Sports Ministry to establish Khelo India Centres to strengthen India's Olympics performance

New Delhi, June 17: In a major development to strengthen India's Olympic performance in upcoming years, the Sports Ministry is ready to establish Khelo India State Centres of Excellence (KISCE) under the flagship, Khelo India Scheme. With the efforts to provide sports facilities across the country, one KISCE will be identified in each state and union territory (UT). 

 

 

 

Speaking about this initiative of strengthening sporting facilities in the states, Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said, "The Khelo India State Centre of Excellence is being established to strengthen India’s pursuit for excellence in Olympics. Our effort is to scale up the best sporting facilities available in each state in India into academies of world-class standard, where athletes from all over the country will want to train in their specific discipline."

 

Further, he added that the sporting facilities were been identified after in-depth analysis by a government committee. He is confident that this is a step in the right direction to tap talent from across the country and train them into elite athletes who can win medals for the country in all major international tournaments, and specifically the Olympics.

 

Last year in October, the process of selection of these sports facilities was started. At that time each state and UT was asked to identify the best sports infrastructure available with them, their agencies or any eligible agencies, which could be developed into world-class sporting facilities. These states and Uts submitted 15 proposals out of which 8 were examined and shortlisted based on the training facilities available in priority sports, infrastructure facilities and champion produced by the centre.

 

The following sporting facilities will be upgraded to Khelo India State Centre of Excellence: Sangey Lhaden Sports Academy, Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Jaiprakash Narayan National Youth Center (Bangalore, Karanataka), GV Raja Sr. Secondary Sports School (Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala), Khuman Lampak Sports Complex (Imphal, Manipur), Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, (Aizawl, Mizoram), State Sports Academy IG Stadium (Kohima, Nagaland), Kalinga Stadium (Bhubaneshwar, Odisha), Regional Sports School (Hakimpet, Telangana)

 

The Ministry will also upgrade these centres. It will extend a ‘Viability Gap Funding’ in sports science and technology support for sports disciplines practised at the centre and also bridge the gaps in requirement of sports equipment, expert coaches and high-performance managers. The support extended will be to Olympic sports, though support can be extended in sports science and allied fields in other sporting disciplines being run in the centre.

 

In order to turn it into the world-class sporting facility, the state and UT will run the centre and build capacity. It will also be responsible for all aspects of management of the centre including, boarding, lodging and maintenance, while funds for critical gaps such as expert coaches, support staff, equipment, infrastructure will be extended through the Khelo India Scheme.

 

The eight centres will be given a grant based on the actual amount finalised as per the requirement indicated after a comprehensive gap analysis study. In a bid to broad-base talent identification, the states and UTs will also identify and develop talent in each sport for which funding is received at the centre. The Sports Authority of India will extend expertise, resources and a monitoring system to ensure that the level of performance of the athletes improves to international standards.