INDIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Aarushi Jain, Pooja Kapadia and Maya Venkiteswaran, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas
The Draft National Sports Policy, 2024 envisions sports being used for nation-building purposes. It aims to, inter alia: • improve infrastructure;
Other states are likely to follow suit. These ini - tiatives act as an incentive to attract talent and make sports a viable career option for young people. Spending and Initiatives The spending and investment initiatives by the government of India, state governments and pri - vate players align with these policy initiatives. Government spending and initiatives Funding allocation by the government is a key factor in propelling the growth of sports in India. The Indian government has allocated approxi - mately USD398.4 million towards sports in its budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year, marking an increase of 10.08% in sports spending in this financial year. It has also allocated approximately USD438.55 million towards sports in its budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year. In an attempt to transform sports into a lucrative career option, the central government extended the benefit of reservations in central government jobs to athletes who deliver exceptional perfor - mances at the Khelo India’s Youth, University, Para and Winter Games as well as players of national and international chess competitions. India’s Olympic dream 2024 saw the government betting big on the Paris Olympics with funding of USD54.2 million. There was so much excitement for the Olympics that one of India’s top designers, Tarun Tahil - iani, designed Team India’s uniform, which was inspired by the Indian tricolour flag and com - bined modern and traditional elements. Many Olympic dreams were fulfilled with a sil - ver medal and five bronze medals. India House which celebrated Indian culture, heritage and achievements was sponsored by the Reliance
• improve talent identification; • promote indigenous games; • integrate sports into curricula; and
• leverage sports for economic development by boosting sports-related tourism and manu - facturing of sports goods. State-level policies Sports falls under the state list within the Consti - tution of India. Therefore, while the central gov - ernment formulates policies at the national level, states can also formulate their own policies to implement the central government’s policies, as well as promote and incentivise sports develop - ment within their territory. For example, the state of Andhra Pradesh for - mulated its sports policy for the 2024-29 period (the “Andhra Pradesh Policy” ). It aims to: • increase reservations in government jobs for athletes; • use AI, wearables and the internet of things for athlete development, performance moni - toring and enhancement; and • use augmented reality (AR) and virtual real - ity (VR) to revolutionise training sessions and tournaments. The state of Rajasthan also released its draft sports policy which aims to provide athletes in the state with medical insurance and medal- winning athletes with life insurance. The draft policy also provides pensions for international athletes, para-athletes and coaches who are non-government employees.
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