Awards and honours looks like the most memorisable chapter in Static GK and is in fact one of the most confusable — six gallantry awards that sound alike, four civilian awards in a hierarchy, and a dozen field-specific prizes. There is a structure underneath all of it. This capsule teaches the structure first, then gives you the lists, for SSC CGL and CHSL, RRB NTPC and Group D, State PSC, banking general awareness, CDS and UPSC Prelims.
Three Questions That Sort the Whole Chapter
Before any list, fix these three questions in your head. Every Indian award is defined by its answers to them.
1. For what field? 2. Given by whom? 3. Can it be given after death?
Most wrong answers in this chapter come from mixing awards across fields — putting a sports award where a cinema award belongs, or a government award where a private trust’s award belongs. If you file each award by field and by awarding body as you learn it, the confusion largely disappears.
And then there is one structural fact that does more work than any other:
The six gallantry awards are not six separate things. They are three pairs — one for wartime and one for peacetime, at each of three levels. Learn the grid, not the list, and you can never put Ashoka Chakra in a war or Param Vir Chakra in a rescue operation.
The Gallantry Awards: One Grid, Not Six Names
| Level | Wartime — ‘in the face of the enemy’ | Peacetime — away from the battlefield |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | Param Vir Chakra (PVC) | Ashoka Chakra |
| Second | Maha Vir Chakra (MVC) | Kirti Chakra |
| Third | Vir Chakra | Shaurya Chakra |
- All six were instituted on 26 January 1950, with retrospective effect from 15 August 1947 — which is why awards exist for actions in the 1947–48 conflict.
- First Param Vir Chakra: Major Somnath Sharma, of the Kumaon Regiment, awarded posthumously for the Battle of Badgam in November 1947.
- The wartime column uses the word Vir; the peacetime column uses Chakra names drawn from Ashoka, Kirti and Shaurya. Vir means war. That one cue resolves most questions in this section.
- All six may be awarded posthumously, and many have been.
The single most common error is treating the Ashoka Chakra as lower than the Maha Vir Chakra because it appears second in an alphabetical list. It is not. Ashoka Chakra is the highest peacetime gallantry award — the peacetime counterpart of the Param Vir Chakra, not of anything below it.
The Civilian Awards
| Award | Details |
|---|---|
| Bharat Ratna | India’s highest civilian award, instituted in 1954. For exceptional service of the highest order, in any field. Conventionally not more than three are given in a year. The Prime Minister recommends names to the President, who confers it. There is no formal public nomination process. |
| Padma Vibhushan | The second-highest civilian award, for exceptional and distinguished service. |
| Padma Bhushan | Third, for distinguished service of a high order. |
| Padma Shri | Fourth, for distinguished service in any field. |
- The three Padma awards were also instituted in 1954. They are announced on the eve of Republic Day and conferred by the President at ceremonies usually held in March or April.
- Padma awards accept public nominations; the Bharat Ratna does not. Selection is through a Padma Awards Committee constituted each year.
- Posthumous conferment of the Bharat Ratna became possible in 1955; the first posthumous award went to Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966. Both years appear in questions, so keep them apart: the rule changed in 1955, the first instance was 1966.
- The awards were briefly discontinued in the late 1970s and again in the early 1990s, and restored each time after litigation.
Why These Are Not ‘Titles’
This is the crossover question between awards and polity, and it is asked more often than you would expect.
Article 18 of the Constitution abolishes titles — it is part of the Right to Equality, the reasoning being that a republic should not create a hereditary class of nobility. So how do the Bharat Ratna and the Padma awards survive it?
Because the Supreme Court has held that they are decorations for service, not titles of nobility. The practical test is in how they may be used: a recipient may not attach the award to their name as a prefix or suffix. “Padma Shri Rajesh Kumar” is, strictly, improper usage. Read more in our capsule on the Fundamental Rights and on the Constitution’s articles and schedules.
Field-Specific Awards
| Award | Field | Points to Remember |
|---|---|---|
| Jnanpith Award | Literature | India’s highest literary honour. Instituted 1961, first awarded 1965 to G. Sankara Kurup (Malayalam). Given by the Bharatiya Jnanpith trust — a private body, not the government. |
| Sahitya Akademi Award | Literature | Given by the Sahitya Akademi, India’s National Academy of Letters, across recognised languages. |
| Dadasaheb Phalke Award | Cinema | The highest award in Indian cinema, for lifetime contribution. Instituted 1969; first recipient Devika Rani. Given by the Government of India. |
| Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna | Sport | India’s highest sporting honour. Renamed in 2021 from the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. The renaming year is itself a question. |
| Arjuna Award | Sport | For outstanding performance by a player over a period of years. |
| Dronacharya Award | Sport | For coaches. The Arjuna/Dronacharya split — player versus coach — is the standard question. |
| Dhyan Chand Award | Sport | For lifetime contribution to sport. Distinct from the Khel Ratna, despite the shared name. |
| Gandhi Peace Prize | Peace and non-violence | Instituted in 1995, the 125th birth anniversary year of Mahatma Gandhi. Open to individuals and institutions, Indian or foreign. |
| Param Vishisht Seva Medal | Armed forces | The highest award for distinguished service, as opposed to gallantry. Service medals and gallantry medals are separate streams — a frequent trap. |
One-Line Facts That Keep Coming Back
- The President of India confers the civilian and gallantry awards; the Prime Minister recommends Bharat Ratna names.
- Gallantry awards and service awards are different streams. Param Vir Chakra is for gallantry; Param Vishisht Seva Medal is for distinguished service.
- The Jnanpith is not a government award. It comes from a private trust — unlike the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
- Awards carry no cash for the civilian honours. The Bharat Ratna and Padma awards bring a certificate (sanad) and a medallion, not a monetary purse. Sports and literary awards do carry cash.
- Bharat Ratna is not restricted to Indian citizens. It has been conferred on non-Indians — a fact that surprises candidates and therefore gets asked.
- Nobody can demand an award. The Padma awards accept nominations but confer no entitlement, and recipients have occasionally declined them.
Practice Questions
Q1. The peacetime equivalent of the Param Vir Chakra is:
(a) Maha Vir Chakra (b) Kirti Chakra (c) Ashoka Chakra (d) Shaurya Chakra
Answer: (c) Ashoka Chakra Ashoka Chakra is the highest peacetime gallantry award, matching the Param Vir Chakra level for level. Kirti Chakra sits at the second level and Shaurya Chakra at the third; Maha Vir Chakra is a wartime award.
Q2. The first recipient of the Param Vir Chakra was:
(a) Captain Vikram Batra (b) Major Somnath Sharma (c) Lance Naik Albert Ekka (d) Major Shaitan Singh
Answer: (b) Major Somnath Sharma Awarded posthumously for the Battle of Badgam in November 1947. The other three are genuine recipients, which is what makes the question work.
Q3. The Jnanpith Award is conferred by:
(a) The Ministry of Culture (b) The Sahitya Akademi (c) The Bharatiya Jnanpith trust (d) The President of India
Answer: (c) The Bharatiya Jnanpith trust A private trust — not the government. The Sahitya Akademi Award is the separate, official literary honour, which is exactly why it appears as a distractor.
Q4. The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna was renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in:
(a) 2018 (b) 2020 (c) 2021 (d) 2023
Answer: (c) 2021 Note also that the Khel Ratna is a separate award from the Dhyan Chand Award, which is for lifetime contribution to sport.
Q5. Which article of the Constitution abolishes titles, yet permits awards such as the Bharat Ratna?
(a) Article 14 (b) Article 17 (c) Article 18 (d) Article 19
Answer: (c) Article 18 Part of the Right to Equality. The awards survive because the courts have treated them as decorations for service rather than titles of nobility — and recipients may not use them as a prefix or suffix to their names. Article 17 abolishes untouchability.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Ranking Ashoka Chakra below Maha Vir Chakra. They are in different columns. Ashoka Chakra is the highest peacetime gallantry award.
- Confusing the Khel Ratna with the Dhyan Chand Award. Khel Ratna is the highest sporting honour; the Dhyan Chand Award is for lifetime contribution.
- Confusing the Arjuna with the Dronacharya. Arjuna is for players, Dronacharya for coaches.
- Assuming every award is a government award. The Jnanpith is from a private trust.
- Mixing 1955 and 1966 for the posthumous Bharat Ratna. The rule changed in 1955; the first posthumous award was in 1966.
- Writing an award as part of a name. Article 18 is the reason that is improper.
- Memorising the current year’s recipients as permanent facts. Recipients change every year — learn the structure here, and check the current list separately close to your exam.
Test Yourself
Reading a capsule is not the same as recalling it under time pressure. Our Test Your Knowledge page carries free Static GK and current affairs quizzes, each with an explanation for every answer and a downloadable PDF for offline revision. For another Static GK area built on the same idea of learning a structure rather than a list, see our capsule on national parks and protected areas of India.
Sources: Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Defence material on the civilian and gallantry awards, including their institution dates and precedence; Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports material on the national sports awards; and the constitutional position on Article 18 as settled by the Supreme Court. Annual recipient lists change every year and have deliberately been left out — check the current year’s official announcement separately.
