Awards and Honours
Awards and Honours
Award questions in NTPC test three things: the order of the national honours, the "first" and "latest" winners of the big awards, and which field an award belongs to. Learn the hierarchy once, then attach two or three names to each award: the first winner, a famous winner, and the most recent one.
1. National Civilian and Gallantry Honours
| Award | Key facts |
|---|---|
| Bharat Ratna | Highest civilian honour, instituted 1954; usually up to three a year (five were given in 2024) |
| First Bharat Ratna (1954) | C. Rajagopalachari, S. Radhakrishnan and C.V. Raman |
| First posthumous Bharat Ratna | Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966) |
| Non-Indian recipients | Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987) and Nelson Mandela (1990) |
| Youngest and first sportsperson | Sachin Tendulkar (2014) |
| Bharat Ratna 2024 | Karpoori Thakur, L.K. Advani, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Chaudhary Charan Singh, M.S. Swaminathan |
| Padma awards (1954) | Padma Vibhushan, then Padma Bhushan, then Padma Shri; announced on the eve of Republic Day |
| Param Vir Chakra | Highest wartime gallantry award |
| Ashoka Chakra | Highest peacetime gallantry award |
Order of civilian honours: Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri
2. Science, Sports, Film and Literature Awards
| Award | Field and key facts |
|---|---|
| Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar | Science awards announced by the Government of India in 2023, first given in 2024; categories Vigyan Ratna, Vigyan Shri, Vigyan Yuva and Vigyan Team |
| Vigyan Ratna 2024 | G. Padmanabhan (biochemist) |
| Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna | Highest sports award; renamed after Dhyan Chand in 2021 |
| Khel Ratna 2024 (given 2025) | Manu Bhaker, D. Gukesh, Harmanpreet Singh, Praveen Kumar |
| Arjuna Award | Outstanding sportspersons, started 1961 |
| Dronacharya Award | Sports coaches, started 1985 |
| Dadasaheb Phalke Award | Highest film honour; first winner Devika Rani (1969); the 2023 award went to Mohanlal |
| Jnanpith Award | Literature; first winner G. Sankara Kurup (Malayalam, 1965); 59th award to Vinod Kumar Shukla (Hindi) |
| Sahitya Akademi Award | Literature in 24 languages, from 1955 |
| Ramon Magsaysay Award | Called Asia's Nobel Prize; Philippines |
3. International Awards and India
| Award | Indian link |
|---|---|
| Nobel Prize | First Indian: Rabindranath Tagore (Literature, 1913); C.V. Raman (Physics, 1930) |
| Nobel Peace Prize | Mother Teresa (1979), Kailash Satyarthi (2014) |
| Nobel Economics | Amartya Sen (1998), Abhijit Banerjee (2019) |
| Booker Prize | Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things, 1997), Aravind Adiga (The White Tiger, 2008) |
| International Booker 2025 | Banu Mushtaq, Heart Lamp (Kannada stories, translated by Deepa Bhasthi) |
| Oscar | Bhanu Athaiya first Indian winner (costume design, 1983) |
✗ Padma Bhushan ranks above Padma Vibhushan | ✓ Padma Vibhushan is second only to the Bharat Ratna
✗ The Arjuna Award is for coaches | ✓ Coaches get the Dronacharya Award; the Arjuna Award is for players
हिंदी नोट: नागरिक सम्मानों का क्रम: भारत रत्न, पद्म विभूषण, पद्म भूषण, पद्म श्री। राष्ट्रीय विज्ञान पुरस्कार 2023 में घोषित हुआ; विज्ञान रत्न सर्वोच्च श्रेणी है। खेल रत्न खिलाड़ियों का और द्रोणाचार्य पुरस्कार प्रशिक्षकों का सम्मान है।
Exam Pointer: Verified NTPC patterns: the new national science award announced by the Government of India (March 2026 Graduate CBT-1) and Bharat Ratna recipients (February 2021 CBT-1). Sports, film and international award questions are tagged syllabus-based.
Pariksha Pattern: Every Way NTPC Asks This Topic
Pattern 1: National science awards
[PYQ: NTPC Graduate CBT-1 19-Mar-2026 Shift-2]
EXAM LEVEL
Q. Name the national science award series instituted by the Government of India in 2023 and its highest category.
The Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar; its highest category is the Vigyan Ratna, given for lifetime achievement in science.
Answer: Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar; Vigyan Ratna
EXAMATLAS LEVEL
Q. Arrange the four categories of the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar and name the first Vigyan Ratna awardee.
The four categories are Vigyan Ratna, Vigyan Shri, Vigyan Yuva (named after Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar) and Vigyan Team. The first Vigyan Ratna, in 2024, went to biochemist G. Padmanabhan.
Answer: Ratna, Shri, Yuva, Team; G. Padmanabhan
Pattern 2: Bharat Ratna recipients
[PYQ: NTPC CBT-1 4-Feb-2021 Shift-2]
EXAM LEVEL
Q. Who were the first three recipients of the Bharat Ratna in 1954?
C. Rajagopalachari, S. Radhakrishnan and C.V. Raman.
Answer: Rajagopalachari, Radhakrishnan, C.V. Raman
EXAMATLAS LEVEL
Q. Which of these did NOT receive the Bharat Ratna in 2024: Karpoori Thakur, M.S. Swaminathan, Pranab Mukherjee, Charan Singh?
Karpoori Thakur, M.S. Swaminathan and Charan Singh were among the five 2024 awardees. Pranab Mukherjee received it in 2019.
Answer: Pranab Mukherjee
Pattern 3: Sports and film awards
[Pattern: syllabus-based, PYQ-style]
EXAM LEVEL
Q. Which award honours sports coaches in India?
The Dronacharya Award, started in 1985.
Answer: Dronacharya Award
EXAMATLAS LEVEL
Q. Who was the first recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, and which shooter received the Khel Ratna for 2024?
Devika Rani received the first Phalke Award in 1969. Manu Bhaker was one of the four Khel Ratna awardees for 2024.
Answer: Devika Rani; Manu Bhaker
Pattern 4: International awards and Indians
[Pattern: syllabus-based, PYQ-style]
EXAM LEVEL
Q. Who was the first Indian to win a Nobel Prize, and in which field?
Rabindranath Tagore, Literature, 1913, for Gitanjali.
Answer: Rabindranath Tagore, Literature
EXAMATLAS LEVEL
Q. Which Kannada writer won the International Booker Prize in 2025, and for which book?
Banu Mushtaq, for the story collection Heart Lamp, translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi.
Answer: Banu Mushtaq, Heart Lamp
60-Second Revision
- Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri.
- Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar: Vigyan Ratna, Shri, Yuva, Team (from 2024).
- Khel Ratna (highest) and Arjuna for players; Dronacharya for coaches.
- Phalke: first Devika Rani; Jnanpith: first G. Sankara Kurup.
- First Indian Nobel: Tagore 1913; International Booker 2025: Banu Mushtaq.