Smt. Pratibha Patil, Her Excellency, President of India presented the prestigious Dronacharya Award to Mr. Sanjeeva Singh – Chief - Tata Football Academy and Sports, Tata Steel, at a function at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi today. Mr. Singh has been felicitated for his excellence in coaching and raising the standards of Archery in India which was possible only with the support of Tata Steel. He was awarded with a cash prize of Rs. 3,00,000/- along with a Statuette of Guru Dronacharya, a scroll of honour and ceremonial dress.

The Dronacharya Award is the ultimate recognition awarded by the country in sports to coaches. This honour is yet another achievement by Mr. Sanjeeva Singh who is also an Arjuna Awardee Winner. Having started off as an amateur archer, Sanjeeva Singh went on to win many a laurels for our nation at various national and international sports meets. His list of achievements includes 1 bronze at Asian Championship, 1 Gold and 1 Bronze at Federation Cup International Meet. He has also as the coach of the Indian Team. Under his able guidance, the team won 12 Gold and 10 Silver medals at the 2nd South Asian Archery Championship in India. Having proved his prowess in Archery, Mr. Singh then went on to train amateur archers in the country. With the objective of establishing Jamshedpur as a ‘Mini Korea’, with excellence in archery and a city that churns out world class archers, Mr. Singh has been instrumental in setting up the first corporate sponsored Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur in 1996 with the help of Tata Steel. Mr. Singh has also contributed to training archers from neighbouring countries of Sri Lanka and Bhutan.

This prestigious recognition that has been bestowed on Mr. Singh today, acknowledges his contribution to the sport. Speaking at the occasion, an ecstatic Mr. Sanjeeva Singh said, “It is indeed a great honour for me to have received recognition of this nature. I am greatly humbled and this award will encourage me to work towards contributing in the area of sports. I would like to thank Tata Steel for its support. It is the encouragement and vision of the Company that has made this dream of Tata Archery Academy turn into reality, which has given India some of its best archers.”

The Dronacharya Award, which was instituted in 1985, honours eminent coaches who have successfully trained sportspersons and enabled them to achieve outstanding results in national and international sporting events. Tata Steel has supported archery for over a decade now. It has an elaborate Tata Archery Academy (TAA) that was inaugurated in 1996 for the all round development and training of potential archers. TAA has produced some of the finest archers in India since it started and these archers have made the country proud in International events. Since the last 12 years, more than 60 cadets belonging to the Scheduled caste / Scheduled tribes (boys and girls) have undergone training at TAA and have become accomplished archers today.