Khelo India Scheme: A New Phase of Sports

Context

India’s push for the 2036 Olympics faces a major challenge in athlete performance, requiring a massive increase in medals and grassroots funding through the Khelo India Scheme. India is trying to make a similar effort to fill the gap by increasing training centers and raising local competitions. 

Context and Overview

• Financial Outlay: Combined outlay of ₹36,441 crore for the period 2026–27 to 2030–31.
• Objective: To make India a global sporting power through addressing the grassroot gaps.
• Strategic Shift: Strong emphasis on upgrading physical infrastructure and upscaling certified frameworks of coaching. 

Key Pillars of Infrastructure Upgrade

The new stage would concentrate on a decentralized, tech-infrastructure approach to help align rural talent with international standards:

• Tiered Training Network: Creates a unified operating pipeline with the help of National Centres of Excellence (NCOEs), Khelo India State Centres of Excellence (KISCEs) and SAI Training Centres (STCs).
• School-Level Hubs: Establishes Khelo India Feeder Schools (KIFS) and Khelo India Utkrishta Vidyalayas (KIUV) in the formal education system with a standardized sporting facilities.
• Armed Forces Collaboration: Collaborates with Armed Forces Sports Companies (AFSCs) for the use of military facilities for youth training.
• Modern Equipment Influx: Enhances the Assistance to National Sports Federations (ANSF) scheme to provide the provision of high-quality equipment to regional academies that meets international standards.

Human Capital: Training and Accrediting Coaches

This is the phase where the need of infrastructure is met with a high-end guidance and quality reforms are introduced in the coaching in India:

• National Coach Accreditation Board (NCAB): Formulates a national board to create a standardised coaching certification system with up-to-date and modern training courses across the country.
• Mandatory Sports Science: Sports Science, Nutrition, Injury Management and Sports Psychology are included as a core component of the curriculum for domestic coaches.
• Foreign Expert Mobilisation: broadens the number of elite foreign coaches to train local coaches, bringing the advanced technical knowledge down to grassroots level.
• Continuous Professional Development: Requires coaches at all government-funded academies to go through re-certification and performance audits every so often.

Institutional and Structural Reforms

The updated scheme features new changes to ensure athletes are retained and the talent pool is expanded: 

• The E-KIA 2024 Category: This commission will introduce the Emerging Khelo India Athletes (E-KIAs) category along with the existing Khelo India Athletes (KiAs) category, thereby increasing the number of athletes supported by almost 10 times.
• Universal Physical Literacy: Integrates sports into the core curriculum for schools, and monitors children’s fitness levels in schools using digital health cards.
• Global South Cooperation: Exploration of indigenous Indian sports through bilateral sports training exchanges with developing nations, while keeping the global promotion of indigenous Indian sports in mind.

Major Challenges in Implementation

Although the budget has been provided, several structural constraints should be tackled:

• Federal Asymmetry: Sports is a State Subject (List II, Seventh Schedule). There are various differences in interest and financial support between the various states, which result in unequal progress.
• Maintenance Deficit: In some previous phases, there were problems that maintenance of the modern equipment and facilities were not adequate because they did not have enough funds for maintenance locally.
• Administrative Red Tape: Overlapping jurisdictions between the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the Sports Authority of India (SAI), and National Sports Federations (NSFs) often delay project execution. 

Source: The Hindu

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