India’s Sports Ministry decides not to confer the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award for 2025 and instead announces Arjuna Award recipients, with the final list reduced compared with what a selection committee recommended. The ministry also names athletes including Tejaswin Shankar, Divya Deshmukh and Gayatri Gopichand among the Arjuna Awardees.
Across reports, the key difference is the emphasis on process and numbers. NDTV focuses on the ministry’s decision to have no Khel Ratna winner in 2025 alongside the Arjuna Award announcement. Business Line highlights that the selection committee proposed 24 names, but the ministry approves 17, reflecting a narrower final list than the committee’s recommendations. Both accounts agree on the absence of any Khel Ratna award for the year and on the confirmed presence of the three named athletes in the Arjuna Award class.
