भारत सरकार GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

National Gopal Ratna Award 2026

Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying
Home >> OnGoing Nominations >> National Gopal Ratna Award 2026

10/08/2026

Nomination Start Date

10/09/2026

Nomination End Date

Announcement Date
Nominate / Apply Now
Help Desk
National Gopal Ratna Award 2026
Eligibility
Decoration
No. of Awardees
Who can nominate ?
Selection Process
Ceremony Details
Notifications

National Gopal Ratna Award 2026

(i) To motivate farmers to take up productivity enhancement of indigenous breeds of milch animals in a scientific manner

(ii) To motivate Cooperative and Milk producer Companies to grow and to instill competitive spirit.

(iii) To motivate Artificial insemination Technicians to take up 100% AI coverage, under Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM).

Eligibility

(i) Farmers maintaining any of the recognized indigenous breeds out of 55 breed of cattle and 22 breeds of buffaloes (as per Annexure-I) shall be eligible to apply for award subject to condition that animals are not purchased by availing subsidy from State/Central Government Schemes like Breed multiplication farm(BMF) e.t.c

(ii) A dairy cooperative society/Milk Producer Company (Milk pooling point of MPC) /Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) set up at village level for collection /procurement of milk directly from farmers. It should be registered under Cooperative Societies Act/ Companies Act and collecting minimum 100 liters of milk per day and having at least 50 farmer/milk producer member for non-NER/Himalayan States. For NER and Himalaya States, it should have minimum 20 farmer members and colleting atleast 20 litres of milk

(iii) Artificial Insemination Technician of the State/UT Livestock Development Board/State /Milk Federations /NGO’s and other private organizations having undergone AI training for a minimum of 90 days and are actively involved in the artificial insemination of cattle and buffalo breeds shall be eligible to apply for the award. Since, the award is meant for Artificial Insemination Technician (AIT), the Veterinary Doctors are not eligible for this Award.

 

Decoration

The National Gopal Ratna Award 2026 will conferred to 1st, 2nd, 3rd and one special Award for North Eastem Region(NER) states in each of above 3 categories. NGRA 2026 will consists of a Certificate of merit, a memento and monitory prize in first two categories i.e Best Dairy Farmer and Best DCS/FPO/MPCs as under:
> Rs. 5,00,000/- (Rupee five lakh only) - 1st rank
> Rs. 3,00,000/- (Rupee three lakh only) - 2nd rank 
> Rs. 2,00,000/- (Rupee two lakh only) - 3rd rank
> Rs. 2,00,000/- (Rupee two lakh only) -Special Award for North Eastern Region (NER) and Himalayan States (Uttarakhand, J&K, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh).

 

In case of Best Artificial Insemination Technician (AIT) category, National Gopal Ratna Award-2026 will consist of a Certificate of merit and a memento only. No cash prize will be provided in Artificial Insemination Technician (AIT) Category.

 

No. of Awardees

A total of 12 awards are given each year (4 awards in each Category).

Who can nominate ?

i.  Self Nomination for individuals is allowed for Best Farmer Dairy and Best Artificial Insemination Technician (AIT).

ii. Self Nomination for organisation is allowed for Best Dairy Cooperative/Milk producer Company/ Dairy Farmer producer Organisation.

Selection Process

(i) The applications received at MHA website will be preliminary screened by an agency hired by DAHD. Engagement of the third-party screening agency shall be undertaken in accordance with the extant guidelines/instructions issued by the Department of Expenditure (DoE), Government of India. The agency will score the applications as per evaluation/score card provided by DAHD and recommend best 20 applications in non-NER/Himalayan States and 10 applications from NER and Himalayan States in each category to the Award Screening Committee constituted by DAHD. Field visit /verification of all shortlisted applications will be undertaken through NDDB/any other agency identified/hired by DAHD
(ii) Rescoring: based on field verification report, above applications in each category will be re-scored by Agency and submitted to the Award Screening Committee.
(iii)( Award Screening Committee as constituted by DAHD shall sort out best applicants (preferably 10 best in each category in Non-NER and 5 in NER/Himalayan States) and recommend the same to National Award Committee (NAC)
(iv)The Committee may, if required, carry out physical verification/ seek live video footage, by involving Central/state/NDDB officials or hire an external agencies. The Committee may in its satisfaction seek document proofs necessary for screening. For this purpose, the expenditure will be met from the budget provision of RGM scheme.
(v) The Committee shall decide the methodology and criteria for screening. The Committee shall maintain the confidentiality on selection of candidates for awards till the names of awardees are announced officially.
(vi) The Screening Committee shall reserve the right to reject application, decide on number of awardees to be recommended.
(vii) The Non-Official members of Screening Committee shall be entitled for TA/DA as per General Finance Rules.

 

Ceremony Details

i. The announcement of the names of the awardees in each category shall be announced by Hon'ble Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & dairying on 25th November 2026.
ii. The award ceremony will be held on National Milk day, 26th November 2026.
iii. Hon'ble Prime Minister/ Hon'ble DAHD Minister to present the awards as per availability.