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".

Pranab Kumar Mukherjee (born 11 December 1935, Mirati; West Bengal, India) is the current Finance Minister of India and leader of the current 15th Lok Sabha.

Mukherjee is a senior member of the Cabinet Committees on Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Parliamentary Affairs, Political Affairs, Prices, Security, Unique Identification Authority of India, World Trade Organization, and heads the Group of Ministers Committee on the Dabhol dispute. He is a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC).

His father Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee was a member of AICC, and West Bengal Legislative Council (1952–64), and President, District Congress Committee, Birbhum (WB). He attended the Suri Vidyasagar College, Suri (Birbhum), then affiliated with the University of Calcutta.

He holds a Master of Arts degrees in History and Political Science & has a degree in law from the University of Calcutta. He has been an advocate and a college teacher in his long public career.^{[citation needed]} In 2011 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by University of Wolverhampton.

Manoj Kumar (born Harikrishna Giri Goswami on 24 July 1937) is an award-winning Indian actor and director in the Bollywood film industry. He is known for acting in and directing films with patriotic themes, and has been given the nickname "Mr Bharat" (Bhaarat is the Hindi term for India). In 1992, he was honoured with the Padma Shri by the Government of India.

Manoj Kumar was born in Abbottabad, a town of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, then part of India. Abbottabad is now located within the borders of Pakistan. His original name was Harikishan Giri Goswami. When he was 10, his Gosain Hindu family had to move to Delhi owing to partition. His family lived as refugees in Vijay Nagar, Kingsway Camp and later moved to Patel Nagar area of New Delhi.

After graduating from Hindu College, University of Delhi, he decided to enter the film industry.

As a youth, he admired Bollywood superstar Dilip Kumar, and decided to name himself Manoj Kumar after Dilip's character in Shabnam (1949).

After making a little-noticed début in Fashion in 1957, Manoj landed his first leading role in Kaanch Ki Gudia (1960) opposite Sayeeda Khan. Piya Milan Ki Aas and Reshmi Roomal followed, setting the stage for the Vijay Bhatt-directed Hariyali Aur Raasta (1962) opposite Mala Sinha. Kumar then appeared with Sadhana in Raj Khosla's Woh Kaun Thi (1964), and reunited with Vijay Bhatt and Mala Sinha in Himalaya Ki God Mein (1965).