Sachin Tendulkar gets Bharat Ratna

Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar will be conferred with the country`s highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna by President Pranab Mukherjee at a function on Tuesday.

Master batsman Sachin Tendulkar will be the first sportsman to be bestowed with the honour by the President at a function to be held in `Durbar Hall` of Rashtrapati Bahavan.

Tendulkar is recipient of Padma Vibhushan -- the country`s second highest civilian honour, will join a list of 41 eminent personalities who have been conferred with the award that is given in recognition of exceptional service of the highest order since it was instituted in 1954.

Bharat Ratna (Gem of India) is the Republic of India's highest civilian award.
The decoration is in the form of a peepal leaf, about 5.8 cm long, 4.7 cm wide and 3.1 mm thick. It is of toned bronze. On its obverse is embossed a replica of the sun, 1.6 cm in diameter, below which the words Bharat Ratna are embossed in Devanagari script. On the reverse are State emblem and the motto, also in Devanagari. The emblem, the sun and the rim are of platinum. The inscriptions are in burnished bronze.

The order to establish the award was given by Rajendra Prasad, President of India, on 2 January 1955.
Until 2011, the official criteria for awarding the Bharat Ratna stipulated it was to be conferred "for the highest degrees of national service. This service includes artistic, literary, and scientific achievements, as well as "recognition of public service of the highest order."
In December 2011, the Government of India modified the criteria to allow sports-persons to receive the award; since then, the award may be conferred "for performance of highest order in any field of human endeavour."
Any person without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex is eligible for the award. The recommendations for an award of the "Bharat Ratna" are made by the Prime Minister of India to the President of India; a maximum of three awards may be made in a given year.