New Delhi, Feb 23 (IANS): The sports ministry Monday revised the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna, Dhyan Chand and Dronacharya awards schemes.

In the revised schemes, the selection committee for the Arjuna award will be headed by a retired Supreme or High Court judge. An eminent sportsperson/sports administrator/sports expert belonging to para-sports will be a member of the committee.

"Not more than one sportsperson of eminence/coach from a particular sports discipline shall be a member of the selection committee to avoid any bias in favour of a particular discipline. Nomination agencies are expected to send nominations of most deserving sportsperson(s)/coach(es) irrespective of whether sportspersons/coaches have applied to them for awards," the sports ministry said in a release.

In another major decision, the ministry decided to give more marks for wins in individual events. For team events, marks will be computed taking into consideration the strength of the team.

"For Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna and Dronacharya awards, the weightage for performance in sports events has been reduced from 90 percent to 80 percent and weightage of marks to be given by the selection committee for factors like profile and standard of sports events has been increased from 10 percent to 20 percent," the release added.

"This will increase the say of the selection committee in the process of selection and give sufficient play to the profile and standard of sports events in determination of awardees."

The ministry also decided to videograph the proceedings of the selection committee. It stated that the views of that discipline's experts will be obtained for shortlisted nominations in team games.