Science & Technology — Recent Innovations & Discoveries

Why This Chapter Matters

Sports GK shows up in almost every IBPS and SBI Clerk prelims paper, usually two to four marks, sitting quietly among the static GK questions that catch overconfident candidates off guard. Aspirants who prepare Static GK and Banking Awareness thoroughly still lose these easy marks because they treat sports as trivia rather than a structured topic. It is not trivia. It is a small, learnable set of facts: host cities, winner counts, award names, and a handful of rules. Learn the structure once and the marks come every single year.

The single biggest mistake candidates make here is mixing up award names, especially confusing the Khel Ratna (the highest sporting honour, for a career-best performance over four years) with the Arjuna Award (for consistent excellence at the national level over the past few years). A close second mistake: assuming the year a tournament happened is the year it was hosted, when host cities are often decided years in advance and cycles get disrupted (Tokyo 2020 was actually held in 2021, and Commonwealth Games hosting has shifted more than once). This chapter gives you the tournament cycles, the sport-specific term bank examiners love, India's headline achievements, and the awards ladder, all in one sitting.

1. Olympic Games — Structure and India's Story

The Olympic Games are held once every four years, alternating between Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics (staggered two years apart). The International Olympic Committee (IOC), headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, governs the Games. The Olympic motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter" (Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together, the word "Communiter" added in 2021). The five interlocking rings represent the five inhabited continents joined by Olympism, not any specific continent-to-colour mapping — a common exam trap, since no single ring is officially tied to one continent.

Recent hosts you must know cold: Tokyo (2020, held 2021), Paris (2024), and Los Angeles (2028) is next up for the Summer Games. On the winter side, Beijing (2022) hosted, making it the first city ever to host both Summer and Winter Olympics. Milan-Cortina (Italy) will host the 2026 Winter Games.

India's Olympic story deserves careful attention because recent editions changed the record books. At Tokyo 2020, India won 7 medals, its best-ever tally at a single Olympics: one gold (javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, India's first individual Olympic gold in athletics), two silver, and four bronze. Neeraj Chopra followed this up by winning silver at Paris 2024, with a best throw of 89.45m, behind Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem. India's Paris 2024 tally stood at 6 medals (1 silver, 5 bronze), with no gold — a result many aspirants get wrong because they assume the medal count only grows.

Exam trap: Do not confuse Abhinav Bindra (India's first individual Olympic gold medallist, 10m air rifle shooting, Beijing 2008) with Neeraj Chopra (India's first individual Olympic gold in track and field, Tokyo 2020). Bindra's gold came first chronologically and in a different sport category.

Memory hook: Think of India's individual Olympic golds as a two-station train route: "Bindra Beijing, Chopra Tokyo" — Bindra's stop was 2008 shooting, Chopra's stop was 2020 javelin. Two stations, two sports, thirteen years apart.

The Paralympic Games run alongside the Olympic cycle, organised by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). India's Paralympic performance has surged: at Tokyo 2020 Paralympics India won 19 medals, and at Paris 2024 Paralympics India won 29 medals (7 gold, 9 silver, 13 bronze), its best-ever Paralympic tally. Javelin thrower Sumit Antil and badminton player-turned-para-athletes have been central to this rise. Don't let a paper trip you by asking for the Paralympic host city separately from the Olympic host — they are always the same city, same year, held after the main Games.

2. Cricket World Cup — The Format Every Indian Knows

The ICC Cricket World Cup (One Day International format) is held every four years, and it is the tournament Indian aspirants know best from daily life, which makes it a favourite for examiners looking for "should be easy but isn't" questions.

West Indies won the first two editions, in 1975 and 1979, both hosted in England, both won under captain Clive Lloyd. India's own World Cup story has three headline chapters: the shock 1983 win under Kapil Dev at Lord's, defeating the mighty West Indies in the final; the 2011 win under Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the first time India won the World Cup on home soil, with Dhoni finishing the chase with a six; and the near-miss in 2023, hosted entirely in India, where India went unbeaten through the league stage and semi-final but lost the final to Australia at Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium — Australia's sixth World Cup title, extending their record as the most successful team in World Cup history.

The 2023 World Cup is worth memorising in detail because it was hosted in India and is fresh in examiner minds: Virat Kohli scored the most runs in a single World Cup edition (765 runs), breaking Sachin Tendulkar's earlier record, and also passed Tendulkar's tally of ODI centuries during the tournament, reaching 50 ODI hundreds.

Exam trap: The ICC T20 World Cup is a separate tournament from the ODI World Cup, held roughly every two years, not four. India won the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 under MS Dhoni, and won it again in 2024, edging South Africa in the final, with the tournament co-hosted by the West Indies and USA. Candidates frequently answer "2019" or "2023" for the T20 title thinking of the ODI cycle — keep the two formats mentally separate.

Cricket's governing body is the International Cricket Council (ICC), headquartered in Dubai, and India's domestic board is the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), headquartered in Mumbai. The BCCI's own T20 league, the Indian Premier League (IPL), began in 2008 and remains the world's richest domestic cricket league, but note that IPL winners are asked less often than World Cup winners in banking exams — prioritise your revision accordingly.

Cricket Terms You Must Know

A few playing-condition terms come up as one-liners in GK sections:

• Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method: used to recalculate a target score in rain-interrupted limited-overs matches.
• Hat-trick: a bowler dismissing three batters on three consecutive deliveries.
• Follow-on: in Test cricket, a team trailing by a large margin (200+ runs in a five-day Test) can be asked to bat again immediately.
• Powerplay: fielding restriction overs at the start (and sometimes middle) of a limited-overs innings.

3. Asian Games and Commonwealth Games

The Asian Games, governed by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), are held every four years and are Asia's largest multi-sport event. Hangzhou, China hosted the 2022 edition (delayed to 2023 due to the pandemic, another host-year mismatch worth remembering). India's Hangzhou tally was its best ever: 107 medals (28 gold, 38 silver, 41 bronze), the first time India crossed the 100-medal mark at any Asian Games. The next edition is scheduled for Nagoya, Japan in 2026.

Exam trap: Do not confuse the Asian Games with the Asian Para Games, a separate event for para-athletes held in the same host city shortly after, under the Asian Paralympic Committee.

The Commonwealth Games (CWG), held every four years among nations of the Commonwealth (mostly former British territories), is governed by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF). Birmingham, England hosted the 2022 edition, where India finished fourth with 61 medals. The 2026 Commonwealth Games is scheduled to be hosted by Glasgow, Scotland, a reduced-scale edition after the original host, Victoria (Australia), withdrew citing costs — a genuinely useful "why" fact if a question asks about the host change.

Memory hook: Remember the multi-sport event family with the phrase "Every Four Years, Different Rooms" — Olympics (world), Asian Games (continent), Commonwealth Games (Commonwealth nations) — all on a four-year cycle, but never in the same year as each other, so you can cross-check any given year against only one of these events at a time in most cases.

4. Sport-Specific Terms and Rules — The Quick-Recall Bank

Examiners love picking one term from a sport most candidates never watch. Build a working vocabulary across major sports rather than memorising one sport deeply.

Badminton: played to 21 points per game, best of three games, using a shuttlecock. India's Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand are past legends; current stars include PV Sindhu (Olympic medals in 2016 Rio silver and 2020 Tokyo bronze) and Lakshya Sen.

Tennis: the four Grand Slam tournaments are the Australian Open (hard court), French Open/Roland Garros (clay court), Wimbledon (grass court, the oldest, played in all-white kit), and the US Open (hard court). A player who wins all four in the same calendar year completes a Calendar Grand Slam, a rare feat. Scoring runs love-15-30-40-game, and a set typically requires six games with a two-game lead.

Chess: governed by FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs). India's Viswanathan Anand was the first Indian to become World Chess Champion (2000, later undisputed champion 2007-2013). India's D Gukesh became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion in December 2024, defeating China's Ding Liren, at just 18 years of age — a fact worth locking in because it broke Garry Kasparov's decades-old record.

Exam trap: Anand won the World Championship under different formats across his career (knockout, tournament, and match formats); most GK papers only need you to know he was India's first champion and Gukesh is the youngest ever — do not get pulled into format details unless the question specifically demands them.

Football (Association Football): the FIFA World Cup is held every four years; Qatar 2022 was won by Argentina (Lioni Messi's team, defeating France on penalties), and the next edition, 2026, will be co-hosted by the USA, Canada, and Mexico — the first World Cup hosted by three nations and the first 48-team World Cup. FIFA is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.

Hockey: India's national sport by long tradition (though there is no legally declared "national sport" of India — a frequently tested trap), and India has won 8 Olympic gold medals in men's hockey, the most of any nation, though the golden run is historic (1928-1980 mostly) rather than recent. India won bronze at Tokyo 2020, its first hockey Olympic medal in 41 years, and repeated bronze at Paris 2024.

Table Tennis: played to 11 points per game in the modern scoring system (changed from the older 21-point system). Manika Batra is India's leading current player.

Athletics: track events are timed races; field events include jumps and throws. Neeraj Chopra's event, the javelin throw, is a field event. The global athletics body is World Athletics (formerly IAAF), headquartered in Monaco.

Wrestling: India's Sushil Kumar (2008 Beijing bronze, 2012 London silver) and Sakshi Malik (2016 Rio bronze, India's first female wrestling Olympic medallist) are landmark names. Wrestling styles tested in exams: freestyle and Greco-Roman (the latter restricts holds below the waist).

Boxing: India's Mary Kom, a six-time World Champion and 2012 London Olympic bronze medallist, remains the most decorated name in Indian boxing GK questions.

Shooting: India's Tokyo and Paris cycles have produced strong results; Manu Bhaker won two bronze medals at Paris 2024 (10m air pistol individual and 10m air pistol mixed team), becoming the first Indian to win two medals at a single Olympics since independence.

5. Recent Notable Indian Sporting Achievements

Building a running list of "recent India firsts" is high-value revision because papers love the word "first."

• Neeraj Chopra: first Indian to win an individual Olympic gold in athletics (Tokyo 2020, javelin throw).
• D Gukesh: youngest-ever undisputed World Chess Champion (December 2024).
• Manu Bhaker: first Indian to win two individual Olympic medals in a single edition since independence (Paris 2024, shooting).
• Indian men's hockey team: back-to-back Olympic bronze medals (Tokyo 2020, Paris 2024) after a 41-year medal drought before Tokyo.
• India's Asian Games 2023 (Hangzhou): first time crossing 100 medals at a single edition (107 total).
• Indian Paralympic contingent: best-ever Paralympic medal tally at Paris 2024 (29 medals).
• Indian men's cricket team: won the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 and, notably, the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, both under captain Rohit Sharma, giving India two global white-ball titles in close succession.

Exam trap: Champions Trophy is a separate ICC tournament from the World Cups, contested by a smaller group of top-ranked ODI teams. Do not list it as "World Cup" in an answer, even though India's win there in 2025 is often clubbed loosely with World Cup talk in casual conversation.

6. Sports Awards in India — The Ladder You Must Get Right

India's national sports awards form a clear hierarchy, and examiners test both the correct order and the correct eligibility criterion for each.

The Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award (renamed from Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2021, honouring hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand) is India's highest sporting honour, given for the most spectacular and outstanding performance in the field of sports over a period of four years. It carries a cash award and a medallion.

The Arjuna Award recognises consistent outstanding performance for four years at the international level, one tier below Khel Ratna, and is the most commonly awarded honour each year across multiple sports.

The Dronacharya Award honours coaches for producing medal-winning athletes, split into categories for regular and lifetime coaching achievement.

The Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement (distinct from the Khel Ratna, despite sharing the name Dhyan Chand) recognises a sportsperson's contribution to sport through performance and continued contribution after retiring from active sporting career.

Exam trap: This is the single most confused pair in the sports GK section: Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna (active, current-performance honour, highest award) versus Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement (post-retirement, contribution-based, different tier entirely). Both carry Dhyan Chand's name; they are not the same award and are not ranked adjacently.

Memory hook: Picture the awards as a coaching institute's own results board: "Ratna tops the board (highest, current form), Arjuna is the star pupil (consistent, four years), Dronacharya is the teacher's prize (for coaches), and Dhyan Chand Lifetime is the alumni honour (post-retirement legacy)." Four distinct roles, never interchange them.

Other honours worth knowing: the Padma Awards (Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan) are India's civilian honours, not sports-specific, but are frequently given to sportspersons and asked in GK papers as a crossover topic. The National Sports Day is celebrated on 29 August, Major Dhyan Chand's birthday, and the Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awards are typically presented on or around this date each year.

7. Governing Bodies — Quick Reference

Knowing the correct sport-to-body mapping earns easy marks:

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) governs the Olympics from Lausanne. The International Cricket Council (ICC) governs cricket from Dubai. FIFA governs football from Zurich. The Badminton World Federation (BWF) governs badminton, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. World Athletics governs track and field from Monaco. FIDE governs chess from Lausanne (sharing the city with the IOC, a coincidence worth remembering rather than confusing the two bodies). In India, the Sports Authority of India (SAI), under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, is the nodal body implementing sports development schemes, including the Khelo India programme launched to identify and nurture sporting talent at the grassroots level.

Khelo India deserves a specific mention because it recurs in Banking Awareness and current affairs crossover questions: it is a government scheme (not an award), aimed at reviving sports culture at the grassroots through infrastructure, annual youth and university games, and talent scholarships. The Khelo India Youth Games and Khelo India University Games are held annually in different host states, a detail examiners sometimes ask by naming a state and asking which Khelo India edition it hosted.

Quick Revision — One-Line Facts

• Olympic Games are held every four years; the IOC is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland.
• Tokyo hosted the 2020 Summer Olympics, actually held in 2021.
• Paris hosted the 2024 Summer Olympics; Los Angeles hosts 2028.
• Milan-Cortina (Italy) hosts the 2026 Winter Olympics.
• India's best-ever Olympic medal tally is 7, achieved at Tokyo 2020.
• Neeraj Chopra won India's first individual Olympic gold in athletics at Tokyo 2020 (javelin).
• Neeraj Chopra won silver at Paris 2024, behind Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem.
• Abhinav Bindra won India's first individual Olympic gold overall, in shooting, at Beijing 2008.
• India's best-ever Paralympic tally is 29 medals, at Paris 2024.
• The ICC Cricket World Cup (ODI format) is held every four years.
• West Indies won the first two Cricket World Cups, 1975 and 1979.
• India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983 (Kapil Dev) and 2011 (MS Dhoni).
• Australia won the 2023 Cricket World Cup final against India in Ahmedabad.
• Virat Kohli scored the most runs (765) in the 2023 World Cup and passed 50 ODI centuries.
• India won the ICC T20 World Cup in 2007 and 2024.
• India won the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 under Rohit Sharma.
• The ICC is headquartered in Dubai; BCCI is headquartered in Mumbai.
• The Asian Games are governed by the Olympic Council of Asia, held every four years.
• India's best Asian Games tally, 107 medals, came at Hangzhou 2023 (originally scheduled 2022).
• The 2026 Asian Games will be hosted by Nagoya, Japan.
• The Commonwealth Games 2026 will be hosted by Glasgow, Scotland.
• Badminton games are played to 21 points, best of three games.
• The four tennis Grand Slams are Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open.
• D Gukesh became the youngest-ever undisputed World Chess Champion in December 2024.
• Viswanathan Anand was India's first World Chess Champion.
• FIFA World Cup 2026 will be co-hosted by USA, Canada, and Mexico, with 48 teams.
• India has won 8 Olympic gold medals in men's hockey, the most of any nation historically.
• Manu Bhaker won two bronze medals at Paris 2024, a first for independent India in one edition.
• Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna is India's highest sporting honour, based on four years of performance.
• The Arjuna Award recognises consistent international-level performance over four years.
• National Sports Day is observed on 29 August, Major Dhyan Chand's birthday.
• Khelo India is a government grassroots sports development scheme, not an award.

Memory Tables

Table 1: Major Multi-Sport Events at a Glance

Event	Frequency	Governing Body	Recent/Upcoming Host
Summer Olympics	Every 4 years	International Olympic Committee (IOC)	Paris 2024, Los Angeles 2028
Winter Olympics	Every 4 years	IOC	Beijing 2022, Milan-Cortina 2026
Cricket World Cup (ODI)	Every 4 years	International Cricket Council (ICC)	India 2023 (won by Australia)
T20 World Cup	Roughly every 2 years	ICC	West Indies-USA 2024 (won by India)
Asian Games	Every 4 years	Olympic Council of Asia (OCA)	Hangzhou 2023, Nagoya 2026
Commonwealth Games	Every 4 years	Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF)	Birmingham 2022, Glasgow 2026
FIFA World Cup	Every 4 years	FIFA	Qatar 2022, USA-Canada-Mexico 2026

Table 2: India's National Sports Awards

Award	What It Honours	Key Note
Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna	Best performance over 4 years	India's highest sporting honour, renamed 2021
Arjuna Award	Consistent international performance, 4 years	Most frequently awarded, one tier below Khel Ratna
Dronacharya Award	Coaches producing medal winners	Separate regular and lifetime categories
Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement	Post-retirement contribution to sport	Not the same as Khel Ratna despite the shared name

Table 3: Recent "India's First" Sporting Milestones

Achievement	Athlete/Team	Year
First individual Olympic gold (any sport)	Abhinav Bindra (shooting)	2008
First individual Olympic gold in athletics	Neeraj Chopra (javelin)	2020 (held 2021)
First hockey Olympic medal in 41 years	Indian men's hockey team	2020 (held 2021)
First two individual Olympic medals in one edition since independence	Manu Bhaker (shooting)	2024
Youngest-ever undisputed World Chess Champion	D Gukesh	2024
Best-ever single-edition Asian Games medal tally	India (107 medals)	2023

Practice MCQs

Q1. The Olympic Games are organised once every how many years? (a) Two years (b) Three years (c) Four years (d) Five years

Q2. Who won India's first individual Olympic gold medal in athletics? (a) Abhinav Bindra (b) Neeraj Chopra (c) Milkha Singh (d) PT Usha

Q3. Where were the 2024 Summer Olympics held? (a) Tokyo (b) Paris (c) London (d) Beijing

Q4. Which country won the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, defeating India in the final? (a) England (b) South Africa (c) Australia (d) New Zealand

Q5. Who is credited with leading India to its first Cricket World Cup win in 1983? (a) Sunil Gavaskar (b) Kapil Dev (c) MS Dhoni (d) Virat Kohli

Q6. The Arjuna Award is given for outstanding performance sustained over how many years? (a) Two years (b) Four years (c) Six years (d) One year

Q7. Which award is considered India's highest honour in the field of sports? (a) Arjuna Award (b) Dronacharya Award (c) Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award (d) Padma Shri

Q8. The International Cricket Council (ICC) is headquartered in which city? (a) London (b) Dubai (c) Mumbai (d) Singapore

Q9. In badminton, a game is played to how many points? (a) 15 (b) 21 (c) 25 (d) 11

Q10. Which Indian became the youngest-ever undisputed World Chess Champion in December 2024? (a) Viswanathan Anand (b) R Praggnanandhaa (c) D Gukesh (d) Arjun Erigaisi

Q11. National Sports Day in India is observed on which date, marking Major Dhyan Chand's birthday? (a) 15 August (b) 29 August (c) 2 October (d) 14 November

Q12. Which multi-sport event is governed by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA)? (a) Commonwealth Games (b) Asian Games (c) SAFF Games (d) Winter Olympics

Q13. At which Olympic Games did India record its best-ever medal tally of 7 medals? (a) Rio 2016 (b) Tokyo 2020 (c) Paris 2024 (d) London 2012

Q14. In Test cricket, the "follow-on" refers to a situation where: (a) A bowler takes three wickets in three balls (b) A team trailing by a large margin is asked to bat again immediately (c) A match is decided by DLS method (d) A batter is out for zero runs

Q15. Which Indian shooter won two individual bronze medals at the Paris 2024 Olympics? (a) Manu Bhaker (b) Saurabh Chaudhary (c) Elavenil Valarivan (d) Rahi Sarnobat

Answer Key

Q	Answer	One-line reason
1	(c)	Both Summer and Winter Olympics follow a four-year cycle, staggered two years apart.
2	(b)	Neeraj Chopra's javelin gold at Tokyo 2020 was India's first individual Olympic gold specifically in athletics; Bindra's 2008 gold was in shooting.
3	(b)	Paris hosted the 2024 Summer Olympics; Los Angeles is the next host in 2028.
4	(c)	Australia beat India in the 2023 World Cup final at Ahmedabad, winning their sixth title.
5	(b)	Kapil Dev captained India to its maiden World Cup title in 1983, defeating West Indies at Lord's.
6	(b)	The Arjuna Award recognises consistent excellence at the international level over four years, distinct from Khel Ratna's "most spectacular" criterion.
7	(c)	The Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award sits above the Arjuna Award as India's highest sporting honour.
8	(b)	The ICC is headquartered in Dubai, UAE, while BCCI (India's board) is based in Mumbai.
9	(b)	Badminton games go to 21 points, with matches played best of three games.
10	(c)	D Gukesh defeated Ding Liren in December 2024 to become the youngest-ever undisputed World Chess Champion.
11	(b)	National Sports Day falls on 29 August, the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand.
12	(b)	The Asian Games are organised by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), distinct from the Commonwealth Games Federation.
13	(b)	Tokyo 2020 (held 2021) remains India's best Olympic showing with 7 medals, including one gold.
14	(b)	A follow-on forces the trailing team to bat again immediately, applicable when the deficit crosses the required margin in a Test match.
15	(a)	Manu Bhaker won two individual shooting bronze medals at Paris 2024, a first for independent India in a single Olympic edition.