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Sports Ministry sets apart more funds to federations; demands accountability

As per the revised norms, the ministry has decided to hike the funds for national championships.

Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has cited inflation in training and infrastructure development as one of the reasons behind the increased financial assistance

National Sports Federations (NSFs) will receive increased financial assistance from the Sports Ministry, but will be required to be more accountable and install a more professional setup with appointment of High Performance directors and CEOs. As per the revised norms, the ministry has decided to hike the funds for national championships. For the high-priority sports, the funding has increased from Rs 51 lakh to Rs 90 lakh, and for other sports, it has increased to Rs 75 lakh.

For the international events to be hosted by India, the assistance has been increased to Rs 2 crore. Hockey, shooting, badminton, tennis, athletics, boxing, archery, wrestling and weightlifting have been termed as high-priority sports. Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has cited inflation in training and infrastructure development as one of the reasons behind the increased financial assistance, along with India’s ambition to project itself as a strong contender to host the 2036 Olympic Games.

The ministry also increased the budgets for coaches and athletes. Chief national coaches across sports will have an increased salary of Rs 7.5 lakh per month as compared to Rs 5 lakh, while other coaches will get Rs 3 lakh monthly, up from their previous salary of Rs 2 lakh.

Senior athletes will receive Rs 1000 per day as their dietary charges, as compared to Rs 690 earlier, while junior athletes will get Rs 850 per day for their diet as compared to Rs 480 earlier.

As the funding would increase for the NSFs, the ministry has instructed to ‘earmark at least 20 percent of the annual budget for grassroots development’. The ministry has asked the NSFs to identify a probable group of athletes in the senior and junior categories with high performance. The athletes will be trained at the accredited academies and will receive Rs 10,000 per month as dietary allowance during non-camp days, so that they are not deprived of a proper diet.

The increased funding will be also used for coaches development with 10 percent of the funds to be allocated for coaches development program, which will also require the foreign professionals working in India to upgrade their skills through various training programs.

Performance-driven system

“We want our NSFs to function as good governing bodies. There is a need for professionalism in the running of the NSFs,” Mandaviya told the reporters in an informal meeting on Thursday. “As we aim to host the 2036 Olympics, it is important that we have a robust, accountable, and performance-driven sporting ecosystem,” he added further.

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The ministry has also made it mandatory for the NSFs to appoint a High Performance Director (HPD). The federations will be given an annual budget of Rs 10 crore to appoint the HPD and also ensure that there are the required CEOs and managers to run the high-performance setup.

Recently, the Sports Ministry has ramped up scrutiny over the functioning of the NSFs. Three days earlier, the ministry issued mandatory guidelines regarding the organisation of the national championships for NSFs and National Games for the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

“While we don’t want to interfere much on the running of NSFs, there needs to be hand-holding due to the chaos caused at times by the administrative battles,” a source from the ministry said.