Making India a Sports Superpower

Making India a Sports Superpower 


The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs & Sports, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal has said that the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports sought views/suggestions from citizens in December 2014 on MyGov website on ‘Making India a sports superpower’.


Following major suggestions have been received:


·        Encourage Corporates to invest in the sporting sector and create global-level facilities and infrastructure

·        Increase the number of zonal and state level competitions to recognize talent from every part of the country

·        Bring in world-class coaches and training equipment to improve the skills of interested athletes and lay down a

strong foundation for the future generation

·        Allow sports personalities and private entities to adopt/sponsor a district and use their funds and skills to

identify talented individuals

·        Establish Sports Universities across India that encourage people from all walks of life, including the tribals, to take part

in sports activities

·        Set up sports training centers abroad so that athletes can train in the optimal environment required for a particular

sport

·        Appeal to every Sports celebrity to adopt at least one tehsil for providing and monitoring the facilities for sports.

·        Encourage regional sports like archery in Andamans and NE India; fencing, high jumping in Punjab, boat racing in Kerala.

Every state has a unique sports community, recognize them

·        Encourage schools to take up one or two games as their priority games. This will lead to concentration of resources

and give better results

·        Encourage Corporates to invest in the sporting sector and create global-level facilities and infrastructure

·        Let corporates sponsor one sport using their Marketing/advertising budget.

·        Open Sports Universities in five Zones - East, West, North, South and Central, headed by sports personnel and assisted by the armed forces or vice-versa

·        Have sport schools abroad under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with world-class infrastructure, lodging and boarding,

global coaching talent. Send selected sportsmen there to enable their bodies to adapt to the food and climate.

·        Have a national physical education academy and a cadre of Physical Education Instructors. Establish a National Sports

University with a Sports Academy in each state

·        Issue a card giving 5% discount in utilities bill of electricity, water, house tax, parking, rail/air tickets etc. to

distinguished sportsmen.


In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today the Minister said, while schemes/programmes having features of the above suggestions are already being implemented by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports and State Governments, other suggestions have been taken note of.

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Schemes Implemented from SDF 



The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs & Sports, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal has said that National Sports Development Fund is providing financial assistance to top level sportspersons, who are medal winning prospects in Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and other international competitions for their customized training, purchase of equipment and other support. Reputed organizations/institutes, engaged in promotion of sports activities, can also get financial assistance for specific projects for sports promotion like creation of sports infrastructure, procurement of equipment etc.

In addition, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports have formulated a programme, namely TOP (Target Olympic Podium) within the overall ambit of National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) with the objective of identifying and supporting potential medal prospects for 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games. The selected athletes are being provided financial assistance for their customized training at Institutes having world class facilities and other necessary support.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today the Minister said, the details of financial assistance given to sportspersons and organizations in the year 2014-15 are given in the statement is blow:-


NSDF Assistance to Organizations/ Institute/ for sports activities

S.No	Name of the Organization/Universities/Institute	2014-15
		(Rs. In Lac)
1	Indian Weightlifting Federation	44.31
2	Indian Golf Team	7.50
3	J & K Sports Council	180.00
4	Mary Kom Regional Boxing Foundation	91.00
5	Pullela Gopichand Badminton Foundation	250.00
6	Shrimant Madhav Rao Scindia Memorial Udbhav	0.62
7	Tangkhul Naga Society	4.00
8	Usha School of Athletics, Kerala (through SAI)	78.00
9	Winter Olympics Games Federation of India	1.44
10	Yachting Association of India	50.26
11	Athletic Federation of India	4.35
12	Ashwini Sports Foundation	137.50
13	Me ar MaMint	3.00
	Total	851.98

NSDF Assistance to Sportspersons for training/ Purchase Of Equipment

S.No	Name of the Sportsperson	Discipline	2014-15
1	Om Prakash Singh Karhana	Athletics	15.48
2	Krishna Poonia	Athletics	21.91
3	Vikas Gowda	Athletics	46.08
4-7	Preeja Sreedharan, Kavita Raut, O.P. Jaisha,	Athletics	4.49
	Sudha Singh
8	Parimarjan Negi	Chess	2.56
9	Lt Col Rajesh Pattu	Equestrian	11.29
10	Abhinav Bindra	Shooting	50.06
11	Manavjit Singh Sandhu	Shooting	75.06
12	Ronjan Sodhi	Shooting	26.02
13	Shagun Chowdhary	Shooting	11.51
14	Heena Sidhu	Shooting	51.82
15	Dipika Pallikal	Squash	0.98
16	Shiva Keshavan KP	Luge	16.75
17	Arjun	Athletics	13.97
18	Seema Punia	Athletics	16.09
19	K C Ganapathy	Yachting	10.83
20	Harika Dronvalli	Chess	8.53
21	Varsha Gautam	Yachting	15.72
22	Aishwarya Nedunchezhiyan	Yachting	5.27
	Total		404.42

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