, Commonwealth Games, World Cup along with Cricket, Para sports, Olympic Games, Asian Games, World Championship and Indigenous Games. Well, the nomination for the respective year is accepted only prior to 1st of March of the last day of the working of April. A committee comprises of 10-members evaluates the nominations and post that the recommendation is been submitted to the Union Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports for the further process.

Now, here comes the first recipients of the award and the name was Bhalachandra Bhaskar Bhagwat associated with Wrestling, there you go with more… O.M. Nambiar associated with Athletics and Om Prakash Bhardwaj associated with Boxing and were honored in the year of 1985. It is been restricted to the maximum of 5 Coaches who are been awarded by this honor, a few of the exceptions have been made in the year of 2012 and 2016-17 year wherein more than 5 Coaches are been awarded.

Talking about the most recent recipients of the honor are Heera Nand Kataria (Kabaddi), Brij Bhushan Mohanty (Boxing), Sanjoy Chakravarthy (Shooting), R. Gandhi (Athletics), G. S. S. V. Prasad (Badminton), P. A. Raphel (Hockey), and Roshan Lal (Wrestling) who are been honored for their Lifetime Contribution.

Cheers!