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Athletes of team India during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics at Stade de France, in Paris, France, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. Photo: AP | PTI
On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India’s ambition to host the 2036 Olympics, expressing confidence in the nation’s capability following the successful organisation of over 200 G20 events across the country last year.
“This proves that Bharat has the capability to organize major international events and possesses unparalleled hospitality. With this established, our goal is clear: to host the 2036 Olympics on Indian soil. We are preparing for this and making significant progress towards it,” Modi said, from the ramparts of the Red Fort in his Independence Day address.
India recently ended its Paris Olympics campaign with six medals and an equal number of fourth-place finishes.
An analysis of the current sports infrastructure and playfields in the country reveals that only 10.4 per cent of India’s mapped and completed sports infrastructure across all states and union territories (UTs) is Olympic-level. This does not include upcoming sports infrastructure projects.
According to the government’s Khelo India dashboard, out of the completed 15,822 sports infrastructure and 20,823 completed sports facilities in India covering 737 districts, only 1,645 completed sporting infrastructure and 2,473 completed sporting facilities are Olympic standard, covering 334 districts in the country.
Badminton accounts for the largest number of Olympic-level sports facilities in the country, with 314 playfields, followed closely by football (301), volleyball (270), and athletics (221).
Among states and UTs with the maximum number of completed Olympic-standard sports infrastructure, Tamil Nadu leads with 390, followed by Delhi (161), Odisha (153), and Tripura (109).
Tamil Nadu has 111 volleyball courts, 92 athletic track and field avenues, and 71 football fields that are Olympic-level. In Delhi, there are 53 Olympic-standard swimming pools and 51 Olympic-standard basketball courts, while in Odisha, there are 83 football fields and 43 athletic track and field avenues that are Olympic-level.
States like Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, and Meghalaya have no Olympic-standard sporting infrastructure in place.
Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have received the highest share of funds since the inception of the Khelo India scheme, with Rs 438.27 crore and Rs 426.13 crore, respectively. Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Rajasthan are the only other states receiving more than Rs 100 crore under the scheme.
As per the data available on the Khelo India dashboard, a major chunk of Uttar Pradesh’s funds from the Union government is being used in the development and modernisation of Sigra Stadium in Varanasi district, with a sanctioned amount of Rs 315.48 crore, out of which Rs 265.81 crore have been released, and 82 per cent of the project is complete.
Although Gujarat has only 43 Olympic-level sports infrastructure facilities, 18 of those are multi-sports complexes and multi-sports enclaves with ownership of the state government, Union government, and private institutions. These have not been funded under the Khelo India scheme.
One of the upcoming sports projects, the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave, is being developed in the Motera region and already houses the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium, the largest cricket stadium in the world in terms of spectator capacity. This is not being funded under the Khelo India scheme.
Another upcoming multi-sports complex in Naranpura in Ahmedabad district, funded under the Khelo India scheme, is being built with a whopping sanctioned amount of Rs 583.99 crore, out of which Rs 403.75 crore have been released, and 73 per cent of the work is complete, as per the data on the Khelo India dashboard.
The Gujarat government has formed a separate company named ‘Gujarat Olympic Planning and Infrastructure Corporation Ltd’ and earmarked Rs 6,000 crore to build six sports complexes to host the 2036 Summer Olympic Games if India wins the bid. The firm’s task is to oversee the development of an area measuring nearly 350 acres around the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave in Ahmedabad’s Motera area. However, India has not formally announced any host city for its Olympics bid.
The Khelo India scheme was introduced in 2017 to strengthen the entire sports ecosystem and revive the sports culture in India at the grassroots level by building a strong framework for all the sports played in the country and promoting mass participation, with an aim to make India a great sporting nation and exhibit India’s soft power.
The scheme started with 12 verticals but was later revamped into five verticals, namely: creation and upgradation of sports infrastructure; sports competitions and talent development; Khelo India centres and sports academies; Fit India movement; and promotion of inclusiveness through sports.
Sports being a state subject, the responsibility for sports development lies with the respective states and UTs, while the Union government supplements their efforts by bridging critical gaps in the form of providing funds to the entities proposing the sports infrastructure project.
The Operational Guidelines (OG) of the Khelo India Scheme (2021-22 to 2025-26) state different categories of sports infrastructure for providing grant-in-aid, while specifying the maximum admissible grant for each category of sports infrastructure. Any expenditure over and above the maximum admissible grant is to be borne by the project proponent (state).
Further, the guidelines also allow the construction of a multi-sports complex at the discretion of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) after factoring in the sports facilities available in a state, with the maximum admissible grant decided by a competent authority.
The MYAS also launched the Khelo India Rising Talent Identification (KIRTI) Programme earlier this year, with an aim to develop an integrated talent identification architecture based on modern scientific methods by focusing on discovering talented individuals aged 9-18, thereby streamlining the process of grassroots talent identification on a single platform.
The Talent Identification and Development Committee (TIDC) issues recommendations pertaining to selecting talented individuals across various sporting disciplines, and such athletes are called Khelo India Athletes (KIAs). New KIAs get inducted, and existing KIAs get ‘weeded out’ on the basis of their performance and conduct.
Notably, 28 athletes who participated in the Paris Olympics were KIAs. The latest data states that there are 2,737 KIAs in India in FY25, a slight fall from 2,752 KIAs in FY24. Haryana accounts for the largest number of KIAs, with 481, while Maharashtra comes a distant second with 311 KIAs.
“It’s just that (infrastructure and technology) needs to be spread across the length and breadth of India because India is a huge country, and we have pockets of athletes who come from different parts of India. SAI and the government are working on this, but the quantum will rise only with time,” said Dr. Anuradha Solanky, sports psychologist and Scientific Officer at the National Centre for Sports Science and Research (NCSSR) under the Sports Authority of India (SAI).
