The Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute has been selected as the first recipient of the Prime Minister's Award for outstanding contribution to promotion and development of Yoga. The instiution of the award was announced by the Prime Minister on the occasion of the Second International Day of Yoga at Chandigarh on 21st June, 2016.

The Award was recommended by an Evaluation Committee (Jury) constituted under the Chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary and included Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, Secretary (AYUSH) and Dr. Veerendra Heggade as its members. It examined the recommendations of the Screening Committee and also made its own analysis of the contributions made by the institutions and individuals and recommended Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, Pune for the prestigious Award. The Government of India has accepted the recommendation of the Committee to honour the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, Pune with the Prime Minister’s Award for Outstanding Contribution for the Promotion and Development of Yoga for 2017.

The nominations for the Awards were invited through open advertisement by the Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India which had developed the guidelines for the awards.Two committees were constituted, viz., Screening Committee (for preliminary evaluation) and Evaluation Committee (Jury), so that a transparent process is followed in finalizing the awards.

The selection was done from among 85 nominations received and 15 more recommended by the Screening Committee. The Screening Committee shortlisted 16 names from among the applications received, after detailed discussions and analysis of the contributions of the individuals and institutes, whose nominations were received. In addition, the Committee also recommended for consideration 15 names of eminent yoga individuals/ organizations who have long standing credibility in the field of promotion and development of Yoga, but whose names did not figure in the applications received. After considering all relevant facts and other inputs, the Jury recommended that the Award for the current year be given to Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, Pune.

The Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute has worked to spread Yoga, internationally, over a period of 4 decades. The Institute has published books on Yoga and these have been translated into multiple languages. There are thousands of Iyengar Yoga teachers popularising and propagating yoga across the world.