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What's the story?
Indian boxing legend MC Mary Kom is set to be conferred with the prestigious Padma Vibhushan award. The Government of India has announced the official list of the various Padma awardees to be felicitated for their service and accomplishments in their respective fields.
The background
The Padma Vibhushan award is the second-highest civilian award in the country, only preceded by the Bharat Ratna in the hierarchy of the awards conferred by the government. The Padma awards are given to distinguished personalities in various fields such as politics, social service, technology, sports, etc. as recognition for their contribution to society.
The heart of the matter
The Indian government announced the final list of the Padma 2020 awardees on Saturday, with boxer MC Mary Kom being named as the sole sportswomen amongst the list of seven distinguished Padma Vibhushan recipients for this year. Mary Kom had been awarded the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan back in 2006 and 2013 respectively for her success in the sport of boxing. She won the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics and is a six-time AIBA Women's World Boxing Champion.
Indian badminton star P V Sindhu has been named in the list of Padma Bhushan awardees in the 2020 class of honorees. Sindhu had earlier been felicitated with the Padma Shri award back in the year 2015. The shuttler from Telangana was a silver medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics and is a multiple-time World Championship medal winner, in addition to her successes at the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games.
Six other sportsmen and sportswomen are going to be honored with Padma Shri Award - former Indian fast bowler Zaheer Khan, shooter Jitu Rai, former Indian Women's football team captain Oinam Bembem Devi, archer Tarundeep Rai, hockey player M P Ganesh, and current Indian Women's Hockey team captain Rani Rampal.
What's next?
All the named recipients will be conferred with their respective honors by the President of India, Mr. Ram Nath Kovind, at an official ceremony which will likely be held in March or April 2020.
