List of Various Awards and their First Recipients

   In exams like SSC,DMRC,SAIL , questions are often asked about first recipients of a particular award. So here we are giving a list of awards and their first recipients. The Indian honour system is primarily recognized by Indian Central Government. The most recognized are Padma awards which are Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna with increasing order of merit. They are awarded every year. However, the most coveted and highest civilian award Bharat Ratna may not necessarily be awarded every year. The Padma awards are civilian awards for a broad set of achievements in fields such as Education, Arts, Civil Service, or Social Service. Awards were also bestowed posthumously and they are also given for foreign citizens.

First Recipients of Various Awards

BHARAT RATNA
1st Indian to be awarded the Bharat Ratna	C Rajagopalachari
1st Bharat Ratna Awardee to become the President of India	Dr. S. Radhakrishnan
1st person to be awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously	Lal Bahadur Shastri
1st Scientist to be awarded the Bharat Ratna	CV Raman
1st and only Industrialist to be awarded the Bharat Ratna	JRD Tata
1st woman to be awarded the Bharat Ratna	Mrs. Indira Gandhi
1st sportsperson to be awarded the Bharat Ratna	Sachin Tendulkar
LITERARY AWARDS
1st Indian to be awarded the Nobel prize in literature	Rabindranath Tagore
1st recipient of Bhartiya Jnanpith award	G Sankara Kurup
1st recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award for English	RK Narayan
1st person to receive Nobel prize for English literature	Rudyard Kipling
1st Indian to receive the Booker prize (British citizen)	Salman Rushdie
1st Indian woman (and also first Indian citizen) to receive the Booker prize	Arundhati Roy
1st Indian to receive the Pulitzer prize (Reporting category)	Gobind Behari Lal

SPORTS AWARDS
1st recipient of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award	Viswanathan Anand
1st woman recipient of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award	Karnam Malleshwari
1st recipient of Dhyanchand Lifetime Achievement Award	Aparna Ghosh
1st cricket player to be awarded the Arjuna Award	Salim Durrani
AWARDS IN THE FIELD OF SCIENCE
1st Indian scientist to be awarded the Nobel prize	CV Raman
1st person to receive Nobel prize for Physics	William K Roentgen
1st woman to receive the Nobel prize	Madame Curie (1903)
GALLANTRY AWARDS
1st winner of Param Vir Chakra	Major Somnath Sharma
1st and only Air Force person to receive the Param Vir Chakra	Flying Officer Nirmaljit Shekhon
1st woman to receive the Ashoka Chakra	Neerja Bhanot (1987)
FOREIGN AWARDS
1st Indian to be awarded the Nishan-e-Pakistan	Morarjee Desai
1st Indian to be awarded Magsaysay Award	Vinoba Bhave
FILM AWARDS
1st winner of Dadasaheb Phalke Award	Devika Rani
1st winner of Filmfare best actor award	Dilip Kumar
1st winner of Filmfare best actress award	Meena Kumari
1st Hindi film to win the National film Award	Mirza Ghalib (1954)
1st film to win the Best Film Academy Award (Oscar)	Wings (1927-28)
OTHER AWARDS
1st recipient of Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding	U Thant (1965)
1st recipient of Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development	Parliamentarians for Global Action(1986)
1st recipient of Outstanding Parliamentarian Award	Shri Chandrashekhar (1995)
1st recipient of Gandhi Peace Prize (Govt of India Award)	Julius Nyerere (1995)
1st recipient of World Food Prize instituted By Norman Borlaug (Father of Green Revolution)	MS Swaminathan (Father of Green Revolution in India ), 1987
1st recipient of Communal Harmony Award (Individual)	Asghar Ali Engineer, 1997
1st recipient of Communal Harmony Award (Organisation)	Quami Ekta Trust, 1997
1st recipient of Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony	Pt. Ravi Shankar, 2012
1st Asian recipient of Hoover Medal (America’s prestigious award for outstanding extra-career services by engineers to humanity)	APJ Abdul Kalam, 2008
1st recipient of VK Krishna Menon Award (instituted by London based VK Krishna Menon Foundation)	Former CJI KG Balakrishnan