Her Excellency, the President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu today presented the coveted “Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy” (MAKA) to the Guru Nanak Dev University for its all round best performance in sports for the year 2021-22 in an investiture ceremony held at Ashoka Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan this evening.
The University received this for a record of 24th times.Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Jaspal Singh Sandhu and Dr. Kanwar Mandeep Singh, In-charge Sports Department of the University received this trophy. Prof. Karanjieet Singh Kahlon, Registrar of the University was also present. The replica of trophy and award money of Rs. 15 lakh was also presented to the University by the President for the promotion and development of sports.
Before the presentation of award, a citiation was also read out depicting the commendable sports achievements of the University.Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar has won the India’s prestigious Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy (MAKA Trophy) of the year 2021-22 with Overall top performing University in International / National / Inter-University Championships.
The University won this trophy for a record number of 24th times from the President emerging again as the ‘top university in sports’ of India after the gap of three years with the able guidance of Vice Chancellor Prof. Sandhu.
In the field of sports, Guru Nanak Dev University is rated as the Top University amongst 609 universities in the country. The unparallel achievement of Guru Nanak Dev University in sports is much due to its sportsmen and sportswomen of the colleges as well as a mechanism of best training, best selections and best administration which remained the key factors in achieving high standards in sports at Inter-University, National and International levels.
It is pertitent to say that Guru Nanak Dev University has produced 6 Padmashree Awardees, 36 Arjuna Awardees, 2 Dronacharya Awardees and 44 Maharaja Ranjit Singh Awardees. The University would also celebrate the victory of this trophy on December 01 in Auditorium of Centre on Study in Sri Guru Granth Sahib at 02.00 pm alongwith the contributors of this trophy, sports personal and coaches.
This trophy was instituted in 1956-57 as a running trophy by the Ministry of Education, Government of India in the name of first Union Education Minister, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and is awarded by the President of India each year to a University which has all round best performance in sports at inter-university, national and international competitions.
While expressing his happiness, for this extraordinary achievement by the University, Prof. Sandhu congratulated sports personal, affiliated colleges, their principals, faculty, coaches, students and the University Sports Department for their sincere contribution.
He said that this great honour is not only for Guru Nanak Dev University alone, but it is also for the whole of Punjab. He said that the University has been giving incentives, scientific training and provide state of the art sports facilities to their sports persons and also assured that the University would provide more facilities in future to the players.