Indian Ministry focused to develop 10,000 athletes in 15 disciplines keeping the 2024 and 2028 Olympics in mind 

What's the story?

India's Union Sports Secretary Radhey Shyam Julaniya has reflected his views on the 2020 Sports Budget, stating that the budget will be adequate to meet the present needs of the Indian sports system besides fulfilling its future aspirations. According to Julaniya, all the training programs of the athletes will now be funded under Khelo India only and a National Centre of Excellence will be formed to train athletes for Olympics 2024 and 2028.

The background

The Indian Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports launched the Khelo India initiative with the aim of developing sports athletes right from the school level. After the success of Khelo India School Games, the ministry organized Khelo India Youth Games and Khelo India University Games recently.

The 2020 Sports Budget came out recently where there was an increase of 60% as compared to the 2019 budget. The Union Sports Secretary described how this budget will help in taking the Indian athletes to the next level.

The heart of the matter

Speaking to Sportstar one day after the budget was declared, Julaniya emphasized about the 60% increase and said:

“The budget meets our present needs and future aspirations. The (Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports) expenditure last year was ₹1723.01 crore. This year the budget is ₹2776.92 crore. Thus, there is an increase of more than 60% (₹1053.91 crore) compared to the previous year.”

He further noted that a bigger increase would come in the year 2021-22 as it takes time to identify talent and hire high-performance coaches. Julaniya further mentioned that all the training programs of athletes will be funded under Khelo India hence, there will be a reduction in the allocation of funds to National Sports Federations and Sports Authority of India.

The Union Sports Secretary even spoke about the ministry's future plans and added:

“We’re developing a National Centre of Excellence for SAI regional centres. The capacity will be minimum 10,000 athletes who will get high performance training in 15 disciplines. The focus is to use available infrastructure. This infrastructure should be used three to four times more than now. These disciplines have been identified keeping in mind the 2024 and 2028 Olympics.”

What's next?

It will be interesting to see how this budget helps in developing future stars. As far as The Olympics are concerned, the Indian sports fans are looking forward to solid show from the Indian athletes in Tokyo Olympics 2020.