Awards and Honours
About 7 min · General Awareness · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 457 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
Awards and Honours is a topic in SSC CHSL General Awareness. Questions typically ask about recent award recipients, the highest civilian/military awards, their order of precedence, or matching personalities with honours. This topic directly connects to current affairs, but you must also know the static framework—what each award represents, who can receive it, and the hierarchy.
Key ideas
- Civilian awards follow a strict precedence: Bharat Ratna (highest), then Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri. The Padma awards are announced on Republic Day eve (Bharat Ratna has no fixed date); all are conferred by the President.
- Bharat Ratna has no formal recommendations: The Prime Minister advises the President directly. Maximum three awards per year, any field of human endeavour, open to all nationalities. No monetary grant attached.
- Padma awards are given in specific disciplines: Art, Social Work, Public Affairs, Science-Engineering, Trade-Industry, Medicine, Literature-Education, Sports, and Civil Service. Up to 120 awards annually across three categories.
- Gallantry awards have wartime and peacetime categories: Param Vir Chakra (wartime, highest) and Ashok Chakra (peacetime, highest) are top military honours. Both can be awarded posthumously.
- Nobel Prizes cover six fields: Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences (added 1969). Announced in October, awarded in December in Stockholm (Peace in Oslo). Multiple laureates can share one prize.
Watch out for
- Confusing Padma categories: Students mix up Padma Vibhushan (exceptional service) and Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of high order). Remember the hierarchy: Vibhushan is higher than Bhushan.
- Assuming Bharat Ratna is only for Indians: Bharat Ratna can be awarded to any nationality (Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Nelson Mandela). Fix: Note that eligibility is "any person without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex."
- Mixing up gallantry award names: Param Vir Chakra (PVC) is wartime; Ashok Chakra is peacetime highest. Students often reverse this. Fix: Remember "Param = Paramount = War," "Ashok = Ashoka pillar = Peace."
Quick reference
- Bharat Ratna: Highest civilian award; no field limit; max 3/year; no formal recommendation process.
- Padma Vibhushan > Bhushan > Shri: Three-tier Padma structure in descending precedence.
- Param Vir Chakra (wartime) vs Ashok Chakra (peacetime): Highest gallantry awards in respective categories.
- Nobel Prize: Six fields (Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Peace, Economics); announced October.
- Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna: Highest sports honour (renamed 2021); traditionally presented on August 29, but the 2024 awards were announced on 2 January 2025.
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, was instituted in which year?
2. Which of the following Padma awards is given for distinguished service of high order?
3. Param Vir Chakra, India's highest military decoration, is awarded for which of the following?
This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 18 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.
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