ONGC’s Arjuna Awardees felicitated

ONGC felicitated its sportspersons who were conferred with the Arjuna Award on National Sports Day. Five of the 15 recipients of Arjuna Award this year are ONGC sportspersons. 

Shiva Thapa (Boxing), Amit Kumar (Wrestling) and Sourav Kothari (Billiards & Snooker) are regular ONGC employees while Rajat Chauhan (Compound Archery) and Sandeep Singh Maan (Para-Atheletics, Sprint) are on ONGC scholarship.

Dinesh K Sarraf, CMD, ONGC and D D Misra, Director (HR), ONGC felicitated the sportspersons at ONGC’s Corporate office in Delhi. 

Sarraf congratulated the players in bringing glory to ONGC and the country and reiterated ONGC’s continued commitment and support in grooming, training and encouraging participation in sports events in order to promote sports and sportspersons.

ONGC lays emphasis on nurturing and developing sporting talent at the grass-root level by providing infrastructural and financial support. 

Prominent players like Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma (Cricket), Pankaj Advani, Alok Kumar (Billiards & Snooker), Koneru Humpy (Chess), Ashwini Ponnappa (Badminton), M R Poovamma (Athletics) are the flagship ambassadors of ONGC who have risen from the grassroot level to the international scene.

Presently ONGC has nearly 170 sportspersons on its regular rolls and has been at the forefront of promoting and proactively supporting the development of 23 disciplines of sports. 

The company takes this endeavor as a major social responsibility towards the nation. ONGC players have been consistently representing and bringing rich tally of medals in premier events like Olympics, Asian Games, World Championships, Commonwealth Games and other international platforms.

For its immense contribution in the development and promotion of sports in the country, the  President of India Pranab Mukherjee presented the ‘Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar’ to ONGC in 2014. 

ONGC was also awarded the prestigious FICCI Certificate of Excellence, making it the first organization to receive FICCI awards three times in a row. 

These awards stand as a testimony to ONGC’s efforts in changing the sporting landscape of the country.