WADA restores India's NDTL accreditation 

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has restored the accreditation of India's National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) that was suspended in 2019 for its failure to comply with global standards.

Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Thursday tweeted: “NDTL regains the WADA accreditation.”

The New Delhi-based NDTL can resume testing with immediate effect.

“Restoration of accreditation is a boost to India’s efforts to achieve the highest global standards of excellence in sports. This is the result of untiring efforts by the Government of India," the Sports Minister said.

"Last week in Parliament, we introduced the National Anti-Doping Bill 2021, which is another step in India’s quest to become a sporting powerhouse," added Thakur, referring to the legislation that gives the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) powers to conduct raids to nab dope offenders.

NDTL was first suspended for six months in August 2019, which was then extended after WADA inspections showed non-conformities existed.

“NDTL has made rapid strides, and now its facilities are fully geared to be at par with the WADA-accredited labs across the globe,” a Sports Ministry statement said.

During the suspension period, samples collected by NADA were primarily sent to the WADA-accredited lab in Doha.

The whole exercise of sending samples to foreign labs proved to be a costly affair and also delayed the result management procedure, an official familiar with the development said.

In the latest WADA report on anti-doping violations, India ranks third with 152 cases. The maximum number of dope cheats were in bodybuilding (57), a non-Olympic discipline.

Among Olympic events, weightlifting tops the chart with 25 cases, while athletics (20) and wrestling (10) are the other two disciplines infamous for using banned substances to enhance performance.

In 2018, India was fourth in WADA’s list of anti-doping rule violations.