Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna for P.V. Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Dipa Karmakar and Jitu Rai

The Sports Ministry announced that Rio Olympics medalists shuttler P.V. Sindhu and wrestler Sakshi Malik will receive the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award along with gymnast Dipa Karmakar and shooter Jitu Rai.

List of 2016 National awards are

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna :-

The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, officially known as Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in Sports and Games, is the highest sporting honour of the Republic of India.

• The award is named after Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India who served the office from 1984 to 1989. It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
• The recipients are selected by a committee constituted by the Ministry and is honoured for their “spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports over a period of four years” at international level. As of 2016, the award comprises amedallion, a certificate, and a cash prize of ₹7.5 lakh (US$11,000).
• Instituted in 1991–92, the award was given for the performance by a sportsperson in a year. Based on the suggestions provided by 2014 award selection committee, the Ministry revised the criteria in February 2015 to consider the performance over a period of four years.
• The nominations for a given year are accepted till 30 April or last working day of April with not more than two sportspersons nominated for each sports discipline. A twelve-member committee evaluates the performances of a sportsperson at various International events likeOlympic Games, Paralympic Games, Asian Games, and Commonwealth Games.
• The committee later submits their recommendations to theUnion Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports for further approval.
• The first recipient of the award wasChess Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand, who was honoured for the performance in the year 1991–92.
• In 2001,sport shooter Abhinav Bindra, then aged 18, became the youngest recipient of the award. Usually conferred upon only one sportsperson in a year, a few exceptions have been made (1993–94, 2002, 2009, 2012, and 2016) when multiple recipients were awarded in a year

P.V. Sindhu :-

Pusarla Venkata Sindhu is an Indian professional badminton  At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal.

• Sindhu came to international attention when she broke into the top 20 of theBWF World Ranking in September 2012 at the age of 17.
• In 2013, she became the first ever Indian women’s singles player to win a medal at theBadminton World Championships. In March 2015, she became the youngest recipient of India’s fourth highest civilian honor, the Padma Shri.
• Her silver medal win in the women’s singles event of the 2016 Summer Olympics made her the first Indian shuttler to reach the final of an Olympics badminton event and the youngest Indian to make a podium finish in an individual event at the Olympics.

Sakshi Malik:- 

• Sakshi Malik is an Indian freestyle wrestler. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she won the bronze medal in the 58 kg category, becoming the first Indian female wrestler to win a medal at the Olympics and the fourth female Olympic medalist from the country.
• She is a part of the JSW Sports Excellence Program, along with fellow female wrestersVinesh Phogat, Babita Kumari and Geeta Phogat.
• Malik had previously won the silver medal at the2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and the bronze medal at the 2015 Asian Wrestling Championships in Doha.

Dipa Karmakar :-

• Dipa Karmakar is anartistic gymnast who represented India at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She is the first Indian female gymnast ever to compete in the Olympics, and the first Indian gymnast to do so in 52 years. She attained 4th position in Women’s Vault Gymnastics event of Rio Olympics 2016 with an overall score of 15.066.
• She first gained attention when she won a bronze medal at the2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, becoming the first Indian female gymnast to do so in the history of the Games. She is sponsored by the GoSports Foundation.
• Karmakar is one of only five women who have successfully landed theProdunova, the most difficult vault currently performed in women’s gymnastics. She also won a bronze medal at the Asian Gymnastics Championships and finished fifth at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, both firsts for her country.

Jitu Rai:-

Jitu Rai(born 26 August 1987) is an Indian shooter of Nepalese origin who competes in the 10 metre air pistol and 50 metre pistol Government of India announced Khel Ratna Award for him in 2016.

• In 2014, at theISSF World Cup in Munich, he won the silver medal in the 10 metre air pistol event. Following this, in Maribor, Rai won two medals; a silver in the 50 metre pistol event, and a gold in the 10 metre air pistol event.
• At the2014 Commonwealth Games, Rai created the Games record in the qualification round of the 50 metre pistol event, having scored 562 points. He went on to win the gold medal in the event, scoring 194.1 points in the final, thus creating another Games record.
• In the2014 Asian Games held at Incheon in South Korea, Jitu won the gold medal in the 50 m pistol category. He also won a bronze in the men’s 10 m air pistol team event.
• In 2016, he won a silver medal at the ISSF World Cup held in Baku, Azerbaijan in the 10m Air Pistol event.
• Jitu Rai had had a bad outing earlier in the 10m pistol event.
• During the 2016 Olympics in the 10 M air pistol event, Jitu Rai made a remarkable comeback to sneak into the final, but failed to replicate his form as he finished last in the final of the 10 M air pistol event.