New Delhi: The Olympic Council of Asia has conferred the prestigious OCA award of Merit on the President of Indian Olympic Association, N. Ramchandran for his outstanding contribution to sports in Asia.

The award was presented to him by the OCA President, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah on Sunday, 25th September, 2016 at the OCA General Assembly being held in Da Nang, Vietnam. Present on the occasion was the International Olympic Committee President, Thomas Bach. Incidentally it was only a month ago that Ramachandran had received the IOC's Olympic Order for his contributions to the Olympic movement from Dr Bach himself at the Rio Olympics.

After receiving this award Ramachandaran has become the only IOA President to be bestowed with two prestigious awards in close succession.

Delighted on receiving the award he said, “I accept the award in all humility and I take pride in dedicating this honour to all the athletes in India. This is a glorious moment for me.”

For the development and promotion of sports in India, presently IOA is giving a grant of 6 lacs, which was announced in their second Annual General Meeting to each of the State Olympic Associations and National Sports Federation,

On the basis of the sponsorship generated by IOS Sports & Entertainment, official marketing agency for Indian Olympic Association during Rio Olympic 2016; IOA is planning to increase this grant further to allow better facilities for sports.

IOA, Secretary General, Rajeev Mehta on this occasion said, “I would like to congratulate N.Ramachandran for the prestigious award, it is a great honour for our organization to be recognized at such a scale.”

Adding to this Mehta also said, “ Our marketing agency IOS Sports & Entertainment have done a wonderful job in raising sponsorship for Rio Olympics 2016 and from the sponsorship money we are now planning to increase our grant for our State Olympic Association and National Sports Federation in the next Annual General Meeting.”