Flash Check — 80 Questions

1. What are the four tiers of India's civilian awards, from highest to lowest? — Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri.
2. In what year was the Bharat Ratna instituted? — 1954.
3. Name the three recipients of the very first Bharat Ratna batch in 1954. — C. Rajagopalachari, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, C.V. Raman.
4. Who was the first woman to receive the Bharat Ratna, and in what year? — Indira Gandhi, 1971.
5. Who was the first non-Indian citizen to receive the Bharat Ratna? — Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, 1987.
6. Name the other non-Indian Bharat Ratna recipient, and in what year. — Nelson Mandela, 1990.
7. Between which years were all civilian awards, including Bharat Ratna, briefly discontinued? — 1977 to 1980.
8. How many Bharat Ratna awards were conferred in 2024, and how many were posthumous? — Five; four were posthumous (all except L.K. Advani).
9. Name all five Bharat Ratna recipients of 2024. — Karpoori Thakur, L.K. Advani, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Chaudhary Charan Singh, M.S. Swaminathan.
10. Who is widely called the "Father of the Green Revolution" in India and received the Bharat Ratna in 2024? — M.S. Swaminathan.
11. Which Prime Minister who launched India's 1991 economic reforms received a posthumous Bharat Ratna in 2024? — P.V. Narasimha Rao.
12. In what year was Sachin Tendulkar awarded the Bharat Ratna, and why was this notable? — 2014; he was, at the time, the youngest-ever recipient, and it followed the 2011 broadening of eligibility criteria to include "public service of the highest order."
13. What condition is attached to holding a Bharat Ratna or Padma award regarding one's name? — It cannot be used as a title, prefix, or suffix to the recipient's name.
14. When are Padma Awards announced each year, and by whom conferred? — Announced on the eve of Republic Day (25/26 January); conferred by the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
15. What was the exact Padma Vibhushan/Bhushan/Shri split for 2025? — 7 Padma Vibhushan, 19 Padma Bhushan, 113 Padma Shri (139 total).
16. What was the exact Padma Vibhushan/Bhushan/Shri split for 2026? — 5 Padma Vibhushan, 13 Padma Bhushan, 113 Padma Shri (131 total).
17. Name two Padma Vibhushan (2026) recipients honoured in the field of "Art." — Dharmendra (posthumous) and N. Rajam.
18. Who chairs the Padma Awards Committee? — The Cabinet Secretary (the committee is constituted by the Prime Minister).
19. Name the two "tracks" into which India's gallantry awards are divided. — Wartime (in the presence of the enemy) and peacetime (not in the presence of the enemy).
20. List the three wartime gallantry awards in descending order. — Param Vir Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra, Vir Chakra.
21. List the three peacetime gallantry awards in descending order. — Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra, Shaurya Chakra.
22. Is the Ashoka Chakra ranked below the Param Vir Chakra? — No — they are equal-rank apex awards on two separate tracks (peacetime vs wartime).
23. In what year was the Param Vir Chakra instituted? — 1950.
24. Who was the first-ever recipient of the Param Vir Chakra? — Major Somnath Sharma (posthumous), Battle of Badgam, 1947–48.
25. Who is the only Param Vir Chakra recipient honoured for a United Nations peacekeeping mission? — Captain G.S. Salaria (Congo, 1961, posthumous).
26. Who is the only Indian Air Force recipient of the Param Vir Chakra? — Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon (1971, posthumous).
27. Who was the youngest-ever Param Vir Chakra recipient? — 2nd Lt. Arun Khetarpal (1971 war, posthumous, age 21).
28. Which Param Vir Chakra recipient is associated with the phrase "Yeh Dil Maange More"? — Captain Vikram Batra (Kargil, 1999, posthumous).
29. Name the Param Vir Chakra recipient of the 1962 war associated with the Battle of Rezang La. — Major Shaitan Singh (posthumous).
30. Which Param Vir Chakra recipient is linked to the Battle of Asal Uttar (1965)? — Company Quartermaster Havildar Abdul Hamid (posthumous).
31. Name a well-known Ashoka Chakra recipient from the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. — Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan (NSG, posthumous).
32. Which Air Force officer received the Ashoka Chakra (not a wartime medal) after being shot following ejection during the Kargil conflict? — Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja (posthumous, 1999).
33. What does the Dronacharya Award recognise, and after whom is it named? — Outstanding coaches who have produced international medal-winning athletes; named after Dronacharya, guru to the Pandavas and Kauravas in the Mahabharata.
34. In what year was the Dronacharya Award instituted? — 1985.
35. In what year was the Arjuna Award instituted? — 1961.
36. What was the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna previously called, and when was it renamed? — Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna; renamed in 2021.
37. After whom is the Khel Ratna now named, and what is he famous for? — Major Dhyan Chand, a three-time Olympic gold medallist in hockey (1928, 1932, 1936), the "Wizard of Hockey."
38. Name at least two of the four Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna recipients of 2024. — D. Gukesh, Manu Bhaker, Harmanpreet Singh, Praveen Kumar (any two).
39. What was unusual about the Khel Ratna award in 2025? — No recipient was named for the award that year.
40. What is the MAKA Trophy, and what does it recognise? — The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy, the highest sports honour for a university's overall performance in inter-university tournaments — an institutional, not individual, award.
41. On what date is National Sports Day observed in India, and why that date? — 29 August, Major Dhyan Chand's birth anniversary.
42. In what year was the Sahitya Akademi established? — 1954.
43. How many languages does the Sahitya Akademi officially recognise for its annual awards? — 24 (the 22 Eighth Schedule languages, plus English and Rajasthani).
44. Is the Sahitya Akademi Award given for a specific work or for a lifetime body of work? — A specific literary work, judged annually, separately for each recognised language.
45. In what year was the Jnanpith Award instituted, and by whom? — 1961, by the (private) Bharatiya Jnanpith trust.
46. Who was the first-ever Jnanpith Award recipient? — G. Sankara Kurup (Malayalam), 1965, for work published in 1963.
47. Who received the 59th Jnanpith Award (for 2024)? — Vinod Kumar Shukla, a Hindi poet-novelist from Chhattisgarh.
48. Which is India's oldest performing-arts/letters/visual-arts akademi, and in what year was it founded? — Sangeet Natak Akademi, 1952.
49. In what year were the Sahitya Akademi and Lalit Kala Akademi both founded? — 1954.
50. In what year were the National Film Awards instituted, and which body presents them? — 1954; presented by the Directorate of Film Festivals under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.
51. What are the two "medal" tiers of the National Film Awards called? — Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus) and Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus).
52. What is the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, and after whom is it named? — India's highest cinema honour, for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema; named after Dadasaheb Phalke, maker of India's first feature film, Raja Harishchandra (1913).
53. Who was the first-ever recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award? — Devika Rani, 1969.
54. Who is the only Nobel laureate of Indian origin to win a science Nobel Prize as an Indian citizen resident in India? — C.V. Raman (Physics, 1930).
55. What did C.V. Raman discover, and in what year? — The Raman Effect (scattering of light), 1928; awarded the Nobel in 1930.
56. Name the four Nobel laureates who were Indian citizens at the time of their award, across all categories. — C.V. Raman (Physics, 1930), Mother Teresa (Peace, 1979), Amartya Sen (Economic Sciences, 1998), Kailash Satyarthi (Peace, 2014).
57. In what year did Rabindranath Tagore win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and for which work? — 1913, for Gitanjali; also the first Asian Nobel laureate in any category.
58. Which Nobel laureate of Indian origin shared the 2019 Economic Sciences prize for work on alleviating global poverty? — Abhijit Banerjee (jointly with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer).
59. Which Nobel category is decided by a Norwegian committee and awarded in a different city from all the others? — Peace Prize, decided by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, awarded in Oslo (all others in Stockholm).
60. Which body decides the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine? — The Karolinska Institute.
61. Name the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner and her country. — Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela.
62. Name the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature winner. — László Krasznahorkai (Hungary).
63. What did the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognise? — The development of metal-organic frameworks (Kitagawa, Robson, Yaghi).
64. What did the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics recognise? — Discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit (Clarke, Devoret, Martinis).
65. Who was the first-ever Ramon Magsaysay Award recipient, and in what year? — Vinoba Bhave, 1957 (the award's inaugural year).
66. What is the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, and what is its key eligibility rule? — India's top science award for scientists working in India, administered by CSIR; recipients must be under 45 years of age.
67. Which international award is often called "the Nobel Prize for water"? — The Stockholm Water Prize.
68. Which UN environmental honour did India's Narendra Modi receive in 2018, and for what? — Champions of the Earth Award, jointly with France's Emmanuel Macron, for the International Solar Alliance.
69. In what year was the Gandhi Peace Prize instituted, and what makes its eligibility unusual compared to Bharat Ratna? — 1995 (on Gandhi's 125th birth anniversary); it is explicitly open to recipients of any nationality, unlike Bharat Ratna's predominantly domestic scope.
70. Which novel translated from an Indian language won the International Booker Prize in 2022, and who wrote it? — Tomb of Sand, by Geetanjali Shree — the first novel translated from any Indian language to win the prize.
71. In what year were the Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri all instituted? — 1954 — the same founding year as the Bharat Ratna.
72. What reform, introduced in 2015, changed how the public could participate in the Padma awards process? — Public self-nomination was opened up — any citizen can nominate any other citizen, or themselves, via an online portal.
73. Name the Sahitya Akademi's two junior-tier honours, distinct from the main annual award. — Yuva Puraskar (writers up to age 35) and Bal Sahitya Puraskar (children's literature), both instituted in 2011.
74. What is the Jnanpith trophy, physically? — A bronze replica of Vagdevi, the goddess of speech/learning.
75. Who was the first woman to receive the Jnanpith Award, and in what language did she write? — Ashapoorna Devi, Bengali, 1976.
76. Name the highest honour within the Sangeet Natak Akademi's own internal hierarchy, above its annual award. — The Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, informally called the "Akademi Ratna."
77. After whom is the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar named, and what does it recognise? — Bismillah Khan, the shehnai maestro and Bharat Ratna recipient; it recognises outstanding young talent (up to age 40) in the performing arts.
78. Name the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award's namesake and his defining achievement. — Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa mountaineer who, with Edmund Hillary, made the first confirmed ascent of Mount Everest in 1953.
79. Which international science-popularisation award, presented via UNESCO, predates the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize? — The Kalinga Prize for the Popularisation of Science, instituted 1951.
80. Name two Government of India awards instituted in 2019 that are named after historical freedom-movement figures. — The Subhas Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar (disaster management) and the Sardar Patel National Unity Award (national integration).

End of Book 17.