New Delhi: Khelo India, which is the Indian government’s flagship project to promote sports at the grassroots level across the country, has once again turned out to be the biggest beneficiary in the Union Budget 2024 announced for the Sports Ministry on Tuesday. The ambitious project, which has been seeing success for quite a long now, was assigned Rs 900 crore from the overall allocation of Rs 3,442.32 crore.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the union budget in New Delhi where it was announced that Khelo India’s share is Rs 20 crore more than the revised allocation of Rs 880 crore during the previous financial year. It is noteworthy that the budget for the sports domain has been allocated looking at the upcoming events that India will take part in.
As the Olympic cycle will come to an end in Paris in August this year, and the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games are still two years away, the budget for the Sports Ministry therefore saw a marginal increase of Rs 45.36 crore from the previous cycle. The budget for the previous cycle was Rs 3,396.96 crore in the last financial year.
Khelo India’s progress
The heavy investment from the government in the project has started boring fruits at the ground level as well. Over the years, the programme continues to unearth talent from all parts of the country. The project’s actual allocation stood at Rs 596.39 crore in 2022-23 which was increased by more than Rs 400 crore, to Rs 1,000 crore in the budget 2023-24, before it was revised to Rs 880 crore.
The government is promoting sports extensively at the grassroots level and has continued to add programmes ever since the inaugural Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) were held in 2018. The sports ministry also added the Khelo India University Games in 2020, before also launching the Khelo India Winter Games in the same year and the Khelo India Para Games in 2023 for the specially-abled athletes.
There have been establishments of several Khelo India State Centres of Excellence (KISCE) across the country, with an aim to provide facilities for athletes possessing potential. Many Indian athletes from the project are currently in India’s Olympic-bound contingent.
NSFs, SAI, and NADA get fair increase
The government has assisted the National Sports Federations (NSFs), increasing their budget by Rs 15 crore, from Rs 325 crore in 2023-24 to Rs 340 crore in the latest budget. Sports Authority of India (SAI) which maintains its stadia across the country and also manages the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) to prepare athletes for global sporting events, has also seen a jump of Rs 26.83 crore, from Rs 795.77 crore to Rs 822.60 crore.
Meanwhile, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL), which are responsible for all the testing, have received a marginal increase. NADA’s budget has shot up from Rs 21.73 crore last year to Rs 22.30 crore, while NDTL has got Rs 22 crore, an enhancement from Rs 19.50 last year.
Khelo India, the flagship project of Indian government in the sports domain, has received an extensive boost financially, this year as well. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
