For Lalita Babar (pictured above), water was always a precious commodity. The 26-year-old Indian athlete grew up in the drought-ridden Satara district of Maharashtra. Her childhood years revolved around helping her parents cultivate wheat and jowar. Until 2005, Babar would compete in marathons barefoot.

Fast forward to 2016 and this young woman is one of India’s biggest medal hopes at this year's Olympics in Brazil. Babar’s story is inspiring – she overcame a childhood of adversity to become India’s fastest 3,000-metre steeplechase athlete. After winning silver at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, she achieved another first – becoming the first Indian woman to qualify for the finals of the 2015 World Championships in Beijing.

Babar won the Sports Person of the Year 2015 award at the India Sports Awards ceremony held in New Delhi on Monday. Here are the other Indian athletes who were also awarded accolades at the ceremony.

Dipa Karmakar: Breakthrough Sports Person of the Year

Hailing from Tripura, Karmakar is just 23. But she can already lay claim to the title of India’s most successful gymnast. For someone who had flat feet as a child, Karmakar became the first Indian woman gymnast and only the second Indian gymnast to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games, when she won bronze at Glasgow in 2014. She went one step further in 2015, becoming the first Indian to qualify for the finals of the World Gymnastics Championships, where she ultimately finished fifth. Considering her young age, this is just the start for this trailblazer from the world of gymnastics.

Kuldeep Handoo: Coach of the Year

The likes of Babar and Karmakar may have grabbed the headlines, but Kuldeep Handoo also deserves his due. Hailing from Jammu and Kashmir, Handoo was adjudged Coach of the Year for his fantastic work with the Indian team in wushu – a sport derived from traditional Chinese martial arts. Under Handoo’s tutelage, the Indian team won 12 medals including gold at the 5th International Pars Wushu Cup in Tehran. They also won three silver medals and a bronze at the World Wushu Championships in Indonesia in November.

Balbir Singh: Lifetime Achievement Award

There are few worthier recipients for a Lifetime Achievement Award than Balbir Singh, a global hockey legend. A contemporary of the great Dhyan Chand, Singh was part of the victorious Indian hockey teams of the late 1940s and 1950s that swept all that came before them. Singh was a member of the Indian hockey team that won gold at three consecutive Olympics – in 1948 at London, in 1952 at Helsinki and in 1956 at Melbourne. He also set a record by scoring five goals in India's 6-1 hammering of the Netherlands in the hockey finals of the 1952 Olympics, a feat that has still not been equalled.

Singh was the first Indian sports personality to receive the Padma Shri in 1957 and then became a successful coach as well. Under him, India won the 1975 Men’s Hockey World Cup. Now 91, Singh is an icon, part of the glorious tradition of Indian hockey that once ruled the world.