The Arjuna Awards were instituted in 1961 by the government of India to recognize outstanding achievement in National sports. The award carries a cash prize of 500,000, a bronze statuette of Arjuna and a scroll.

Over the years the scope of the award has been expanded and a large number of sportspersons who belonged to the pre-Arjun Award era were also included in the list. Further, the number of disciplines for which the award is given was increased to include indigenous games and the physically handicapped category.

The Government has recently revised the scheme for the Arjun Award. As per the revised guidelines, to be eligible for the Award, a sportsperson should not only have had good performance consistently for the previous three years at the international level with excellence for the year for which the Award is recommended, but should also have shown qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline.

From the year 2001, the award is given only in disciplines falling under the following categories:

In Indian mythology, Arjuna (Devanagari: अर्जुन, Thai: อรชุน Orachun, Tamil: அருச்சுனன் Aruccunan, Indonesian and Javanese: Harjuna, Harjuno, Herjuno, Malay: Ranjuna; pronounced [ɐrˈɟunɐ] in classical Sanskrit) is the greatest warrior on earth and is one of the Pandavas, the heroes of the Hindu epic Mahābhārata, and a key historical figure in the Dwapar Yuga. Arjuna, whose name. means 'bright', 'shining', 'white' or 'silver' (cf. Latin argentum), was such a peerless archer that he is often referred to as Vishnu – the unbeatable.

The third of the five Pandava brothers, Arjuna was the son of the king of gods, Indra, and Kunti, wife of king Pandu of Kuru. Arjuna was an ambidextrous master archer and as a Maharathi played a key role in the victory of Yudhisthira in the Mahabharata War. Taught by the master of military arts Drona, Arjuna used the magnificent bow Gāndeeva, and killed many Kaurava generals like Karna and Jayadratha. He was also a close friend of Krishna, an Avatar of god Vishnu. Arjuna had four wives, Subhadra, Draupadi, Chitrangada and Ulupi.

Virat Kohli  pronunciation (help·info) (born 5 November 1988 in Delhi) is an Indian international cricketer. He is a middle order batsman, who can also open the batting. He can also bowl right arm medium pace. Kohli was the captain of the victorious Indian team at the 2008 U/19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. He represents Delhi in first-class cricket and plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League. He also played for the West Delhi Cricket Academy. He made his One Day International (ODI) debut in 2008 and was part of the Indian team which won the 2011 World Cup. Despite being a regular in the ODI side, he only played his first Test in 2011.

Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi to Prem and Saroj Kohli. He has an elder brother, Vikash, and an elder sister, Bhavna. Virat attended school at Vishal Bharti and Savier Convent. Virat's father, Prem, worked as a lawyer and died in December 2006. Little is known of Virat Kohli's personal life.

The West Delhi Cricket Academy was created in 1998 and Kohli was part of its first intake. Kohli first came into the spotlight when he played for Delhi in a Ranji Trophy match against Karnataka on the day of his father's death. Choosing to stay and bat, he went on to score 90 runs. Mithun Manhas, the team's captain, remarked that "That is an act of great commitment to the team and his innings turned out to be crucial".

Mouma Das (Bengali: মৌমা দাস) is a table-tennis player from West Bengal, India. She has won the National Table-tennis Championship for two consecutive years (year 2003 and 2004). She was born and brought up in Madhyamgram, a suburb near Calcutta.

Yuvraj Singh  pronunciation (help·info) (born 12 December 1981) is an Indian cricketer, and the son of former Indian fast bowler and Punjabi movie star Yograj Singh. He has been a member of the Indian cricket team since 2000 (ODIs) and played his first Test match in 2003. He was the vice-captain of the ODI team from late-2007 to late-2008. At the 2007 World Twenty20 he hit six sixes in an over against England's Stuart Broad—a feat performed only three times previously in any form of senior cricket, and previously never in an international match between two Test cricket nations. He was named the Man of the Tournament in the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

He was recently diagnosed with a cancerous tumor (Stage-I) in his left lung and underwent chemotherapy treatment at the Cancer Research Institute in Boston, USA. On March 18, 2012 Yuvraj Singh discharged from hospital after completing the third and final cycle of chemotherapy to recover from a rare germ cell cancer in Boston, USA. On April 9, 2012 Yuvraj Singh returned home after undergoing treatment for rare germ cell cancer in the United States.