Padma Vibhushan for Mary Kom, Padma Bhushan for SC Jamir

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IMPHAL | Jan 25:

In a momentous occasion for Manipur, Olympic boxing champion MC Mary Kom was conferred with the Padma Vibhushan award, on the eve of the 71st Republic Day, ANI reported.

The Padma Vibhushan is the second-highest civilian award in India, second only to the Bharat Ratna.

Along with Mary Kom, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and George Fernandes, on January 25, were also conferred with the Padma Vibhushan Award.

Mary Kom is the only woman to become World Amateur Boxing champion for a record six times, the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the first seven World Championships, and the only boxer (male or female) to win eight World Championship medals.

Nicknamed Magnificent Mary, she is the only Indian woman boxer to have qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics, competing in the flyweight (51 kg) category and winning the bronze medal. She had also been ranked as No. 1 AIBA World Women's Ranking Light Flyweight category. She became the first Indian woman boxer to get a Gold Medal in the Asian Games in 2014 at Incheon, South Korea and is the first Indian woman boxer to win gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She is also the only boxer to become Asian Amateur Boxing Champion for record five times.

This year, the President approved conferment of 141 Padma Awards including 4 duo cases (In a duo case, the Award is counted as one). The list comprises 7 Padma Vibhushan, 16 Padma Bhushan and 118 Padma Shri Awards.

34 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 18 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 12 Posthumous Awardees.

Besides, Former chief minister of Nagaland and former governor of Odisha, SC Jamir was conferred with Padma Bhushan in the field of Public Affairs.