With the objective of strengthening the Indian sports ecosystem in order to host the 2036 Olympic Games, Honourable Union Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports Dr.  Mansukh Mandaviya urged corporates to adopt one sport during the first-ever corporate round-table conference in the National Capital on Thursday.

Dr. Mandaviya emphasized a vision to position India among the top five global sports performers by 2047, as the nation marks 100 years of independence. Aiming to bridge the gap between aspirations and execution, he stressed the critical role of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in building sustainable sports infrastructure and talent development programs. He also proposed that PSUs from the Centre support state-level requirements to achieve sporting excellence.

“Each corporate entity should focus on a single sport to ensure dedicated attention and optimal resource allocation, while also enabling effective athlete branding to align with CSR investments and promotional activities,” Dr. Mandaviya said.

Apart from that, the Union Minister asked the corporates to contribute towards upgrading sports facilities in existing district-level schools in line with the District Level Sports Schools in Gujarat. He further spoke about developing Olympic Training Centres, sports academies, funding the training and coaching of Target Olympic Podium Scheme athletes and to be actively involved in the organisation of national leagues in disciplines where it is yet to be staged.

More than 40 corporate houses and organisations working in the sports ecosystem shared their knowledge and opinion in a first-ever Open House session with the Sports Minister.

Corporate bigwigs who attended the event lauded the initiative saying that it can become a gamechanger for the Indian Sports ecosystem.

Speaking after the meeting, JSW Sports MD Parth Jindal said, “This is the first time that the honourable Sports Minister spent so much time with the corporate sector – almost three hours he spent. He wanted to understand our opinion, our view on how to take Indian sports forward. The government is already doing a lot of incredible work in sports and even the corporates are doing their bit but how to collaborate so that the athletes are happy and we can improve our medal tally at the 2036 Olympics.”

ICICI Bank Non-Executive Chairman PK Sinha especially liked the concept of development of sports infrastructure in rural areas and opined, “Development of sports in rural areas is the need of the hour. It is heartening to see that the Indian government and our honourable Sports Minister is fully committed to improve the sports infrastructure in distant villages. A lot of raw talent resides in more than 6 lakh Indian villages. They need to be nurtured and motivated to play sports. ICICI Bank will be very pleased to have a further dialogue with officials to do what best we can for rural sports.” 

Dalmia Cement Bharat MD Puneet Dalmia also expressed his company’s interest in developing District Level Sports Schools, one of the key infrastructure development plans of the CSR partnership. “Being a father, I personally believe that engaging a young generation to play sports is of utmost importance with the kids spending almost 7-8 hours on mobile phones and tablets. If we want to produce a healthier and fitter generation, we have to penetrate into Tier 2/3 cities and towns, where sports is still not a priority. The Dalmia Group is present in 14 states and 27 cities and we would like to develop sports infrastructure at the district level,” Mr Dalmia said.

The corporates can also become thematic partners for Khelo India mission, indigenous sports, para sports and sports for women programmes apart from the establishment of sports science centres and performance testing labs.

 

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Himanshu Pathak

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