Dadasaheb Phalke Award
Sun, 30/10/2011 - 8:46pmThe Dadasaheb Phalke Award is India’s highest award in cinema given annually by the Government of India for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema. Named after Dadasaheb Phalke, the pioneer of Indian film industry, the award is bestowed to honor distinguished contribution to the growth and promotion of the film medium. The government introduced the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in the annual National Awards in 1969, the birth centenary year of Phalke, to commemorate his invaluable contribution to Indian cinema.
‘Bharat Ratna’, the highest civilian award of the country, was instituted in the year 1954. Any person without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex is eligible for these awards. It is awarded for exceptional service towards advancement of Art, Literature and Science, and in recognition of public service of the highest order.
Cricket is one of the most popular games in the country. There are several winners of Arjuna Award in this sport.
This game has only one representative in the Arjuna Awards winners list. The sole Carrom player who won the award is A. Maria Irudayam, in the year of 1996.
Though the game of Billiards and Snooker has a proud history and has produced some internationally successful players, it has four representatives in the winners list of the Arjuna Award. They are Alok Kumar who won it in 2002 and Pankaj Advani, the winner in the year of 2003. Anuja Prakash Thakur won it in the year 2005.
This sport is quite popular in India at present and has produced some world-class golfers in recent times. Amongst them, three golfers became successful to win the Arjuna Award. They are Chiranjeev Milkha Singh in 1999; Shiv Kapur in 2002 and Jyotinder Singh Randhawa in 2004.
This is such a sport that is very much popular in other parts of the world but not that much in India and hence this sport also has only three players who won the Arjuna Award. In 1975, Amar Singh was the first Cycling player to win the award. After him, the award won by Ms. M. Mahapatra in 1978-79 and 
Archery is quite popular at present in India and has several representatives in the winners list of the prestigious Arjuna Award. The winners are Krishna Das who won it in 1981; Shyam Lal, the winner of the award in 1989; Limba Ram in 1991 and Sanjeev Kumar Singh who won it in the year of 1992.
This old game in India has only five award winners so far and the gymnasts started winning the award from the year of 1961 when Shyam Lal won it. In 1975, Montu Debnath won the award and it was won by Ms. S. Sharma in the year of 1985. After she won the award, there was a gap of 4 years and in 1989, Ms. Krupali Patel became the winner of the award. Dr.
Mangal Singh Champia This is another sport that is being played in India for a long period of time and this sport also have some Arjuna Award winners. From the year of 1992 when Sandeep Byala won the award, it has another five winners of the award so far. Amongst them, Cawas Billimoria won it in 1993; Ms.