GANDHINAGAR, Oct 17: The Central government has chalked out a detailed plan keeping in mind Olympic Games to be held in 2024, to develop the sports sector in India, it was officially announced here today.
The announcement was made by Joint Secretary, Ministry of Sports, GSG Ayyangar at the Sports Summit held here at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar, according to an official press release issued today.
“We are working on a project for the comprehensive development of the sports sector in India in ten years. We want to put India in the top ten list of nations in sports before Olympics 2024,” Ayyangar said in the release.
Along with that, Ayyangar announced a scheme to be launched by the Centre to promote local talent in individual sports.
“India is good at individual sports. Keeping that in mind, we plan to tap local talent at a young age. For that, we will launch a ‘National Sports Talent Search Scheme’ under which will identify 75,000 talented boys and girls in the age group of 8 to 12 years,” Ayyangar said.
“These boys and girls will be given national level training for which we will set up infrastructure across the country. I also urge corporate houses to provide these facilities to young talents,” Ayyangar said.
“We will set up junior, senior and national sports academies with centres of excellence across the country. In next five years, each district will have a sports school. We have decided to set up a university in each zone to focus on sports science and sports medicine. Similarly, the Centre has also decided to set up a National Sports University at Manipur to train referees, coaches and umpires,” Ayyangar said.
During the seminar, the Gujarat government run Swarnim Gujarat Sports University signed an MoU with Sport Education Development Australia (SEDA) for exchange of ideas. (PTI)
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