In its action plan for revitalising sports in India, Niti Aayog said, India still does not have a conducive environment for sports to polish the talent of Indian sports persons and make them at par with their global counterparts.
Details of the Vision
• Short-term vision (4-8 years): it envisages targeting a group of priority sports, organising sports persons into three groups for each priority sport, harnessing the potential of indigenous and regional sports, selecting world-class coaches as well as a grading system for coaches.
This term will also focus on a sports injury insurance scheme, strengthening and scaling up of existing SAI training centres, facilitating creation of sports academies for individual sports and more. It also looks forward towards creating a digital database for sports, implementing national sports code and sports Bill and promoting revenue generating methods for team leagues of priority sports.
• Medium to long term vision (8-15 years): It will focus on identifying talent at a young age, having sports curriculum in schools, a dedicated training program for coaches, encouraging development of sports infrastructure through private or PPP mode and developing a health and psychological support division.
It will also focus on availability of consistent funding of contracts as well as promoting a culture of sports in the country. In terms of funding, the Aayog said that to do away the process of erratic funding it has recommended that after each Olympics, a fixed 4-year contract is signed between SAI (Sports Authority of India) and sportspersons from Group A sportspersons, keeping in mind the funding required by them up to the next Olympics and other international events in between.
For Group B and C also, the budgets for the next 4 years should be fixed, with consistent funding allocation for each year. Funding data for all the groups should be publicly made available as soon as it gets finalised.
