# No Khel Ratna in 2025, 17 athletes get Arjuna Awards 2026-08-18T10:10:00+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 4 independent outlets The Sports Ministry on Tuesday announced the National Sports Awards 2025, but did not confer the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award on any athlete for the first time in recent years. Instead, 17 sportspersons were named for the Arjuna Award, including chess players Divya Deshmukh and Vidit Gujrathi, badminton pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, boxer Narender, and decathlete Tejaswin Shankar. The awards were decided by a selection committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Arun Kumar Mishra. Football legend I Arumainayagam, a 1962 Asian Games gold medallist, received the Arjuna Award for Lifetime Achievement. Three coaches, Parveer Singh (athletics), Chhote Lal Yadav (boxing), and Neha Nandkumar Chavan (shooting), were given the Dronacharya Award. The Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar was awarded to the Army Paralympic Node, Pune. The ministry invited applications through an online portal, receiving a large number this year, and the panel evaluated them to recommend the final list. ## Indian Opinion Analysis All four sources neutrally report the awards list, but their framing differs. NDTV and The Hindu lead with the absence of a Khel Ratna recipient, framing it as a notable omission. Economic Times provides the most agency-style detail, listing all categories, including the Khel Ratna silence only as a secondary note. India TV avoids the omission altogether, leading with the Arjuna list. The Hindu adds context: naming Divya Deshmukh a 'World Cup winning' player and Gayatri Gopichand as Pullela Gopichand's daughter in India TV's tagline, adding minor colour. The middle ground is clear: no Khel Ratna was given, and 17 athletes received Arjunas. What remains to be seen is whether any explanation is provided by the ministry for skipping the top award. ## Coverage Coverage: 4 sources, 4 neutral - economictimes.indiatimes.com (neutral report) Leads with roster detail, not omission - sports.ndtv.com (neutral report) Leads with omission of Khel Ratna as key fact - thehindu.com (neutral report) Leads with omission, adds context on selectees - indiatvnews.com (neutral report) Leads with Arjuna list, omits Khel Ratna silence This story was synthesised by AI from the 4 sources linked above. Updated: this story now draws on 4 sources. Last updated 2026-08-18T10:19:23+00:00. Tags: Arjuna Award, Divya Deshmukh, Dronacharya Award, Gayatri Gopichand, Tejaswin Shankar Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/no-khel-ratna-for-2025-17-get-arjuna-awards/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/no-khel-ratna-for-2025-17-get-arjuna-awards/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/