The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has instituted the National Adventure Awards, known as the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award (TNNAA), to recognize individuals associated with adventure activities.
Ordinarily, one award is conferred in each of the categories of adventure on land, at sea, and in the air. In addition, one Lifetime Achievement Award is presented in the field of adventure.
Nominations for the TNNAA 2025 are invited only through the Common Awards Portal (https://awards.gov.in/) from 21st July to 20th August, 2026. Applications received offline by the Ministry will be summarily rejected.
Recommendations for the awards may be made by the Youth/Sports Departments of the concerned State Governments or Union Territory Administrations, recognized adventure institutions such as the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, the Adventure Promotion Cells of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, or similar paramilitary forces.
The concerned departments/organizations may provide their recommendations to applicants by e-mail or any other suitable mode to enable them to submit their online applications. All nominations for serving personnel of the Army, Navy, and Air Force should be recommended by their respective Adventure Cell or Directorate.
While recommending nominations, the performance of the nominees in adventure activities during the last three years, namely 2023, 2024, and 2025, may be taken into account.
Guidelines for Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award
OBJECTIVES
1. To recognize the achievements of persons in the fields of adventure.
2. To encourage young people to develop the spirit of endurance, risk-taking, cooperative teamwork and quick, ready and effective reflexes in challenging situations.
3. To provide incentive to the young people for getting exposed to adventure activities.
CATEGORIES
1. Awards can be given in four categories namely, Land Adventure, Water (Sea) Adventure, Air Adventure and Life Time Achievement for adventure activities on Land, Sea and Air.
2. Ordinarily not more than one Award will be made in each category.
3. The Ministry may increase the number of awards in a particular year for specific reasons recorded in writing and with the approval of the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports.
ELIGIBILITY
A person should have excellent performance and have outstanding qualities of leadership, a sense of adventure discipline and have continuous achievement in one particular field of adventure viz. Land, Air or Water (Sea).
RECEIPT OF APPLICATIONS
1. Entries for the Awards will be received in a pro-forma Annexed to these guidelines, giving the past performances of the persons recommended in general and for the year of the Award in particular within such date as is specified on year to year basis. The last date of entry may be relaxed at the discretion of the Government of India in exceptional cases.
2. Candidates applying for the award may get their applications recommended by the Youth/Sports Department of the State Government concerned, or a recognized adventure institute like Indian Mountaineering Foundation for Land Adventure, National Institute of Water Sports for Water (Sea) Adventure and Aero Club of India for Air Adventure or by the Adventure Promotion Cell of the Army/Navy/Air Force or Indo-Tibetan Border Police or similar other para military forces.
3. All nominations in respect of serving personnel of Army/Navy/Air Force should be recommended by their respective Adventure Cell/Directorate.
4. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports can also nominate any person on its own or seek nominations from such other organizations/agencies as are deemed fit for this award.
5. The Ministry will receive the applications/ nominations for the award through an online portal, the link for which will be provided on the website of the Ministry at the time of calling for the nominations.
SCRUTINY
1. All the nominations received in the Ministry will be sent categories-wise to the three apex bodies namely, Indian Mountaineering Foundation, National Institute of Water Sports and Aero Club of India as defined in the NPYAD Scheme guideline for verifying achievements in Land, Water (Sea) and Air respectively. Upon which they will confirm from official records the achievements/performance of all nominated persons within a maximum period of one month of receipt of the nominations from the Ministry.
2. For the first three categories, achievements of the last three calendar years will be taken into consideration.
COMMITTEE
1. The Government of India will set up a National Selection Committee to be headed by Secretary (Youth Affairs) to scrutinize all the entries received for the award and submit its recommendations for the approval of Hon’ble Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports. The composition of the committee will be as under:
1. Secretary (Youth Affairs) – Chairperson
ii. Joint Secretary (Youth Affairs) – Member Secretary
iii. Representative from the field of Land adventure – Member
iv. Representative from the field of Water (Sea) adventure Member
V. Representative from the field of Air adventure – Member
2. Members for the Committee will be nominated each year by the Hon’ble Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports. The Hon’ble Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports may nominate more members pertaining to some particular field of adventure if the number of applications received is high.
PROCEDURE FOR SELECTION
1. The applications will be first scrutinized at Division level. Ineligible applications will be discarded at this level.
2. The eligible applications will be placed before the Committee.
3. The Committee will discuss the achievements of all the applicants and will recommend the suitable candidates for the award.
4. The decision of the Government of India in respect of the Award will be final.
GENERAL
1. The award will consist of a bronze statuette, a certificate, a blazer with silken tie/a saree and award money of Rs. 15 Lakh.
2. The Status of the Award will be same as Arjuna Awards conferred in the field of Sports by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
3. The Awards will be presented to the winners along with Arjuna Awards by the Government of India.
4. The Awardees will be reimbursed to and fro air fare (economy class) and such other fare of conveyance as relevant in the journey through shortest route from his/her place of stay to the place of award ceremony and back subject to production of original boarding passes/ Tickets etc. along with duly filled in proforma. Awardees would be given reimbursement for AC 1tier rail journey, if opted.
5. Awardees will also be provided free boarding and lodging in a suitable place for the award ceremony.
6. One companion with each lady and physically handicapped awardee will be provided with the same travelling and boarding/lodging facilities as that of the awardee herself/himself.
7. Canvassing in any form in respect of any entry will render that entry liable to be disqualified.
8. No award will be conferred for a second time to the same person under the same category.
9. The award may be given posthumously if such an occasion arises.
10. Government of India may cancel or annul the award to any person under circumstances which, in the opinion of the Government, might render such person unworthy of the award and thereupon, the recipient shall be required to surrender the statuette and the award money. However, the Government of India may restore the award if it decides to withdraw the cancellation or annulment.
11. The decision of the Government of India in respect of interpretation of these rules shall be final and no appeal shall lie against it.
12. A person who is recommended for the Award shall be deemed to have accepted these Rules.
Instructions for the Candidates:
The candidates are advised to adhere to the following instructions while applying for the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award:
i) Upload the documents in a common format for uniformity and effective scrutiny.
ii) Mention your achievements year-wise followed by supporting documents in a single PDF. The documents available in PDF should be clear and the PDF document should contain an index.
iii) If a candidate is selected for the award, he/she would be required to furnish the following to the Ministry immediately:
a) Bank mandate form duly authorized by the bank.
b) High resolution photographs wherein the candidate is visible performing the adventure activity.
c) Measurement for tailoring work.