Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday urged the corporate leaders to adopt one sport each with an aim to strengthen the Indian sports ecosystem as the country bids to host the 2036 Olympic Games. In the first-ever corporate round-table conference, Mandaviya presented a vision to position India among the top-five global sports performers by 2047, as the nation marks 100 years of its 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 programmes.
He also proposed that the 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,” Mandaviya said.
Apart from that, the 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 active involvement 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 minister.
Corporate bigwigs who attended the event lauded the initiative, saying that it can become a game changer 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 “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,” he said.
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.
“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,” 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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