The 29-year-old flyweight from of Manipur, a five-time world champion, won a bronze medal at London 2012 after she was defeated in the semi-final by Britain's Nicola Adams in a competition that saw female boxing make its Olympic debut.

Shooter Vijay Kumar also received the honour after the 27-year-old from Himachal Pradesh won an Olympic silver medal in 25-metre rapid-fire pistol shooting event to claim India's first medal of London 2012.

Wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt was honoured after the 30-year-old won Olympic bronze in the 60kg freestyle category, having won gold at the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games, while disabled athlete Girisha Nagarajegowda receives the honour after taking India's first medal at the Paralympic Games with silver in the men's high jump F42.


Elsewhere retired Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid received the award after exiting the game as the third highest run-scorer in Tests with 13,288 runs to leave him behind only former teammate Sachin Tendulkar and Australia's Ricky Ponting.

Mountaineer Premlata Agrawal was another honoured after the 48-year-old became the oldest Indian woman to scale the world's tallest peak, Mount Everest.

The other two athletes to be honoured were veteran boxer Ngangom Dingko Singh, who won a gold medal at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, and rower Bajrang Lal Takhar, who won India's first individual rowing gold medal at the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games.

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