President Murmu gives away National Sports Awards; Lalremsiami first from Mizoram to receive Arjuna Award

New Delhi With no Khel Ratna picked this year, decathlete Tejaswin Shankar, along with Grandmasters Divya Deshmukh and Vidit Gujrathi, were among the star Arjuna winners in attendance as President Droupadi Murmu presented the National Sports Awards at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Friday (November 13, 2026). Indian women’s hockey player and Olympian Lalremsiami Hmar became the first sportsperson from Mizoram to receive the prestigious Arjuna Award.

The little over 36-minute ceremony was attended by Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Mansukh Mandaviya and Sports secretary Hari Ranjan Rao among others. In all, 17 Arjuna awardees were chosen after an unprecedented re-evaluation of the recommendations made by a selection panel headed by former Supreme Court Judge Arun Kumar Mishra late last year.

The last time that the country did not have a Khel Ratna was in 2014. Lalremsiami makes history Lalremsiami, who hailed from Kolasib in the northern part of Mizoram bordering Assam, took up hockey at a young age.