In 1993, the then Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports, Mukul Wasnik announced the creation of a separate National Adventure Awards to be instituted as the highest national recognition for outstanding achievement in the field of adventure activities on land, sea and air. Since its inception it has been considered on par with Arjuna awards matching the same cash prize money. The award is given in four categories, land, water, air and lifetime achievement. They were first announced and presented in 1995 for the awarding year of 1994. They are considered the highest honour in the field of adventure sports in India. The awards were presented simultaneously in 2001 for the awarding years of 1997 and 1998, in 2003 for the awarding years of 1999, 2000 and 2001, and in 2005 for the awarding years of 20003 and 2004. In 2003 the awards were renamed after Tenzing Norgay, a Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer and one of the first two individuals to reach the summit of Mount Everest along with Edmund Hillary in 1953, commemorating the golden jubilee of his first scaling of Everest. Since the awarding year of 2002, the national adventure awards are presented along with all the other national sports awards in the same presidential ceremony. The cash prize started with () in 1994, was revised to () in 1999, to () in 2002, and to () in 2008. The award statuette was redesigned in 2009, measuring fifteen inches in height and weighs nearly one and half kilograms. It is made of bronze and polished to highlight the age of Tenzing Norgay along with the ice axe he used when climbing Everest. s of 2020[ [update]], the award comprises a bronze statuette of Tenzing Norgay, certificate, blazer with silken tie/saree, and a cash prize of ().