The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the sports honour of Republic of India. The award is named after Arjuna, a character from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata of ancient India. He is one of the Pandavas, depicted as a skilled archer winning the hand of Draupadi in marriage and in the Kurukshetra War, Lord Krishna becomes his charioteer teaching him the sacred knowledge of Gita. In Hinduism, he has been seen as a symbol of hard work, dedication and concentration. It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Before the introduction of the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in 1991–1992, the Arjuna award was the highest sporting honour of India. The nominations for the award are received from all government recognised National Sports Federations, the Indian Olympic Association, the Sports Authority of India (SAI), the Sports Promotion and Control Boards, the state and the union territory governments and the Major Dhyan Chandra Khel Ratna, Arjuna, Dhyan Chand and Dronacharya awardees of the previous years. The recipients are selected by a committee constituted by the Ministry and are honoured for their "good performance in the field of sports over a period of four years" at international level and for having shown "qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline." As of 2020, the award comprises "a bronze statuette of Arjuna, certificate, ceremonial dress, and a cash prize of ₹15 lakh (US$21,000)."
Aparna Popat is a former Indian badminton player. She was India's national champion for a record equaling nine times when she won all the senior national championships between 1997 and 2006.
Prakash Padukone is a former Indian badminton player. He was ranked World No. 1 in 1980; the same year he became the first Indian to win the All England Open Badminton Championships. He was awarded the Arjuna award in 1972 and the Padma Shri in 1982 by the Government of India. He is one of the co-founders of Olympic Gold Quest, a foundation dedicated to the promotion of Olympic sports in India.
Pullela Gopichand is a former Indian badminton player. Currently, he is the Chief National Coach for the India national badminton team. He won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001 becoming the second Indian to achieve this feat after Prakash Padukone. He runs the Gopichand Badminton Academy. He received the Arjuna Award in 1999, the Dronacharya Award in 2009 and the Padma Bhushan – India's third highest civilian award – in 2014.
Saina Nehwal is an Indian professional badminton player. A former world no. 1, she has won over 24 international titles, which includes eleven Superseries titles. Although she reached the world's 2nd in the 2009, it was only in 2015 that she was able to attain the world no. 1 ranking, thereby becoming the only female player from India and overall the second Indian player – after Prakash Padukone – to achieve this feat. She has represented India three times in the Olympics, winning a bronze medal in her second appearance.
Dipu Ghosh is a former badminton player from India who shined in the 1960s. His brother Raman Ghosh, his long time partner in doubles was also a prominent badminton talent in the country. Ghosh is a former national champion for seven times, in all the three possible categories. Notably in singles, he reached the finals six times but won only once in 1969. Most of the time he finished second to the best singles players of the country that time like Nandu Natekar, Suresh Goel and Dinesh Khanna. In doubles the Ghosh brothers reached every final between 1963 and 1970 by winning the title 5 times during this period.
Anup Sridhar is a retired Indian badminton player.
Nandu M. Natekar was an Indian badminton national champion.
St. Joseph's College, Devagiri, also known as Devagiri College, is a college in Kozhikode, Kerala, India, offering graduation and postgraduation courses in arts and science. Students and alumni are called ‘Devagirians’. The college is in the Devagiri hills about 8 km east of Calicut (Kozhikode) city. It is run by the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI), an indigenous religious congregation founded in 1831. College ranked 60, in All India Ranking by National Institutional Ranking Framework during 2020.
Suresh Goel was Indian national badminton champion and a recipient of Arjuna award.
Valiyaveetil Diju, also known as V. Diju, is an Indian badminton player from Kozhikode, Kerala. He clinched six National Championships title, once in the men's doubles and five times in the mixed doubles. He represented India in the 2012 London Olympics, became the first Indian player to participate at the Olympics in the mixed doubles alongside Jwala Gutta. He is the winner of Arjuna Award 2014, given by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, government of India to recognize his outstanding achievement in National sports. He is also the winner of G. V. Raja awards, which is the highest government-level recognition for sports persons in Kerala. He is winner of Jimmy George award 2014. He is also winner of Vivekanandha sports excellence award 2014. He won the Youth excellence award also in 2014.He is the only mixed doubles player from India to reach top 10 in the world badminton ranking(BWF) .His highest ranking is number 6th in world ranking.
Syed Mohammed Arif, popularly known as Arif Saahab, is an Indian badminton coach. He is a recipient of Dronacharya Award and Padma Shri Award by the Government of India.
Cyril C. Valloor is a former India men's national volleyball team player from Kerala. He represented the country in several competitions, including the 1986 Seoul Asian Games where he captained the Indian team that won the bronze medal. In the 1980s Indian volleyball was a force to reckon with when Jimmy George and Cyril Valloor played for the country.
Parupalli Kashyap is a Professional badminton player from India. He trains at Gopichand Badminton Academy. He was awarded the Arjuna Award by Government of India in 2012.
Pusarla Venkata Sindhu is an Indian professional badminton player. Over the course of her career, Pusarla has won medals at multiple tournaments including Olympics and on the BWF circuit including a gold at the 2019 World Championships. She is the first Indian to become the Badminton World Champion and only the second individual athlete from India to win two consecutive medals at the Olympic Games. She rose to a career-high world ranking of no. 2 in April 2017.
Bhamidipati Sai Praneeth is an Indian badminton player. He became the first Indian male shuttler in 36 years to win a bronze medal in the BWF World Championships in 2019 after Prakash Padukone in 1983. Sai Praneeth was honoured with the Arjun Award in 2019. His parents are Seshadri Deekshitulu and Madhavi Latha of Palakollu, West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh. His maternal aunt was a national level badminton player.
Srikanth Kidambi is an Indian badminton player who trains at the Gopichand Badminton Academy, Hyderabad. He ranked as world number 1 at the BWF ranking in April 2018. Kidambi was awarded with the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award in 2018. and Arjuna award in 2015.
Sports in Andhra Pradesh has its own importance, where many sporting personalities were into limelight. The Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) undertakes the sports development activities such as construction of stadiums, establishment of sports academies and other sporting related activities. The sports infrastructure have increased tremendously by improving infrastructure in outdoor and Indoor stadiums, play fields, sports academies, sports equipments etc. Sports such as kho kho, kabaddi are played mostly in Andhra Pradesh.Most sports players from Andhra pradesh represent national level competitions and very few international competitions.
Kanwal Thakar Singh is a former Indian badminton player and an Arjuna Award recipient. She presently lives in the United States of America.
Harmeet Desai is an Indian table-tennis player. He is currently ranked 71 in the world as of August 2021. He is from Surat. In 2018 Commonwealth Games held at Gold Coast, Australia, He won gold in men's team event with Sharath Kamal, Anthony Amalraj, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran & Sanil Shetty and bronze in Men's doubles event with Sanil Shetty. Harmeet Desai won Men's Singles Title at Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships 2019 at Cuttak,India defeated favorite Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in a hard-fought final to claim the Men's singles title. He has been honoured with the Arjuna Award by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India in 2019.
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